Augustine of Hippo — Commentary on Scripture

Jeremiah 31:31 · 3 passages

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

Finally, that we may not be disturbed by the words I have quoted and many others of like importance, about returning the sins of the parents on the children—words written truthfully, yet that might be thought contrary to this prophecy—he solves this very vexed question by adding, "Behold, the days shall come, says the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their ancestors." In this new covenant through the blood of the Mediator, the paternal decree having been cancelled, humankind by rebirth begins to be no longer subject to the paternal debts that bind them at birth, as the Mediator says: "And call no one on earth your father," inasmuch as we but shall live forever with the Father.

Nowhere, or hardly anywhere, except in this passage of the prophet, do we find in the Old Testament Scriptures any mention so made of the New Testament as to indicate it by its name. It is no doubt often referred to and foretold as about to be given, but not so plainly as to have its name mentioned. Consider, then, carefully what difference God has testified as existing between the two Testaments—the old covenant and the new.

Because of the offense of the old Adam, which was by no means healed by the law that commanded and threatened, it is called the old covenant. The other is called the new covenant, because of the newness of the spirit that heals the new Adam of the fault of the old. Then consider what follows, and see in how clear a light the fact is placed, that people who have faith are unwilling to trust in themselves: “Because,” says he, “this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, says the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts.”

Jeremiah 31:32 · 2 passages

Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

Learn, all of you—learn! What better law of God is there, after all, than the holy gospel? It is the law of the New Testament, about which you heard, when the prophet was read, “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, I will perfect on the house of Jacob a new testament, not like the testament that I laid down for their ancestors when I led them from the land of Egypt.” The testament (or covenant) is promised there, delivered here. It is promised through the prophet, delivered through the Lord of the prophets.

“But I,” he says, “hold on to what God handed over to Moses.” Listen to what God says through the prophet. What is God telling Jeremiah? “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, I will confirm on the house of Jacob a new covenant.” Leave the old aside, take up the new, and you can see that you ought to leave aside circumcision, and unleavened bread taken literally, and the sabbath taken literally and the sacrifices taken literally. Listen to how the new covenant is promised: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, I will confirm for them a new covenant, not like the covenant that I gave to their ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt,” when the law of commandments was given, when the people were led through the desert. It is not like that that I will give the new covenant. So do not go on wearing the old tunic. That was what crucified Christ. Your parent crucified him; you hate him. He by his own hand, you in your heart, both of you have carried out the crime. Therefore be displeased with what your parent did, and listen to what your Lord has done.

Jeremiah 31:33 · 6 passages

But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

God is the reward, in him the end, in him the perfection of happiness, in him the sum of the blessed and eternal life. For after saying, “I will be their God, and they shall be my people,” he at once adds, “And they shall no more teach everyone his neighbor, and everyone his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least to the greatest of them.”

I have acted thus, not as a finished master but as one needing to be perfected with his pupils, excellent lady, daughter deservedly honored and cherished in Christ. Indeed, even in the subjects that, one way or another, I know, I am more anxious for you to be learned than to be in need of my learning, for we ought not to desire the ignorance of others in order to teach what we know. It surely is much better for all of us to be ready to be taught of God what will certainly be perfected in that country on high when the promise will be fulfilled in us, that a person shall not say to his neighbor, “Know the Lord, for all shall know him,” as it is written, “from the least of them even to the greatest.”

Isn’t the finger of God to be understood as being the Holy Spirit? Read the gospel, and see that where one Evangelist has the Lord saying, “If I with the Spirit of God cast out demons,” another says, “If I with the finger of God cast out demons.” So if that law too was written by the finger of God, that is by the Spirit of God, the Spirit by which Pharaoh’s magicians were defeated, so they said, “This is the finger of God.” So if that law too, indeed because that law too was composed by the Spirit of God, that is, by the finger of God, why can it not be said of it, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ has delivered you from the law of sin and death”?… So, the “law of the Spirit of life,” written on the heart, not on stone, in Christ Jesus, in whose person was celebrated the ultimately real and genuine Passover “has delivered you from the law of sin and death.”

You should not write the creed out in any way, but, so as to hold the exact words of the creed, learn it by listening. Not even when you have learned it should you write it down, but, rather, always hold it and cherish it in your memory. For whatever you will hear in the creed is contained in the inspired books of the Holy Scriptures. The fact that it is not permitted to write down what has been thus collected and reduced to a definite form comes about in memory of the promise of God in which, predicting a New Testament, he said in the words of the prophet: “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, by setting my law in their minds, I will write it also in their hearts.”

Here, God is Jerusalem’s reward. Its highest—its entire—good is to possess him and to be possessed by him.

