8. This we have said in the case where the things done are similar. In the case where they are diverse, we find a man by charity made fierce; [2376] and by iniquity made winningly gentle. A father beats a boy, and a boy-stealer caresses. If thou name the two things, blows and caresses, who would not choose the caresses, and decline the blows? If thou mark the persons, it is charity that beats, iniquity that caresses. See what we are insisting upon; that the deeds of men are only discerned by the root of charity. For many things may be done that have a good appearance, and yet proceed not from the root of charity. For thorns also have flowers: some actions truly seem rough, seem savage; howbeit they are done for discipline at the bidding of charity. Once for all, then, a short precept is given thee: Love, and do what thou wilt: whether thou hold thy peace, through love hold thy peace; whether thou cry out, through love cry out; whether thou correct, through love correct; whether thou spare, through love do thou spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good.
9. "In this is love--in this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only-begotten Son into this world, that we may live through Him.--In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us:" [2377] we did not love Him first: for to this end loved He us, that we may love Him: "And sent His Son to be the Atoner for our sins: "litatorem," i.e. one that sacrifices. He sacrificed for our sins. Where did He find the sacrifice? Where did He find the victim which he would offer pure? Other He found none; His own self He offered. "Beloved, if God so loved us we ought also to love one another. [2378] Peter," saith He, "lovest thou me?" And he said, "I love." "Feed my sheep."
10. "No man hath seen God at any time:" [2379] He is a thing invisible; not with the eye but with the heart must He be sought. But just as if we wished to see the sun, we should purge the eye of the body; wishing to see God, let us purge the eye by which God can be seen. Where is this eye? Hear the Gospel: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." [2380] But let no man imagine God to himself according to the lust of his eyes. For so he makes unto himself either a huge form, or a certain incalculable magnitude which, like the light which he sees with the bodily eyes, he makes extend through all directions; field after field of space he gives it all the bigness he can; or, he represents to himself like as it were an old man of venerable form. None of these things do thou imagine. There is something thou mayest imagine, if thou wouldest see God; "God is love." What sort of face hath love? what form hath it? what stature? what feet? what hands hath it? no man can say. And yet it hath feet, for these carry men to church: it hath hands; for these reach forth to the poor: it hath eyes; for thereby we consider the needy: "Blessed is the man," it is said, "who considereth the needy and the poor." [2381] It hath ears, of which the Lord saith, "He that hath ears to hear let him hear." [2382] These are not members distinct by place, but with the understanding he that hath charity sees the whole at once. Inhabit, and thou shalt be inhabited; dwell, and thou shalt be dwelt in. For how say you, my brethren? who loves what he does not see? Now why, when charity is praised, do ye lift up your hands, make acclaim, praise? What have I shown you? What I produced, was it a gleam of colors? What I propounded, was it gold and silver? Have I dug out jewels from hid treasures? What of this sort have I shown to your eyes? Is my face changed while I speak? I am in the flesh; I am in the same form in which I came forth to you; ye are in the same form in which ye came hither: charity is praised, and ye shout applause. Certainly ye see nothing. But as it pleases you when ye praise, so let it please you that ye may keep it in your heart. For mark well what I say brethren; I exhort you all, as God enables me, unto a great treasure. If there were shown you a beautiful little vase, embossed, [2383] inlaid with gold, curiously wrought, and it charmed your eyes, and drew towards it the eager desire of your heart, and you were pleased with the hand of the artificer, and the weight of the silver, and the splendor of the metal; would not each one of you say, "O, if I had that vase!" And to no purpose ye would say it, for it would not rest with you to have it. Or if one should wish to have it, he might think of stealing it from another's house. Charity is praised to you; if it please you, have it, possess it: no need that ye should rob any man, no need that ye should think of buying it; it is to be had freely, without cost. Take it, clasp it; there is nothing sweeter. If such it be when it is but spoken of, what must it be when one has it?
