Augustine of Hippo

In his own words on Hebrews

• Hebrews 1:1

  You see, those old sacrifices of the people of God also represented in a variety of ways this single one that was to come. Christ himself, I mean, was both a sheep, because of his innocence and simplicity of soul, and a goat because of "the likeness of sinful flesh." And whatever else was foretold "in many and various ways" in the sacrifices of the old covenant refers to this single one which has been revealed in the new covenant.

  SERMON 228B.2

• Hebrews 1:14

  Now, certainly, it is written most clearly in the Epistle to the Hebrews, when the dispensation of the New Testament was to be distinguished from the dispensation of the Old, according to the fitness of ages and of times, that not only those visible things, but also the word itself, was wrought by angels. For it is said thus: "But to which of the angels said He at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" Whence it appears that all those things were not only wrought by angels, but wrought also on our account, that is, on account of the people of God, to whom is promised the inheritance of eternal life.

  ON THE TRINITY 11.22

• Hebrews 2:3

  And then, demonstrating by plain consequence that as at that time the word was spoken by the angels, so now by the Son; "Therefore," he says, "we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" And then, as though you asked, What salvation?—in order to show that he is now speaking of the New Testament, that is, of the word which was spoken not by angels, but by the Lord, he says, "Which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will."

  ON THE TRINITY 3.11.22

• Hebrews 2:7

  The fact that he is the Word is not the reason why he is a mediator, for certainly the Word at the summit of immortality and the apex of beatitude is far removed from miserable mortals. Rather, he is a mediator because he is human and, as a human, shows us that to attain that supreme good, blessed and beatific, we need not seek other mediators to serve like rungs on a ladder of ascent. For the blessed God who makes us blessed by deigning to share our humanity showed us the shortest way to sharing in his divinity. Freeing us from mortality and misery, he leads us, not to the immortal blessed angels so as to become immortal and blessed by sharing in their nature, but to that Trinity in communion with which even the angels are blessed. When, then, in order to be mediator, he willed to take "the form of a servant" below the angels, he remained in the form of God above the angels, being simultaneously the way of life on earth and life itself in heaven.

  City of God 9.15

• Hebrews 2:11

  Insofar as he is the only begotten, he is without sibling, but insofar as he is the "firstborn" he has deigned to call all those his siblings who, subsequent to and in virtue of his being first, are born again unto God's grace through filial adoption, in accordance with the teaching of the apostle.

  On Faith and the Creed 4.6

• Hebrews 4:9

  Our heart is restless until it rests in you.

  Confessions 1.1

• Hebrews 4:12

  He did not come "to bring peace on earth … but a sword," and Scripture calls the Word of God a "two-edged sword" because of the two Testaments.

  City of God 20.21

• Hebrews 5:14

  If anyone wanted to take everything that was said according to the letter … and could avoid blasphemies and explain everything in harmony with the Catholic faith, we should not only bear him no hostility but also regard him as a leading and highly praiseworthy interpreter. But if there is no way in which we can understand what has been written in a manner that is pious and worthy of God without believing that these things have been set before us in figures and in enigmas, we have the apostolic authority by which so many enigmas from the books of the Old Testament are solved. So let us hold on to the manner of exposition that we have taken up, with the help of him who urges us to ask, to seek and to knock, in order to explain all those figures of things according to the Catholic faith, both those that pertain to history and those that pertain to prophecy. We do this without prejudice to a better and more careful treatment, whether God should deign to make it known through us or through others.

  ON GENESIS, AGAINST THE MANICHEANS 2.2.3

• Hebrews 7:1

  On receiving this promise Abraham moved on and stayed in another place in the same land, Hebron, near the Oak of Mamre.… But he received at the same time a public blessing from Melchizedek, who was "a priest of the Most High God." Many important things are written about Melchizedek in the epistle entitled "To the Hebrews," which the majority attribute to the apostle Paul, though many deny the attribution. Here we certainly see the first manifestation of the sacrifice which is now offered to God by Christians in the whole world, in which is fulfilled what was said in prophecy, long after this event, to Christ who was yet to come in the flesh: "you are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek." Not, it is observed, in the line of Aaron, for that line was to be abolished when the events prefigured by these shadows came to the light of day.

