Augustine of Hippo

In his own words on Isaiah

• Isaiah 1:3

  He who fills the world found no room in an inn. Placed in a manger, he became our food. Let the two animals, symbolic of two races, approach the manger, for "the ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master's crib." Do not be ashamed to be God's beast of burden. Carrying Christ, you will not go astray; with him burdening you, you make your way through devious paths. May the Lord rest upon us; may he direct us where he wishes; may we be his beast of burden and thus may we come to Jerusalem. Though he presses upon us, we are not crushed but lifted up; when he leads us, we shall not go astray. Through the Lord may we come to the child so that we may rejoice forever with the child who was born today.

  SERMON 189:4

• Isaiah 1:3

  Therefore those oxen magnified the Lord, not themselves. See the ox magnifying his Lord because the ox has acknowledged his owner; observe the ox fearing that the ox's owner may be deserted and confidence be placed in the ox. How he is terrified of those who want to put hope in him!

  TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10:7.3

• Isaiah 1:3

  The Leader and Shepherd of shepherds is announced to shepherds, and the food of the faithful lies in the manger of dumb beasts.… For that reason he sat upon the colt of a donkey when he entered Jerusalem amid the praises of the multitude surging around him. Let us understand; let us draw near to the manger; let us eat of this food; let us bear the Lord, our Guide and Leader, so that under his direction we may come to the heavenly Jerusalem.

  SERMON 190:3

• Isaiah 1:3

  The ox from the Jews, the donkey from the Gentiles; both came to the one manger and found the fodder of the Word.

  SERMON 375:1

• Isaiah 1:3

  But, in fact, there were even in that people those that understood, having the faith which was afterwards revealed, not pertaining to the letter of the law but the grace of the Spirit. For they cannot have been without the same faith, who were able to foresee and foretell the revelation that would be in Christ, inasmuch as even those old sacraments were signs of those that should be.

  EXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 78.2

• Isaiah 1:3

  In the persons of the shepherds and the magi, the ox began to recognize his owner and the donkey his Master's crib. From the Jews came the horned ox, since among them the horns of the cross were prepared for Christ; from the Gentiles came the long-eared donkey, since it was concerning them that the prophecy had been made: "A people, which I knew not, has served me: at the hearing of the ear they have obeyed me." For the Owner of the ox and the Master of the donkey lay in a manger, yet he was furnishing common sustenance to both creatures.

  SERMON 204:2

• Isaiah 1:3

  Therefore "Jesus found a donkey and sat upon it." … The donkey's colt upon which no one had sat (for this fact is found in the other Evangelists) we understand as the people of the nations which had not received the Lord's law. However, the donkey (because both beasts were led to the Lord) is his community which came from the people of Israel, clearly not unbroken, but which recognized the Master's manger.

  TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 51:5.2

• Isaiah 1:9

  Beware, O Christian, beware of pride. For though you are a follower of the saints, ascribe it always wholly to grace. That there should be any "remnant" in you, the grace of God has brought it to pass, not your own merits.

  SERMON 100.4

• Isaiah 1:12

  God seeks us, not what's ours. Anyway, the Christian's sacrifice is alms, or kindness to the poor. That is what makes God lenient toward sins.

  SERMON 42:1

• Isaiah 1:15

  O foolish and wretched person, what are you doing? Why do you burden yourself with the weight of greater sins? Why do you inflict injury on God in addition to your contempt? Why, in order to provoke his wrath more quickly in manifestation of your punishment, do you extend to God your crime stained hands when he who has commanded that only holy and unspotted hands be lifted up to him refuses to look at yours? Why do you beseech God with that mouth by which not long ago you spoke evil? Its prayers, however they be multiplied, are an abomination to him.

  ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 11

• Isaiah 1:16

  He [the one who is fasting] will wash his face, that is, cleanse his heart, with which he will see God, no veil being interposed on account of the infirmity contracted from squalor; but being firm and steadfast, inasmuch as he is pure and guileless.… From the squalor, therefore, by which the eye of God is offended, our face is to be washed.

  SERMON ON THE MOUNT 2:42

• Isaiah 1:16

  So present yourself to such a head as a body worthy of him, to such a bridegroom as a worthy bride.… This is the bride of Christ, without stain or wrinkle. Do you wish to have no stain? Do what is written.… Do you wish to have no wrinkle? Stretch yourself on the cross. You see, you do not only need to be washed but also to be stretched, in order to be without stain or wrinkle; because by the washing sins are removed, while by the stretching a desire is created for the future life, which is what Christ was crucified for.

