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The Life of all created things is in the Word,

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I. 1-5.

all things were made in Him. If then all things were made JoHN in Him, dearly beloved, and that which was made in Him is life; it follows, that the earth is life; and wood is life; (we do indeed speak of wood as being life, but then we mean the wood of the cross, whence we have received life;) and a stone is life. This is an unworthy interpretation, and we must beware, lest that same vile Manichean sect should again overreach us, and tell us that a stone has life, and a wall has a soul, and a cord has a soul, and wool, and clothes, that these have souls too. For so they talk in their ravings. And if one set them down and confute their folly, they pretend to bring forward Scripture in their defence, and ask, why then is it written, That, which was made in Him, is life? For if all things were made in Him, then, all things are life. Let not then these men mislead you. Read the passage thus: That which was made-pause here, and then continue-in Him is life. What is the meaning of this? The earth was made, and the identical earth which was made is not life. But the meaning is, that in the Absolute Wisdom there exists (spiritually considered) a certain principle of reason by which the earth was made, and this is the life".

17. I will explain myself, as well as I can, beloved. A carpenter makes a chest. First of all he has the chest already in his theory or art: for unless he there had it,1ars whence should he get it to bring it out in practice? But the chest as existing in the theory is not the identical chest which is visible to the eyes. In the theory it exists invisibly, in the act it will visibly exist. See now, there it is, actually made; has it ceased to exist in the theory? Of course not. The one is made to exist in act, and the other which exists in the theory still exists: for the actual chest

Quod factum est, in illo vita est.' So Ital. and Vulg. and the Latin Fathers generally. (See S. Ambros. in Psalm. 118.) This reading was commonly received by the earlier Greeks; so Irenæus, Clem. Alex., Origen, Heracleon, Ptolemæus, &c. (Wetstein in l.) Since the Macedonian heresy, when it was attempted to prove by this text the Holy Spirit to be a created nature, the other reading (followed by our Version) has obtained prevalence among the

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I.

vi. 11.

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as the living Idea is in the mind of the Artist. HOMIL. may become rotten, and he may make another in its stead, not of that which exists in his theory. Attend then to the distinction between the chest in theory, and the chest in act. The actual chest is not life, the theoretical chest is life, in virtue of the living soul of the artist, where all those ideas exist before they are brought out in practice. Thus then, S. Aug. dearly beloved, forasmuch as the Wisdom of God, by de Trin which all things were made, doth in respect of art or theory contain all before it forms all, hence the things which are made to exist through this same (Divine) theory are not forthwith life, but whatever is made is life in Him. Thou seest the earth; there exists an earth in the (Divine) theory thou seest the heaven; there exists in this theory a heaven: thou seest the sun and moon; these exist likewise in the theory: howbeit, externally they are bodies; in the art or theory of the Divine mind they are life. Do your best to understand what has been said, for it is a great matter, and it comes from a great authority: not as spoken by me, or through me; for I am small, and it is not I that say this; but it is no small authority that I have in view in saying it'. Let each receive what he is able, and as far as he is able: and let him who is not able to receive, nourish his heart, that he may be able. With what must he nourish it? Let

f Perhaps he alludes to Plato, (comp. Lib. de div. Quæst. §. 46.) not, however, as an authority, or source of Christian knowledge, in matter of doctrine, as concerning the Verbum Dei, but only for the apt illustration afforded by that philosopher, in his doctrine concerning the "mundus intelligibilis," of a truth which he saw afar off, (Hom. ii. 4.) and which the Gospel has brought to light in its fulness, " Quod factum est, in Ipso vita erat." Comp. Retractat. i. 3. where having censured himself for the adoption (in the treatise de Ordine, composed before his baptism) of Plato's language, he adds; "Nec Plato quidem in hoc erravit, quia esse mundum intelligibilem dixit, si non vocabulum quod ecclesiasticæ consuetudini in re illa non usitatum est, sed ipsam rem velimus attendere. Mundum quippe ille intelligibilem nuncupavit ipsam rationem sempiternam atque incommutabilem qua fecit Deus mundum. Quam qui esse negat, sequitur ut dicat, irrationabiliter Deum fecisse quod fecit; aut cum faceret, vel antequam faceret, nescisse quid faceret; si

