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1. After telling us of the incident in connection with which the
disciple Thomas had offered to his touch the places of the wounds in
Christ's body, and saw what he would not believe, and believed, the
evangelist John interposes these words, and says: "And many other
signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not
written in this book: but these are written that ye may believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may
have life through His name." This paragraph indicates, as it were,
the end of the book; but there is afterwards related how the Lord
manifested Himself at the sea of Tiberias, and in the draught of
fishes made special reference to the mystery of the Church, as regards
its future character, in the final resurrection of the dead. I
think, therefore, it is fitted to give special prominence thereto,
that there has been thus interposed, as it were, an end of the book,
and that there should be also a kind of preface to the narrative that
was to follow, in order in some measure to give it a position of
greater eminence. The narrative itself begins in this way: "After
these things Jesus showed Himself again to the disciples at the sea of
Tiberias; and on this wise showed He (Himself). There were
together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of
Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of His
disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing.They say
unto him, We also go with thee."
2. The inquiry is usually made in connection with this fishing of the
disciples, why Peter and the sons of Zebedee returned to what they
were before being called by the Lord; for they were fishers when He
said to them, "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of
men." And they put such reality into their following of Him then,
that they left all in order to cleave to Him as their Master: so much
so, that when the rich man went away from Him in sorrow, because of
His saying to him, "Go sell that thou hast, and give to the poor,
and thou shall have treasure in heaven, and come follow me," Peter
said unto Him, "Lo, we have forsaken all, and followed Thee."
Why is it then that now, by the abandonment as it were of their
apostleship, they become what they were, and seek again what they had
forsaken, as if forgetful of the words they had once listened to,
"No man, putting his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit
for the kingdom of heaven"? Had they done so when Jesus was lying in
the grave, before He rose from the dead, which of course they could
not have done, as the day whereon He was crucified kept them all in
closest attention till His burial, which took place before evening;
while the next day was the Sabbath, when it was unlawful for those who
observed the ancestral custom to work at all; and on the third day the
Lord rose again, and recalled them to the hope which they had not yet
begun to entertain regarding Him; yet had they then done so, we might
suppose it had been done under the influence of that despair which had
taken possession of their minds. But now, after His restoration to
them alive from the tomb, after the most evident truth of His
revivified flesh offered to their eyes and hands, not only to be seen,
but also to be touched and handled; after inspecting the very marks of
the wounds, even to the confession of the Apostle Thomas, who had
previously declared that he would not otherwise believe; after the
reception by His breathing on them of the Holy Spirit, and after the
words poured from His lips into their ears, "'As the Father hath
sent me, even so send I you: whose soever sins ye remit, they are
remitted unto them; and whose soever ye retain, they are retained:"
they suddenly become again what they had been, fishers, not of men,
but of fishes.
3. We have therefore to give those who are disturbed by this the
answer, that they were not prohibited from seeking necessary sustenance
by their manual craft, when lawful in itself, and warranted so long as
they preserved their apostleship intact, if at any time they had no
other means of gaining a livelihood. Unless any one have the boldness
to imagine or to affirm, that the Apostle Paul attained not to the
perfection of those who left all and followed Christ, seeing that, in
order not to become a burden to any of those to whom he preached the
gospel, be worked with his own hands for his support: wherein we find
rather the fulfillment of his own words, "I labored more abundantly
than they all;" and to which he added, "yet not I, but the grace
of God that was with me:" to make it manifest that this also was to
be imputed to the grace of God, that both with mind and body he was
able to labor so much more abundantly than they all, that he neither
ceased from preaching the gospel, nor drew, like them, his present
support out of the gospel; while he was sowing it much more widely and
fruitfully through multitudes of nations where the name of Christ had
never previously been proclaimed. Whereby he showed that living, that
is, deriving their subsistence, by the gospel, was not imposed on the
apostles as a necessity, but conferred on them as a power. And of
this power the same apostle makes mention when he says: "If we have
sown to you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your
carnal things? If others are partakers of this power among you, are
not we rather? But," he adds, "we have not used this power."
