Christ God WJtose Origin unknown.
in My Name, I sent them not and spake not to them and com- c. vii. 29. manded them not; for visions and divinations and prophecies of their own heart do they prophesy unto you. The arrogant Jew tlien is reproved for this that he fastened upon Christ his own boldness against God, i, e., false prophecy. For the utter disbelief in Him Who cries that He is sent from God, even the Father, what else is it save openly to cry out. Thou prophesiest falsely, imitating our practices against ourselves?
29 Whom YE know not, but I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me.
Ye have just said (He saith) Wlien Christ cometh, no man Supra knoweth whence He is. But since ye insist that ye hold this your opinion rightly, as being the truth, I agree to your words herein. For True is He of Whom I am, the Father, but He is not known of you. Since then (He says) ye search into the Mystery respecting Me in a manner most unadvised, but as is pleasing to yourselves, and from knowing Who and whence I am after the Flesh, dismiss from yourselves the duty of believing, do ye for this sole cause receive the faith, when ye find that ye understand not whence I am: for I am of the Father, Whom ye know not, since ye know not Him That is of Him, in Whom Alone cf. infra the Father is to be seen. For he that hath seen the Son hath seen the Father, and he that knoweth the Son is not ignorant of Him that begat. All their quibbling therefore being by this taken from them, they are again taken in their malice, finding no longer any excuse for their unbelief, who have thrust away the knowledge through their own stubbornness, that that may be found true which is written. Ye see often and ye kept not, your ears opened and o^'f'vv ye heard not. But since He was occupied upon the words of the Jews, that when Christ cometh no man knoweth whence He is, withdrawing Himself of necessity, as God, from the company of things originate, and from all else to whom the title no man may reasonably be applied, shewing that He is Other by Nature, He says that He is not as
Book 5. they are^ ignorant of His Own Father, but affirmed that He knows in all exactness both Himself and Him. For He is God of God the Father, possessed of a certain wondrous and strange knowledge of these things, as befitteth Himself Alone. For not in like manner as we know, in the same doth the Son know the Father. For the nature of things originate attaineth to the sight of God by conception only, and not overpassing the bounds which befit it, doth even against its will yield to the Divine Nature, the being veiled in ineffable words. But the Only Begotten of God the Father, vieweth Whole in Himself Him That begat Him, and pourtraying the Essence of the Father in His Own Nature, knoweth Him, in a way impossible to tell: for unutterable are the things of God.
That human affairs are not, according to the unlearned surmises of the Greeks, suhject as of necessity to the Hours, hut that of our own choice we advance botli to good and to the contrary: and that we are directed by the Will of God.
30 The Jews therefore were seeking to take Him: and no man laid a hand on Him, because His hour was not yet come.
The Pharisees cut with His reproaches, and perceiving that their silence in those matters was not without damage to their own stubbornness, and was of benefit to the multitudes (for they were being persuaded of the duty of at length acknowledging that He is Christ), are carried along unto their wonted presumption, and again thirst for His Blood. For thrusting aside reverence for the law, as most unserviceable to them, and taking no account of what is contained in the Sacred Writings, and deeming not worthy of remembrance the command, The innocent and righteous Ex. xxiii. slay thou not, they are sick of a most unrighteous madness against Christ. But by the Divine Might the result of their devices is turned to the utter contrary. For the Prov. xii. deceitful man shall not attain his prey, as it is written. For they seek to talce Him, as the Evangelist saith, as though they had kept a voluntary and self-imposed silence at His rebukes, and would repel by their after wrath all appearance of having been kept back by Him. For this some Supra of them of Jerusalem had accepted as a proof that Jesus is by Nature God, saying, Lo, He speaheth boldly, and they say lb. 26. nothing unto Him: do the riders hiow indeed that He is the Ghrist? But He Who talceth the wise in their own craftiness, l Cor. rendereth their daring most useless to them who thus schemed, and confirmeth to the multitudes what had been bruited in secret by way of consideration and conjecture.
