---
title: "Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels"
author: "Augustine"
translator: "William Findlay, S. D. F. Salmond, R. G. MacMullen and others"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Church Fathers"
section: 103 of 106
url: https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-sermon-on-the-mount-harmony-of-the-gospels-homilies-on-the-gospels/103/
cite: "Augustine, tr. William Findlay, S. D. F. Salmond, R. G. MacMullen and others, Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels, section 103. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-sermon-on-the-mount-harmony-of-the-gospels-homilies-on-the-gospels/103/"
---

# Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

*Augustine, tr. William Findlay, S. D. F. Salmond, R. G. MacMullen and others*

Augustine on the Sermon on the Mount, the four Gospels in harmony, and his homilies on them.

## 103. On the words of the Gospel, John xii. 44, ‘He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.’ Against a certain expression of Maximinus, a bishop of the Arians, who spread his blasphemy in Africa where he was with the Count Segisvult

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-sermon-on-the-mount-harmony-of-the-gospels-homilies-on-the-gospels/103/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-sermon-on-the-mount-harmony-of-the-gospels-homilies-on-the-gospels/103/#p-N

### Sermon XC

[¶1] [CXL. Ben.]

[¶2] On the words of the Gospel, John xii. 44, “He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.” Against a certain expression of Maximinus, a bishop of the Arians, who spread his blasphemy in Africa where he was with the Count Segisvult.

[¶3] 1. What is it, Brethren, which we have heard the Lord saying, “He that believeth on Me, believeth not on Me, but on Him that sent Me”? It is good for us to believe on Christ, especially seeing that He hath also Himself expressly said this which ye have now heard, that is, that “He had come a Light into the world, and whosoever believeth on Him shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” Good then it is to believe on Christ; and a great evil it is not to believe on Christ. But because Christ the Son is, Whatsoever He is, of the Father, but the Father is not of the Son, but is the Father of the Son; He recommends to us indeed faith in Himself, but refers the honour to His Original.

[¶4] 2. For hold this fast as a firm and settled truth, if ye would continue Catholics, that God the Father begat God the Son without time, and made Him of a Virgin in time. The first nativity exceedeth times; the second nativity enlighteneth times. Yet both nativities are marvellous; the one without a mother, the other without a father. When God begat the Son, He begat Him of Himself, not of a mother; when the Mother gave birth to her Son, she gave Him birth as a Virgin, not by man. He was born of the Father without a beginning; He was born of a mother, as to-day at an appointed beginning. Born of the Father He made us; born of a mother He re-made us. He was born of the Father, that we might be; He was born of a mother, that we might not be lost. But the Father begat Him equal to Himself, and All Whatsoever the Son is, He hath of the Father. But What God the Father is, He hath not of the Son. Accordingly we say that the Father is God, of none; the Son, God of God. Wherefore all that the Son doeth marvellously, all that He saith truly, He attributeth to Him of whom He is; yet can He not be ought else than He of whom He is. Adam was made a man; he had power to become something other than he was made. For he was made righteous, and he had power to become unrighteous. But the Only-Begotten Son of God, What He is, This cannot be changed; He cannot be changed into anything else, cannot be diminished, What He was He cannot but be, He cannot but be equal to the Father. But undoubtedly He who gave all things to the Son by His Birth, gave it to One not needing ought; without doubt this very equality too with the Father, the Father gave to the Son. How did the Father give It? did He beget Him less, and add to Him to complete His Form, that He might make Him equal? If he had done this, He would have given it to one in need. But I have told you already what ye ought most firmly to hold fast, that is, that All That the Son is, the Father gave Him, gave Him, that is, by His Birth, not as in need of ought. If He gave it to Him by His Birth, and not as in need, then doubtless He both gave Him equality, and in giving Him equality, begat Him equal. And although the One be One Person, and the Other Another; yet is not the One one thing, and the Other another; but What the One is, That the Other also. He who is the One, is not the Other; but What the One, That too the Other.

[¶5] 3. “He Who sent Me,” saith He, ye have heard it; “He Who sent Me,” saith He, “He gave Me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak; and I know that His commandment is life everlasting.” It is John’s Gospel, hold it fast. “He Who sent Me, He gave Me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak; and I know that His commandment is life everlasting.” O that He would grant me to say what I wish! For my poverty and His abundance straiteneth me. “He,” saith He, “gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak; and I know that His commandment is life everlasting.” Search in the Epistle of this John the Evangelist for what he hath said of Christ. “Let us believe,” he says, “His True Son Jesus Christ. This is the True God and Everlasting Life.” What is, “The True God, and Everlasting Life”? The True Son of God is the “the True God, and Everlasting Life.” Why did He say, “On His True Son”? Because God hath many sons, therefore was He to be distinguished, by adding that He was the True Son. Not by simply saying that He is the Son; but by adding, as I have said, that He is the True Son; therefore He was to be distinguished, because of the many sons which God hath. For we are sons by grace, He by Nature. We made by the Father through Him; He Himself That Which the Father is; are we too That Which God is?

