Commentary on the Gospel of John

VI. 38, 39. g|^Q^.i. qI" Equality with Him, that He is constrained in some sort to make what He wills not His Will, and to do not altogether as seems good to Him, but rather what pleases the Father. And do not tell me (says he) dragging the

""" Heaven, and before He was at all clothed with the form of a servant, was subject to the Father, i. e., as His Superior

With dread words, good sir, as you surely deem, and ^""' swift-coursing exceedingly do you overrun us *, yet are they words that go not straight forward but are scared out of the Kings beaten highway; and having left (as the Greek proverb hath it) the carriage-way, you are pressing forward upon precipices and rocks. For vainly do ye maintain against us that the Son obeys the Father, ever speaking as though any of them who deem aright thought that one ought to hold the contrary, and were not rather determined to agree with you herein. For we do not conceive of the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity as ever divided against Itself, or cleft into diverse opinions, or that the Father (may be) or the Son or the Holy Ghost are severed unto what seems good to each individually, but They agree in all things, since of One Godhead, it is clear. One and the Same Will ever existeth, in the Whole Holy Trinity. Away then with a long argument with us hereon, still be the spirit that would wrangle where it least of all should, for since none is indignant thereat, it is superfluous still to press it.

But since ye, accustomed to think and to hold most perverse things, term the Son's agreement with the Will 5 rb ffvn- of the Father ', subjection of necessity, on this matter we fof/fiil'" "^ill discuss with you what is right. For if this state- A^/uao-i ment were put forth by you in simplicity, we too would UaTphs with reason hold our peace, and not too strictly test the agreement oi language. But since we see that it is put forth in deep malice ^, we sliall of necessity oppose you^ Chap. i. trusting in the Power of the Holy Ghost, and not to our e '«^a/cor)- * own words. For not absolutely'', nor simply as His rule oi^^i^^^^_ conduct^, nor yet for every action did the Son affirm that IV, a He did not wholly and entirely hold by His Own Will, but <nv He says that He kept His Father^s Will in one definite act, on account of thy wresting of words (as I conceive) providing as God for our security. But He endured what He would not, and for our sakes made it His Will; I mean His Suffering upon the Cross, since so it was well-pleasing unto His Father, as we have said before. And one may see the proof straightway laid down, and the principle^ evidently ^ uirdflecnv set before us, on which (as Himself says) He left Hia Own Will, and fulfils the Father's. For this (He saith) is the Will of the Father that of all ivhich He hath given Me I should lose nothing hut should raise it up at the last day. And that the Suffering on the Cross was really unwilled Supra alike and willed by the Only Begotten, hath been clearly ass. ' stated before. But we shall state it again hereafter with more accurate proofs, simplifying the truth to our readers. But I will proceed first to the examination of the subjection alleged by you, it being previously laid down and unhesitatingly confessed by you, that the Wills of the Holy Trinity ever coincide into one Will and Purpose. Let those subtle disputers tell us then, whether in the name and fact of subjection the Being of the Son consists, and cf. supra this is His Nature, in the same way for instance as humanity belongs to a man, or whether He, existing before in His Own Proper Mode^, is subject to the Father, as one might i ws iv conceive of an angel for instance, or any other reasonable ' '* "^"^ power. For these things, being and existing, are recipient of the mode of subjection.

If then ye say that the Being of the Son consists in His being subject to the Father, He will be a subjection rather and not a Son. How then (tell me) will ye not be manifest triflers? for how can this subjection be conceived to exist of itself without having its being in any of the things that are? For such things are usually the accidents of the

Book 4. necessarily pre-existing subjects wlierein they are wont to ' * be, and not otherwise: and are viewed as belonging to substances, or befalling them, rather than having any existencein themselves. And as lust for instance, which calls and impels us to any thing, has no existence in itself, but is conceived rather in him who is recipient thereof: so subjection pointing at some sway of the will to the duty of subjection to any, will not be conceived of in its own nature, but will rather be as passion, or will, or desire, in some one of the things that are. Besides the name and fact of sub-

2 oSio/cpf- jection spoken absolutely" will not be conceived of as properly predicated of any one, nor will one know whether it be good or bad, unless it be added to whom the subjection is: for a man is subject to God, but also to the

Jer. iv. devil. And as the name wise is a mean term (for some are 22.......

Pr'ov. iii. wise to flo evU, and again the wise shall inherit glory, having clearly their wisdom in good things), so too subjection is a kind of mean term, and not a truth defi- 3&pt(Tij.4- nitely expressed^, for it is quite uncertain to whom the •"** subjection is. Hence also, the Nature of the Son is left in uncertainty, if It be conceived of as (according to you) a subjection. For a subjection to what, if no one were brought forward, one could not say without falsehood. But that the subjection will not exist of itself, in its own mode of being, we bringing forward some grosser and more obvious reasoning in regard to things already made, shall * (TvWo- see: and do thou accept a demonstration "^ besides. For if we grant that the being of a man (for example) consists in his being subject, we shall consider that his not existing consists in his not being subject. How then was it said by the Psalmist to some one, as being indeed and existing, Ps. but not yet subjected. Submit thee to the Lord, and enzTxx. treat Him? Seest thou then how utterly foolish it is to suppose that subjection has any existence in itself? One must then of necessity confess that the Son was and existed previously in His Own Nature, and so say that He was subject to the Father. What then (tell me) is there to constrain that He Who is of the Essence of His Father, tlie Exact Impress of His Nature, slaould fall from His Chap. i. Equality witli Him, on account of His being obedient? • ' • For WE who think and speak rightly, know that He is consubstantial with the Father, and give Him Equal Honour in all respects, and consider that in nought does He come short of God-befitting Divinity: but do thou see in what manner thou canst thrust away from Equal honour with the Father on account of the alleged subjection Him who enjoys equal goods by reason of Identity of Essence.

But this very thing (says he) will make for^ our side of ^^'r°7««'»'«- the argument, namely that the Son is obedient to the Father, and doth not overmuch consider His Own Will, but yields rather to that of the Father, as above Him and greater than He.

But this very thing according to your own word sir, which you think will aid your argument, you will find to be nothing but the fruit of your own unlearning. For if we were disputing, which was superior in dignity, and had the greater glory, your ever-repeated argument^ would ® rhepveven then scarce seem to have any seasonable ground. But since the mode of consuhstantiality is being examined into, how shall ye not be caught in no slight folly attributing to God the Father superiority therein over His own ofispring? For the terms ' greater' or ' less' or the like, we do not allow to be strictly essences (as we said of subjection) but they are something external, and qualities of essences. For that which already pre-existed and is, will be recipient (it may be) of ' greater ' or ' less ' by comparison with another thing: but if there is nought before it or pre-existent, in respect to which such things would happen, how will they exist by themselves, albeit conceived of and defined under the class of accidents? Hence in telling us of greater or less ye do not touch the Essence of the Only- Begotten, nor yet That of the Father, but only with external excellences or short-comings, embellish (as ye suppose) the Father and revile the Son, although ye hear Him openly crying aloud, He that honouretli not the Son neither 2^^^^'^' doth he honour the Father, and that all men ought to honour

7ei'seK(j)t;- wliicli can no way be severed into foreign alieniety ''', but ^Z&^°a ^ave one and the same essence must be endowed with equal glory, Christ most excellently teaches in that He accept- Supra V. eth not to receive testimony to Himself /row 'tnen, as Himself said, but came forward as Himself unto Himself a witness credible and more worthy than all that are. And He being by Nature Truth will surely say true, as one may prove from the very quality of things. For you will probably grant that the ^greater' or Mess' belong not to the very essence of ought but to the things in respect of their essence. For instance, a man will not be greater or less than another man, in respect of his being conceived of and called a man: for neither is man less than man qua man, 8o)-,mode, neither is he greater than man, qua man: for the count ^ of ^°^ nature is seen to be equal in all. And the same method of reasoning will hold, of angels too, or any thing else that is made and enrolled among creation. Therefore such things are found to be utterly without place in regard to the essences themselves, but are the accidents of the essences, or of what belongs to the essences, as we have delivered above. How then will the Father be greater than the Son, God by Nature than God by Nature? For the Son having been begotten of Him, will surely compel you, even against your own will, to grant Him Consubstantiality with Him.

It having* been premised then, and unhesitatingly admitted that the Son is by Nature God, let us consider if you please, whether by paying Him equal Honour with Him of Whom He is, we shall confer honour upon the Begetter, or shall do the reverse, by insulting -with less and inferior honour the Begotten, as is really and more truly the case. For it is the glory of the Father to have begotten one, such as Himself is by Nature. But the exact contrary will befall (for it is not meet to utter it), if the 9ev<i>v'iai> Son retain not the natural condition^ befitting Him, having inferiority either in glory or in ought else that should belong to Him, in order to be through all things manifested nor be found guilty of ignorantly finding fault, where there is least occasion for it. For it were meet (I suppose) to admire Him for this too that He honours and loves His

Father: for every species of virtue has, as its source and root, the Essence that is above all; in It first good things have their rise, and flow down to us, who are made after Its

Image. Wherefore us too the Lawgiver bade to honour, as was due, father and mother, yea and annexed the most noble rewards thereto (for he knew, I suppose, that it was a thing most great, and so far removed from all reproach, as to be even the giver of long-enduring life). As then

WB by being subject to and obeying our parents, are not rendered other in nature than they, but being as they are men of men, and having and keeping the definition of manhood perfect, we practise obedience as an excellent virtue; so conceive in respect of the Father and the Son,

Exact Impress of the Essence of His Father, thinketh nought else than He too thinketh. Whose both counsel and

Word He is; and will wholly will the same as the Father, compelled by the same laws (so to say) of consubstautiality, to co-will all good things together with the Father.