Book 5. For they are repressed by a God-befitting operation, which ■ putteth a bridle upon their unholy deeds, and permitteth their designs to stretch forth but to attempts. For profit-, ably did the most wise Evangelist put forward the reason of their being unable to carry through their proposed design to its fulfilment (for says he. His hour ivas not yet come). Here he evidently calls hour the time, i. e., of His Passion, and of the Precious Cross. To whom then will it not be evident by this also, that Christ would not have 1 e|a)0oi;- suffered at all, if He had put away ^ the will to suffer?
For not by the violence of the Jews, but of His own Will did He come to the Cross for our sakes and on account of us. Wherefore also He saith, averting the reproach of Infra x. seeming powerlessness. No man taketh My life from Me, I lay it doivn of Myself: I have 'power to lay it doivn, and again I have 'power to taJce it. For as we have already before said. He bare no unwilling Cross for us. For He hath ofiered Himself as a Holy Sacrifice to God the Father, purchasing the salvation of all men by His Own Blood. xvii*i9 Wherefore He also said in the Gospel preachings. For their sahes do I sanctify Myself. But sanctify He here says for ^'ofier,'' and '"^ consecrate;" for that which is ofiered in sacrifice to God is holy. But that He accepted being the Sacrifice for all free from all violence from any, we shall know when we hear Him saying in the Psalms to God the Ps. xl. Father, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, hut a Body as Heb. prepat'edst Thou Me: in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices X. 5-7. j-Qy. gi^ Thou tookest no pleasure: then I said, Lo I come, in the chapter of the hook it is written of Me, to do Thy will, 0 God. Seest thou how of His own accord He comes unto His Passion for all? For He says, Lo I come, not, I am taken by compulsion by another. He escapes then from the present violence of the rulers, reserving His Passion for its appointed time, and using a most God-befitting boldness in all things.
I suppose then that this will suffice for the elucidation of the present passage, but since it is probable that some co7ne, may be carried away out of too great levity unto the mad folly of the Greeks, so as unreasonably to suppose that the affairs of man are subject to hours and days and seasons, I deem it necessary to say a little on this subject, since our aim is by every thought zealously to provide what is profitable to our readers. To the children of the Church then who are brought up on the Holy Scriptures, I suppose that will suffice for the refutation of the wiles of the Greeks and for the satisfactory casting off of the uncounsel hence arising, which is said by way of accusation or wise rebuke by Paul himself to some who were thus minded. Ye are oh- Gal. iv....10, 11.
serving days and months and times and years: I am afraid of yon, lest I have toiled for you in vain. And indeed, apart from all subtlety of argument, it is manifest that he which is involved in such folly, will both destroy his own soul, and be found to dishonour the Maker of us all, to whom Alone wise and well-tutored reason attributes the helm of our affairs. But they who are minded unrightly to observe those things, will overturn the order of Providence, and believe that the Lord of all things is no longer Dispenser of our affairs, but will commit to times and seasons the government over all things, setting the creation over its Maker and despoiling of fairest Attributes, Him to Whom is due all honour and glory and worship, bestowing on the creature what is above it, and imparting to things made that wherewith they ought to crown the Creator: nor will their evil deeds stop here, but will advance to something yet heavier, for they will openly reproach God, lover of good, and will say that He, the enemy of all sin, is Himself the worker of evil deeds. For if by Him have been made time and hour and day and year, and these bring certain, of necessity and violence, unto sometimes unpurposed wickedness, and cause them to fall into the misfortunes consequent thereupon, how does not what we say shew itself to be true? And what then becomes of what is said by the all-wise Moses, And God saw (he says) every thing that He 9^^' *• had made, and hehold it was very good? But time is one of
* year. But if we call tliat tlie introducing of evil, wliicli the Eye of the Divine Nature saw to be good, shall we not be confessing outright that the Lord of all is found to be the Creator of things most base?
