1. Hear intently, I do beseech you, because it is no small matter that we have to cope withal: and I doubt not, because ye were intent upon it yesterday, that ye have with even greater intentness of purpose come together to-day. For it is no slight question, how he saith in this Epistle, “Whosoever is born of God, sinneth not,”250    1 John iii. 9. and how in the same Epistle he hath said above, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”251    1 John i. 8. What shall the man do, who is pressed by both sayings out of the same Epistle? If he shall confess himself a sinner, he fears lest it be said to him, Then art thou not born of God; because it is written, “Whosoever is born of God, sinneth not.” But if he shall say that he is just and that he hath no sin, he receives on the other side a blow from the same Epistle, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Placed then as he is in the midst, what he can say and what confess, or what profess, he cannot find. To profess himself to be without sin, is full of peril; and not only full of peril, but also full of error: “We deceive ourselves,” saith he, “and the truth is not in us, if we say that we have no sin.” But oh that thou hadst none, and saidst this! for then wouldest thou say truly, and in uttering the truth wouldest have not so much as a vestige of wrong to be afraid of. But, that thou doest ill if thou say so, is because it is a lie that thou sayest. “The truth,” saith he, “is not in us, if we say that we have no sin.” He saith not, “Have not had;” lest haply it should seem to be spoken of the past life. For the man here hath had sins: but from the time that he was born of God, he has begun not to have sins. If it were so, there would be no question to embarrass us. For we should say, We have been sinners, but now we are justified: we have had sin, but now we have none. He saith not this: but what saith he? “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” And then after a while he says on the other hand, “Whosoever is born of God sinneth not.” Was John himself not born of God? If John was not born of God, John, of whom ye have heard that he lay in the Lord’s bosom; does any man dare engage for himself that in him has taken place that regeneration which it was not granted to that man to have, to whom it was granted to lie in the bosom of the Lord? The man whom the Lord loved more than the rest,252    John xiii. 23. him alone had He not begotten of the Spirit?

1. Intente audite, obsecro vos, quia res non minima versatur in medio: et non dubito quia hesterno die adfuistis intente, quod et hodie intentius convenistis. Est enim non parva quaestio, quomodo dicat in ista Epistola, Qui natus est ex Deo, non peccat: et quomodo in eadem Epistola superius dixit, Si dixerimus quia peccatum non habemus, nos ipsos seducimus, et veritas in nobis non est (I Joan. I, 8). Quid facturus est quem uterque sermo ex eadem Epistola in medio coarctavit? Si se confessus fuerit peccatorem, timet ne dicatur illi, Non ergo ex Deo natus es; quia scriptum est, Qui natus est ex Deo, non peccat. Si autem dixerit se justum, et non habere peccatum, accipit ex alia parte plagam ex ipsa Epistola, Si dixerimus quia peccatum non habemus, nos ipsos seducimus, et veritas in nobis non est. Positus ergo homo in medio, quid dicat, et quid confiteatur, aut quid profiteatur, non invenit. Profiteri se esse sine peccato, periculosum est; et non solum periculosum, sed etiam mendosum: Nos ipsos, inquit, seducimus, et veritas in nobis non est, si dixerimus quia peccatum non habemus. Sed utinam non haberes, et diceres! verum enim diceres, nec in veritate promenda ullum iniquitatis vel vestigium formidares. Sed ideo male facis si dicis quia mendacium dicis: Veritas, inquit, in nobis non est, si dixerimus quia peccatum non habemus. Non ait, Non habuimus; ne forte de praeterita vita dictum videretur. Habuit enim peccata homo iste; sed ex quo natus est ex Deo, coepit non habere. Si ita esset, nulla nos angustaret quaestio. Diceremus enim: Fuimus peccatores, sed modo justificati sumus habuimus peccatum, sed modo non habemus. Non hoc ait: sed quid ait? Si dixerimus quia peccatum non habemus, nos ipsos seducimus, et veritas in nobis non est. Post aliquantum rursus, Qui natus est ex Deo, inquit, non peccat. Numquid Joannes ipse non erat natus ex Deo? Si Joannes non erat natus ex Deo, de quo audistis quia supra pectus Domini recumbebat; aliquis sibi audet promittere regenerationem factam in se, quam ille habere non meruit, qui super pectus Domini recumbere meruit? Quem Dominus plus quam caeteros diligebat (Joan. XIII, 23), ipsum solum de Spiritu non genuerat?