5. Here a question meets us: for it is not this or that man, or thou or I that come in question,—for if I have asked any thing of God and receive it not, any person may easily say of me, “He hath not charity:” and of any man soever of this present time, this may easily be said; and let any think what he will, a man of man:—not we, but those come more in question, those men of whom it is on all hands known that they were saints when they wrote, and that they are now with God. Where is the man that hath charity, if Paul had it not, who said, “Our mouth is open unto you, O ye Corinthians, our heart is enlarged; ye are not straitened in us:”319    2 Cor. vi. 11, 12; id. xii. 15. who said, “I will myself be spent for your souls:” and so great grace was in him, that it was manifested that he had charity. And yet we find that he asked and did not receive. What say we, brethren? It is a question: look attentively to God: it is a great question, this also. Just as, where it was said of sin, “He that is born of God sinneth not:” we found this sin to be the violating of charity, and that this was the thing strictly intended in that place: so too we ask now what it is that he would say. For if thou look but to the words, it seems plain: if thou take the examples into the account, it is obscure. Than the words here nothing can be plainer. “And whatsoever we ask, we shall receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” “Whatsoever we ask,” saith he, “we shall receive of Him.” He hath put us sorely to straits. In the other place also he would put us to straits, if he meant all sin: but then we found room to expound it in this, that he meant it of a certain sin, not of all sin; howbeit of a sin which “whosoever is born of God committeth not:” and we found that this same sin is none other than the violation of charity. We have also a manifest example from the Gospel, when the Lord saith, “If I had not come, they had not had sin.”320    John xv. 22. How? Were the Jews innocent when He came to them, because He so speaks? Then if He had not come, would they have had no sin? Then did the Physician’s presence make one sick, not take away the fever? What madman even would say this? He came not but to cure and heal the sick. Therefore when He said, “If I had not come, they had not had sin,” what would He have to be understood, but a certain sin in particular? For there was a sin which the Jews would not have had. What sin? That they believed not on Him, that when he had come they despised Him. As then He there said “sin,” and it does not follow that we are to understand all sin, but a certain sin: so here also not all sin, lest it be contrary to that place where he saith, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us:”321    1 John i. 8. but a certain sin in particular, that is, the violation of charity. But in this place he hath bound us more tightly: “If we shall ask,” he hath said, “if our heart accuse us not, and tell us in answer, in the sight of God, that true love is in us;” “Whatsoever we ask, we shall receive of Him.”

5. Occurrit quaestio quaedam, quia non ille aut ille homo, aut tu aut ego, qui si petiero aliquid a Domino 2022 Deo nostro, et non accepero, facile de me potest dicere unusquisque, Non habet charitatem; et de quolibet homine hujus temporis facile dici potest; et sentiat quis quod vult homo de homine: majorem quaestionem non faciunt, nisi illi viri, quos sanctos constat fuisse cum scriberent, et modo esse cum Deo. Quis habet charitatem, si eam Paulus non habebat, qui dicebat, Os nostrum patet ad vos, o Corinthii, cor nostrum dilatatum est; non angustamini in nobis (II Cor. VI, 11, 12); qui dicebat, Impendar pro animabus vestris (Id. XII, 15): et tanta gratia in illo erat, ut manifestaretur eum habere charitatem? Invenimus eum tamen petisse, et non accepisse. Quid dicimus, fratres? Quaestio est; intenti estote ad Deum Magna et ista quaestio est. Quomodo de peccato ubi dictum est, Qui natus est ex Deo, non peccat (I Joan. III, 9); invenimus hoc esse peccatum violare charitatem, et hoc proprie designatum esse in hoc loco: sic et nunc quaerimus quid dixerit. Si enim verba attendas, planum videtur; si exempla, obscurum est. Verbis his nihil est planius: «Et quidquid postulaverimus, accipiemus ab eo; quia mandata ejus servamus, et quae placent illi, in conspectu ejus facimus. Quidquid postulaverimus,» ait, «accipiemus ab eo.» Angustavit vehementer. Quia et ibi angustaret, si diceret omne peccatum: sed ideo invenimus locum exponendi, quia de certo peccato dixit, non de omni; sed de quodam peccato, quod omnis qui ex Deo natus est, non facit: et invenimus ipsum quoddam peccatum violationem esse charitatis. Et habemus exemplum de Evangelio manifestum, quando ait Dominus, Si non venissem, peccatum non haberent (Joan. XV, 22). Quid ergo? ad innocentes Judaeos venerat, quia sic loquitur? Ergo si ipse non veniret, peccatum non haberent? Praesentia ergo medici fecit aegrotum, febrem non abstulit? Quis hoc vel demens dicat? Ille non venit nisi curare et sanare aegrotos. Quare ergo dixit, Si non venissem, peccatum non haberent, nisi quia certum quoddam peccatum voluit intelligi? Quoddam enim peccatum non haberent Judaei. Quod peccatum? Quo in eum non crediderunt, quo praesentem contempserunt. Sicut ergo ibi peccatum dixit, et non est consequens ut omne peccatum intelligamus, sed certum peccatum: sic et hic non omne peccatum, ne contrarius sit illi loco ubi ait, Si dixerimus quia peccatum non habemus, nosmetipsos seducimus, et veritas in nobis non est (I Joan. I, 8); sed certum quoddam peccatum, id est, violationem charitatis. Hic autem plus nos constrinxit: Si petierimus, dixit, si nos non accusaverit cor nostrum, et renuntiaverit in conspectu Dei quia vera dilectio est in nobis; quidquid postulaverimus, ab eo accipiemus.