I think then that those who are involved in the offences just mentioned will at length blush. But since it is probable that some have chosen not only not to resist the uncounsels of the Greeks, but even to defend them, come let us consider the absurdity inherent in their doctrine in another light also and, heaping up profitable arguments as auxiliaries, let us lead out the truth against their abominations. For if according to you, sirs, at the, so to say, forcible invitation of time, and on the compulsion of the hour, we are drawn to ought good or the contrary, as it may be, then superfluous (as it seems) were reason, guiding us to each action, both counselling us to decline from ill deeds, and exhorting us rather to hasten after what is approved. For what benefit (tell me) remains, what advantageth sound reason, if I must surely sufier and advance even against my will, whithersoever the hour invites and the season chooses to compel 1 it is meet then, as they say that pilots of ships do, when they declare there is no hope of the ship being saved in the peril of the storm, to let go every rope, and undo the very tillers, no more enduring any skill therein, and to commit it to the force of the waves and to be tossed on the sea. For nought, nought (from what has been already said) is either the gain to those who desire virtue, nor yet will harm spring up to the workers of evil, unless we receive from God according to each one of the things we have wrought, and receive recompense according to the quality of our actions. For (tell me) will not the hour oftentimes mark out what is most excellent, and the season without distinction profit, even if I be taken in the basest deeds? Again on the other hand, the season will sometimes appoint not a single good thing to some, but rather will bring, so to say, the hardest of all things, upon those who have aimed at honouring above all things the performance of good deeds.
But (haply some one will say) it will be no sucli thing as Chap. i. this J but the hour and season will give to each what suits him.
Therefore the season will now reign over us, we will put about the hours the dignity of Providence, having no more thought of God, we will ask by prayer, of Him nought, but of the time or the season. And what follows? we shall worship the creature more than the Creator, and blasphem- Rom. i. ously give the glory of the Creator to things made by Him. The disgrace hence accruing and the magnitude of the blasphemy, we shall see with no great trouble to have abomination more open than that of women who are courtesans. But what comes into our minds, we will say for profit^s sake. Superfluously, it appears, do the laws both of God and man mark out to lovers of wickedness the punishments suitable for them, and add honours to those whose special aim it is to desire to live more rightly. For if nothing at all Kes within our own wills, but all is subject to the necessity from the hours, which lead us without escape or power of refusal to both [good and evil], how can we still rightly allow that praise is meet for the good, and allot the contrary to those who are not so, as their just meed? Why (tell me) do the laws compel us to depart from vice, and press forward after what is better, if others hold the reins of our resolves, and easily bring us to whatsoever they please? For they say and will have it so, that human affairs are under the authority of the hours, taking no thought of the absurdity thence resulting. For will they not declare, even against their will, that he, whose is the supremacy over all things that are upon the earth, will be more wretched than the very brutes, and will live in pitiable state, and he who ought to excel by reason of his nature, will be brought down to the second, yea, even to the last place? For if the beasts by their self-ruling impulses, turn, no one hindering them, to what they please, and admit what they know to be wholesome, and shun what will hurt them, and we are in bondage to time, that bitter master, and have the authority of the hours, a tyranny not
Book 5. to be escaped^ suspended over us like a staff, shall not our ' condition be far worse than theirs is?