And a little afterwards he says: "They who serve the altar are
partakers with the altar: even so hath the Lord ordained, that they
who preach the gospel should live of the gospel; but I have used none
of these things." It is clear enough, therefore, that it was not
enjoined on the apostles, but put in their power, not to find their
living otherwise than by the gospel, and of those to whom by preaching
the gospel they sowed spiritual things, to reap their carnal things;
that is, to take their bodily support, and, as the soldiers of
Christ, to receive the wages due to them, as from the inhabitants of
provinces subject to Christ. Hence that same illustrious soldier had
said a little before, in reference to this matter, "Who goeth a
warfare any time at his own charges?" Which he nevertheless did
himself; for he labored more abundantly than they all. If, then,
the blessed Paul that he might not use with them the power which he
certainly possessed along with the other preachers of the gospel, but
went a warfare at his own charges, that the Gentiles, who were
utterly averse to the name of Christ, might not take offense at his
teaching, as something offered them for a money equivalent, in a way
very different from that in which he had been educated, learned an
altogether new art, that while the teacher supports himself with his
own hands, none of his hearers might be burdened; how much rather did
the blessed Peter, who had beforetimes been a fisherman, do what he
was already acquainted with, if at that present time he found no other
means of gaining a livelihood?
4. But some one will reply, And why did he not find them, when the
Lord had promised, saying, "Seek first the kingdom and
righteousness of God, and all these things shall be added unto you"?
Precisely also in this very way did the Lord fulfill His promise.
For who else placed there the fishes that were to be caught, but He,
who, we are bound to believe, threw them into the penury that
compelled them to go a fishing, for no other reason than that He
wished to show them the miracle He had prepared, that so He might
both feed the preachers of His gospel, and at the same time enhance
that gospel itself, by the great mystery which He was about to impress
on their minds by the number of the fishes? And on this subject we
also ought now to be telling you what He Himself has set before us.
5. "Simon Peter," therefore, "saith, I go a fishing."
Those who were with him "say unto him, We also go with thee. And
they went forth, and entered into a ship; and that night they caught
nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the
shore; but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus
saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered Him,
No. He saith unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the
ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not
able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. Therefore that disciple
whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. When Simon
Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his coat unto him, for he
was naked, and did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples
came in a little ship (for they were not far from the land, but as it
were two hundred cubits), dragging the net with fishes. As soon then
as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals laid, and a fish
laid thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish
which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to
land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all
there were so many, yet was not the net broken."
6. This is a great mystery in the great Gospel of John; and to
commend it the more forcibly to our attention, the last chapter has
been made its place of record. Accordingly, inasmuch as there were
seven disciples taking part in that fishing, Peter, and Thomas, and
Nathaneal, and the two sons of Zebedee, and two others whose names
are withheld, they point, by their septenary number, to the end of
time. For there is a revolution of all time in seven days. To this
also pertains the statement, that when the morning was come, Jesus
stood on the shore; for the shore likewise is the limit of the sea,
and signifies therefore the end of the world. The same end of the
world is shown also by the act of Peter, in drawing the net to land,
that is, to the shore. Which the Lord has Himself elucidated, when
in a certain other place He drew His similitude from a fishing net let
down into the sea: "And they drew it," He said, "to the
shore." And in explanation of what that shore was, He added, "So
will it be in the end of the world."
7. That, however, is a parable in word, not one embodied in
outward action; and just as in the passage before us the Lord
indicated by an outward action the kind of character the Church would
have in the end of the world, so in the same way, by that other
fishing, He indicated its present character. In doing the one at the
commencement of His preaching and this latter after His resurrection,
He showed thereby in the former case that the capture of fishes
signified the good and bad presently existing in the Church; but in
the latter, the good only, whom it will contain everlastingly, when
the resurrection of the dead shall have been completed in the end of
this world. Furthermore, on that previous occasion Jesus stood not,
as here, on the shore, when He gave orders for the taking of the
fish, but "entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and
prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land; and He sat
down therein, and taught the crowds. And when He had left speaking,
He said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your
nets for a draught." There also they put the fishes that were caught
into the ship, and did not, as here, draw the net to the shore. By
these signs, and any others that may be found, on the former occasion
the Church was prefigured as it exists in this world, and on the
other, as it shall be in the end of the world: the one accordingly
took place before, and the other subsequently to the resurrection of
the Lord; because there we were signified by Christ as called, and
here as raised from the dead. On that occasion the nets are not let
down on the right side, that the good alone might not be signified,
nor on the left, test the application should be limited to the bad;
but without any reference to either side, He says, "Let down your
nets for a draught," that we may understand the good and bad as
mingled together: while on this He says, "Cast the net on the right
side of the ship," to signify those who stood on the right hand, the
good alone. There the net was broken on account of the schisms that
were meant to be signified; but here, as then there will be no more
schisms in that supreme peace of the saints, the evangelist was
entitled to say, "And for all they were so great," that is, so
large, "yet was not the net broken;" as if with reference to the
previous time when it was broken, and a commendation of the good that
was here in comparison with the evil that preceded. There the
multitude of fishes caught was so great, that the two vessels were
filled and began to sink, that is, were weighed down to the point of
sinking; for they did not actually sink, but were in extreme
jeopardy. For whence exist in the Church the great evils under which
we groan, save from the impossibility of withstanding the enormous
multitude that, almost to the entire subversion of discipline, gain an
entrance, with their morals so utterly at variance with the pathway of
the saints? Here, however, they cast the net on the right side,
"and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes."