11. If any of you perchance wish to keep charity, brethren, above all things do not imagine it to be an abject and sluggish thing; nor that charity is to be preserved by a sort of gentleness, nay not gentleness, but tameness and listlessness. [2384] Not so is it preserved. Do not imagine that thou then lovest thy servant when thou dost not beat him, or that thou then lovest thy son when thou givest him not discipline, or that thou then lovest thy neighbor when thou dost not rebuke him: this is not charity, but mere feebleness. Let charity be fervent to correct, to amend: but if there be good manners, let them delight thee; if bad, let them be amended, let them be corrected. Love not in the man his error, but the man: for the man God made, the error the man himself made. Love that which God made, love not that which the man himself made. When thou lovest that, thou takest away this: when thou esteemest that, thou amendest this. But even if thou be severe [2385] at any time, let it be because of love, for correction. For this cause was charity betokened by the Dove which descended upon the Lord. [2386] That likeness of a dove, the likeness in which came the Holy Ghost, by whom charity should be shed forth into us: wherefore was this? The dove hath no gall: yet with beak and wings she fights for her young; hers is a fierceness without bitterness. And so does also a father; when he chastises his son, for discipline he chastises him. As I said, the kidnapper, in order that he may sell, inveigles the child with bitter endearments; a father, that he may correct, does without gall chastise. Such be ye to all men. See here, brethren, a great lesson, a great rule: each one of you has children, or wishes to have; or if he has altogether determined to have no children after the flesh, at least spiritually he desires to have children:--what father does not correct his son? what son does not his father discipline? And yet he seems to be fierce [2387] with him. It is the fierceness of love, the fierceness of charity: a sort of fierceness without gall after the manner of the dove, not of the raven. Whence it came into my mind, my brethren, to tell you, that those violaters of charity are they that have made the schism: as they hate charity itself, so they hate also the dove. But the dove convicts them: it comes forth from heaven, the heavens open, and it abideth on the head of the Lord. Wherefore this? That John may hear, "This is He that baptizeth." [2388] Away, ye robbers; away, ye invaders of the possession of Christ! On your own possessions, where ye will needs be lords, ye have dared to fix the titles of the great Owner. He recognizes His own titles; He vindicates to Himself His own possession. He does not cancel the titles, but enters in and takes possession. So in one that comes to the Catholic Church, his baptism is not cancelled, that the title of the commander [2389] be not cancelled: but what is done in the Catholic Church? The title is acknowledged; the Owner enters in under His own titles, where the robber was entering in under titles not his own.
[2350] Litatorem.
[2351] Jussio Dei: so the mss. but the printed copies, visio Dei. Ben. (Bodl. 455, and Laud. 116, "visio;" Bodl. 813, so with "jussio" over the line; the rest "jussio.")
[2352] Isa. lxiv. 4.
[2353] 1 Cor. ii. 9.
[2354] Matt. vi. 12.
[2355] 1 John iv. 4.
[2356] Solvit.
[2357] John xv. 13.
[2358] 1 John iv. 5.
[2359] Matt. vi. 14, 15.
[2360] Luke xxiii. 34.
[2361] 1 John iv. 6.
[2362] 1 John iv. 7.
[2363] 1 John iv. 7.
[2364] 1 John iv. 7, 8.
[2365] Deus dilectio est: Augustin here expounds it, "Love is God;" it is "of God" and "is God," (as "the Word was with God and was God:") this is clear from sec. 6 and Hom viii. 14, "For He has not hesitated to say, Deus charitas est, Charity is God." In the theological exposition de Trin. xv. 27, he takes it in the usual sense, "God is Love" (as "God is Spirit"). In the Greek the proposition is not convertible, agape being marked as the predicate by the absence of the article while theos has it: ho theos agape estin.
[2366] Rom. v. 5.
[2367] Prov. v. 16, 17.
[2368] 1 Sam. xix.
[2369] 1 Cor. xi. 29.
[2370] Ezek. xxxvi. 20.
[2371] 1 John iv. 9.
[2372] John xv. 13.
[2373] Rom. viii. 32.
[2374] Gal. ii. 20.
[2375] In proditione.
[2376] Sævientem.
[2377] 1 John iv. 9, 10.
[2378] 1 John iv. 11.
[2379] 1 John iv. 12.
[2380] Matt. v. 8.
[2381] Ps. xli. 1.
[2382] Luke viii. 8.
[2383] Anaglyphum.
[2384] Ep. cliii. 17, c. litt.; Petil. ii. 67: Serm. clxxi. 5.
[2385] Sævis.
[2386] Hom. in Ev. vi. p. 82; Matt. iii. 16.
[2387] Sævire.
[2388] John i. 33.
[2389] ["Captain (aschezos) of their salvation." Heb. ii. 10.--J.H.M.]