  SERMON 341:13

• Isaiah 1:18

  What is surprising about white garments symbolizing the church?

  SERMON 78:2

• Isaiah 1:18

  Humankind has need of God's grace not only to be made just when they are wicked, when they are changed, that is, from wicked to just, and when they are given good in return for evil, but grace must accompany them, and they must lean on it in order not to fall. This is why it is written of the church in the Song of Songs: "Who is this that comes up clad in white, leaning upon her kinsman?" For she who could not do this of herself has been made white. And who has made her white but him who says by the prophet, "If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow"? She was not gaining any good merit then at the time she was made white. But now that she has been made white, she walks aright, provided only that she continues to lean upon him who made her white. Accordingly, Jesus himself, upon whom the church leans, now that she has been made white, said to his disciples, "Without me you can do nothing."

  ON GRACE AND FREE WILL 6

• Isaiah 2:2

  The central place they are all coming to is Christ; he is at the center, because he is equally related to all; anything placed in the center is common to all.…Approach the mountain, climb up the mountain, and you that climb it, do not go down it. There you will be safe, there you will be protected; Christ is your mountain of refuge. And where is Christ? At the right hand of the Father, since he has ascended into heaven.

  SERMON 62A.3

• Isaiah 2:2

  It talks of a mountain, and the mountain is veiled to the party of Donatus. …The holy Daniel saw a vision and wrote down what he saw, and he said that he had seen a stone hewn out of a mountain without hands. It is Christ, coming from the nation of the Jews, which was also a mountain, you see, because it has the kingdom.… What is the mountain over which the heretics stumbled? Listen to Daniel again: "And that stone grew and became a great mountain, such that it filled all the face of the earth." How right the psalm is to say to Christ the Lord as he rises again, "Be exalted over the heavens, O God, and let your glory be over the whole earth." What is your glory over the whole earth? Over the whole earth your church, over the whole earth your bride.

  SERMON 147A.4

• Isaiah 2:3

  The first law, the Old Testament, had come out of Mount Sinai by the lips of Moses; but it was foretold of the law Christ came to give: "The law shall come forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." This explains why Christ ordered repentance to be preached in his name among all peoples but beginning in Jerusalem.

  City of God 18.54

• Isaiah 2:5-6

  What did the prophet Isaiah mean when he announced that a mountain would be prepared on the summits of the mountains, to which all peoples were going to come? The law and the Word of God was going to proceed from Zion and Jerusalem to all nations, not from Mount Sinai to one nation. This we see most evidently fulfilled in Christ and the Christians. A little later the prophet says, "O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord." Here, you [the Jews] will surely say your usual piece: "We are the house of Jacob," but listen a moment to what follows, and when you have said what you want to say, hear what you do not want to hear. The prophet continues, "For he has cast off his people, the house of Israel." Here say, "We are the house of Israel"; here acknowledge yourselves and forgive us for reminding you of these facts.

  IN ANSWER TO THE JEWS 8

• Isaiah 2:5-6

  Dearly beloved, whether the Jews receive these divine testimonies with joy or with indignation, nevertheless, when we can, let us proclaim them with great love for the Jews. Let us not proudly glory against the broken branches; let us rather reflect by whose grace it is, and by much mercy, and on what root, we have been grafted into.

  IN ANSWER TO THE JEWS 10

• Isaiah 3:14

  Therefore, coming with all angels, together with him he shall have the saints also. For plainly says Isaiah also, "He shall come to judgment with the elders of the people." Those "elders of the people," then, those called "angels" in this passage, those thousands of many people made perfect coming from the whole world, are called "heaven."

  EXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 50 (49).11

• Isaiah 3:14

  For not alone he shall come to judgment but with the elders of his people, to whom he has promised that they shall sit upon thrones to judge, who even shall judge angels. These are the clouds Isaiah is speaking of.

  EXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 68 (67).39

• Isaiah 5:2

  So let me warn you, holy seedlings, let me warn you, fresh plants in the field of the Lord, not to have it said of you what was said of the vineyard of the house of Israel: "I expected it to produce grapes, but it produced thorns." Let the Lord find good bunches of grapes on you, seeing that he was himself a bunch of grapes trodden in the winepress for you. Produce grapes, live good lives.