Will, hut the Will of Him that sent Me. For what we said at the beginning, this we will say again. Christ said this of a definite and plain matter. For He saith these words. Supra.... p 384.

Nature had so counselled, but willed it not by reason of the Sufferings on the Cross, and as far as pertained to the flesh which deprecates death. And we have already expended many words: but it is convenient that we should see from the very nature of things that the suffering on the Cross was unwilled by Christ, in that He was Man. We say then that it was a Avork of Jewish folly, that Christ should be crucified at all, and this was immediately to hap-

' ' unto by means of what they had already done both to the holy Prophets^ and the saints who were at that time. But since no otherwise was it possible to raise again unto life that which had fallen into death, unless the Only Begotten

Word of God became Man, and it was wholly needful that made Man, He -should suffer; He made what He willed not.

*"'"' *" I mean His Death in the Flesh; — this He made a way of salvation to us and a door of life, and the deviFs hopes were overturned, and he learned at last by experience, that hard is it for him to fight against God. The Divine

Psalmist too seems to agree with what I have said of these things, and to hint at something of this sort, when he

Ps. X. savs, as of Christ and the devil, in his net shall he humhle 9 10....

LXX. him. For the devil laid death as a net for Christ, but m his own net itself has he been humbled. For in the Death of Christ was death undone, and the tyrant who thought not to fall was brought to nought. And it were not hard to add much more to these things: but what is before us, that will we say. If the Death of Christ were not really and truly the work of Jewish wills, and the fruit of their unholy daring, but the Divine Judgment were (as some deem) the sole leading spring thereto: how needed it not that that which was determined upon should of necessity be accomplished and surely by the hands of men, and not otherwise? How then (tell me) would they who subserved the irrevocable decrees of God be yet justly punished? and how would that miserable man, through S Matth "^lio™ Christ was betrayed, have been in better case, if xxvi. 24. /jg j^dj^ not been born? For if the Passion be conceived of as willed by the Saviour, and not unwilled in any other sense, what penalty would he reasonably pay, who was set forth minister of his Lord's Will, and of things which should surely come to pass? will it not be evi-

Jeivs' wickedness. Will of Father and Son not two. 393 dent to all, tliat tlie things wMcli seem sfood unto the ^"^I-}-

Divine and Ineffable Nature, must surely come to pass, and be done by some? From these things and many more one may see that since the Son of Man hath come down from Heaven to undergo death for all men, willing alike was He and unwilling, in order that He might raise wp all at the last day, since so it pleased the Father Himself for the good of all: but He will not on these accounts that He be conceived of, as by any means of a different nature or in ought inferior to Him who begat Him.

I suppose then that our opponent will at length blush, and not gainsay our words on this point: but if he again oppose and have settled that it is fit to wrangle yet more, I say thus. If the Son hath come down from heaven not to fulfil His Own Will, as Himself says, hut the Will of the

Father; and our words on the just concluded consideration thereof, haply please thee not: must not one say that Their

Wills are in opposition, and that Their Counsel is divided contrarily? But this is clear to all. For if there were no hindrance, the Will in Both would be perforce wholly One: but if He put forward ^ His Will as it were diverse from the "^apeAau-

Let us see then wherein is the Will of the Father; for so erepau shall we discern the other also, whereto it tends. The Will of the Father then, as the Saviour Himself hath said, is that of all which He hath given Him He should lose nothing hut should raise it up at the last Bay. And that it is good and loving none will gainsay: but transferring our considerations to the opposing will of the Son, we shall find it neither loving nor good at all, but savouring of what is wholly contrary to the Father, and willing neither to save us, nor yet to raise us up from death. How then is He yet the Good Shepherd, how gave He us a token of the Loving-kindness that is in Him, in giving His Life for us? For if He hath come down from heaven to accomplish this of voluntary Purpose, how doth He fulfil not His

Book 4 Own Will in not destroying that whicli is brought to Him, ■ but in raising it up at the last Day? But if this was not His Wilb but He subserves rather the Will of the Father, both in raising up and saving, i. e., those who were lost and overmastered of death, hoAv shall we not be true in asserting that the Son is neither Good nor in any way Loving to man? Let the Christ-opposer then have done:

* 7rpo/3Ai;- his doubt ^ being convicted on all sides of blasphemy, and ^"^"^ let him not bay at us concerning these things with his

40 For this is the Will of My Father, that every one ivhich seeth the Son and belieiwth on Him have everlasting life; and I tvill raise him up at the last Day.

Having now defined the good Will of the Father, He makes it clear, and sets it forth more at large for the consideration of the hearers, through repeating it yet again. For what the mode of bringing is, and what any gain from being brought. He clearly explains. The Father then giveth to the Son Who hath Power to quicken them, things lacking life. He giveth thus, through knowledge inserting in each one, the true apprehension of the Son, and power to understand purely that He is God of Very God the Father, that he thus minded, and adorned with contemplations

* yipai hereto belonging, may be brought to the reward ^ of faith, that is a lasting and endless life in bliss. The Father then bringeth to the Son by knowledge and God-befitting Contemplation, those to whom He decreed the Divine grace. The Son receiveth and quickeneth them, and engrafting His Own Good into them who are of their own nature apt to decay, and shedding upon them as a spark of fire the life-giving Power of the Spirit, re-formeth them whole 6 g\ouj wholly^ unto immortality. But when thou hearest, that the Father brings them, and that the Son gives the power of living anew to them that run to Him, do not go off" into absurd fancies, as though Each were supposed to do Individully and severally what belongs by fitness of Nature unto Each, but rather understand that the Father is Co-worker

with the Son, and likewise the Son with the Father, and Chap. l. that our salvation and recovery from death to life is the Work (so to say) of the Whole Holy Trinity. And know that the Father is sufficient unto all might and need, and likewise the Son, and the Holy Ghost: but through the Whole Holy Trinity come the good things to usward, and God the Father is found all things in all Entirely through the Son in the Spirit.

We must nevertheless observe this also, that great is found to be the value of belief in the Son. For it hath life as its reward'''. But if God the Father is known in Him '' 7f'p«s Who is Son by Nature, who will endure any longer them who exclude Him from the Essence of the Father, and have a mouth unbarred ^ to blasphemy against Him? For ® airv\(o- whei"ein He says He can raise again to life that which has fallen into death, in these same words, without any distinction intervening, He mounts up to Identity of Nature with the Father. For quickening is a work proper to life, and since the Father is by Nature Life, Life surely will He too be conceived Who is of Him by Nature, i. e., the Only- Begotten.

41 The Jews then begmi murtmiring at Him, because He said, I am the Bread which came down from heaven,

Again are they angry who of those things which are spoken by Christ understand no whit: and herein may be especially seen the uninstructed mind. For not being able to grasp the ideas, whereby they might (it is like) be trans-made unto the better, they end in unseasonable littleness of soul. For shall not we find what has been said true in respect of the Jews themselves? for why are they angry? what reason called them thereto? why do they murtnur? Albeit they ought rather to have applied a more diligent mind to what was said, and from the very deeds wrought to have considered the truth, and by the miraculousness of what had been accomplished, to have come to most tried ^ knowledge, whether Christ would lie, » ^oKLfxciin calling Himself jDveftc?, and Bread Which had come doum'^'^^^^ unto the discovery of what was profitable for them: but without any enquiry they are angry, although, in what had already passed, Christ had shewn Himself the true and Very Bread of Life, contrasting Himself with the manna, which was given typically and in shadow, to their fathers Supra in the wilderness. For he that cometh to Me (He says) ver. 3o. g]^fxll never hunger: whereas they who eat of that manna, obtained some little and easily-lost fleshly enjoyment; but

2 Tfyy 61— they who come to Him by faith will not attain unto an the Gift enjoyment like theirs, but will rather have a harvest of Holy^Eu- ^^^ lasting grace of the blessing ^.

chanst ipj^g mind of the Jews therefore stumbles, looking only to earthly things: and this it was that was sung of them, Ps. Ixix. Let their eyes he darhened that they may not see, and hoiv as in' ' ' down their bach alway, that they never turning them to the Rom. XI. jjnowledge of the Divine Mysteries, may evil evilly perish on account of their own folly, and their most unbridled unbelief. And we calling to mind what is in the writings of Moses, shall find, that murmuring against the most excellent and good was inherent in the Jews as a sort of patrimony: but bitter its end, did experience shew both of old in the case of those and now no less with these. For those did murmur in the wilderness, and make unthankful 1 Cor. outcry against God, but ivere destroyed of serpents, as the wise Paul too testified: and these murmur against Christ, and insult their Lawgiver and Redeemer by their so pro- Amos ix. longed unbelief, but command shall be given t(3" tlie serptent, and he shall bite them, as it is written: and they shall be set as a banquet before the all-devouring beast: for ever doth unbelief of necessity terminate in an allgrievous end.

42 and said, Is not this Jesus the Son of Joseph, Jlliose father and mother we knou'? how is it then that He saith, I have come down from heaven?