What is meant by the words, "Now they were not able to draw it,"
but this, that those who belong to the resurrection of life, that is
to say, to the right hand, and depart this life within the nets of the
Christian name, will be made manifest only on the shore, in other
words, when they shall rise from the dead at the end of the world?
Accordingly, they were not able to draw the nets so as to discharge
into the vessel the fishes they had caught, as was done with all of
those wherewith the net was broken, and the boats laden to sinking.
But the Church possesses those right-hand ones after the close of
this life in the sleep of peace, lying hid as it were in the deep,
till the net reach the shore whither it is being drawn, as it were two
hundred cubits. And as on that first occasion it was done by two
vessels, with reference to the circumcision and the uncircumcision; so
in this place, by the two hundred cubits, I am of opinion that there
is symbolized, with reference to the elect of both classes, the
circumcision and the uncircumcision, as it were two separate hundreds;
because the number that passes to the right hand is represented
summarily by hundreds. And last of all, in that former fishing the
number of fishes is not expressed, as if the words were there acted on
that were uttered by the prophet, "I have declared and spoken; they
are multiplied beyond number:" while here there are none beyond
calculation, but the definite number of a hundred and fifty and three;
and of the reason of this number we must now, with the Lord's help,
give some account.
8. For if we determine on the number that should indicate the law,
what else can it be but ten? For we have absolute certainty that the
Decalogue of the law, that is, those ten well-known precepts, were
first written by the finger of God on two tables of stone. But the
law, when it is not aided by grace, maketh transgressors, and is only
in the letter, on account of which the apostle specially declared,
"The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." Let the spirit
then be added to the letter, lest the letter kill him whom the spirit
maketh not alive, and let us work out the precepts of the law, not in
our own strength, but by the grace of the Saviour. But when grace is
added to the law, that is, the spirit to the letter, there is, in a
kind of way, added to ten the number of seven. For this number,
namely seven, is testified by the documents of holy writ given us for
perusal, to signify the Holy Spirit. For example, sanctity or
sanctification properly pertains to the Holy Spirit, whence, as the
Father is a spirit, and the Son a spirit, because God is a spirit,
so the Father is holy and the Son holy, yet the Spirit of both is
called peculiarly by the name of the Holy Spirit. Where, then, was
there the first distinct mention of sanctification in the law but on the
seventh day? For God sanctified not the first day, when He made the
light; nor the second, when He made the firmament; nor the third,
when He separated the sea from the land, and the land brought forth
grass and timber; nor the fourth, wherein the stars were created; nor
the fifth, wherein were created the animals that live in the waters or
fly in the air; nor the sixth, when the terrestrial living soul and
man himself were created; but He sanctified the seventh day, wherein
He rested from all His works. The Holy Spirit, therefore, is
aptly represented by the septenary number. The prophet Isaiah
likewise says, "The Spirit of God shall rest on Him;" and
thereafter calls our attention to that Spirit in His septenary work or
grace, by saying, "The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the
spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and piety; and
He shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of God." And what of
the Revelation? Are they not there called the seven Spirits of
God, while there is only one and the same Spirit dividing to every
one severally as He will? But the septenary operation of the one
Spirit was so called by the Spirit Himself, whose own presence in
the writer led to their being spoken of as the seven Spirits.