  City of God 16.22

• Hebrews 7:9-10

  Why is it that Scripture reports, for the sake of the tremendous difference between the priesthood of Christ and that of Levi, that Levi paid a tithe to Melchizedek when he was in the loins of Abraham, since Christ was also there, and so both Levi and Christ paid the tithe? Unless it is because we should understand that, in some other way, Christ was not there? But who would deny that Christ was there according to the flesh? Then he was not there according to the soul, for the soul of Christ did not originate through the transmission of the sin of Adam, or else he would have been there.…Levi was surely there in the loins of Abraham in accordance with the transmission of human seed by which he would enter into his mother; Christ was not there through that cause, although the flesh of Mary was. Thus, neither Levi nor Christ were present there according to the soul, but both of them were there according to the flesh. Levi was there according to fleshly desire, while Christ was there only according to his physical substance. For in a seed, there is both a visible physicality and an invisible principle. Both ran their course from Abraham, even from Adam himself, all the way to the body of Mary, since that too was conceived and born in the normal way. So Christ assumed the physical substance of flesh from the flesh of the virgin, but the reason for his conception did not come from a man's seed, but from a much different source—from above. So for this reason, the flesh which he assumed from his mother was also present in the loins of Abraham. So Levi paid a tithe in Abraham, who, although he was only there according to the flesh, was still there in the loins of Abraham, as Abraham also was once in the loins of his own father. In other words, he was born of his father Abraham in the same way that Abraham was born of his own father, namely through the law at work in his members fighting against the "law of his mind" and an invisible concupiscence, though the chaste and noble rights of marriage do not permit it to grow strong except insofar as these things are able to make provision for the continuation of the human race. But he who acquired his flesh not as a rotting wound, but as the source of healing, did not himself also pay a tithe in that way. Since the paying of the tithe served to prefigure the source of healing, the one who would be cured paid the tithe in the flesh of Abraham, but not the one from whom healing would come. For the same flesh, not only that of Abraham, but also that of the first man taken from the earth, contained in itself at the same time both the wound caused by transgression and the medicine for that wound. The wound of sin was at work in the law of the fleshly members fighting against the law of the mind; this law was being transcribed upon all flesh begotten by the principle of a human seed. But the medicine for the wound was also in that flesh, which was assumed without any deed of concupiscence, assumed only in the physical material of the flesh from the Virgin through a divine principle of conception and formation for the sake of a participation in our death not due to his own iniquity and as an example of resurrection that is not deceptive.… The soul of Christ is from the original soul only if it has not contracted the stain of sin; but if it could not be from that source without the guilt of sin, it has not come from that soul.

  ON THE LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS 10.19.34-21.37

• Hebrews 7:9-10

  We now advance in reply to such as argue that one who is born of a baptized man ought himself to be regarded as already baptized. "For why," they ask, "could he not have been baptized in the loins of his father, when, according to the Epistle to the Hebrews, Levi was able to pay tithes in the loins of Abraham?" They who propose this argument ought to observe that Levi did not on this account subsequently not pay tithes, because he had paid tithes already in the loins of Abraham, but because he was ordained to the office of the priesthood in order to receive tithes, not to pay them; otherwise neither would his brethren, who all contributed their tithes to him, have been tithed—because they too, whilst in the loins of Abraham, had already paid tithes to Melchisedec.

