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JOHN i.
"He came unto His own, and His own received Him not."
1. IF ye remember our former reflections, we shall the more
zealously proceed with the building up of what remains, as doing so for
great gain. For so will our discourse be more intelligible to you who
remember what has been already said, and we shall not need much labor,
because you are able through your great love of learning to see more
clearly into what remains. The man who is always losing what is given
to him will always need a teacher, and will never know anything; but
he who retains what he has received, and so receives in addition what
remains, will quickly. be a teacher instead of a learner, and useful
not only to himself, but to all others also; as, conjecturing from
their great readiness to hear, I anticipate that this assembly will
specially be. Come then, let us lay up in your souls, as in a safe
treasury, the Lord's money, and unfold, as far as the grace of the
Spirit may afford us power, the words this day set before us.
He (St. John) had said, speaking of the old times, that" the
world knew him not" (ver. 10); afterwards he comes down in his
narrative to the times of the proclamation (of the Gospel), and
says, "He came to His own, and His own received Him not," now
calling the Jews "His own," as His peculiar people, or perhaps
even all mankind, as created by Him. And as above, when perplexed
at the folly of the many, and ashamed of our common nature, he said
that "the world by Him was made," and having been made, did not
recognize its Maker; so here again, being troubled beyond bearing at
the stupidity of the Jews and the many, he sets forth the charge in a
yet more striking manner, saying, that "His own received Him
not," and that too when "He came to them." And not only he, but
the prophets also, wondering, said the very same, as did afterwards
Paul, amazed at the very same things. Thus did the prophets cry
aloud in the person of Christ, saying, "A people whom I have not
known, have served Me; as soon as they heard Me, they obeyed Me;
the strange children have dealt falsely with Me. The strange children
have waxed aged, and have halted from their paths." (Ps. xviii.
43-45, LXX.) And again, "They to whom it had not been
told concerning Him, shall see, and they which had not heard, shall
understand."
And," I was found of them that sought Me not" (Isa. lii.
15); "I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me."
(Isa. xlv. 1, as quoted Rom. x. 20.) And Paul, in his
Epistles to the Romans, has said, "What then? Israel hath not
obtained that which he seeketh for: but the election hath obtained
it." (Rom. xi. 7.) And again; "What shall we say then?
That the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness, have
attained unto righteousness: but Israel which followed after the law
of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness."
(Rom. ix. 30.)
For it is a thing indeed worthy of our amazement, how they who were
nurtured in (knowledge of) the prophetical books, who heard Moses
every day telling them ten thousand things concerning the coming of the
Christ, and the other prophets afterwards, who moreover themselves
beheld Christ Himself daily working miracles among them, giving up
His time to them alone, neither as yet allowing His disciples to
depart into the way of the Gentiles, or to enter into a city of
Samaritans, nor doing so Himself, but everywhere declaring that He
was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt. x. 5):
how, (I say), while they saw the signs, and heard the Prophets,
and had Christ Himself continually putting them in remembrance, they
yet made themselves once for all so blind and dull, as by none of these
things to be brought to faith in Christ. (Matt. xv. 24.)
While they of the Gentiles, who had enjoyed none of these things,
who had never heard the oracles of God, not, as one may say, so much
as in a dream, but ever ranging among the fables of madmen, (for
heathen philosophy is this,) having ever in their hands the
sillinesses of their poets, nailed to stocks and stones, and neither
in doctrines nor in conversation possessing anything good or sound.
(For their way of life was more impure and more accursed than their
doctrine. As was likely; for when they saw their gods delighting in
all wickedness, worshiped by shameful words, and more shameful deeds,
reckoning this festivity and praise, and moreover honored by foul
murders, and child-slaughters, how should not they emulate these
things?) Still, fallen as they were as low as the very depth of
wickedness, on a sudden, as by the agency of some machine, they have
appeared to us shining from on high, and from the very summit of
heaven.
How then and whence came it to pass? Hear Paul telling you. For
that blessed person searching exactly into these things, ceased not
until he had found the cause, and had declared it to all others. What
then is it? and whence came such blindness upon the Jews? Hear him
who was entrusted with this stewardship declare. What then does he say
in resolving this doubt of the many? (1 Cor. ix. 17.) "For
they," says he, "being ignorant of God's righteousness and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God." (Rom. x. 3.)
Wherefore they have suffered this. And again, explaining the same
matter in other terms, he says, "What shall we say then? That the
Gentiles which followed not after righteousness, have attained unto
righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith; but Israel,
which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the
law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by
faith. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone." (Rom. ix.
30, 32.) His meaning is this: "These men's unbelief has been
the cause of their misfortunes, and their haughtiness was parent of
their unbelief." For when having before enjoyed greater privileges
than the heathen, through having received the law, through knowing
God, and the rest which Paul enumerates, they after the coming of
Christ saw the heathen and themselves called on equal terms through
faith, and after faith received one of the circumcision in nothing
preferred to the Gentile, they came to envy and were stung by their
haughtiness, and could not endure the unspeakable and exceeding
lovingkindness of the Lord. So this has happened to them from nothing
else but pride, and wickedness, and unkindness.