O deep unlearning, and understanding darkened with Is. vi. 10 unmixed strong drink: the heart of this people is lua.vcn fat, as it is written. For indeed they perceive not a whit of Chap. i. those things which they ought clearly to understand^ and ^' ^'' * both think and speak things worthy of laughter. For they ought rather, exercising themselves in the writing of the all-wise Moses, and delighting themselves in the preachings of the holy Prophets to have considered, that not without flesh or bodily array was Christ expected to come to us, but in human form was it foretold that He would appear and that He should be found in this common garb of all. Therefore does the Prophet's voice tell us that the holy Virgin shall conceive, and hear a Son: and the Loi'd lb. vii. is found to have sworn in truth unto blessed David, which Ps'. He promised He would no wise turn from, that of the fruit J^^^"* of his body would He set upon His throne, as it is written: it was foretold too that there should come forth a rod out of is. xi. i. the root of Jesse. But they rushing into so great unreason ^, perceive it not, supposing that since they knew the 3 i.\oyiav mother after the flesh of Him Who was foreannounced to come with Flesh, they ought therefore utterly to disbelieve that He had come doivn from heaven. For even though we do not find that this took place in regard of the Body, yet the Divine Word dwelt in His Body from the Virgin, as in His Own Temple, having come from above from the Father unto us, and for the salvation of all laid hold on the seed of Abraham that in all thinqs He Heb. ii.

might be made like unto His brethren, and might call the nature of man unto sonship with God, being declared alike God and Man. But the Jews not understanding the economy with Flesh of our Saviour Christ, from knowing His mother and father, though he was not His father, are not ashamed of being annoyed, because Christ said He came down from heaven.

In this too ariseth to us an example of no small profit: for hence we learn in respect to ourselves, that it will do us much harm, if we do not rather with the spiritual eyes of the heart consider the virtue that dwells in the saints, and look on the glory that is hidden in them, but on account of the frequent meanness of bodily appearance hold

Book 4. of uo value wliat is great before God and precious. Thus God says of the Saints in the prophets, speaking of all in Jer. xvii. the person of one. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LXX. LoED, and the LoED shall be his hope and he shall be as a tree vigorous by the ivater-side, and shall throw forth his root in moist ground, in the year of drought he shall not be afraid and shall not cease from yielding fruit. Deep is the heart above all things, and there is a man and who shall hiow him? I the Lord TF7io search the heart, who try the reins. When then we in our arrogance depreciate him that is known of God, and admirable for the above-mentioned virtues, looking only to the outward-shewing and perishable flesh, and making meanness of body an excuse A (TfiiKpo. ^ov littleness of soul'^ towards him, how shall we not be «f"'X^as found to be contrary- minded to the King of all, and so incur no slight doom, sometimes calling what is high low. Is. V. 20. Sind putting light for darhiess, and sweet for bitter?

We must therefore keep to the saints the honour befitting them, and must look at them rather through their inward hidden glory, than what they are in the flesh. Yet most of us cannot bear to think that which is low in the world worthy at all of honour or of any glory, even though he be renowned in virtue, but looking only to the aggrandisement of riches, and beholding the perishable and even now dying glory with no righteous eyes, make no account of right judgment. Such with great reason does S. James the disciple of the Saviour laugh to scorn, saying. Ye hypocrites, if there come unto your assembly a man luith a gold ring in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment, then ye tell (he saith) the rich lb. 3, 4. man to sit in an honourable place, and the poor. Stand thou there or sit under my footstool, are ye not partial in yourselves? Albeit it is meet hence to observe, to how reasonable a charge they become obnoxious who admire a man for external surroundings, and not for internal goods. For riches and the glory of riches, bring in (I suppose) some foreign and factitious glory to- their possessors; but the glory in the heart, and the renown of good works.

will be a geunine and native riches to the holders, not Chap. i. abiding- with the flesh and decaying with it, but dwelling ^'" ' " with the soul while yet abiding in this life, and removing with it on its departure, whithersoever the Ruler of all shall appoint. For many the inansions with the Father, Infra

We must not then honour altogether or of necessity him that is renowned for wealth, and gilt over with the petty glories of earth as in a picture, but rather them to whom the splendour of their deeds begets unfading renown from God, and their inward beauty flashes on them glorified with every form of good things.

44 selves; no man can come to Me, except the Father Which sent Me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last Day.

The Jews look down upon Jesus, ignorant that His Father is in heaven, and in nowise acknowledging that He is by Nature Son of the Lord of all, but looking only to His earthly mother and Joseph. Wherefore He replies more warmly to them, and immediately to their profit hastens back to His very God-befitting Dignity, and whereby He knows as God both their secret murmuring and that which has gone up into their mind, through these very things He gives them to understand that they have fallen from the truth, and formed an exceeding mean conception of Him. For how was it not rathel* their duty to crown with now God-befitting Honour, Him Who throughly knows the hearts, and tries the motions that are in the mind, and is ignorant of no device that is in their souls, and to exalt Him as far above the littleness ^ of man, as God is higher ^ <rf^n<pothan the earth? He unveiling therefore the thought buried in yet unuttered blame, and making manifest the secretly whispered murmuring in them, for the reason already specified, says. Murmur not among yourselves: then shewing that the Mystery concerning Himself was a God-taught good in men, and the knowledge of Him a work of the grace from above. He says that they cannot attain unto

Book 4. Him, save drawn by the teaching of the Father. But this is the plan of one whose only aim is to persuade them to consider, that they ought, weeping and sorrowing for those things wherein they had already grieved Him, to seek to be made free, and to be drawn unto salvation through faith in Him, through the Counsel of the Father, and the aid from above which lighteneth to them the way and maketh it smooth, which when they sinned, had become exceedingly rugged. Profitably did He confirm the promise that He would raise from the dead him that believeth, and hereby again proves to the senseless ones that He is God by Nature and Yery. For that which has the power of quickening, and of compelling to return to life him that is overmastered by death, will rightly appertain to the Nature of God only, and be ascribed to no one of things originate. For quickening is a property of the Living, and not of him who receives that grace from another.

45 It is written in the Prophets, And they shall he all taught of

Perceiving as God the folly existing in His hearers. He leaves not this His Word without witness, but shews already that He was of old fore-announced and fore-proclaimed by the holy Prophets, both taking away aforehand occasion from those who imagined that they ought to gainsay Him, and at the same time laying bare no less the unlearning that was in them, in that they were" unable to see this, albeit instructed by the law unto the understanding of things to come. He persuades them therefore to consent even against their wills: for it was not likely that they would withstand the voices of the holy Prophets, that God the Father fvrixf]- would instil^ the Mystery of Himself in those who were worthy, and would reveal His Own Son, ineffably speaking to each, and in God-befitting way implanting understanding thereof.

Supra But having said above. No man can come to Me, except the Father Which sent Me draw him, He shews that it is not a compulsory nor forcible drawing, adding.

For where there is hearing and learning and the benefit of instruction, there is faith, to wit by persuasion and not of necessity: and the knowledge of Christ is given by the Father to them that are worthy, helpful as of love, rather than constraining. For the word of doctrine requires that free-will and free choice be preserved to the soul of man, in order that it may ask the just rewards of its good deeds, and if it have fallen from right, and from heedlessness have transgressed the Will of the Lawgiver, it may receive the doom of its transgression and that most reasonable.

But we must know that even though the Father be said to instruct any in the Mystery of Christ, yet He will not work alone to this end, but will rather effect it through His Wisdom, i. e., the Son. For it is convenient to consider, that not without Wisdom will the revelation to their understanding be given to any from the Father. But the Son is the Wisdom of the Father. By means of Wisdom therefore will the Father effect the revelation of His Own Offspring in them that are worthy. And in fact to speak the whole truth, and nothing else, one would not do wrong in saying that all the operations of God the Father toward any, or His Will toward them, are those of the Whole Holy Trinity, similarly also are those of the Son Himself, and those of the Holy Ghost. For this reason, as I suppose, when God the Father is said to reveal His Own Son, and to call to Him those who are more apt to believe, the Son Himself is found doing this, and no less the Holy Ghost. For the Saviour says to the blessed Peter, who had most courageously made confession of faith in Him, Blessed art thou, S, Matth. Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood revealed it not unto thee, hut My Father Which is in heaven. But in other instances He Himself is seen, doing this. And full well doth Paul boast as to himself, crying out concerning the Mystery of Christ, For I neither received it of men, neither ivas 7 Gal. i. 12. taught hut by the revelation of Jesus Christ. And you will see that the Holy Ghost no less reveals Christ to us. And VOL. I. D d

Book 4, vei'ily the most wise John writes, And ye, the anointing i^sJjohn iMch ye received of Him ahideth in you, and ye need not that "• '^^' any man teach you, hut as the same anointing teacheth yon of all tilings: and the Saviour Himself saith of the Paraclete, Infra that is, the Spirit, I liave yet many things to say unto you, 11.' "" l>id ye cannot hear them now: hut, when He, the 8]}irit of truth is come, He ivill guide you in all truth; for He shall not speah of Himself, hut whatsoever He shall hear, He shall speak: and He ivill declare you, things to come. He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine and shall tell it unto you; for being the Spirit of Truth, He will enlighten them in whom He is, and will lead them unto the apprehension of the truth. And this we say, not as severing into diversity and making wholly separate, either the Father from the Son, or the Son from the Father, nor yet the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son, but since One Godhead truly IS, and is thus preached as viewed in the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity, the Acts belonging to Each, and which seem to be attributed to Them severally, are defined to be the Will and Operation of the Whole Godhead. For the Divine and Unsevered Nature will work through Itself, in no divided way, so far as pertains to the one count of TtIv eva Godhead''', although Each hath Personal Existence: for the rriTos\6- Father is What He is, and the Son likewise, and the Holy ''""' Ghost. We must besides note this also: that things which point to ought by names, are recognised in either, and one may see the one pointed out in the other. Therefore needs is there that the Sou be revealed through the Father, through the Son again the Father. For Each is surely introduced with the Other, and if any know that God is by Nature Father, he will full surely conceive of the Son That is begotten of Him; and just so the reverse. For he who •confesses the Sou will not deny the Father.