  ON THE MERITS AND FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND ON INFANT BAPTISM 2.39

• Hebrews 7:26-27

  They do not understand, that not even the proudest of spirits themselves could rejoice in the honor of sacrifices, unless a true sacrifice was due to the one true God, in whose stead they desire to be worshipped: and that this cannot be rightly offered except by a holy and righteous priest; nor unless that which is offered be received from those for whom it is offered; and unless also it be without fault, so that it may be offered for cleansing the faulty. This at least all desire who wish sacrifice to be offered for themselves to God. Who then is so righteous and holy a priest as the only Son of God, who had no need to purge His own sins by sacrifice, neither original sins, nor those which are added by human life? And what could be so fitly chosen by men to be offered for them as human flesh? And what so fit for this immolation as mortal flesh? And what so clean for cleansing the faults of mortal men as the flesh born in and from the womb of a virgin, without any infection of carnal concupiscence? And what could be so acceptably offered and taken, as the flesh of our sacrifice, made the body of our priest? In such wise that, whereas four things are to be considered in every sacrifice,—to whom it is offered, by whom it is offered, what is offered, for whom it is offered,—the same One and true Mediator Himself, reconciling us to God by the sacrifice of peace, might remain one with Him to whom He offered, might make those one in Himself for whom He offered, Himself might be in one both the offerer and the offering.

  ON THE TRINITY 4.14.19

• Hebrews 8:3

  They do not understand, that not even the proudest of spirits themselves could rejoice in the honor of sacrifices, unless a true sacrifice was due to the one true God, in whose stead they desire to be worshipped: and that this cannot be rightly offered except by a holy and righteous priest; nor unless that which is offered be received from those for whom it is offered; and unless also it be without fault, so that it may be offered for cleansing the faulty. This at least all desire who wish sacrifice to be offered for themselves to God. Who then is so righteous and holy a priest as the only Son of God, who had no need to purge His own sins by sacrifice, neither original sins, nor those which are added by human life? And what could be so fitly chosen by men to be offered for them as human flesh? And what so fit for this immolation as mortal flesh? And what so clean for cleansing the faults of mortal men as the flesh born in and from the womb of a virgin, without any infection of carnal concupiscence? And what could be so acceptably offered and taken, as the flesh of our sacrifice, made the body of our priest? In such wise that, whereas four things are to be considered in every sacrifice,—to whom it is offered, by whom it is offered, what is offered, for whom it is offered,—the same One and true Mediator Himself, reconciling us to God by the sacrifice of peace, might remain one with Him to whom He offered, might make those one in Himself for whom He offered, Himself might be in one both the offerer and the offering.

  ON THE TRINITY 4.14.19

• Hebrews 8:8-10

  Prophetic utterances are of three kinds: (1) some relating to the earthly Jerusalem; (2) some to the heavenly Jerusalem; (3) and some to both simultaneously. I think it proper to prove what I say by examples. The prophet Nathan was sent to convict King David of heinous sin and predict what future evils would happen to him because of his sin. Who can question that this pertains to the earthly city? There are other instances, sometimes addressed to the public at large for their safety and benefit, and sometimes addressed to someone in private who merited an utterance from God in order to know in advance about some event to guide his temporal life.The following prophecy, however, without a doubt references the heavenly Jerusalem. "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will make for the house of Israel, and for the house of Judah, a new testament: not according to the testament that I settled for their fathers in the day when I laid hold of their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my testament, and I regarded them not, says the Lord. For this is the testament that I will make for the house of Israel: after those days, says the Lord, I will give my laws in their mind, and will write them upon their hearts, and I will see to them; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people." Here, God himself is Jerusalem's reward. Its chief and entire good is to possess him and to be possessed by him. Both cities are indicated when the city of God is called Jerusalem and when it is prophesied that the house of God shall one day be in Jerusalem. This prophecy seems to be fulfilled when King Solomon builds that most noble temple. For these things both happened in the earthly Jerusalem, as history shows, and were types of the heavenly Jerusalem. This kind of prophecy, as it were, blending both the others in the ancient canonical books devoted to historical narratives, is very common. It has exercised and continues to exercise greatly the talents of those who search holy Scripture.

  City of God 17.3

• Hebrews 9:16

  Inasmuch as the apostle says to the Hebrews, "A will takes effect only at the death of the one who made it," he therefore asserts that, with Christ's death for us, the new covenant has become valid. Its likeness was the old covenant, in which the death of the testator was prefigured in the sacrificial victim. Therefore, if one should ask how it is that we, in the words of the same apostle, are "children and heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ," since of course the inheritance is made valid by the death of the deceased and since an inheritance cannot be understood in any other way, the answer is this: he himself having in fact died, we have become heirs because we were also called his sons. "The sons of the bridegroom," he says, "do not fast while the bridegroom is with them." Therefore we are called his heirs, for he has left the peace of the Church, a peace which we possess in this life, in our possession through faith in the divine plan of salvation revealed in time.