But he will blush^ as is probable^ who would fain be for (yea rather utter lies against) the hours and times, which were never created for any such purposes, and rejecting the absurdity of such opinions, will come forward saying: " We do not, sir, declare that the hour nor yet the time or season has authority over the affairs of men, but we say that there are evil hours, and seasons too, which sometimes like raging winds, spring upon us miserable/^
But we shall answer, 0 mad in mind, and steeped in sheer ^ insanity, how is it that ye do not perceive that ye arming your own mind against That Essence which is above all? for will not He be a worker of iniquity, if ought of the things made by Him be wicked? But this, as we have mentioned it before, we will pass over, and will rather endeavour to be persuaded by you, how the hour or season could hurt us, or on the contrary rejoice us, did not God order all things according to His will, and will that they should, as belongeth to each, give either pain or contrariwise pleasure? For we but now heard you say, that nought of our affairs are under the authority of the hours, but that some are by nature evil, and are borne violently down upon us like the wind. But I do not think it will be any hard matter to shew that this your argument is replete with extremest folly. For who does not clearly see that the twelve intervals of the hours are meted out, some to the day, others to the night, and that night and day do not come to one man, to another not, but pervade all things? but their evil, innate and unavoidably tending thereto, is not evil to one, to another not, nor yet to one perchance, or a second, but rather will bring harm in equal degree upon all, upon whom the interval of night or of day comes? How then does it happen that in a single day or hour, one may see one man prosperous and enjoying himself with many jovial companions, so as to go to sumptuous feasts and gather together with much diligence his guests, and others you may clearly see in opposite plight^ so that one is often borne Chap. i. forth to die miserably. What (tell me) is the reason, or ' " ' how is it possible, that in one single hour or period, one person is found in the former state, another in the latter? what will you call that hour? evil, or the reverse? for I cannot say, looking at either side and finding one man revelling, another lying a breathless and miserable corpse. Will not then those opinions respecting the hours bo proved an unlearned fable, and the inventions of devilish madness? I think all will agree to this without any hesitation, and will condemn those who hold such opinions.
And we might well, I think, be content with what has been said, but lest by committing every thing to hazard and conjecture I should leave an excuse for quibbling to any, I will betake myself to history, and from facts will confirm past all doubt the already beaten track of our argument. When the Assyrians then encompassing the holy city (I mean the holy Jerusalem) were purposing to besiege it, their general, Rabshakeh, was first endeavouring at one time by words of guile to undermine the minds of the fighting men which were therein, at another thought to do this by threats: and the blessed Hezekiah who at De recta that time held the kingly power trusted not in his forces, 2, 3.^^* but attributed the a,chievement of victory to God Who is over all, and by most fervent prayer did he keep calling for the alone aid which is from Him, and immediately did God incline His Ear to the righteous man, and granted him grace answerable to his prayers. For the angel of the Lord I^a. _^ went forth, as it is written, and slew out of the camp of the 36. aliens an hundred fourscore and five thousand. What then will you say to this, o most excellent of men? In one night and in the same hour and season, the Assyrian fell overpowered by Angel's hand, the multitude of them of Jerusalem was saved, and the one were in the depths of misery, the other in joy and dehght. Where is the power of the hour? how was it apportioned unequally for both? and for the one it wrought rejoicing, for the other an evil death? For you will not venture to call it two-natured and
' argument will hold as to Dathan and Abiram, who having once made a sedition against the authority of Moses, and
Num.xvi. Divine priesthood, went down with all their household into the depths of the earth; and they were in Hades, while the rest of the congregation were preserved. But the vengeance surely should not forsooth, since it was not at all that of Divine wrath, but of the hour, have burst forth upon one part merely of the assembly, but should have taken hold on the whole equally.
Let us not then admit that hour or day or season is the giver either of sorrow or joy, in respect of its own nature or however one might rightly speak of it; but let us grant the profit from the hour or season and contrariwise the damage, when we setting to either skilfully ori ignorantly, meet with results pleasant or otherwise. For Eccles.iii. example. To every thing a season, as it is written, and to i ^' know the fit times, is most useful, not to know them, replete with damage. For in winter one ought not to make voyages, to do so in summer is not ill-instructed. Being thus minded we shall commit the helm of our afiairs to God the Lord of all. For if, according to the unlying word S. Matth. of the Saviour, this little sparrow of no worth shall never *• ^^" fall into a snare without the Will of God the Father, how shall he who is so honoured and has the authority over all, suSer ought contrary to his mind or wish, unless Providence brings upon him any of the things above mentioned in accordance with the life of each?
