Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament

^6. Consider again. What does he say? Hath Christ spoken falsely? Where, I ask you? “Where He says, 'I go not up to the feast day;' and went up.” For my part, I should wish thoroughly to examine this place, if so be we may see that Christ did not speak falsely. Yea rather, seeing that I have no doubt that Christ did not speak falsely, I will either thoroughly examine this passage and understand it, or, not understanding it, I will defer it. Yet that Christ spoke falsely will I never say. Grant that I have not understood it; I will depart in my ignorance. For better is it with piety to be ignorant, than with madness to pronounce judgment. Notwithstanding we are trying to examine, if so be by His assistance, who is the Truth, we may find something, and be found something ourselves, and this something will not be in the Truth a lie. For if in searching I find a lie, I find not a something but a nothing. Let us then look where it is you say that Christ lied. He will say, “In that He said, 'I go not up to this feast,' and went up.” Whence do you know that He said so? What if I were to say, nay, not I, but any one, for God forbid that I should say it; what if another were to say, “Christ did not say this;” whereby do you refute him, whereby will you prove it? You would open the book, find the passage, point it out to the man, yea with great confidence force the book upon him if he resisted, “Hold it, mark, read, it is the Gospel you have in your hands.” But why, I ask you, why do you so rudely accost this feeble one? Do not be so eager; speak more composedly, more tranquilly. See, it is the Gospel I have in my hands; and what is there in it? He answers: “The Gospel declares that Christ said what you deny.” And will you believe that Christ said it, because the Gospel declares it? “Decidedly for that reason,” says he. I marvel exceedingly how you should say that Christ lies, and the Gospel does not lie. But lest haply when I speak of the Gospel, you should think of the book itself, and imagine the parchment and ink to be the Gospel, see what the Greek word means; Gospel is “a good messenger,” or “a good message.” The messenger then does not lie, and does He who sent him, lie? This messenger, the Evangelist to wit, to give his name also, this John who wrote this, did he lie concerning Christ, or say the truth? Choose which you will, I am ready to hear you on either side. If he spoke falsely, you have no means of proving that Christ spoke those words. If he said the truth, truth cannot flow from the fountain of falsehood. Who is the Fountain? Christ: let John be the stream. The stream comes to me, and you say to me, “Drink securely;” yea, whereas you alarm me as to the Fountain Himself, whereas you tell me there is falsehood in the Fountain, you say to me, “Drink securely.” What do I drink? What said John, that Christ spoke falsely? Whence came John? From Christ. Is he who came from Him, to tell me truth, when He from whom he came lied? I have read in the Gospel plainly, “John lay on the Lord's Breast;” but I conclude that he drank in truth. What saw he as he lay on the Lord's Breast? What drank he in? What, but that which he poured forth? “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 by Him, and without Him was nothing made. That which was made in Him was life, and the Life was the Light of men; And the Light shines in darkness, and the darkness comprehended It not;” nevertheless It shines, and though I chance to have some obscurity, and cannot thoroughly comprehend It, still It shines. “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John; he came to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not the Light:” who? John: who? John the Baptist. For of him says John the Evangelist, “He was not the Light;” of whom the Lord says, “He was a burning, and a shining lamp.” But a lamp can be lighted, and extinguished. What then? Whence do you draw the distinction? Of what place are you enquiring? He to whom the lamp bore witness, “was the True Light.” Where John added, “the True,” there are you looking out for a lie. But hear still the same Evangelist John pouring forth what he had drunk in; “And we beheld,” says he, “His glory.” What did he behold? What glory beheld he? “The glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” See then, see, if we ought not haply to restrain weak or rash disputings, and to presume nothing false of the truth, to give to the Lord what is His due; let us give glory to the Fountain, that we may fill ourselves securely. “Now God is true, but every man a liar.” What is this? God is full; every man is empty; if he will be filled, let him come to Him That is full. “Come unto Him, and be enlightened.” Moreover, if man is empty, in that he is a liar, and he seeks to be filled, and with haste and eagerness runs to the fountain, he wishes to be filled, he is empty. But youK2say, “Beware of the fountain, there is falsehood there.” What else do you say, but “there is poison there”?