  ON EIGHTY-THREE VARIED QUESTIONS 75.1

• Hebrews 10:38

  "Faith working through love," comes not so much by fearing punishment as by loving justice. Still, as the soul does not become just except by sharing in the better one who justifies the ungodly—for what has it that it has not received?—it ought not to glory as if it had not received it, by attributing to itself what comes from God. That is why it was said to him, "Be not high-minded, but fear." And that fear is also commanded for those who live by faith and are heirs of the new covenant, being "called to freedom."

  LETTER 140.21

• Hebrews 10:38

  A better simile, so far, at least, as illustration of spiritual things can be borrowed from material things, is that which compares vice or folly to darkness, and virtue or wisdom to light. The way to wisdom is therefore not like that of a man rising from the water into the air, in which, in the moment of rising above the surface of the water, he suddenly breathes freely, but, like that of a man proceeding from darkness into light, on whom more light gradually shines as he advances. So long, therefore, as this is not fully accomplished, we speak of the man as of one going from the dark recesses of a vast cavern towards its entrance, who is more and more influenced by the proximity of the light as he comes nearer to the entrance of the cavern; so that whatever light he has proceeds from the light to which he is advancing, and whatever darkness still remains in him proceeds from the darkness out of which he is emerging. Therefore it is true that in the sight of God "shall no man living be justified," and yet that "the just shall live by his faith." On the one hand, "the saints are clothed with righteousness," one more, another less; on the other hand, no one lives here wholly without sin—one sins more, another less, and the best is the man who sins least.

  LETTER 167.13

• Hebrews 10:38

  This justice is the grace of the New Testament, by which the faithful are just while they live by faith until, by the perfection of justice, they are brought to the face-to-face vision, as they are also equally brought to immortality of the body itself by the perfection of salvation. Hence, in another place the apostle says, "So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." And then he adds, "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin"—that is, a sacrifice for sin, for in that law offerings made for sins were called sin—"so that in him we might become the righteousness of God," that is, in his body, which is the church, of which he is the head, that we may be the justice of God.

  LETTER 140.30

• Hebrews 10:38

  Will any of us dare to say: I am righteous? For I think that this is: I am righteous, which is: I am not a sinner. If you dare to say this, John confronts you: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." What then? Do we have nothing of righteousness? Or do we have something, but not all of it? Let us therefore seek this. For if we have something, and we do not have something; let what we have grow, and what we do not have will be fulfilled. See, men are baptized, all their sins are forgiven them, they are justified from their sins; we cannot deny this: yet there remains a struggle with the flesh, there remains a struggle with the world, there remains a struggle with the devil. But he who struggles, sometimes strikes, sometimes is struck; sometimes wins, sometimes is killed; it is considered how he leaves the stadium. For "if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Likewise, if we say that we have nothing of righteousness, we lie against the gifts of God. For if we have nothing of righteousness, we do not have faith either; if we do not have faith, we are not Christians. But if we have faith, we already have something of righteousness. Do you want to know how much that something is? The righteous lives by faith; the righteous, I say, lives by faith; because he believes what he does not see.

  SERMON 158.4

• Hebrews 10:38

  And to what end? That I and all who read the same may reflect out of what depths we are to cry unto Thee. For what cometh nearer to Thine ears than a confessing heart and a life of faith? For who did not extol and praise my father, in that he went even beyond his means to supply his son with all the necessaries for a far journey for the sake of his studies? For many far richer citizens did not the like for their children. But yet this same father did not trouble himself how I grew towards Thee, nor how chaste I was, so long as I was skilful in speaking—however barren I was to Thy tilling, O God, who art the sole true and good Lord of my heart, which is Thy field.