I will further add another thing which has been shaken » jLitKpov out and come forth of my memory ^, exceeding kin to the fiv-n/x-ns present matter, yea rather calling for the same investigaxey^H- tion, though the solution be not hard, but most easy to the "^Q^^ man of full understanding and that hath the senses of his i^« understanding exercised to discern both good and evil. What then is this, of which we so speak? They of Cana, inhabiting the country bordering on Judea, namely Galilee, were once celebrating a marriage, and they invited the Lord to their banquet with His Mother and the holy disciples, and Chap. i. thecauseof this their feast was the marriage-bed. But when sitting at meat with those who with Him were assembled for this purpose, the Lord was there to bless that marriage which He had ordained, wine began to fail the company. But the Mother of the Saviour as still having authority over her Son, by reason of His exceeding subjection, and having now learnt by much experience Him too that hath God-befitting Power, saith. They have no wine. For she Supra ii. knew that He would perform, and that most easily, whatever the nature of things required. And the Lord said to her. Woman what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not lb. 4. yet come. The devout ^ mind, then, far removed from mon- •* <^*A(Jstrous opinions, and fleeing utterly Greek superstition, will receive piously what is said. For not yet He says, is the time of My manifestation, i. e., by miracles, come. For being God by Nature, He was not ignorant of the time befitting each work (how could He?) But he who of his exceeding senselessness turns about hither and thither (for evil is a beaten track to the multitude, who suppose, as certain trifling say, that Christ Himself also was subject to the operations of the hom'S,) will be here proved by us to have no understanding and by those very things by which he looked to strengthen his own argument, by these will he be condemned for the inherent absurdity of his tenets. For if we grant that the nature of things is subjected to the operations of the hours, and that therefore Christ said to His Mother, Mine hour is not yet come, how (tell me) when according to your abominable and most unwise reasoning He had not yet the operation of the hour to cooperate with His Will, does He become the Creator of the things asked for? for forthwith He manifestly turns water into wine. But if ye think that afiairs must be subject to the authority of the hours, how ought not the Lord at the first not a whit to have attempted to accomplish what the concourse of the hours did not grant? But evidently He took no thought of this, but gave them His Grace before that time. The power of the hour was then no hindrance,
Book 5. but since the time was not yet come for His proclamation ' by miracles, does Christ say thus.
We are then set free from your surmises hereon, and when hour is mentioned, let it be considered to be the time which suits each work: and that we too are set free from the necessity of the hours, I think needs no more expenditure of words to prove: for we have already sufficiently gone through this.
But we will endeavour to shew now, that we shall j&nd that liour in the Divine Scriptures signifies the time suitable to each action. And the admirable Paul cries out and
Rom.xiii. indicates the meaning of the word hour. And that, knowing the time, that it is the hour for you to awaTce out of sleep: the night is far spent, the day hath drawn near. Thou seest how having first put time, he added hour, as indicating by the same, it, and not ought else. For it was time that they who lay in the deep sleep of sin should rouse themselves and open their eyes to what was their profit, and be
31 0/ the multitude therefore many believed on Him, and said. The Christ when He cometh, will He do more miracles than those which This Man did?
How great the economy herein, and how fitly it hath followed after those things, is meet to see. For having enclose Him by the meshes of their senselessness, into so cruel and unseasonably contrived danger, he shews the mul-
« KOKou. titudes of them that believe, that the ill machinations^ of their rulers against Him may at length be acknowledged. So far are the people from desiring to rage against Him, that they at length even gather some ideas from His miracles, and openly confess that they ought to give heed to His doctrines. For a report (it seems) was noised abroad throughout the whole race of the Jews and spread throughout all their country, that the Presence of Christ would be for some mighty deeds, and that He would work exceeding miracles, and introduce teaching more notable far and superior to the instruction of the Law. For tlie woman of Samaria, when Chap. l. she came to Jacob's well to draw water and was conversing with the Saviour, said. We know that Messias cometh Supra iv. Which is called Christ, ivhen He is come, He ivill tell us all things. And the words, ive hioio, here, we shall not reason- Supra p. ably apply to the woman alone, but joining the whole race of Samaritans and Jews, we shall confirm the argument we have just adduced. These then now perceiving that the glorious hopes commonly entertained of Him do not surpass what was already present, well-nigh speak thus one to another. For what hath the Law declared that Christ should be revealed to us? what manner of man hath the word of the holy Prophets foretold? a Worker of miracles plainly and instructor in what is most excellent. But we see that He Who is now come is wholly pre-eminent unto both. What exceedingness '^ in miracles remains for them '[^'^^p^owho conceive of somewhat greater yet? In what diflSculty has He failed? what that is above utterance and miraculous has He not wrought? in whom shall we still seek for more? let us see whether Christ have not at length reached the bounds of all marvel! what is looked for in Christ which is not apparent in this Man? Shameless now at length is the withholding of our faith, senseless our indifference, and quite unpersuasive the argument of delay under colour of choosing the best. Let God be confessed: for this the nature of things requires, even of those who will it not.