[¶6] 4. But some man coming across us, knowing not what he is saying, says, “For this reason was it said, “I and My Father are One; for that They have with One Another an agreement of will, not because the Nature of the Son is the Very Same as the Nature of the Father. For the Apostles too (now this is what he said, not I), for the Apostles too are one with the Father and the Son.” Horrible blasphemy! “And the Apostles,” says he, “are one with the Father and the Son, in that they obey the will of the Father and the Son.” Has he dared to say this? Let Paul then say, “I and God are one.” Let Peter say it, let every one of the Prophets say, “I and God are one.” They do not say it; God forbid they should. They know that they are a different nature, a nature that needeth to be saved; they know that they are a different nature, a nature that needeth to be enlightened. No one says, “I and God are one.” Whatsoever progress he may make, howsoever he may surpass others in holiness, with how great eminence soever of virtue he may excel, he never saith, “I and God are one;” for if he have excellence, and therefore saith it; by saying it, he loseth what he had.

[¶7] 5. Believe then that the Son is equal with the Father; but yet that the Son is of the Father; but the Father not of the Son. The Original is with the Father, equality with the Son. For if He be not equal, He is not a true Son. For what are we saying, Brethren? If He is not equal, He is less; if He is less, I ask the nature that needeth to be saved, in its misbelief, “how is He born less?” Answer, Doth He as being less grow or not? If He groweth, then the Father groweth old. But if He will ever be what He was born; if He was born less, He will continue less; with this His loss He will be perfect; born perfect with this loss of the Father’s Form, He is never to attain to the Father’s Form. Thus do ye ungodly assail the Son; thus do ye heretics blaspheme the Son. What then saith the Catholic faith? The Son is God, of God the Father; God the Father, not God of the Son. But God the Son equal with the Father, Born equal; not Born less, not made equal, but Born equal. What the Father is, That is He also who was born. Was the Father ever without the Son? God forbid! Take away your “ever,” where there is no time. The Father always, the Son always. The Father without beginning of time, the Son without beginning of time; the Father never before the Son, the Father never without the Son. But yet because the Son is God of God the Father, and the Father God, but not of God the Son; let not the honouring of the Son in the Father displease us. For the honouring of the Son giveth honour to the Father, it diminisheth not His Own Divinity.

[¶8] 6. Because then I was speaking of what I had brought forward, “And I knew,” saith He, “that His commandment is everlasting life.” Mark, Brethren, what I am saying; “I know that His commandment is everlasting life.” And we read in the same John concerning Christ, “He is The True God and Everlasting Life.” If the Father’s commandment is “everlasting Life,” and Christ the Son Himself is “everlasting Life;” the Son is Himself the Father’s Commandment. For how is not That the Father’s Commandment, which is the Father’s Word? Or if you take the commandment given to the Son by the Father in a carnal sense, as if the Father said to the Son, “I command Thee this, I wish Thee to do that;” in what words spake He to the Only Word? When He gave commandment to the Word, did He look for words? That the Father’s Commandment then is “Life everlasting,” and that the Son Himself is “Life everlasting,” believe ye and receive, believe and understand, for the Prophet saith, “Unless ye believe ye shall not understand.” Do ye not comprehend? Be enlarged. Hear the Apostle: “Be ye enlarged, bear not the yoke with unbelievers.” They who will not believe this before they comprehend, are unbelievers. And because they have determined to be unbelievers, they will remain in their ignorance. Let them believe then that they may understand. Most certainly the Father’s Commandment is “everlasting Life.” Therefore the Father’s Commandment is the Very Son who was born this day; a Commandment not given in time but a Commandment Born. The Gospel of John exercises our minds, refines and uncarnalizes them, that of God we may think not after a carnal but a spiritual manner. Let so much then, Brethren, suffice you; lest in length of disputation, the sleep of forgetfulness steal over you.

### On the words of the Gospel, John xiv. 6, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life.’

### Sermon XCI

[¶11] [CXLI. Ben.]