Therefore in that God is Father, and is so conceived of and proclaimed. He implants the knowledge of His Own

Son in His hearers: in that the Son is said to be, and is in truth, of Him by Nature, He proclaims the Father: there- says that the Father's Name has been made manifest. But God the Father will be conceived of as having implanted in us the knowledge of His Own Offspring not by a voice breaking forth from above, and resounding round the earth like thunder, but by the Divine Illumination shining forth as it were in us, to the understanding of the Divinelyinspired Scripture: but unto this again you will find the Son a co-Worker in us; for it is written of the holy Disciples, Theji opened He their eyes, to the understanding, s. Luke that is, the holy Scriptures. '"''^' ^^'

46 Not that any man hath seen the Father, save He which is of God, He hath seen the Father.

Having foreseen as God, that they would no wise receive the revelation through the Spirit, nor would take in the Wisdom from above in its illuminations, but would reject out of much ill-advisedness the very duty of seeing the Father and (so to say) of beins; instructed by very Vision ^ ^ ''' <*"- of God, which as they supposed was once the case with their o-anrou fathers, when the glory of God came down upon the mount Sinai: He first draws them back, and turns them as with a bridle to the duty of not having a gross conception of God, and of not supposing that the Invisible Nature will ever be visible: for no one (saith He) hath seen the Father- at any time. But probably He was hinting at the hierophant Moses: for the Jews, in this also thinking very foolishly, supposed on account of his entering the thick darkness, that he Exod. saw the Ineffable Nature of God, and beheld with the bodily ^^' eyes, that which is by Nature the Untaint Beauty. But lest by saying anything more openly respecting the allwise Moses, He should seem to be urging them to their wonted state of mind. He says indefinitely of all alike, and • as of him. Not that any man hath seen the Father. Do not (says He) demand what is above nature, nor be ye borne in senseless course to that which is unattainable by all things that are made. For the Divine and Incomprehensible Nature hath retired and is withdrawn not from our

Book 4. eyes Only, but also from those of the whole creation: for in the word No one, He comprehendeth all things, and in declaring that He Alone is of God, and hath seen the Father, He putteth Himself outside of all, whereof the ' no one' may be understood declarative. But since He is apart from all, and while none hath seen the Father, He Alone misseth not the seeing Him, how shall He not henceforth be conceived of, not among all, as one of them, but external to all, as above all? And if, whereas all things are 1 Cor. xi. said to be of God, and none seeth the Father (for all things i^m.y.iQ.are of God, as Paul saith). He Alone seeth the Father because He is of God: deeming aright we shall understand the words Of God, to be of the Essence of the Father, in respect of Him Alone. For if it be not so, why, as we said before, since all things are said to be of God, doth He Alone attain unto the Sight of Him That begat Him because He is of God? Wherefore it will be less accurately said of created things (for all things are of God by creation in that they are brought into being by Him): but of the Son, in another and truer sense will His being of God, be demonstrated, as being of Him by Nature. Wherefore He, not numbered among the all, but being external to all, and above all with the Father, will not share the infirmity of all, in that He is excepted from affinity with them, but mounting up unto the Nature of Him that begat Him, will surely see Him from Whom He is.

But how or in what manner, either He beholds the Father, or is seen of the Father, it pertains not to our tongue to say: we must nevertheless conceive of it in a God-befitting manner.

47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that helieveth on Me hath everlasting life.

Faith therefore is the door and way unto life, and return from corruption unto incorruption. But herein no less is the economy a marvel to the learners: for when He perceived that they understood nothing at all, and saw that they did not suppose they ought to give any credence even to the words of the Prophets, He cuts off, as far as possible.

their weakness unto faith by human arguments, by an ^"^''•^• oath to its truth. For setting before them which believe much to be envied prizes, with their longing desire for these as with traces. He all but constrains them against their will, and persuades them to come to what is proclaimed to them. For what would be more precious than eternal life, to them to whom death and the sufferings from decay are bitter? And this too will beseem a wise teacher, to re-instruct unto the better, by every way (I say) that invites unto life, them who have chosen to think foolishly. But He, being Eternal Life, promises to give Himself to them that believe: that is, that Christ may dwell in our Eph. iii. hearts by faith.

That the Holy Bodj- of Christ is Ijifegiving, wlierein He speaks of His Own Body as of Bread.

48 49 I am the Dread of life. Your fathers ate the inannu in 50 the tvilderness, and died: This is the Bread JJ'liich came doivn from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die.

Full clearly may one herein behold that which was spoken Isa. Ixv. afore by the Prophet Isaiah, I was inade manifest to them ' "' tkat seek Me not, I was foimd of them that asked not for Me, I said, Behold Me, unto a nation that was not called by My Name: all the day spread I out My Hands unto a rebellious ' \($7]pi- and gainsaying jpeople. Yov, removing the whole case ^ "' ^°^ from His speech, and having taken away (so to say) all that cloaked it. He at length reveals Himself unveiled to them of Israel, saying, I am the Bread of life, that they may now learn that if they would be superior to corruption, and would put off the death which from the transgression fell upon us, they must needs approach to the participation of Him who is mighty to quicken, and destroyeth corruption, and bringeth to nought death: for this verily is a work proper and most fit for that which is by Nature Life. But since they, affirming that the manna was given to their fathers in the wilderness, received not the Bread which of a truth came down from heaven, that is, the Son, He maketh a necessary comparison between the type and the truth, that so they might know that not that is the Bread which is from heaven, but He Whom the trial shews to be so by Nature. For your fathers (saith He) and ancestors by eating the manna, gave to the bodily nature its need, gaining thereby life for a season, and imparting to the flesh its daily sustenance therefrom, with difficulty effected that it should not die at once. But it will be (He says) the clearest

proof of its not being the Bread v/Lich is from lieavcu in Chap. 2. a truer sense, that they who partook were no way bene- '" "^ • fited thereby unto incorruption: a token again in Hke way that the Son is properly and truly the Bread of Life, that they who have once partaken, and been in some way immingled with Him through the communion with Him have been shewn superior to the very bonds of death. For that the manna again is taken rather as an image or shadow of Christ, and was typifying the Bread of Life, but was not itself tlie Bread of Life, has been often said by us: and the Psalmist supporteth us, crying out in the Spirit, He Ps.

gave them bread of Heaven, man did eat angels' bread. 24, 25.' For it seems to have been said to them of Israel by the Spirit-clad, but in truth it is not so, but to us rather is the aim of the words directed. For is it not foolish and utterly senseless to suppose that the holy angels which are in heaven, albeit they have an incorporeal nature, should partake grosser food, and need such aid in order to prevail unto life, as this body of earth desires? But I think it nothing hard to conceive, that, since they are spirits, they should need like food, spiritual (I mean) and of wisdom. How then is angels' bread said to have been given to the ancestors of the Jews, if the Prophet speaks truly in so crying? But it is manifest, that since the typical manna was an image of Christ, Which containeth and upholdeth all things in being, nourishing the angels and quickening the things on earth, the Prophet was calling that which is signified by shadows by the name of the truth, — from the fact that the holy angels could not partake of the more earthly food, drawing off his hearers even against their will from any gross conception as to the manna, and bringing them up to the spiritual meaning, that of Christ, Who is the Food of the holy Angels themselves also.

They then who ate the manna (He says) are dead, not having received any participation of life therefrom (for it was not truly lifegiving, but rather taken as an aid against carnal hunger and in type of the true); but they who receive in themselves the Bread of Life, will have immor-

Book 4. tality as tlieir pi'ize, wholly setting at nought corruption ' and its consequent evils, and will mount up unto boundless and unending length of Life in Christ. Nor will it at all damage our words on this subject that they who have been made partakers of Christ, need to taste bodily death on account of what is due to nature; for even though they falling into this end undergo the lot of humanity, yet, as

51 I am the Living Bread Which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever.

Phil. iii. To say the same things unto you, to me indeed is not grievous, hut for you it is safe, writes the Divine Paul to certain, in this too (I suppose) instructed by these very words of the Saviour. For as those who are diseased with wounds, need not the application of a single plaister, but manifold tending, and that not once applied, but by its continuance of application expelling the pain: so (I ween) for the soul most rugged, and withered mind, should many aids of teaching be contrived and come one after the other: for one will avail to soften it not by one and the first leading, but through its successive coming to it, even if it come in the same words. Oftentimes then does the Saviour bringing round the same manner of speech to the Jews set it before them manifoldly, sometimes darkly, and clad in much obscurity, at other times freed delivered and let loose from all double meaning, that they still disbelieving, cf. S. might lack nothing yet unto their condemnation, but being xxi. 41. 6vil evilly might be destroyed, themselves against their own soul thrusting the sword of perdition.