Not unsuitably then nor unbecomingly, might one put this in the mouth of the Jews. We must note however that through the perverseness of the rulers the subjects perished: for the one were most admirable guessers, led by the renown of His Works to the duty of believing on Him, and only waiting for the judgment of their rulers concerning Christ; and these were so mighty in savage cruelty, as to attempt to ill-treat Him Who had been foretold for vast hopes, and was accredited by what He had already wrought.
Book 5. 32 The chief priests and Pharisees heard the people murmuring these things concerning Him.
The multitude are with great reason indignant against their rulers. For they were making a great outcry respecting our Saviour Christ, not because He was a wondrous Wonder-worker and beyond expectation, nor yet because He came telling of things better than the legal worship; but because He was not yet accepted by the chief priests and Pharisees, albeit having glory answerable to what was spoken of Christ, and no whit inferior to what the common reports tell of Him, or the word of the holy Prophets foreheralded. So then they justly accuse them of being overcome with envy rather than really caring for the salvation of the people. But the constant utterance of blame as to this does not escape the knowledge of the rulers, and the multitude (it seems) gave them offence, now reasonably astonished at the Lord, and thirsting exceedingly to believe on Him, and already ill enduring the yoke of the rulers^ arrogance, and essaying to do that which is said in the Psalms,
Ps. ii. 3. Let us break their hands asunder, and cast away their yoke from us. For by not subjecting the mind of the people to the commands of the Law, but placing them in subjection s. Matth. to their own inventions, and teaching for doctrines the commands of men, they, leaving the right way and beaten track were conducting among precipices and foot-falls, those who were even now ready to be saved and of themselves were being led to rightness of conception.
Ex. xxiii. Albeit the Law declared, The innocent and righteous thou Ib.2. shalt not slay, and every where clearly crieth aloud. Thou shalt not he ivith the multitude to do evil, the guardians of the Law desire to kill, overbearing in respect of esteeming Moses' Law holy, and accustomed to blame every one who did not live in the same way. But caring nothing for the Law in these matters, and so to say, spurning its most precious things, they are zealous to take in their meshes
And surely (some one will reasonably say) these ungodly rulers of the Jews ought^ since they are learned in the Divine Oracles and skilled in the Divine Laws, rather to speak to the multitudes, to turn aside their clamour hereat by reasonable arguments, and to thrust aside all suspicions of envy, and turn them to think as they should do, if in ought they, travailing with right surmises about Christ, seemed to have fallen therefrom: they ought to have proved by testimonies from the Prophets and, going in short through the whole Divine Scripture, to have cleansed the multitude from their errors and, as knowing more, to have taught them clearer truth about Christ. But finding no defence from thence, in fear of the holy Scripture, as finding that it agreed with the multitude in accusing them, they fall into shameless daring, and strive to make away with Christ, not being able to convict Him of any offence. And most intolerable of all, this resolution is that not of chance people, but the daring deeds of the chief Priests coincident in mind with the Pharisees, albeit they ought to have led them inasmuch as they were superior through the office of the priesthood and, since they had the first place through this, they ought to have shewn themselves guides in thoughts of good also, and to have taken the lead in counsel not counter to God. But since they are outside of any good disposition, and have cast the Divine Law behind their own imaginations, they are carried to that alone which pleased their own undiscerning impulses. For tlie head has become the Deut. tail, as it is written. For he that is chief follows, and con- ^^^"i-^- senting to the impiety of the Pharisees, makes now his unbridled attacks against Christ too. But without a cause is ever found to be the war of the wicked against the pious, and the mode of their contest so to speak halteth', unaided by the auxiliaries^ of reasonable causes, and merely ham- ^ tvpeatpered by the disease of envy. For since they are not able to compete with their mighty deeds, nor through equal strength of soul ^ to attain corresponding glory, or even by ^ *""^"X"'«s
Book 5. better deeds to be seen in better case, they fall into savage- ' ness of mind, and foolishly arm themselves against the praises of those who surpass them, zealous for the destruction of what makes them to be disgraced. For evil is ever convicted by juxta-position with the better. For they ought.