2. For in what, O most foolish of men, are ye injured by the care
bestowed on others? How are your blessings made less through having
others to share the same? But of a truth wickedness is blind, and
cannot readily perceive anything that it ought. Being therefore stung
by the prospect of having others to share the same confidence, they
thrust a sword against themselves, and cast themselves out from the
lovingkindness of God. And with good reason. For He saith,
"Friend, I do thee no wrong, I will give to 'these also' even as
unto thee." (Matt. xx. 14.) Or rather, these Jews are not
deserving even of these words. For the man in the parable if he was
discontented, could yet speak of the labors and weariness, the heat
and sweat, of a whole day. But what could these men have to tell?
nothing like this, but slothfulness and profligacy and ten thousand
evil things of which all the prophets continued ever to accuse them,
and by which they like the Gentiles had offended against God. And
Paul declaring this says, "For there is no difference between the
few and the Greek: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory
of God: being justified freely by His grace." (Rom. x. 12;
Rom. iii, 22-24.) And on this head he treats profitably and
very wisely throughout that Epistle. But in a former part of it he
proves that they are worthy of still greater punishment. "For as many
as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law" (Rom. ii.
12); that is to say, more severely, as having for their accuser
the law as well as nature. And not for this only, but for that they
have been the cause that God is blasphemed among the Gentiles: "My
Name," He saith, "is blasphemed among the Gentiles through
you." (Rom. ii. 24; Isa. lii. 5.)
Since now this it was that stung them most, (for the thing appeared
incredible even to those of the circumcision who believed, and
therefore they brought it as a charge against Peter, when he was come
up to them from Cesarea, that he "went in to men uncircumcised, and
did eat with them" (Acts xi. 3); and after that they had learned
the dispensation of God, even so still they wondered how "on the
Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost" (Acts x.
45): showing by their astonishment that they could never have
expected so incredible a thing,) since then he knew that this touched
them nearest, see how he has emptied their pride and relaxed their
highly swelling insolence. For after having discoursed on the case of
the heathen, and shown that they had i not from any quarter any
excuse, or hope of salvation, and after having definitely charged them
both with the perversion of their doctrines and the uncleanness of their
lives, he shifts his argument to the Jews; and after recounting all
the expressions of the Prophet, in which he had said that they were
polluted, treacherous, hypocritical persons, and had "altogether
become unprofitable," that there was "none" among them "that
seeketh after God," that they had "all gone out of the way"
(Rom. iii. 12), and the like, he adds, "Now we know that
what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the
law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God." (Rom. iii. 19.) "For all have sinned,
and come short of the glory of God." (Rom. iii. 23.)
Why then exaltest thou thyself, O Jew? why art thou high minded?
for thy mouth also is stopped, thy boldness also is taken away, thou
also with all the world art become guilty, and, like others, art
placed in need of being justified freely. Thou oughtest surely even if
thou hadst stood upright and hadst had great boldness with God, not
even so to have envied those who should be pitied and saved through His
lovingkindness. This is the extreme of wickedness, to pine at the
blessings of others; especially when this was to be effected without
any loss of thine. If indeed the salvation of others had been
prejudicial to thy advantages, thy grieving might have been
reasonable; though not even then would it have been so to one who had
learned true. wisdom. But if thy reward is not increased by the
punishment of another, nor diminished by his welfare, why dost thou
bewail thyself because that other is freely saved? As I said, thou
oughtest not, even wert thou (one) of the approved, to be pained at
the salvation which cometh to the Gentiles through grace. But when
thou, who art guilty before thy Lord of the same things as they, and
hast thyself offended, art displeased at the good of others, and
thinkest great things, as if thou alone oughtest to be partaker of the
grace, thou art guilty not only of envy and insolence, but of extreme
folly, and mayest be liable to all the severest torments; for thou
hast planted within thyself the root of all evils, pride.
Wherefore a wise man has said, "Pride is the beginning of sin"
(Ecclus. x. 13): that is, its root, its source, its mother.
By this the first created was banished from that happy abode: by this
the devil who deceived him had fallen from that height of dignity; from
which that accursed one, knowing that the nature of the sin was
sufficient to cast down even from heaven itself, came this way when he
labored to bring down Adam from such high honor. For having puffed
him up with the promise that he should be as a God, so he broke him
down, and cast him down into the very gulfs of hell. Because nothing
so alienates men from the lovingkindness of God, and gives them over
to the fire of the pit, as the tyranny of pride. For when this is
present with us, our whole life becomes impure, even though we fulfill
temperance, chastity, fasting, prayer, almsgiving, anything.
For, "Every one," saith the wise man, "that is proud in heart is
an abomination to the Lord." (Prov. xvi. 5.) Let us then
restrain this swelling of the soul, let us cut up by the roots this
lump of pride, if at least we would wish to be clean, and to escape
the punishment appointed for the devil. For that the proud must fall
under the same punishment as that (wicked) one, hear Paul declare;
"Not a novice, test being lifted up with pride, he fall into the
judgment, and the snare of the devil." What is "the judgment"?
He means, into the same "condemnation," the same punishment. How
then does he say, that a man may avoid this dreadful thing? By
reflecting upon his own nature, upon the number of his sins, upon the
greatness of the torments in that place, upon the transitory nature of
the things which seem bright in this world, differing in nothing from
grass, and more fading than the flowers of spring. If we continually
stir within ourselves these considerations, and keep in mind those who
have walked most upright, the devil, though he strive ten thousand
ways, will not be able to lift us up, nor even to trip us at all.
May the God who is the God Of the humble, the good and merciful
God, grant both to you and me a broken and humbled heart, so shall we
be enabled easily to order the rest aright, to the glory of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom and with whom, to the Father and the Holy
Ghost, be glory forever and ever. Amen.
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