Christ therefore no longer concealing anything says, I am the Living Bread Wliich came down from heaven. That was (He says) a type and a shadow and an image. Hear Him now openly and no more veiled, I a7n the Living Bread, if any man eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever. They who ate of that died, for it was not lifegiving: he that eateth of This Bread, that is Me, or My Flesh, shall live for ever. We must then beware of and reject alike hardening ourselves to the words of piety, since Christ not once only.

but oftentimes persuadeth us. For tliere is no doubt, that Chap. 2. they will full surely be open to the severest charges, who turn aside to the uttermost folly, and through boundless unbelief, refuse not to rage against the Author of the most excellent things. Therefore says He of the Jews, If I had Infra xv. not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloke for their sin. For they who have never by hearing received the word of salvation into their heart, will haply find the Judge milder, while they plead that they heard not at all, even though they shall specially give account for not having sought to learn: but they who often instructed by the same admonitions and words to the seeking after what is profitable, senselessly imagine that they ought to deprive themselves of the most excellent good things, shall undergo most bitter punishment, and shall meet with an ofiended judge, not able to find an excuse for their folly which may shame Him.

Atid the Bread which I tmll give is My Flesh for the life of the world.

I die (He says) for all, that I may quicken all by Myself, and I made My Flesh a Ransom for the flesh of all. For death shall die in My Death, and with Me shall rise again (He says) the fallen nature of man. For for this became I like to you, Man (that is) and of the seed of Abraham, that I might be made like in all things unto My brethren, ^^h. ii. The blessed Paul himself also, well understanding what ^'^' Christ just now said to us says. Forasmuch then as the ib. 14. children have partaken of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same, that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. For no otherwise was it possible that he that hath the power of death should be destroyed, and death itself also, had not Christ given Himself for us, a Ransom, One for all, for He was in behalf of all. Wherefore He says in the Psalms too, oflFering Himself as a spotless Sacrifice to God the Father, Sacrifice and offering Thou woiddest not, but a Body Ps. xl. preparedst Thou Me. In tvhole burnt-offerings and offerings lxx. for sin Thou tookedst no pleasure: then said I, Lo I come (in

Book 4. the chapter of the hooTc it is lorittcn of Me) to do Tliy ivill, 0 Heb. ix.* God, was My choice. For since the blood of Indls and of goats ^^' and the ashes of an heifer sufficed not unto the purging away of sin, nor yet would the slaughter of brute beasts ever have destroyed the power of death, Christ Himself came in Isa.liii.5. in some way to undergo punishment for all. For ivith His }. ^- P^t- sti-ipes WE ivere healed, as saith the Prophet, and His Own Self bare our sins in His Own Body on the tree; and He 2 Cor. V. "^^s crucified for all and on account of all, that if One died ^^- for all, all we might live in Him. For it was not possible

Actsii. that He should be holden by death, neither could corruption over-master that A^liich is by Nature Life. But that Christ gave His Own Flesh for the Life of the world, we shall know Infra by His words also, for He saith. Holy Father keep the7n; and ib. ia. again. For their sahes I sanctify Myself He here says that He sanctifies Himself, not aiding Himself unto sanctification for the purification of the soul or spirit (as it is understood of us), nor yet for the participation of the Holy Ghost, for the Spirit was in Him by Nature, and He was and is Holy always, and will be so ever. He here says, I sanctify Myself, for, I offer Myself and present Myself as a spotless Sacrifice for an odour of a sweet smell. For that which is brought to the Divine Altar was sanctified, or called holy according to the law.

Christ therefore gave His Own Body for the life of all, and again through It He maketh Life to dwell in us; and how, I will say as I am able. For since the life-giving Word of God indwelt in the Flesh, He transformed it into His Own proper good, that is life, and by the unspeakable character of this union, coming wholly together with It, rendered It life-giving, as Himself is by Nature. Wherefore the Body of Christ giveth life to all who partake of It. For it expels death, when It cometh to be in dpng men, and removeth corruption, full in Itself perfectly of the Word which abolisheth corruption.

But a man will haply say, fixing the eye of his understanding upon the resurrection of them that have slept: They who received not the faith in Christ, and were not partakers of Him, will not live again at the time of tlie Chap. 2. resurrection. What? shall not every created thing that has fallen into death return again to life?

To these things we say, Yes, all flesh shall live again: for Prophecy foretells that the dead shall be raised. For Isa. xxvi. we consider that the Mystery through the resurrection of Christ extendeth over the whole nature of man, and in Him first we believe that our whole nature has been released from corruption. For all shall rise, after the likeness of Him That was raised for our sakes, and hath all in Himself, in that He is Man. And as in the first-formed we fell down into death, so in the First-born again, who was so for our sakes, all shall rise again from the dead: but they that Supra v. did good, unto the resurrection of life (as it is written), and they that \vr ought evil, unto the resurrection of doom. And I will grant, that in no passing degree bitterer than death is the resurrection unto punishment, and the receiving life again unto disgrace alone. In the stricter sense then we must understand the Life that is really so, the life in Christ, in holiness and bliss and unfailing delight. For that this is truly life the wise John too knows, saying, He Supra Hi. that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that helieveth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God shall abide on him. For lo, lo, he says that he which is in unbelief shall not see life: although every creature looks to return again to life, and to rise again. It is then manifest, that the Saviour with reason called that the life which is prepared for the Saints, I mean that in glory and in holiness, which that we ought to pursue after by coming to the participation of the Life-giving Flesh, no rightminded person will doubt.

But since the Saviour called Himself Bread in many of the passages that have already been before us, let us see whether He would not hereby too bring to our mind any one of the things fore-announced and is reminding us of the things in Holy Writ, wherein He was long ago signified under the form of bread. It is written then in Num- Num. bers, And the Lord sjyaho unto Moses, saying, Speah unto fi."

Book 4. tlie children of Israel, and thou shalt say unto them, Wlien ye come into the land tvhither I bring you, then it shall he, that when ye eat of the bread of the land, ye shall offer up

2 a.(p6pi- (j,j, heave-offering a separation'^ unto the Lord: a cake the first fruit of your dough shall ye offer for an heave-offering: as an heave offering of the threshing floor, so shall ye heave it, a first fruit of your dough, and ye shall give unto the Lord an heave offh'ing unto your generations. Obscurely then, and bearing a gross covering as of the letter, did the law typify these things: yet did it proclaim afore the true Very Bread That Cometh down from, heaven, i. e., Christ, and giveth life unto the world. For observe how He made Man like us by reason of His Likeness to us, a certain First-fruits of our dough and heave offering, as it is written, was offered up to God the Father, set forth the First-Begotten of the dead, and the First-fruits of the resurrection of all ascending into

Heb. ii. heaven itself. For He was taken of us. He took hold of the seed of Abraham, as Paul saith. He was offered up, as of all, and in behalf of all, that He might quicken all, and might be offered to God the Father, as it were the first handful of the floor. But as He being in truth Light, put that

S. Matth. grace upon His disciples; for He says. Ye are the light of the world: so too He being the Living Bread, and That quickeneth all things and keepeth them in being, by a likeness and through the shadow of the Law, was typifying in the twelve loaves the holy choir of the Apostles. For thus He says in Leviticus, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying. Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee oil olive pure beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn continually ivithout the vail in the tabernacle of the

IJCX^ ^es^tmow?/. And then He proceeds. And ye shall take fine flour, and make twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake. And ye shall set them in tivo rows, six in a row, upon the pure table before the Lord, and shall put pure frankincense upon each roiv, and salt, and it shall be on the loaves for a memorial unto the Lord.

John, nourished with the purest oil, that is, the illumina- Chap. 2. tion through the Spirit: outside the vail, because his doc- ^' ^^" " trine was catechetic: for he says. Prepare ye the ivay of ^^- ^^- ^• the Lord, malce straight the paths of our God. But the things within the vail, that is, the hidden Mystery of Christ, he sheweth not much. For I (he saith) haptke S- Matth. you ivith tvater unto repentance, hut He That cometh after me is mightier than I, Whose shoes I am not worthy to hear, He shall baptize yon tuith the Holy Ghost and ivlth fire. Seest thou then how he shines, as in simpler speech calling unto repentance; but the things within the vail he commits to Him That baptizeth with fire and the Spirit, to lay open? And these things we have set forth more at large, on the words, at the beginning of the book. He was the hurning and the shining light: yet we touched on them now cursorily, since it was necessary, on John^s passing away, to shew that the preaching of the holy Apostles was near and straightway present.

For for this reason, I suppose, the Scripture, having first signified him by the lamp puts before us the consideration of the twelve loaves. Ye shall maJce (it says) twelve calces: two tenth deals shall he in one caJce. It is the custom of the Divine Scripture, to receive ever the number ten as perfect, and to acknowledge it as the fullest, since the series and order of the consecutive numbers, receiving a kind of revolution and mutiplication of the same into the same, advances and is extended to whatsoever one will. He commands then that each caJce be of two tentlt deals, that you may see perfection in the disciples, in the even pair, I mean both active virtue, and that of contemplation. He bids two roivs to be made (and profitably so) well nigh indicating the very position, which it was (as is like) their custom to take, ever receiving the Lord in the midst of them, and accustomed ever to surround Him as their Master. And that we may know that, as Paul saith, they are unto ^ Cor.ii. God the Father a sweet savour of Christ, He bids frankincense to be put on the cakes, and that they be sprinkled also with salt. For it is said to them, Ye are the salt of the earth, y.' 13.