What are you asking about, you see, is what special thing God is keeping for the good, if he generously bestows so many things on both good and bad. When I said, “What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it come up into the heart of people,” there is no lack of people to say, “Can you think what it is?” Here is what it is that God is keeping for the good alone, though it is he who has made them good. Here is what it is. Our reward has been very briefly defined by the prophet: I will be their God, and they shall be my people. I will be their God. He has promised us himself as our reward.

Jeremiah 31:34 · 2 passages

And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

If we are asked why we do not worship God as the Hebrew ancestors of the Old Testament worshiped him, we reply that God has taught us differently by the New Testament fathers, and yet not in opposition to the Old Testament, but as that Testament itself predicted. For it is thus foretold by the prophet Jeremiah … that that covenant would not continue but that there would be a new one. And to the objection that we do not belong to the house of Israel or to the house of Judah, we answer according to the teaching of the apostle, who calls Christ the seed of Abraham and says to us, as belonging to Christ’s body, “Therefore you are Abraham’s seed.”

You do not say, “Let man be made,” but, “Let us make man.” Nor do you say, “after his kind,” but after “our image” and “likeness.” Because, being renewed in his mind and beholding and apprehending your truth, a person does not need another person as his director so that he may imitate his own kind. By your direction he proves what your good, acceptable and perfect will is. You teach him—now that he has been made capable—to perceive the Trinity of the Unity and the Unity of the Trinity. Therefore this being said in the plural, “Let us make man,” it is yet followed by the phrase in the singular, “and God made man.” This is said in the plural, “after our likeness,” followed by the phrase in the singular, “after the image of God.” Thus humankind is renewed in the knowledge of God, after the image of him who created them. Being made spiritual, he judges all things—all things that are to be judged—“yet he himself is judged by no mortal.”

Jeremiah 32:40 · 3 passages

And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.

This grace God placed "in him in whom we have obtained a lot, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who works all things." And thus as he works that we come to him, so he works that we do not depart. For this reason, it was said to him by the mouth of the prophet, "Let your hand be on the man of your right hand, and on the Son of man whom you made strong for yourself, and we will not depart from you." This certainly is not the first Adam, in whom we departed from him, but the second Adam, on whom his hand is placed, so that we do not depart from him. For Christ altogether with his members is—for the church's sake, which is his body—the fullness of him. When, therefore, God's hand is on him, that we depart not from God, assuredly God's work reaches to us (for this is God's hand). By this work of God we are caused to be abiding in Christ with God—not, as in Adam, departing from God. For "in Christ we have obtained a lot, being predestinated according to his purpose who works all things." This, therefore, is God's hand, not ours, that we depart not from God. That, I say, i…

This grace God placed "in him in whom we have obtained a lot, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who works all things." And thus as he works that we come to him, so he works that we do not depart. For this reason, it was said to him by the mouth of the prophet, "Let your hand be on the man of your right hand, and on the Son of man whom you made strong for yourself, and we will not depart from you." This certainly is not the first Adam, in whom we departed from him, but the second Adam, on whom his hand is placed, so that we do not depart from him. For Christ altogether with his members is—for the church's sake, which is his body—the fullness of him. When, therefore, God's hand is on him, that we depart not from God, assuredly God's work reaches to us (for this is God's hand). By this work of God we are caused to be abiding in Christ with God—not, as in Adam, departing from God. For "in Christ we have obtained a lot, being predestinated according to his purpose who works all things." This, therefore, is God's hand, not ours, that we depart not from God. That, I say, is his hand who said, "I will put my fear in their hearts that they depart not from me."

It is much more difficult to persevere when a persecutor is endeavoring that one not persevere, and on this account one is sustained in perseverance to death. The latter perseverance is more difficult to have, the former easier, but for him to whom nothing is difficult, it is easy to give either one. For God has promised this in saying, "I will give my fear in their heart, that they may not revolt from me." And what else do these words mean but, such and so great shall be my fear, which I will give into their heart that they will adhere with perseverance to me?...So when the hand of God is on him, that we not depart from God, then the work of God (for this is what is meant by his hand) reaches indeed to us. For in Christ "we have obtained our lot, being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things." Therefore it is by God's hand, not our own, that we depart not from God. This is his hand, I say, who declared, "I will give my fear into their heart, that they may not revolt from me."