  SERMON 376A.2

• Isaiah 5:18

  For each and every person braids a rope for himself in his sins.… Who makes the rope long? Who adds sin to sin? How are sins added to sins? When the sins that have been committed are combined with other sins. He committed a theft; that no one may find out that he committed it, he seeks out an astrologer. It would be enough to have committed the theft; why do you want to join a sin to a sin? Look, two sins. When you are prevented from approaching the astrologer, you blaspheme the bishop. Look, three sins. When you hear, "Send him outside the church," you say, "I'm taking myself to Donatus's group." Look, you add a fourth sin.

  TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10:5

• Isaiah 5:20

  "Woe unto them that call evil good." For this text is to be understood to refer not to humans but to those things that make humans evil, and the prophet's accusation is rightly applied to one who calls adultery good. But if someone should call another good whom he believes chaste, not knowing that he is an adulterer, he is deceived not in his understanding of good and evil but through the secrets of human conduct. He is calling a person good whom he believes to possess that which indubitably is good. The adulterer he would call evil, the chaste person good, and he calls the person in question good simply through not knowing that he is an adulterer and not chaste.

  Enchiridion 6:19

• Isaiah 6:3

  What are we going to do there? Tell me. Sleep? Yes, here people who have nothing to do just sleep. But there is no sleep there, because there is no weariness. So we aren't going to perform works of necessity, aren't going to sleep—what are we going to do? None of us must be afraid of boredom; none of us must imagine it's going to be so boring there. Do you find it boring now to be well? You can get tired of anything and everything in this age; can you get tired of being well? If you don't get tired of good health, will you get tired of immortality? So what activity are we going to engage in? "Amen" and "Alleluia." Here, you see, we do one thing and another, there one thing, I don't say day and night but day without end; what the powers of heaven, the seraphim, say now without ever getting bored: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts."

  SERMON 211A.2

• Isaiah 6:10

  Behold mercy and judgment: mercy upon the elect, who have obtained the justice of God, but judgment upon the others who have been blinded. And yet the former have believed, because they have willed, while the latter have not believed, because they have not willed. Hence mercy and judgment were brought about in their own wills. Clearly this election is through grace, not at all through merits.

  PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS 6

• Isaiah 7:9

  So, then, in some points that bear on the doctrine of salvation, which we are not yet able to grasp by reason—but we shall be able to sometime—let faith precede reason, and let the heart be cleansed by faith so as to receive and bear the great light of reason; this is indeed reasonable. Therefore the prophet said with reason: "If you will not believe, you will not understand"; thereby he undoubtedly made a distinction between these two things and advised us to believe first so as to be able to understand whatever we believe. It is, then, a reasonable requirement that faith precede reason, for, if this requirement is not reasonable, then it is contrary to reason, which God forbid. But, if it is reasonable that faith precede a certain great reason that cannot yet be grasped, there is no doubt that, however slight the reason which proves this, it does precede faith.

  LETTER 120

• Isaiah 7:9

  If you are not able to understand, believe, that you may understand. Faith goes before; understanding follows after; since the prophet says, "Unless you believe, you shall not understand.

  SERMON 68 (118).1

• Isaiah 7:9

  The mysteries and secrets of the kingdom of God first seek for believing people, that they may make them understanding. For faith is understanding's step, and understanding faith's attainment. This the prophet expressly says to all who prematurely and in undue order look for understanding and neglect faith.

  SERMON 76:1

• Isaiah 7:9

  The commandments are those concerning righteousness, and the righteousness is that which is by faith, surrounded with the uncertainty of temptations; so that understanding is the reward of a pious belief of what is not yet understood. The meaning I have given to these words, "Thou hast desired wisdom; keep the commandments, and the Lord shall give it thee," I find also in the passage, "Unless ye believe, ye shall not understand;" showing that as righteousness is by faith, understanding comes by wisdom. Accordingly, in the case of those who eagerly demand evident truth, we must not condemn the desire, but regulate it, so that beginning with faith it may proceed to the desired end through good works. The life of virtue is one of toil; the end desired is unclouded wisdom.