Book 4. Yea and witli reason does He bid it be offered upon the c. vi. 52..

Sabbath day, for tliey were made manifest in tlie last times of the world: and the last day of the week is the

Sabbath. And not only so, but because at the time of our Saviour's coming we held a Sabbath spiritually: for we rested from sin. And then were the holy Apostles also made manifest unto us, by whose Divine writings also wo nourished attain unto the life in holiness. Therefore on the Sabbath day specially doth He bid the cakes to bo set out upon the holy table, that is, in the Church. For the whole is often signified by a part. But what is holier than the holy Table of Christ? Therefore the Saviour was pre-typified as bread by the Law: the Apostles again as cakes by their likeness to Him. For all things were in verity in Christ, but by likeness to Him, they belong to us too through His grace.

53 Hoio can This Man give us His Flesh to eat? Jesus therefore said unto them,

Prov. viii. j[Jl things are plain to him that under standeth, and right to them that find knowledge, as it is written, but darksome to the foolish is even that which is exceeding easy. For the truly wise hearer shuts up the more obvious teaching in the treasury of his understanding, not admitting any delay in respect of this: but as to the things the meaning whereof is hard, he goes about with his enquiries, and does not cease asking about them; and he seems to me profitably to press on to do much the same as they say that the fleetest dogs of the chase do, who having from nature great quickness of scent, keep running round the haunts of their game. And does not the wise and prophetic oracle call to some

^^•A'l'-;. similar habit. Seeking seek and dwell ivith Me? For the seeker must seek, that is, must bring a most unflinching zeal thereto, and not go astray after empty speculations, but in proportion as anything is more rugged in its difiiculty, with so much the more vigorous mind must he apply himself and carry by storm with more resolute onset of his thoughts that which is concealed. But the unpractised and unteachable miud, whatever starts up before it, rages Chap. 2. at it with its unbelief, rejects the word 'conqueriug' as ' * * spurious, from undisciplined daring- mounting up to the last degree of arrogance. For that which will give way to none, nor think that ought is greater than it, how will it not at last be, what we have just said?

And we shall find by looking into the nature of the thing that the Jews too fell into this disorder. For when they ought to have accepted unhesitatingly the words of the Saviour, having already through many things marvelled at His God-befitting Power and His incontestable Authority over all, and to have enquired what was hard of attainment, and to have besought instruction wherein they were perplexed: they senseless repeat Hoiu to God, as though they knew not that it is a word replete with all blasphemy. For the Power of accomplishing all things without toil belongs to God, but they, being natural men, as the blessed 1 Cor. ii. Paul saith, received not the things of the Spirit of God, but the so di'ead Mystery seems folly to them.

We then ought, to derive benefit herefrom, and reestablishing our own life by others^ falls, to hold without question our faith in the teaching of the Divine Mysteries and not to apply How to ought that is told us (for it is a Jewish word, and therefore deserving of extremest punishment). And when the ruler of the synagogue of the Jews, Nicodemus by name, on hearing the Divine words, said. How can these things he? with justice was he Supra ridiculed hearing. Art thou a master of Israel, and hioivest jj^' ^q^ not these things? Let us then, found more skilful in the search after what is profitable, even by others^ folly, beware of saying Hoiu, to what God works, but rather study to attribute to Him the knowledge of the mode of His Own Works. For as no one will know what God is by Nature, but he is justified who helieveth that He is and that He is Heb. xi. a Rewarder of them that diligently seeh Him: so again will one be ignorant of the mode of His several acts, but by committing the issue to faith, and by confessing the Almighty Power of God Who is over all, will he receive

Isa. Iv. by the Prophet Isaiah^ For My Counsels are not as your

' ' counsels, neither as your ways are My Ways, saith the Lord, hut as the heaven is far from the earth, so are My Ways far

He That so greatly surpasseth us in wisdom and might, how shall He not also work wonderfully, and overpass our

I would fain introduce yet an argument besides, no mean one, as I think. For they who in this life take up the knowledge of mechanics (as it is called) often engage to perform some great thing, and the way of doing it is hidden from the mind of hearers, till they have seen it done; but they looking at the skill that is in them, even before the trial itself, accept it on faith, not venturing to gainsay. How then (may one say) will not they with reason be open to heavy charges, for daring to dishonour with their unbelief God the Chiefest Worker of all things, who refuse not to say hoiv to those things which He worketh, albeit they acknowledge Him to be the Giver of a^ wisdom, and are taught by the whole Divine Scripture that He can do all things? But if thou persistest, O Jew, saying How! I too will imitate for thy sake thine ignorance, and say to thee, hoio camest thou out of Egypt? how (tell me) was the rod of Moses changed into a serpent? how became the hand leprous, and was again restored, as it is written? how passed the water into the Heb. xi. nature of blood? how passedst thou through the Red Sea, Ex. XV. *^' through dry land? how by means of a tree was the ^^' bitter water of Mara changed into sweet? how too was water supplied to thee from the breasts of the rocks? how was the manna brought down to thee? how again stood the Jordan in his place? or hoio through a shout alone was the impregnable wall of Jericho shattered? And will that how never fail thee? For thou wilt be detected, already amazed at many mighty works, to which if thou appliest the how, thou wilt wholly disbelieve all Divine Scripture, and wilt ovei'tlirow all tlie words of the holy Prophets, Chap. 2. and, above all, the holy writings of thine own Moses him- ' '' * self. It were therefore meeter far, that, believing in Christ and assenting unhesitatingly to His words, ye should be zealous to learn the mode of the blessing, and not be inconsiderately intoxicate saying. How can this Man give us His Flesh to eat? for the word this Man too they say in disdain. For some such meaning again does their arrogant speech hint at.

53 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, ye have not life in you.

Long-suffering truly and of great mercy is Christ, as one may see from the words now before us. For in no wise reproaching the littleness of soul of the unbelievers. He again richly gives them the life-giving knowledge of the Mystery, and having overcome, as God, the arrogance of them that grieve Him, He tells them those things whereby they shall (He says) mount up to endless life. And how He will give them His Flesh to eat. He tells them not as yet, for He knew that they were in darkness, and could never avail to understand the ineffable: but how great good will result from the eating He shews to their profit, that haply inciting them to a desire of living in greater preparation for unfading pleasures. He may teach them faith. For to them that have now believed there follows suitably the power too of learning. For so saith the prophet Isaiah, If ye will not believe neither yet shall ye under- Isa. vii. stand. It was therefore right, that faith having been first lxx. rooted in them, there should next be brought in understanding of those things whereof they are ignorant, and that the investigation should not precede faith.

For this cause (I suppose) did the Lord with reason refrain from telling them how He would give them His Flesh to eat, and cdlls them to the duty of believing before seeking. For to them that had at length believed He hraJce s. Matth. bread, and gave to them, saying, Take, eat, This is My Body. *^^'" ' Likewise handing round the Cup to them all, He saith,

Book 4. Drink of it all of you, for this is My Blood of the New Tess'. Matth. tament, which is being shed for many for the remission of XXVI. 27, gi^ig^ Seest tliou how to those who were yet senseless and thrust from them faith without investigation. He explaineth not the mode of the Mystery, but to those who had now believed, He is found to declare it most clearly? Let them then, who of their folly have not yet admitted the faith in Christ, hear. Except ye eat the Flesh of tlie Son of Man and drink His Blood, ye have no life in you. For wholly destitute of all share and taste of that life which is in sanctification and bliss, do they abide who do not through the mystical Blessing receive Jesus. For He is Life by Nature, inasmuch as He was begotten of a Living Father: no less quickening is His Holy Body also, being in a manner gathered and ineffably united with the all-quickening Word. Wherefore It is accounted His, and is conceived of as One with Him. For, since the Incarnation, it is inseparable; except as regards the knowledge that the « ^Kovra Word Which came '^ from God the Father, and the temple from the Virgin, are not indeed the same in nature (for the Body is not consubstantial with the Word from God), yet are they One by that coming-together and ineffable concurrence. And since the Flesh of the Saviour hath become life-giving (as being united to That which is by Nature Life, the Word from God), when we taste It, then have we life in ourselves, we too united to It as It to the indwelling Word. For this cause also, when He raised the dead, the Saviour is found to have operated, not by word only, or God-befitting commands, but He laid a stress on employing His Holy Flesh as a sort of co-operator unto this, that He might shew that It had the power to give life, and was already made one with Him. For it was in truth His Own Body, and not another's. And verily when He was raising the little daughter of the chief of the Synagogue saying. Maid, arise. He laid hold of her hknd, as it is S;.Luke written, giving life, as God, by His All-Powerful command, and again, giving life through the touch of His Holy Flesh, He shews that there was one kindred operation it none. Type from water in Jfettle, from paschal lamb. 419 tlirouo-li botli. Yea and when He went into the city Chap. 2.

called Nain^ and one was being carried out dead, the only lb. vii. son of his inotlier, again He touched the bier, saying. Young ib". i4. man, to thee I say, Arise. And not only to His Word gives He power to give life to the dead, but that He might shew that His Own Body was life-giving (as I have said already). He touches the dead, thereby also infusing life into those already decayed. And if by the touch alone of His Holy Flesh, He giveth life to that which is decayed, how shall we not profit yet more richly by the life-giving Blessing when we also taste It? For It will surely transform into Its own good, i. e., immortality, those who partake of It.