Accordingly, when to the number of ten, representing the law, we add
the Holy Spirit as represented by seven, we have seventeen; and when
this number is used for the adding together of every several number it
contains, from 1 up to itself, the sum amounts to one hundred and
fifty-three. For if you add 2 to 1, you have 3 of course; if to
these you add 3 and 4, the whole makes 10; and then if you add all
the numbers that follow up to 17, the whole amounts to the foresaid
number; that is, if to 10, which you had reached by adding all
together from 1 to 4, you add 5, you have 15; to these add 6,
and the result is 21; then add 7, and you have 28; to this add
8, and 9, and 10, and you get 55; to this add 11 and 12,
and 13, and you have 91; and to this again add 14, 15, and
16, and it comes to 136; and then add to this the remaining
number of which we have been speaking, namely, 17, and it will make
up the number of fishes. But it is not on that account merely a
hundred and fifty-three saints that are meant as hereafter to rise from
the dead unto life eternal, but thousands of saints who have shared in
the grace of the Spirit, by which grace harmony is established with
the law of God, as with an adversary; so that through the
life-giving Spirit the letter no longer kills, but what is commanded
by the letter is fulfilled by the help of the Spirit, and if there is
any deficiency it is pardoned. All therefore who are sharers in such
grace are symbolized by this number, that is, are symbolically
represented. This number has, besides, three times over, the number
of fifty, and three in addition, with reference to the mystery of the
Trinity; while, again, the number of fifty is made up by multiplying
7 by 7, with the addition of 1, for 7 times 7 make 49. And
the 1 is added to show that there is one who is expressed by seven on
account of His sevenfold operation; and we know that it was on the
fiftieth day after our Lord's ascension that the Holy Spirit was
sent, for whom the disciples were commanded to wait according to the
promise.
9. It was not, then, without a purpose that these fishes were
described as so many in number, and so large in size, that is, as
both an hundred and fifty-three, and large. For so it is written,
"And He drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and
fifty and three." For when the Lord said, "I am not come to
destroy the law, but to fulfill "because about to give the Spirit,
through whom the law might be fulfilled, and to add thereby, as it
were, seven to ten; after interposing a few other words He
proceeded, "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least
commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in
the kingdom of heaven: ] but whosoever shall do and teach them. the
same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. The latter,
therefore, may possibly belong to the number of great fishes. But he
that is the least, who undoes in deed what he teaches in word, may be
in such a church as is signified by that first capture of fishes, which
contains both good and bad, for it also is called the kingdom of
heaven, as He says, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that
was cast into the sea, and gathered of ever kind;" where He wishes
the good as well as the bad to be understood, and of whom He declares
that they are yet to be separated on the shore, to wit, at the end of
the world. And lastly, to show that those least ones are reprobates
who teach by word of mouth the good which they undo by their evil
lives, and that they will not be even the least, as it were, in the
life that is eternal, but will have no place there at all; after
saying, "He shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven,"
He immediately added, "For I say unto you, That except your
righteousness shall exceed [the righteousness] of the scribes and
Pharisees, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Such,
doubtless these scribes and Pharisees are those who sit in Moses'
seat, and of whom He says, "Do ye what they gay, but do not what
they do; for they say, and do not." They teach in sermons what they
undo by their morals. It therefore follows that he who is least in the
kingdom of heaven, as the Church now exists, shall not enter into the
kingdom of heaven, as the Church shall be hereafter; for by teaching
what he himself is in the habit of breaking, he can have no place in
the company of those who do what they teach, and therefore will not be
in the number of great fishes, seeing it is he "who shall do and teach
that shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." And because he
will be great here, therefore shall he be there, where he that is
least shall not be. Yea, so great will they certainly be there, that
he who is less there is greater than the greatest here. And yet those
who are great here, that is, who do the good that they teach in that
kingdom of heaven into which the net gathereth good and bad, shall be
greater still in that eternal state of the heavenly kingdom, those, I
mean, who are indicated by the fishes here as belonging to the right
hand and to the resurrection of life. We have still to discourse, as
God shall grant us ability, on the meal that the Lord took with those
seven disciples, and on the words He spoke after the meal, as well as
on the close of the Gospel itself; but these are topics that cannot be
included in the present lecture.
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