[¶12] On the words of the Gospel, John xiv. 6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”

[¶13] 1. Amongst other things, when the Holy Gospel was being read, ye heard what the Lord Jesus said, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.” Truth and life doth every man desire; but not every man doth find the way. That God is a certain Life Eternal, Unchangeable, Intelligible, Intelligent, Wise, Making wise, some philosophers even of this world have seen. The fixed, settled, unwavering truth, wherein are all the principles of all things created, they saw indeed, but afar off; they saw, but amid the error in which they were placed; and therefore what way to attain to that so great, and ineffable, and beatific a possession they formed not. For that even they saw (as far as can be seen by man) the Creator by means of the creature, the Worker by His work, the Framer of the world by the world, the Apostle Paul is witness, whom Christians ought surely to believe. For he said when he was speaking of such; “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness.” These are, as ye recognise, the words of the Apostle Paul; “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, and unrighteousness of men; who detain the truth in unrighteousness.” Did he say that they do not detain truth? No: but, “They detained the truth in unrighteousness.” What they detain, is good; but wherein they detain it, is bad. “They detain the truth in unrighteousness.”

[¶14] 2. Now it occurred to him that it might be said to him, “Whence do these ungodly men detain the truth? Hath God spoken to any one of them? Have they received the Law as the people of the Israelites by Moses? Whence then do they detain the truth, though it be even in this unrighteousness?” Hear what follows, and he shows. “Because that which can be known of God,” he says, “is manifest in them; for God hath manifested it unto them.” Manifested it unto them to whom He hath not given the Law? Hear how He hath manifested it. “For the invisible things of Him are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.” Ask the world, the beauty of the heaven, the brilliancy and ordering of the stars, the sun, that sufficeth for the day, the moon, the solace of the night; ask the earth fruitful in herbs, and trees, full of animals, adorned with men; ask the sea, with how great and what kind of fishes filled; ask the air, with how great birds stocked; ask all things, and see if they do not as if it were by a language of their own make answer to thee, “God made us.” These things have illustrious philosophers sought out, and by the art have come to know the Artificer. What then? Why is the wrath of God revealed against this ungodliness? “Because they detain the truth in unrighteousness?” Let him come, let him show how. For how they came to know Him, he hath said already. “The invisible things of Him,” that is God, “are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; His eternal Power also and Godhead; so that they are without excuse. Because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” They are the Apostle’s words, not mine: “And their foolish heart was darkened; for professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” What by curious search they found, by pride they lost. “Professing themselves to be wise,” attributing, that is, the gift of God to themselves, “they became fools.” They are the Apostle’s words, I say; “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.”

[¶15] 3. Show, prove their foolishness. Show, O Apostle, and as thou hast shown us whereby they were able to attain to the knowledge of God, for that “the invisible things of Him are clearly seen, being understood by those things that are made;” so now show how, “professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” Hear; Because “they changed,” he says, “the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of a corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping things.” For of figures of these animals, the Pagans made themselves gods. Thou hast found out God, and thou worshippest an idol. Thou hast found out the truth, and this very truth dost thou detain in unrighteousness. And what by the works of God thou hast come to know, by the works of man thou losest. Thou hast considered the universe, hast collected the order of the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all the elements; thou wilt not take heed to this, that the world is the work of God, an idol is the work of a carpenter. If the carpenter as he has given the figure, could also give a heart, the carpenter would be worshipped by his own idol. For, O man, as God is thy Framer, so the idol’s framer is a man. Who is thy God? He That made thee. Who is the carpenter’s god? He That made him. Who is the idol’s god? He that made it. If then the idol had a heart, would he not worship the carpenter who made it? See in what unrighteousness they detained the truth, and found not the way that leadeth to that possession which they saw.

[¶16] 4. But Christ, for that He is with the Father, the Truth, and Life, the Word of God, of whom it is said, “The Life was the Light of men;” for that I say He is with the Father, the Truth, and Life, and we had no way whereby to go to the Truth, the Son of God, who is ever in the Father the Truth and Life, by assuming man’s nature became the Way. Walk by Him as Man, and thou comest to God. By Him thou goest, to Him thou goest. Look not out for any way whereby to come to Him, besides Himself. For if He had not vouchsafed to be the Way, we should have always gone astray. He then became the Way Whereby thou shouldest come; I do not say to thee, seek the Way. The Way Itself hath come to thee, arise and walk. Walk, with the life, not with the feet. For many walk well with the feet, and with their lives walk ill. For sometimes even those who walk well, run outside the way. Thus you will find men living well, and not Christians. They run well; but they run not in the way. The more they run, the more they go astray; because they are out of the Way. But if such men as these come to the Way, and hold on the Way, O how great is their security, because they both walk well, and do not go astray! But if they do not hold on the Way, however well they walk, alas! how are they to be bewailed! For better is it to halt in the way, than to walk on stoutly outside the way. Let this suffice for you, Beloved. Turn we to the Lord, etc.