And wonder not hereat, nor ask thyself in Jewish manner. How? but rather consider that water is cold by nature, but when it is poured into a kettle and brought to the fire, then it all but forgets its own nature, and goes away unto the operation of that which has mastered it. We too then in the same way, even though we be corruptible through the nature of our flesh, yet forsaking our own infirmity by the immingling of life, are transelemented to Its property, that is, life. For it needed, it needed that not only should the soul be re-created through the Holy Ghost into newness of life, but also that this gross and earthly body should by the grosser and kindred participation be sanctified and called to incorruption. But let not the Jew sluggish of understanding ever suppose that a mode of some new mysteries has been discovered by us. For he will see it in the older books, I mean those of Moses, already fore-shadowed out and bearing the force of the truth, for that it was accomplished in outward forms too. For what (tell me) shamed the destroyer? what provided that their forefathers also should not perish along with the Egyptians, when death, the conqueror of all, was arming himself against the firstborn? is it not manifest to all, that when they, in obedience to the Divine Law sacrificed the Exod. xii. lamb, and having tasted of its flesh anointed the doorposts with the blood, death was compelled to pass them by,

Book 4. as sanctified? For the destroyer, that is, the death of the ^'''^' ' body, was arrayed against the whole nature of man, by reason of the transgression of the first-formed man. For Gen. Hi. then first did we hear, Dust tliou art, and unto dust shalt tjiou return. But since Christ was about to overthrow the so dire tyrant, by existing in us as Life through His Holy Flesh, the Mystery was fore-typified to them of old, and they tasted of the flesh of the lamb, and were sanctified and preserved by its blood, he that was appointed to destroy passing by, by the appointment of God, those who were partakers of the lamb. Why then art thou angry, O Jew, at being now called from the types to the truth, when Christ says. Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drinh His Blood, ye have not life in you? albeit thou oughtest to come with more confidence to the comprehending of the Mystery, pre-instructed by the books of Moses, and by most ancient figures led most undoubtingly to the duty of faith.

54 IVJioso eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood hath 'eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

Herein too ought we specially to admire the holy Evan- Supra i. gelist Openly crying, And the Word ivas made Flesh. For he shrank not from saying, not that He was made in Flesh, but that He was made Flesh, that he might shew the Union. And we do not say either that God the Word, of the Father, was transformed into the nature of the Flesh, or that the flesh passed into the Word (for Each remaineth that which it is by nature, and One Christ of Both); but in a manner unspeakable and passing human understanding, the Word united to His Own Flesh, and having, as it were, transformed It all into Himself (according to the operation which lieth in His power of quickening things lacking life) drave forth of our nature the corruption, and dislodged too death which of old prevailed by means of sin. He therefore that eateth the Holy Flesh of Christ, hath eternal life: for the Flesh hath in Itself the Word Which is with His own Flesh, overcomes death, the True Manna. 421 by Nature Life. Wherefore He saith, I ivill raise 1dm up Chap. 2. at the last day. Instead of saying. My Body shall raise him up, i. e., him that eateth It, He hath put I: not as though He were other than His Own Flesh (and not wholly so by nature), for after the Union He cannot at all be severed into a pair of sons. I therefore (He saith) Who am become'^ in him, through Mine Own Flesh, that is, ^yeyovw% will raise up him who eateth thereof, in the last day. For it were indeed even impossible that He Which is by Na-.' ture Life, should not surely overcome decay, and master death. Wherefore even though death which by the transgression sprang on us compel the human body to the debt of decay, yet since Christ is in us through His Own Flesh, we shall surely rise. For it were incredible, yea rather impossible, that Life should not make alive those in whom It is. For as if one took a spark and buried it amid much stubble, in order that the seed of fire preserved might lay hold on it, so in us too our Lord Jesus Christ hideth life through His Own Flesh, and inserts it as a seed of immortality, abolishing the whole corruption that is in us.

55 For My Flesh is True Meat and My Blood True Drink.

Again does He contrast the Mystic Blessing with the supply of manna, and the savour of the cup with the founts from rocky beds. And what He said afore in other words, this He again says here, manifoldly fashioning the same discourse. For He does not advise them to marvel overmuch at the manna, but rather to receive Him, as Bread from Heaven, and the Giver of eternal life. For Your fa- Supra thers (He says) ate the manna in the wilderness and died: 50!' ' this is the Bi-ead Which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. For the food of manna (says He) having for a very little time sported with the need of the body, and driven away the hurt of want, was again powerless, and did not engraft eternal life in them that had eaten thereof. That then was not the true Food, and Bread from heaven, that is; but the Holy Body of Christ, Which noui-ishes to immortality and life everlasting,

Book 4. is verily the true Food. 'Yea and they drank water also ^'^^' ' from the rook.' 'And what then' (He says) 'or what the profit to them who drank? for they have died.' That too then was not true drink; but true Drink in truth is found to be the Precious Blood of Christy Which uproots from the foundation all corruption^ and dislodges death which dwelt in the flesh of man. For it is not the Blood of any chance man, but of the Very Life that is by Nature. Where- 1 Cor. xii- fore WO are entitled both the Body and the members of ^^' Christ, as receiving through the Blessing the Son Himself in ourselves.

56 He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood dwelleth in Me and I in him.

Manifoldly does Christ. initiate us by these words, and since His Discourse is hard of attainment by the more unlearned, asking for itself rather the understanding of faith than investigation. He revolving again and again over the same ground makes it easy in divers ways, and from all parts illumines what is useful therein, fixing as a kind of foundation and groundwork the most excellent desire for it. For he that eateth My Flesh (saith He) and drinketh My Blood ahideth in Me and I in him. For as if one should join wax with other wax, he will surely see (I suppose) the one in the other; in like manner (I deem) he who receiveth the Flesh of our Saviour Christ and drinketh His Precious Blood, as He saith, is found one with Him, commingled as it were and immingled with Him through the participation, so that he is found in Christ, Christ again in him. Thus was Christ teaching us in the Gospel too accord- S.Matth. ing to Matthew, saying. The Kingdom of heaven is like unto ^"^' ■ leaven, tvhich a looman took and hid in three ineasures of meal, till the whole teas leavened. "V\nio then the woman is, what the three measures of meal, or what the measure at all, shall be spoken of in its proper place: for the present we 1 Cor. will speak only of the leaven. As then Paul saith that a ^' ^' little leave7i leaveneth the whole Imnj), so the least portion of the Blessing^ blendeth our whole body with itself, and Chap. 2. filleth it with its own mighty working, and so Christ cometh e 'hkLyo-' to be in us, and we again in Him. For one may truly say ^^^^^ that the leaven is in the whole lump, and the lump by like ^^^oyia reasoning is in the whole leaven: you have in brief the sense of the words. And if we long for eternal life, if we pray to have the Giver of immortality in ourselves, let us not like some of the more heedless refuse to be blessed nor let the Devil deep in wickedness, lay for us a trap and snare a perilous reverence.

Yea (says he) for it is written. He that eateth of the Bread, lb. xi. 29. and drinheth of the Gup unworthily, eateth and drinketh doovi iinto himself: and I, having examined myself, see that I am not worthy.

When then wilt thou be worthy (will he who thus speaks hear from us) when wilt thou present thyself to Christ? for if thou art always going to be scared away by thy stumblings, thou wilt never cease from stumbling (for ivho Ps- xix. can understand his errors? as saith the holy Psalmist) and wilt be found wholly without participation of that whollypreserving sanctification. Decide then to lead a holier life, in harmony with the law, and so receive the Blessing, believing that it hath power to expel, not death only, but the diseases in us. For Christ thus coming to be in us lulleth the law which rageth in the members of the flesh, and kindleth piety to God-ward, and deadeneth our passions, not imputing to us the transgressions in which we are, but rather, healing us, as sick. For He bindeth up that which cf- Ezek. was crushed. He raiseth what had fallen, as a Good Shep- 16. herd and One that hath laid down His Life for His sheep.

That the Son is not a Partaker of Life from any other, but rather Life by Nature, as being begotten of God the Father Who is Life by Nature.

57 ^s the Living Father sent Me, and I live hy the Father, so he that eateth Me, he too shall live hy Me.