  REPLY TO FAUSTUS THE MANICHAEAN 22:53

• Isaiah 7:14

  Christ was born a visible man of a human virgin mother, but he was a hidden God because God was his Father. So the prophet had foretold: "Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son; and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is interpreted, God with us." To prove that he was God, Christ worked many miracles, some of which—as many as seemed necessary to establish his claim—are recorded in the Gospels. Of these miracles the very first was the marvelous manner of his birth; the very last, his ascension into heaven in his body risen from the dead.

  City of God 18.46

• Isaiah 7:14

  Do you hesitate or refuse to believe his birth of a virgin, when you ought rather to believe that thus it was fitting for God to be born man? Learn that this, too, was foretold by the prophet: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel, which is interpreted, God with us." You will not doubt, therefore, the motherhood of a virgin if you want to believe the nativity of a God who does not relinquish the government of the universe and comes in flesh among human beings; who bestows fecundity on his mother yet does not diminish her integrity.

  ON FAITH IN THINGS UNSEEN 3:5

• Isaiah 7:14

  But who shall say that Christ and Christians have no connection with Israel, seeing that Israel was the grandson of Abraham, to whom first, as afterwards to his son Isaac, and then to his grandson Israel himself, that promise was given, which I have already mentioned, namely: "In your seed shall all nations be blessed"? That prediction we see now in its fulfillment in Christ. For it was of this line that the Virgin was born, concerning whom a prophet of the people of Israel and of the God of Israel sang in these terms: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son; and they shall call his name Emmanuel." For by interpretation, Emmanuel means "God with us." This God of Israel … has forbidden the worship of other gods, … has forbidden the making of idols, … has commanded their destruction, … has by his prophet predicted that the Gentiles from the ends of the earth would say, "Surely our fathers have worshiped lying idols, in which there is no profit." This same God is he who, by the name of Christ and by the faith of Christians, has ordered, promised and exhibited the overthrow of all these superstitions.

  HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS 1:26

• Isaiah 7:14

  You must appreciate, brothers and sisters, what a tremendous desire possessed the saints of old to see the Christ. They knew he was going to come, and all those who were living devout and blameless lives would say, "Oh, if only that birth may find me still here! Oh, if only I may see with my own eyes what I believe from God's Scriptures!" The saints who knew from the holy Scripture that a virgin was going to give birth as you heard when Isaiah was read: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb and shall bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel." What Emmanuel means the Gospel declares to us, saying, "which is interpreted, God with us." So do not let it surprise you, unbelieving soul, whoever you are, do not let it strike you as impossible that a virgin should give birth, and in giving birth remain a virgin. Realize that it was God who was born, and you will not be surprised at a virgin giving birth. So then, to prove to you how the saints and just men and women of old longed to see what was granted to this old man Simeon, our Lord Jesus Christ said, when speaking to his disciples, "Many just men and prophets have wished to see what you see and have not seen it; and to hear what you hear and have not heard it."

  SERMON 370:3

• Isaiah 8:4

  For, before the child knew how to call his father and mother, as Isaiah had prophesied of him, he took the strength of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria. That is, before he uttered human speech through his humanity, he took the strength of Damascus or that which gave confidence to Damascus. For, in the estimation of the world, that city had flourished for some time on account of her riches. But preeminence in riches is gained by gold, and the magi as suppliants offered gold to Christ.

  SERMON 202:2

• Isaiah 8:14

  Christ rose again from the seed of David, as the son of David, because he had emptied himself. How did he empty himself? By taking what he was not, not by losing what he was. He emptied himself; he humbled himself. Though he was God, he made himself known as a man. He was despised as he walked the earth, though he made the sky. He was despised as a mere man, as though he had no power. Not only despised, but on top of that also killed. He was a stone lying flat; the Jews stumbled over him and were shaken. But what does he say about that himself? "Whoever stumbles over this stone will be shaken; but as for anyone upon whom this stone comes, it will crush him." First he lay flat, and they stumbled; he will come from above and crush them, after they have been shaken.