  Confessions 2.3.5

• Hebrews 11:1

  If they are not seen, how can you be convinced that they exist? Well, where do these things that you see come from, if not from one whom you cannot see? Yes, of course you see something in order to believe something, and from what you can see to believe what you cannot see. Please do not be ungrateful to the one who made you able to see; this is why you are able to believe what you are not yet able to see. God gave you eyes in your head, reason in your heart. Arouse the reason in your heart, get the inner inhabitant behind your inner eyes on his feet, let him take to his windows, let him inspect God's creation.

  SERMON 126.3

• Hebrews 11:1

  When you hope, you do not yet have what you are hoping for, but, by believing it, you resemble someone who does possess it. For faith will eventually take hold, but our very faith stands for the thing itself. I mean, you do not have your hands on anything when you have them on faith, nor are they empty if they are full of faith. The reason faith is greatly rewarded is that it does not see and yet believes. I mean, if it could see, what reward would there be?... But faith does not falter, because it is supported by hope. Take away hope, and faith falters. How, after all, when you are walking somewhere, will you even move your feet, if you have no hope of ever getting there? If, though, from each of them, that is from faith and hope, you withdraw love, what is the point of believing; what is the point of hoping, if you do not love? Indeed, you cannot even hope for anything you do not love. Love, you see, kindles hope; hope shines through love. But when we attain the things that we have been hoping for while believing in and not seeing them, what faith will there be then to be praised? Considering that "faith is the conviction of things not seen," when we do see, it will not be called faith. After all, you will be seeing, not believing.

  SERMON 359A.3-4

• Hebrews 11:11

  It is written in the epistle to the Hebrews, "Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed." For both were old, as the Scripture testifies; but she was also barren and had ceased to menstruate, so that she could no longer bear children even if she had not been barren. Further, if a woman is advanced in years yet still retains the custom of women, she can bear children to a young man but not to an old man, although that same old man can beget, but only of a young woman; as after Sarah's death Abraham could of Keturah, because he met with her in her lively age. This, then, is what the apostle mentions as wonderful, saying, besides, that Abraham's body was now dead; because at that age he was no longer able to beget children of any woman who retained now only a small part of her natural vigor. Of course we must understand that his body was dead only to some purposes, not to all; for if it was so to all, it would no longer be the aged body of a living man but the corpse of a dead one. Although that question, how Abraham begot children of Keturah, is usually solved in this way, that the gift of begetting which he received from the Lord remained even after the death of his wife. Yet I think that solution of the question which I have followed is preferable, because, although in our days an old man of a hundred years can beget children of no woman, it was not so then, when men still lived so long that a hundred years did not yet bring on them the decrepitude of old age.

  City of God 16.28

• Hebrews 11:17

  In whose similitude but His of whom the apostle says, "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all?" And on this account Isaac also himself carried to the place of sacrifice the wood on which he was to be offered up, just as the Lord Himself carried His own cross. Finally, since Isaac was not to be slain, after his father was forbidden to smite him, who was that ram by the offering of which that sacrifice was completed with typical blood? For when Abraham saw him, he was caught by the horns in a thicket. What, then, did he represent but Jesus, who, before He was offered up, was crowned with thorns by the Jews?

  City of God 16.32

• Hebrews 11:39-40

  Now this would be no praise for faith, nor would it be faith at all, if people were in believing to follow after rewards that they could see—in other words, if the reward of immortality were bestowed on believers in this present world.

  ON THE MERITS AND FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND ON INFANT BAPTISM 2.50

• Hebrews 12:2

  Our being born again by water and the Spirit is not a recompense for any merit but is freely given. And if faith has led us to the bath of regeneration, we ought not for that reason to think that we have first given something, so that our saving regeneration might be given us in return. For that one has made us believe in Christ who made for us the Christ in whom we believe. That one made in humans the beginning and the completion of their faith in Jesus who made the human Jesus "the author and finisher of the faith," for this is what he is called, as you know, in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

  PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS 31

• Hebrews 12:4

  For short periods and at prescribed times, power has been given to the demons to incite people whom they control to exercise a tyrannical hostility to the City of God. Thus, they are able not only to receive sacrifice from those who offer it and to seek it from those who are well disposed but also to extort it violently from the unwilling by means of persecutions. However, this power is not a menace to the church but rather an advantage, since it helps to fill up the number of its martyrs. And these the City of God esteems as its most illustrious and honored citizens, just because they have resisted the impious so valiantly, even "to the shedding of blood, striving against sin."

