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TRACTATES On I In J.9-I8 ISTEN ATTENTIVELY, I beg you, for there is lodged in our midst no small matter. And I have no doubt that you were present and attentive yesterdayl because you have assembled today [even] more attentively. (2) For it is not a small problem, how Uohn] says in this epistle , "He who has been born of God sins not," and yet how in the same epistle he earlier said, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in US."2 What will he do whom the two quotations from the same epistle have stuck right in the middle? If he confesses himself a sinner, he fears that it may be said to him, "Therefore, you have not been born of God, for it has been written, 'He who has been born of God sins not.' " But if he says that he is just and has no sin, he receives from the other side a blow from the very same epistle: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." Therefore, the fellow has been put right in the middle and does not find what he might say, what he might confess, or what he might profess. For him to profess himself to be without sin is dangerous, and not only dangerous but also lying: "We deceive ourselves," Uohn] says, "and the truth is not in us if we say that we have no sin." But would that you had none and would so say! For you would say the truth and you would not fear any even slight trace of iniquity in giving out the truth. But you do wrongly if you say it, precisely because you say a lie: "The truth," he says, "is not in us if we say that we have no sin." He does not say, "we did not have"-so that the statement would not seem to be about our past life. For this man had sins, but from the time when he was born of God, he began not to have them. If it were so, no problem would torment us. For we would say, "We were sinners but I. Sc. to hear Tractate 4. 2. I In 1.8. 185 186 ST. AUGUSTINE now we have beenjustified. We had sin but now we do not have it." He does not say this. But what does he say? "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." A little later, on the other hand, "He who has been born of God sins not." Had not John himself been born of God? If John, about whom you have heard that he reclined upon the Lord's breast,3 had not been born of God, does anyone dare to vouch that in him has taken place a regeneration that that man did not merit to have who merited to recline on the breast of the Lord? [Is he] himself whom he loved more than the others4 the only one [whom] the Lord had not begotten of the Spirit? 2. Pay attention now to these words. I still point out our narrow straits, so that through your attention-and this is our prayer both for us and for you-God may widen things out and give us a way out, so that no one may find in his word an occasion for his own damnation-the word that has been preached and written only for healing and salvation. (2) "Everyone," [John] says, "who commits sin also commits iniquity."s So that you do not make a distinction: "Sin is iniquity .,,6 So that you do not say, "I am a sinner, but I am not iniquitous ": "Sin is iniquity. And you know that he was manifested for this, that he take away sins, and in him there is no sin.,,7 And what benefit is there for us that he came without sin? "Everyone who sins not, abides in him, and everyone who sins has not seen him nor known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who does justice is just, as he also is juSt.,,8 We have already said that "as" in normal usage is said according to a certain likeness, not according to identity.9 "He who commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sins from the...

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