43. Cf. Mt 3.16; Mk 1.10; Lk 3.21 — 22. (continued)
TRACTATE 5
On John 1.55 s THE LORD WILLED, wc havc arrived at the day of our promise; he will also grant this, that we may be able to i^^^^l arrive at the fulfillment of the promise itself.^ For then, the things that we say, if they are useful for us and for you, are from him; but the things that are from man are lies, as our Lord, Jesus Christ, himself said, "He who speaks a lie speaks from what belongs to himself."^ No one has anything of what belongs to him except lying and sin. But if a man has any truth and justice, it is from that fountam we ought to thirst in this desert, so that we, sprinkled from it with some drops, as it were, and comforted for a while in this sojourn abroad,^ may not fail on the way, but may be able to come to his rest and fullness. Therefore if "he who speaks a lie speaks from what belongs to himself," he who speaks the truth speaks from what belongs to God.
(2) John is truthful, Christ is truth. John is truthful, but every truthful man is truthful from the truth. If, therefore, John is truthful and a man cannot be truthful except from the truth, from whom was he truthful except from him who said, "I am the truth"? ^ Thus neither could the truth speak against the truthful, nor the truthful against the truth. The truth sent
1 . Cf. Tractate 4. 1 6 and also En in Ps 126.13 which was preached the previous day.
2. Cf. Jn 8.44. In Tractate 42.12-13 where this verse is commented upon in its own place Augustine uses a different reading, de propriis, rather than as here, de suo.
3. In hac peregrinatione is the familiar early Christian metaphor that our life in this world is a journey of exile from our real home and our real life with God.