apud eum ratio faciendi non erat. Si vero erat, sicut erat, ipsam videtur Plato vocasse intelligibilem mundum. Nec tamen isto nomine nos uteremur, si jam satis essemus litteris ecclesiasticis eruditi." "Nor did Plato indeed err in this, (that he affirmed the existence of a "world intelligible,”) if we will attend not to the mere term, which the Church is not used to employ in that matter, but to the thing itself. For he meant by 'the intelligible world,' that eternal and immutable idea on which God framed the world. If any one say there is no such thing, it follows, he must say God made irrationally that He made, or in making, or before making, knew not what He made, if there was with Him no idea to work by. But if there was, as there was, that is what Plato seems to have named "the intelligible world." Yet we had not used that term, had we been then well trained in the literature of the Church." What were St. Austin's sentiments, in his maturer years, concerning Plato, may be seen in his De Civitate Dei, lib. viii. c. 4. ff. See also Retract. i. 1. §. 4.

The Word, the Light of rational Man.

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him nourish it with milk, that he may come at length to JoHN solid food. Let him cleave to Christ born through the flesh, till he come at length to Christ born of the Father alone, the Word God with God, by Whom all things were made. For that is life, which, in Him, was the light of men.

4.

John 1,

18. For this is what follows next: And the life was the John 1, light of men and out of that same life are men enlightened. The brutes are not enlightened; because the brutes have not rational minds, wherewith to discern wisdom. But man, being made after the image of God, has a rational mind, whereby he may perceive wisdom. That life then, by which all things were made, that same life is light: and yet, not the light of every animal, but the light of men. And thence he says a little further on, that was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world. By 9. that light was John the Baptist enlightened: by the same was John the Evangelist himself enlightened. Full of that same light was he who said, I am not the Christ, but He is the John 1, Christ Who cometh after me, the latchet of Whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose. By that light was he enlightened, who said, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So then that life is the light of men.

26. 27.

5.

19. But, it may be, the dull hearts of some cannot yet receive this light. Their sins weigh them down, and they cannot discern it. Let them not think, however, that, because they cannot discern it, therefore it is not present with them. For they themselves, because of their sins, are darkness; And the light shineth in darkness, and the dark- John 1, ness comprehended it not. Just as if you place a blind person in the sunshine, although the sun is present to him, yet he is absent from the sun; in the same way, every foolish man, every unrighteous man, every ungodly man, is blind in heart. Wisdom is present to him, but present with one blind, not present to his eyes; not because it is not present to him, but because he is not present to it. What course then ought such an one to take? Let him cleanse the eyes of his heart, that he may be able to see God. If a man were unable to see by reason of dust, or water, or smoke which had got into and injured them, his surgeon would say to him,

his

eyes,

C

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Seen only by the pure in heart.

HOMIL." Wipe from your eye whatever burts it, that you may be I. able to see the light of your eyes." Well; the dust, the water, the smoke, are sins and iniquities. Take these away, and thou shalt see the wisdom that is present to thee. For that same Matt. 5, wisdom is God. And it is written, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

8.

HOMILY II.

JOHN i. 6-14.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, But as many as did receive

and His own received Him not.

Him, to them gave He power to become sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. Who were born not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-Begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

IN expounding the word of God, and more especially the holy Gospel, it is meet, brethren, that we dwell fully, as far as it is in our power, upon every part of the sacred text, not leaving a single passage unnoticed, and that both we ourselves take in nourishment according to our capacity" of receiving, and also minister to you, whence we have ourselves been nourished.

1

lum.

The first' section, as we remember, was handled on the capitupast Lord's day: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made

Feed upon such food as is suited meat for full-grown men, See Hom. i. to our condition; milk for babes, solid 12. and 17.

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