  City of God 10.21

• Hebrews 12:7

  Although the same word, indeed, is employed in a different sense, where any one suffers evils for his sins, that he may be corrected. Whence is that in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "For what son is he to whom the father giveth not discipline?" And this is still more apparent in the same epistle: "Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby."

  ON THE TRINITY 14.1.1

• Hebrews 12:14

  Many careful precepts have been given us, such as those concerning mutual forgiveness and the encouraging of that peace which is the very condition of our seeing God. One has only to recall the fearsome command given to the servant to pay the debt of ten thousand talents, from which he had been released, because he had not released his fellow servant from the debt that he owed of one hundred pence. When the Lord had proposed this parable, he added the words, "So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart."

  City of God 15.6

• Hebrews 12:14

  It is better, then, that we affirm that concerning which we have no doubt—that God shall be seen by the inward person which alone is able, in our present state, to see that love in commendation of which the apostle says, "God is love." This inward person alone is able to see "peace and holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord." For no fleshly eye now sees love, peace and holiness, and such things. Yet all of them are seen, so far as they can be seen, by the eye of the mind, and the purer [the mind] is, the more clearly it sees. Therefore we may, without hesitation, believe that we shall see God.

  LETTER 148.18

• Hebrews 13:4

  Sometimes people who commit this sin treat it lightly out of heaven knows what kind of perversity. They hunt about for heaven knows what null and worthless proofs in their support, and say, "God does not mind the sins of the flesh." Well, what about what we have heard today, "God will judge the immoral and adulterous"? So there you are, pay attention, any of you afflicted with this sort of disease. Listen to what God is saying, not to what your own prejudice is saying in favor of your sins, or to your friend, perhaps, chained with the same shackles of wickedness as yourself—though in fact he is more your enemy and his own.

  SERMON 32.11

• Hebrews 13:5

  So keep a moderate amount of money for temporal uses; treat it as journey money, with the end in view stated in the text. Notice above all what he put first: "Free from love of money," he says, put your hand in the purse in such a way that you release your heart from it.

  SERMON 177.3

• Hebrews 13:16

  In the words of this prophet, these two things are distinguished and set forth with sufficient explicitness, that God does not require these sacrifices for their own sakes, and that He does require the sacrifices which they symbolize. In the epistle entitled "To the Hebrews" it is said, "To do good and to communicate, forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." And so, when it is written, "I desire mercy rather than sacrifice," nothing else is meant than that one sacrifice is preferred to another; for that which in common speech is called sacrifice is only the symbol of the true sacrifice. Now mercy is the true sacrifice, and therefore it is said, as I have just quoted, "with such sacrifices God is well pleased." All the divine ordinances, therefore, which we read concerning the sacrifices in the service of the tabernacle or the temple, we are to refer to the love of God and our neighbor. For "on these two commandments," as it is written, "hang all the law and the prophets."

  City of God 10.5

• Hebrews 13:17

  In all my sermons I am presenting you with a mirror. These are not my sermons, anyway; I only speak at the Lord's command. It is only dread of him that stops me from keeping quiet. I mean to say, who would not much rather keep quiet and not have to give an account of you? But it is quite a time since I accepted this burden, and now I neither can nor should shrug it off my shoulders. You heard, my brothers and sisters, when the letter to the Hebrews was being read.

  SERMON 82.15

• Hebrews 13:18

  We have mutual need of one another's prayers, for those reciprocal prayers are enkindled by charity and—like a sacrifice offered on the altar of piety—are fragrant and pleasing to the Lord. If the apostles used to ask for prayers on their own behalf, how much more does it behoove me to do so?

  SERMON 305A.10