Tractates on the Gospel of John (continued)
98 ST. AUGUSTINE no merit so great as that from this humility, because, although he could deceive men and be thought to be the Christ and be accepted as the Christ (for of such great grace and of such great excellence was he), nevertheless he openly acknowledged and said, "I am not the Christ." "Are you Elias?" Now, if he said, "I am Elias," then Christ, already coming in the Second Coming, would be judging, [but] would still not be judged in the First. As if saying, "Elias is also going to come," he said, "I am not Elias." But heed the lowly one before whom John came, that you may not perceive the ill affects of the exalted one before whom Elias is to come. For the Lord also finished the statement thus, "John the Baptist is he who is going to come."'^ (3) He came in that prototype in which Elias will come strictly in his own person. Then Elias will be Elias by strict designation, now he was John by likeness. Now John is John by strict designation, but he is Elias by likeness. Both heralds gave their likenesses to each other and yet kept strictly their own persons. But the Lord, the judge, is one whether the one herald precedes or the other.
7. "And they asked him, 'What then? Are you Elias?' And he said, 'No.' And they said to him, 'Are you a prophet?' And he answered, 'No.' They therefore said to him, 'Who are you? That we may give an answer to these who sent us. What do you say of yourself?' He said, 'I am the voice of one crying in the desert.'" Isaiah said that.''^ This prophecy was fulfilled in John: "I am the voice of one crying in the desert." Of one crying what? "Straighten the way of the Lord, make the paths of our God straight."^^ (2) Does it not seem to you to be the herald's task to say, "Move back, make a path"? Except that the herald says, "Move back," John says, "Come." The herald keeps [men] away from the judge; John calls [men] to the judge. Rather, John calls men to a lowly one that he may not be perceived as a judge in his exaltation. "I am the voice of one crying in the desert,
18. Cf. Mt 17.1 1, 13. 19. Cf. Is 40.3.
20. Augustine's version of Isaiah's words in Jn 1.23 is a variant of both Jn 1.23 and Is 40.3.