  SERMON 92:2

• Isaiah 9:6

  The fact that the one who talked to Moses is called both the angel of the Lord and the Lord raises a big problem, which calls not for hasty assertion but for careful investigation. There are two opinions that can be put forward about it, of which either may be true, since they both fit the faith. When I say that either may be true, I mean whichever of them was intended by the writer. When we are searching the Scriptures, we may of course understand them in a way in which the writer perhaps did not; but what we should never do is understand them in a way which does not square with the rule of faith, with the rule of truth, with the rule of piety. So I am offering you both opinions. There may be yet a third that escapes me. Anyway, of these two propositions, choose whichever you like. Some people say that the reason why he is called both the angel of the Lord and the Lord is that he was in fact Christ, of whom the prophet says plainly that he is "the angel of great counsel." "Angel" is a word signifying function, not nature. "Angel" is Greek for the Latin nuntius. So "Messenger" is the name of an action: you are called a messenger for doing something, namely, for bringing some message. Now who would deny that Christ brought us a message about the kingdom of heaven? And then an angel, that is to say, a messenger, is sent by the one who wants to give a message by him. And who would deny that Christ was sent? So often did he say, "I did not come to do my own will but the will of him who sent me," that he of all people is the one who was sent. After all, that pool at Siloam "means Sent." That is why he told the man whose eyes he anointed with mud to wash his face there. No one's eyes are opened except those of the person who is cleansed by Christ. So then, the angel and the Lord are one and the same.

  SERMON 7:3

• Isaiah 9:6

  We read, "A child is born to us," because we see him in the nature of a servant, which he had because the Virgin conceived and brought forth a son. However, because it was the Word of God who became flesh in order to dwell among us, and because he remains what he was (that is, really God hidden in the flesh), we use the words of the angel Gabriel and call "his name Emmanuel." He is properly called God with us to avoid thinking of God as one person and the humanity [in Christ] as another.

  SERMON 187:4

• Isaiah 10:22

  If it is of these the predestinated remnant, about whom another prophet has said, "The remnant shall be saved;" whence the apostle also says, "Even so then at this time also the remnant according to the election of grace is saved;" assuredly he believes in Christ; just as in the time of the apostle very many of that nation believed; nor are there now wanting those, although very few, who yet believe.

  City of God 17.5

• Isaiah 10:22

  If the chaff be condemned, let the wheat be gathered together. May the remnant be saved, as Isaiah saith, "And the remnant hath" clearly "been saved:" for out of them were the twelve Apostles, out of them more than five hundred brethren, to whom the Lord showed Himself after His Resurrection: out of their number were so many thousands baptized, who laid the price of their possessions at the Apostles' feet. Thus then was fulfilled the prayer here made to God: "For Thy servant David's sake, turn not away the presence of Thine Anointed."

  EXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 132 (131): 10

• Isaiah 10:22

  The Jews who slew Him, and would not believe in Him, because it behoved Him to die and rise again, were yet more miserably wasted by the Romans, and utterly rooted out from their kingdom, where aliens had already ruled over them, and were dispersed through the lands (so that indeed there is no place where they are not), and are thus by their own Scriptures a testimony to us that we have not forged the prophecies about Christ. And very many of them, considering this, even before His passion, but chiefly after His resurrection, believed on Him, of whom it was predicted, "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved."

  City of God 18.46

• Isaiah 10:22

  Through this Son of man, Christ Jesus, and from his remnant, that is, the apostles and the many others who from among the Israelites have believed in Christ as God, and with the increasing plenitude of the Gentiles, the holy vineyard is being completed.

  IN ANSWER TO THE JEWS 6

• Isaiah 10:23

  But somebody will perhaps think that we lack nothing for the knowledge of righteousness, since the Lord, when He summarily and briefly expounded His word on earth, informed us that the whole law and the prophets depend on two commandments; nor was He silent as to what these were, but declared them in the plainest words: "Thou shalt love," said He, "the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind;" and "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." What is more surely true than that, if these be fulfilled, all righteousness is fulfilled?

