Law threatened, it did not succour; it ordered, it did not cure; (continued)
86 ST. AUGUSTINE not have anything because of which he should in justice die.
He himself said, "Behold, the prince of this world comes, and in me he finds nothing." Why then do you die? "But that all may know that I do my Father's will, arise, let us go from here."^^ He had nothing because of which he should die, and he died. You have [something] because of which, and do you disdain to die? Deign to suffer according to your merit, with equanimity, what he deigned to suffer, that he might free you from everlasting death.
(2) A man, and a man. But the one, only man; the other, God and man. The one was a man of sin; the other, of justice.
You died in Adam; rise again in Christ. For both^^ are due to you. Now you have believed in Christ; still you will pay what you owe from Adam. But the chain of sin will not hold you forever because the temporal death of your Lord has killed your eternal death. This is grace, my brothers, this is truth itself, since it has been promised and delivered. 14. This [grace] was not in the Old Testanient because the Law threatened, it did not succour; it ordered, it did not cure; it exposed weakness, it did not take it away. But it made ready for that physician who was to come with grace and truth. Just as a physician first may send his servant to someone whom he wishes to heal that he may find him bound. He was not healthy, he was unwilling to be cured; and that he might not be cured, he kept insisting that he was healthy. The Law was sent; it bound him. He finds himself guilty and now he shouts out from his bonds.
(2) The Lord comes; he cures with rather bitter and sharp medicines. For he says to the sick man, "Bear it." He says, "Endure it." He says, "Do not love the world. Have patience. Let the fire of continence heal you. Let your wounds suffer the sword of persecutions." You were trembling in fear even though bound; he was free, that one, and unbound, he drank what he gave to you. He suffered first that he might comfort you, as if saying, "What you fear to suffer for yourself, I first
47. Cf. Jn 14.30-31. 48. i.e., death and resurrection.