Obscure is the meaning of this passage, and enveloped in no passing difiSculty: but it will not entirely attain to impenetrability: for it will be apprehended and got at by those who choose to think aright. When then the Son saith that He was sent. He signifieth His Incarnation, and nothing else. And when we speak of His Incarnation, we mean that He was made Man complete. As then the Father (He saith) hath made Me Man, and since I God the Word, was begotten Life of That which is by Nature Life, and, made Man, have filled My Temple, that is, My Body, with Mine Own Nature; in like manner shall he also who eateth My Flesh live because of Me. For I took mortal Flesh: but, having dwelt in it, being by Nature Life, because I am of the Living Father, I re-elemented it wholly into Mine Own Life, I have not been overcome of the corruption of the flesh but have rather overcome it, as God. As then (for again I will say it shrinking not for profits sake) although I was made (He says) Flesh (for this the being sent meaneth). Hive again because of the Living Father, that is, retaining in Myself the natural excellence of Him That begat Me, so he too who, by the participation of My Flesh, receiveth Me in himself shall live, wholly transelemented entire into Me, Who am able to give life, because I am (as it were) of life-giving Root, that is God the Father. But He says that He was Incarnate by the Father, Prov. ix. although Solomon says. Wisdom builded her an house: and the blessed Gabriel attributeth the creation of the Divine Chap, 3. Body to the Operation of the Spirit, when he was speaking with the holy Virgin (for The Holy Ghost, he says, shall S. Luke coone upon thee, and the Power of the Highest shall overshadow thee) that thou mayest again understand, that the Godhead being by Nature One, conceived of both in the Father and the Son and in the Holy Ghost, — not severally will Each inwork as to ought of things that are, but whatever is said to be done by One, this is wholly the work of the whole Divine Nature. For since the Holy Trinity is One in respect of consubstantiality, one full surely will be also Its Power in respect to every thing. For all things are of the Father through the Son in the Spirit. But what we have often said, this we will again say. For to say the same things, though cf. Phil, it be burdensome, yet it is safe. It was the habit of our Saviour Christ for our profit to attribute those things which surpass the power suitable to man, to the Operation of the Father. For He hath humbled Himself being made Man: and since He accepted the Form of a servant. He spurneth not the measure of servants, yet will He not be excluded from doing all things with the Father. And He That begat Him worketh all things through Him, according to the Word of the Saviour Himself, The Father (He says) infra That dwelleth in Me, Himself doeth the works. Having then ^^^' given to the dispensation of the Flesh what befits it. He attributeth to God the Father what is above man^s power. For the building a Temple in the Virgin surpasseth man's power.

But our opponent will again reply: ' And in what other mode did the Son reveal what He is by Nature, or how did He shew clearly that the Father is greater, save by saying, I live because of the Father? For if the Father is the Giver of Life to the Son, who will rush on to so great stupidity as not full surely to conceive that that which partakes of life, wUl not be the same by nature as life or that which is mighty to quicken? '

To such things we too will array in turn the word of the truth, and opportunely say. The fool will sijcak folly, and Is. x^xii.

Book 4. Ids heart ivill conceive vain things, to 'practise transgression, ^'^^"''' and to litter error a.gainst the Lord. For what can be more wicked than such a conception of the heretics? How is not the deepest error uttered by them against Christ who quickeneth all things, since those most foolish ones blush not to say, that He lives by partaking of life from another, just like His creatures? Will then the Son at last be a creature too, inasmuch as it is a partaker of life, but is not very life by nature? for the creature must needs be wholly other than that which is the life in it. But if they suppose that they may be the same, let them call every creature life. But I do not suppose that any one in his senses would do that. Therefore neither is the Only- Begotten a creature, but will be conceived of as by Nature Infra Life: for how would He be true in saying, I am the Fesurrection and the Life? for life is that which gives life, not that which needs to receive it from another, just as wisdom too is understood to be that which can make wise, not that which receives wisdom. Therefore according to you the Truth will be false, and Christ will not be true. Who says, I am the Life. Yea and the brilliant choir of saints again will speak falsely, uttering words through the Spirit, and calling the Only-Begotten Life. For the Divine Psalmist Ps. is found saying to the Father, With Thee is the Fountain of xxxvi. j^.j^^ ^^^ ^j^g wondrous Evangelist John in his epistles 1 s. John thus says, That which was from the beginning, which tve ^' ^' ^' have heard, ivhich ive have seen with our eyes, which ive beheld, and oiir hands handled, of the Wo7'd of Life: and the Word was manifested, and ive have seen and bear witness and declare unto you the Eternal Life, Which was tvith the Father, and was manifested unto us. Seest thou that the Psalmist speaks true, even by the testimony of John, when he says to God the Father of all. With Thee is the Fountain of Life? For the Son was and is with Him the Fountain of Life. For that the Spirit-clad says these things of Him, he will lb. V. 20. again prove by his words: for he thus writes. And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may hiow Him That is True, and we are in ^ His True Son Jesus Christ. This is the True God and Chap. 3. Eternal Life. Then wlio (tell me) will any longer endure ^' ^*' the trifling of the heretics? or who will not justly cry out against their impiety, in daring to say that the Son is partaker of life from another, albeit the holy and Godinspired Scripture says no such thing of Him; but rather openly cries aloud, that He is both God by Nature, and Very, and the Fountain of Life, and again Life Eternal. For how will He be conceived of as Very God, who needs life from another, and is not rather Himself Life by Nature? or how will He any more be called Fountain of Life, if He is holpen by another^s gifts to be able to live?

But yea (says the opponent) we grant that the Son is so far Life, that He too can quicken, as having in Himself the Living Father.

Yet this will not suSice, most noble sirs, to exempt you from blasphemy against the Only-Begotten: but in this too shall your argument be proved untutored and every way falling to pieces. For to have to say that the Son is called Life, because He can quicken things recipient of life, by reason He has in Himself the Father, how is it not replete with unmeasured folly? For ye know not (it seems) what hy nature means, or what ' being of any thing by nature' means as compared with so being by circumstances''. As fire is hot by natui-e, and other things too are hot, by partaking of its operation, as iron or wood: but not because they are heated, are they said to be fire: for they have an external and not a physical operation in them. But our argument will proceed by means of illustrations in regard to ourselves too. Grammar for instance, or Geometry, are held to be species of reasoning science, but when any one becomes skilled in grammar or the other, he is not himself conceived of as Grammar or Geometry, but from the Grammar that is in him, he is called a Grammarian,

Book 4. and similarly with regard to tlie otlier: so too tliat whicli * is by nature life, is sometliing altogether different from the things wherein it is, trans fashioning to itself what is not so by nature. When therefore ye say that the Father is in the Son, as He might be in matter (for instance), in order that, since He is Life by Nature, He too may be able to quicken, ye foolishly grant still that He is Life, and not ra-

» <TXi(^ei' ther participant of it from another, yet by relation^, and not by Essence called to the dignity of a dispenser thereof. And as one would not reasonably call the heated iron fire, albeit it has the operation of the fire, in that it is heated from it: or again a man skilful in grammar is not called grammar, because he can lead others also unto the science, so I do not imagine that any man of sense would call the Son Life because He can quicken others also, though He have not by Nature, according to them, the being Life, but as from the engrafted Operation of the Father, or hy reason of the indwelling Father. For what (tell me) is to hinder us at last from conceiving of the Son as one of us, that is, of corruptible nature, if He live because of the Father, that is, having received the gift of life from the Father, as they understand it? For He would perish, according to the analogy of their notions, if He had not the living Father in Himself. And if we confess that He

I'.if'"''^ speaks truly, I am in the Father and the Father in Me; He indeed has in Himself the Father Who is Life by Nature, and is Himself in the Father though not Life by Nature. I pass over the blasphemy, though one must utter it to convict the fighters against God of their impiety: for the Father will be found to have in Himself that which is destitute of Life, that is, decay, or a decaying nature. For since the nature of the matter in hand compels us so to conceive of the Son, we must investigate further, and go through various considerations, since our aim is by due precision to refine the question. You say that God the Father is by Nature Life. Well, so He is, but He is in the Son also. For this your argument tpo allows. I would now with reason ask you, desiring to learn it, ' What will

He work in respect of His Son, being in Him? Will He Chap. 3. impart of His Own Life to His Offspring, as though He needed it and had not Life of Himself? how then must we not suppose the Son to be void of Life? That which is void of Life, what is it, but subject to decay? But He will not impart of His Own Life to His Offspring: for He is Life, even though He receive it not from Him.

How then do certain unguardedly babbling still accuse Him, and say that the Son therefore lives, because He hath in Himself the Father who is by Nature Life? For if He live also apart from the Father, as being Essentially Life's Very self. He will never live because of the Father, that is, because of participation of the Father. But if He have the Father the giver of His Own Life, manifestly He has no Life of His Own. For He borrows it of another, and is (as we said at first) a creature rather than Life, and of a nature subject to decay. How then does He call Himself Life? For either we too may safely say, I am the Life, or if this be no safe word (for it is not lawful for the creature to mount up to God-befitting dignities), the Son knows that He is by Nature Life: since how will He be the Impress Heb. i.3. of the Person of Him That begat Him, how the Image and accurate Likeness? or how was not Philip right in saying, 8hew us the Father, and it sufficeth us? For in truth Infra one ought to consider, that he that had seen the Son, had not yet seen the Father, since the One is by Nature Life, the Other participant of life from Him. For one will never see that which quickeneth in that which is quickened, <

Him That lacketh not in him that lacketh. Hence in another way too will He be untrue in saying. He that hath lb. 9. seen Me hath seen the Father.

But he who loveth the pious doctrines of the Church sees what great absurdities will follow their pratings. Let him then turn from them, and pass away, as it is written, and Prov. iv. let him make straight paths, and direct his ways, and look lb*. 26 to the simple beauty of the truth, beheving that God the ^^^* Father is by Nature Life, the Son Begotten of Him Life too. For as He is said to be Light of Light, so too