Pride has so stopped the ears of their heart that the Pelagians do not hear, "For what have you that you have not received?" They do not hear, "Without me you can do nothing." They do not hear, "Love is of God." They do not hear, "God has dealt the measure of faith." They do not hear, "The Spirit breathes where it will," and, "They who are led by the Spirit of God, they are the children of God." They do not hear, "No one can come to me, unless it were given him of my Father." They do not hear what Esdras writes, "Blessed is the Lord of our ancestors, who has put into the heart of the king to glorify his house that is in Jerusalem." They do not hear what the Lord says by Jeremiah, "And I will put my fear into their heart, that they do not depart from me. I will visit them to make them good." They do not hear that word by Ezekiel the prophet, where God fully shows that he is not induced to make people good because they deserve good, that is, because they obey his commands, but rather that he repays to them good for evil, by doing this for his own sake and not for theirs.

Jeremiah 33:2

Thus saith the LORD the maker thereof, the LORD that formed it, to establish it; the LORD is his name;

“And let them who know your name hope in you” when they shall have ceased hoping in wealth and in the other enticements of this world. For the soul indeed that seeks where to fix its hope, when it is torn away from this world, the knowledge of God’s name seasonably receives. For the mere name of God has now been published everywhere. When you know someone, you know his name. For the name is not a name for its own sake but for that which it signifies. Now it has been said, “The Lord is his name.” Therefore those who willingly submit to God as his servants have known this name.

Jeremiah 36:23

And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.

Doubtless you are not unaware that in the early history of the chosen people the sacrilege of idolatry was committed and a prophetic book burned by a scornful king. But the crime of schism would not be punished more severely than any of these acts unless it were considered more grievous. Surely you remember how the earth opened and swallowed up alive the authors of schism and how fire coming down from heaven destroyed those who followed them. But neither the making and adoring of an idol nor the burning of a sacred book deserve to meet such vengeance.

Job 1:21

And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.

Those who lost all their worldly possessions in the sack of Rome, if they owned their possessions as they had been taught by the apostle who himself was poor without, but rich within—that is to say, if they used the world as though not using it—they could say in the words of Job, heavily tried but not overcome, "Naked I came out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it has happened: Blessed be the name of the Lord." Like a good servant, Job counted the will of his Lord his greatest possession and through obedience to that will his soul was enriched. It didn't grieve him while he was still alive to lose those goods which he was shortly going to have to leave at his death. But as to those feebler spirits who, though they cannot be said to prefer earthly possessions to Christ, still hang on to them with a somewhat moderate attachment to them, they have discovered by the pain of losing these things how much they were sinning in loving them. For their grief is of their own making. In the words of the apostle q…

Those who lost all their worldly possessions in the sack of Rome, if they owned their possessions as they had been taught by the apostle who himself was poor without, but rich within—that is to say, if they used the world as though not using it—they could say in the words of Job, heavily tried but not overcome, "Naked I came out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it has happened: Blessed be the name of the Lord." Like a good servant, Job counted the will of his Lord his greatest possession and through obedience to that will his soul was enriched. It didn't grieve him while he was still alive to lose those goods which he was shortly going to have to leave at his death. But as to those feebler spirits who, though they cannot be said to prefer earthly possessions to Christ, still hang on to them with a somewhat moderate attachment to them, they have discovered by the pain of losing these things how much they were sinning in loving them. For their grief is of their own making. In the words of the apostle quoted above, "They have pierced themselves through with many sorrows." For it was well that they who had so long despised these verbal admonitions should receive the teaching of experience. For when the apostle says "They that will be rich fall into temptation," and so on, what he blames in riches is not the possession of them but the desire for them. For elsewhere he says, "Charge those who are rich in this world not to be high-minded or trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life." They who were making such a use of their property have been consoled for light losses by great gains, and have had more pleasure in those possessions which they have securely laid past, by freely giving them away, than grief in which those they entirely lost by an anxious and selfish hoarding of them. For nothing could perish on earth except what they would be ashamed to carry away from the earth. Our Lord's injunction runs, "Do not lay up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and where thieves do not break through or steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." And they who have listened to this injunction have proved in the time of tribulation how well they were advised in not despising this most trustworthy teacher and most faithful and mighty guardian of their treasure. For if many were glad that their treasure was stored in places which the enemy chanced not to light upon, how much better founded was the joy of those who, by the counsel of their God, have fled with their treasure to a citadel which no enemy can possibly reach!

Joel 2:32

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.

But whether he or some partners of his error are with you—for they are too numerous to make it possible for us to hope they are not, and when they are not refuted they mislead others into their sect and increase so much that I do not know where they will break out next—we would rather see them cured in the body of the church than cut off from the body as rotten members, if necessity allows even that. We have to fear that others will be infected, if we spare their infection. But the mercy of our Lord is able rather to free them from disease, and no doubt he will do it if they note and hold faithfully to what is written: “Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”