  ON THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 36

• Isaiah 11:1

  David was the king of Israel and the son of Jesse at a certain time in the Old Testament, when the New Testament was still hidden there in the Old, like a fruit in its root. For if you seek the fruit in its root, you will not find it. But neither would you find the fruit in the branch, unless it had first come from the root.At that time, then, the first people had come from the seed of Abraham carnally. The second people, those who belong to the New Testament, also belong to the seed of Abraham, but spiritually. Those first people who were still carnal, therefore, among whom very few prophets understood both what was to be desired from God and when to announce it publicly, foretold this future time and the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. Insofar as Christ himself was born according to the flesh, he was hidden in the root, in the seed of the patriarchs, and was to be revealed at a certain time, like fruit appearing on the branch, as it is written: "A rod will bloom from the root of Jesse." The same is true of the New Testament, which was hidden in Christ throughout those earlier times and was known only to the prophets and to a very small group of godly persons, not as the manifestation of present realities but as a revelation of future events. For what does it mean, brothers, if I can remind you of one specific event, that Abraham, sending his faithful servant to betroth a wife to his only son, makes him swear to him and in the oath says to him, "Put your hand under my thigh and swear"? What was in the thigh of Abraham upon which the man put his hand and swore? What was there, except what was then promised to him: "in your seed, all the peoples will be blessed"? The thigh signifies the flesh. From the flesh of Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob and, without naming everyone, through Mary, came our Lord Jesus Christ.

  EXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 72:1

• Isaiah 11:2

  It seems to me, therefore, that the sevenfold operation of the Holy Spirit, of which Isaiah speaks, coincides with these stages and maxims. However, the order is different. In Isaiah, the enumeration begins from the higher, while here it begins from the lower; in the former, it starts from wisdom and ends at the fear of God. But "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Therefore, if we ascend step by step, as it were, while we enumerate, the first grade is the love of God; the second is piety; the third is knowledge; the fourth is fortitude; the fifth is counsel; the sixth is understanding; the seventh is wisdom. The fear of God coincides with the humble, of whom it is here said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit."

  SERMON ON THE MOUNT 1:11

• Isaiah 11:2

  The apostle also says to Timothy, "For God hath not given to us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Now in respect of this passage of the apostle, we must be on our guard against supposing that we have not received the spirit of the fear of God, which is undoubtedly a great gift of God, and concerning which the prophet Isaiah says, "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon thee, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and piety, the spirit of the fear of the Lord." It is not the fear with which Peter denied Christ that we have received the spirit of, but that fear concerning which Christ Himself says, "Fear Him who hath power to destroy both soul and body in hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear Him." This, indeed, He said, lest we should deny Him from the same fear which shook Peter; for such cowardice he plainly wished to be removed from us when He, in the preceding passage, said, "Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do." It is not of this fear that we have received the spirit, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. And of this spirit the same Apostle Paul discourses to the Romans: "We glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us." Not by ourselves, therefore, but by the Holy Ghost which is given to us, does it come to pass that, through that very love, which he shows us to be the gift of God, tribulation does not do away with patience, but rather produces it.

  ON GRACE AND FREE WILL 39

• Isaiah 11:2

  "The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."That the Holy Spirit is suggested by the number seven anybody knows who can read. But listen anyway, those of you who read carelessly, or perhaps cannot read. This is how God presents the Holy Spirit through the prophet Isaiah: "The Spirit," he says, "of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and fortitude, of knowledge and piety, the Spirit of the fear of God." This is the sevenfold Spirit who is also called down upon the newly baptized. The law is the Decalogue; the Ten Commandments, you see, were written on tablets, but stone ones still, because of the stubborn hardness of the Jews. After the Spirit came, what does the apostle say? "You yourselves are our letter, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tablets of stone, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart." Take away the Spirit, the letter kills, because it finds the sinner guilty, doesn't set him free. That's why the apostle says, "For we are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as coming from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of the new covenant, not in the letter, but in the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit brings to life." So add seven to ten, if you wish to fulfill all justice. When you are commanded by the law to do something, ask the Spirit to help you.

  SERMON 229M.2

• Isaiah 11:2

  And this Holy Spirit is in Scripture especially spoken of by the number seven, whether in Isaiah or in the Apocalypse, where the seven Spirits of God are most directly mentioned, on account of the sevenfold operation of one and the self-same Spirit. And this sevenfold operation is mentioned in Isaiah: "the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and fortitude, of knowledge and piety, the Spirit of the fear of God rested upon him." This fear of the Lord should be understood as pure, enduring forever.

  EXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 150: 1

• Isaiah 11:2

  For if Paul had said only "Jesus Christ," he would have included Jesus Christ according to his divinity, according to his being the Word who was with God, Jesus Christ the Son of God. Yet children cannot receive what is said in this manner. How, therefore, do they who are fed milk receive it? "Jesus Christ," he said, "and him crucified." Feed upon what he did for you, and you will grow to know him as he is. There are therefore both those who ascend and those who descend on that ladder. Who are they that ascend? They who progress towards the understanding of things spiritual. Who are they that descend? They who, although, as far as men may, they enjoy the comprehension of things spiritual: nevertheless, descend unto the infants, to say to them such things as they can receive, so that, after being nourished with milk, they may become fitted and strong enough to take spiritual meat. Isaiah, brothers, was himself among those who descended to us, for the steps upon which he descended are obvious. In reference to the Holy Spirit, he said "the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and fortitude, of knowledge and piety, the Spirit of the fear of God rested upon him," he began from wisdom and descended toward fear. See how the teacher descended from wisdom toward fear; you who learn, if you are to make progress, must ascend from fear to wisdom. For it is written, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Listen, therefore, to the psalms.

  EXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 120 (119): 1

• Isaiah 11:2

  A person would not have wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of God unless, according to the prophet's words, he had received "the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, of counsel and of fortitude, of knowledge and of godliness, and of fear of God." ... And a person would not have power and love and sobriety, except by receiving the Spirit of whom the apostle speaks: "We have not received the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of sobriety." So also one would not have faith unless he received the spirit of faith of which the same apostle says: "But having the same spirit of faith, as it is written, 'I believed, therefore I have spoken,' we also believe therefore we speak also." Thus he shows very plainly that faith is not received because of merit but by the mercy of him who has mercy on whom he will, when he says of himself: "I have obtained mercy to be faithful."

  LETTER 194

• Isaiah 14:12

  For example, what is said in Isaiah, "How he is fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning!" and the other statements in that context that speak of the king of Babylon are of course to be understood of the devil. However, the statement that is made in the same place, "He that sent orders to all nations is crushed on the earth," does not altogether fitly apply to the head himself.

  CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION 3:37

• Isaiah 14:12

  It was by a kind of strength that man offended, so as to require to be corrected by weakness: for it was by a certain "pride" that he offended; so as to require to be chastened by humility. All proud persons call themselves strong people. Therefore have many [others] "come from the East and the West" and have attained "to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." Therefore, how was it that they so attained? Because they would not be strong. What is meant by "would not be strong"? They were afraid to presume of their own merits. They did not "go about to establish their own righteousness," that they might "submit themselves to the righteousness of God." … Behold! you are mortal; and you bear about you a body of flesh that is corrupting away: "And you shall fall like one of the princes. You shall die like human beings" and shall fall like the devil. What good does the remedial discipline of mortality do you? The devil is proud, as not having a mortal body, as being an angel. But as for you, who have received a mortal body, and to whom even this does no good, so as to humble you by so great weakness, you shall "fall like one of the princes." This then is the first grace of God's gift, to bring us to the confession of our infirmity, that whatever good we can do, whatever ability we have, we may be that in him; that "he that glories, may glory in the Lord." "When I am weak," he says, "then am I strong."

  EXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 39 (38): 18

• Isaiah 14:14

  "He deemed it no robbery to be God's equal, yet he emptied himself and took on the form of a slave." This was by no means robbery! Who was the robber, then? Adam. And the primordial robber? The being who seduced Adam. How, then, did the devil seize what did not belong to him? "I will set my throne in the north; I shall be like the Most High," he said. He grabbed for himself something not given to him; that was robbery. The devil tried to usurp what had not been granted to him and thereby lost what he had been given. Then from the cup of his own pride he offered a drink to the humans he was trying to seduce, saying, "Taste it, and you will be like gods." They too wanted to make a grab at divinity, and they lost their happiness. The devil robbed and paid for it; but Christ declares, "I was discharging a debt, though I had committed no robbery."As the Lord approached his passion, he testified, "Now the prince of this world (that is, the devil) is coming, and he will find nothing in me (that means, he will find no justification for killing me). But so that the world may know that I am doing my Father's will, rise, let us leave here." And he went out to his passion, to pay back where he had committed no robbery. What else does his statement mean—"he will find nothing in me"? He will find no fault. Had the devil found anything missing from his house? Let the devil pursue any robbers he may find; "he will find nothing in me."

  EXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 68

• Isaiah 19:1

  It is relevant to recall that holy Isaiah uttered a particular prophecy concerning Egypt: "And the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt within them" and the rest.In the same class with these prophets were those who rejoiced because they knew he had come whom they had been expecting. Such were Simeon and Anna, who recognized Jesus when he was born, and Elizabeth, who, in the Spirit, realized that he had been conceived, and Peter, who, by revelation of the Father, affirmed, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God."

  City of God 8.23

• Isaiah 19:19

  The prophet Isaiah says this about Egypt: "In that day there will be an altar of the Lord in the land of the Egyptians and an inscription to the Lord at its border. It will be a sign forever to the Lord in the land of the Egyptians, for they will cry to the Lord against their assailants, and the Lord will send them a savior who will be determined to save them. And the Lord will be known to the Egyptians, and they will fear the Lord in that day and make sacrifices to him and promise vows to him and fulfill them. And the Lord will strike the Egyptians with plagues and heal them by his mercy, and they will turn to the Lord, and he will listen to them and heal them." What do they [i.e., members of the Donatist sect] say to this? Why do they not share with the church what was foretold of the Egyptians? Or, if Egypt signifies the world by prophetic prefiguration, why are they not in communion with the church of the world? Consequently, they search the Scriptures and, against so many sure and clear witnesses through which the church of Christ is shown to be diffused throughout the entire world, they offer just one witness in an attempt to demonstrate that the church of Christ perished from all other peoples and remained only in Africa, as though from another beginning, not from Jerusalem but from Carthage, where they first elevated one bishop against another.

  LETTER TO THE CATHOLICS ON THE SECT OF DONATISTS 16:41-42

• Isaiah 25:8

  The apostle said, "With the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin," not by giving my members over to committing iniquities but only by feeling lust, without however giving a hand to unlawful lust. So when he said, "With the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin," he went on to add, "There is therefore no condemnation now for those who are in Christ Jesus." For those who are in the flesh there is condemnation; for those who are in Christ Jesus no condemnation. In case you should assume this is going to be the case after becoming a Christian, that is why he added "now."What you must look forward to afterward is not even to have any lust in you which you have to contend with, which you have to combat, which you must not consent to, which you have to curb and tame; look forward to its simply not being there afterward. I mean to say, if what is now contending with us from its base in this mortal body is going to be there afterward, the taunt "Where, death, is your striving?" will be untrue. So let us be quite clear about what it is going to be like afterward. Then, you see, will come about the word that is written: "Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, death, is your striving? Where, death, is your sting? For the sting of death is sin; but the power of sin, the law." Because desire was increased, not extinguished, by being forbidden. The law gave sin power by simply commanding through the letter without assisting through the spirit.

  SERMON 155:2

• Isaiah 26:10

  In the resurrection itself it is not easy to see God, except for those who are clean of heart; hence, "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God." From here on he begins to speak of that world where all who rise again will not see God, but only those who rise to eternal life. The unworthy will not see him, for of them it is said, "Let the wicked be taken away lest he behold the brightness of the Lord." But the worthy will see him, and of such the Lord spoke when, though present, he was not seen, saying, "He that loves me keeps my commandments, and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him."

  LETTER 27 (177:11)

• Isaiah 26:10

  In this human form the good will see him in whom they have believed; the wicked, him whom they have despised. But the wicked will not see him in the form of God in which he is equal to the Father, for as the prophet says, "The wicked shall be taken off that he may not see the glory of the Lord," and, on the other hand, "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God."

  SERMON 214:9

• Isaiah 26:10

  Then, therefore, we shall come and we shall enjoy the one thing; but the one thing will be all things to us. For what was it I said, my brothers, when I began to speak? What is that sufficiency which we shall possess when we shall have no need? What is the sufficiency which we shall possess? I had intended to say, "What will God give to us which he will not give to them?" "Let the wicked be taken away that he may not see the glory of God." Hence God will give his glory to us so that we may enjoy it; and the wicked will be taken away that he may not see the glory of God. God himself will be the entire sufficiency which we shall possess as our own. Greedy one, what did you seek to gain? What does anyone, for whom God is not enough, seek from God?

  SERMON 255:6

• Isaiah 26:11

  Note that there are two kinds of zeal, one full of love, the other full of hatred. The former is indicated in the words, "The zeal of your house has devoured me"; the latter, in the words, "Zeal has taken hold of the senseless people, and now fire shall devour your opponents."

  City of God 20.12