> wapi- rather to desire by equal actions to equal them ^, and to b© zealous rather to do and think the same with those who are praised. But it was likely that the Pharisees should be bitterly disposed. For since they perceived that the multitudes were murmuring, and even now in common talk one
26.* ' lo. He speaJceth boldly, and they say nothing unto Him: do the rulers "know that He is the Christ? repelling again this supposition with the wickedness that was their foster sister, they give orders to bind Him, and send out officers to accomplish this very purpose.
33 Jesus therefore said unto them. Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto Him That sent Me.
The Lord is not ignorant, inasmuch as He is by Nature God, of the Pharisees' bloodthirsty deeds of daring, and of the unholy design of the chief priests against Himself. For with the Eyes of Deity He beholds now present and mingled with the multitudes, the servants who had been chosen by them to take Him. Therefore He makes His answer common indeed as to all the people standing round, yet having a special answer to them, and at the same time teaches much that is profitable. For He threatens them skilfully, yea He convicts them of pettiness of soul in regard to those things at which they ought to be pleased: and that in another way should their attempt be frustrate, * even though it were to take place; and how, we will say, going through the whole account. For in saying. Yet a little while am I with you, He evidently all but teaches them, Tell Me (says He) why are ye indignant as though I were lingering too long in this world? I am burdensome to you, I confess it, and am no great pleasure to those who honour not virtue; dashing in pieces him who loves not
God, and smiting at times witli My rebukes the ungodly, Chap. l. I am not ignorant that I have wrought hatred for Myself. Bat do not thus untimely spread forth the net of death for Me. Yet a little ivhile shall I be with you, I shall depart with joy, when the fit time for My Passion comes, nor shall I endure any more to be with evil men (for not pleasant to Me, He says, is the abode with the bloodthirsting) I shall depart from the ungodly, as God, but shall be with Mine Own all the days of the world, even though I seem to be absent in the Flesh. But in saying, / go to Him That sent Me, He means something again of this kind: In vain did ye sharpen against Me (He says) the sword of your own blasphemy. Why do ye tear yourselves to pieces with fruitless counsels? stay the weapon of envy, for it is shot forth for nothing: it will not subject Life to death, neither will corruption have the better of incorruption. I shall not be holden of the gates of Hades, I shall not be a dead body in your graves, I shall fly up to Him from Whom I am, I shall ascend again to Heaven, seen as an accusation of your blasphemy by both angels and men. For the one shall marvel at My going up, the other when they meet Me shall say. What are these Wounds in Thine Hands? ^.^.9^- And I shall say unto them. Those ^vith which I was ivounded in the house of My beloved. The speech then has been made in great meekness ^ and exceeding gentleness, for ^ ^6ei our example in this too: whence Paul also says that the 2 Tim. servant of God must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, in meelmess instructing those that oppose themselves. For it behoves the pious ^ mind to be free from all tumult and the ^g^'^*^* fierce motions of wrath, and to study to refuse as a wild onslaught of waves what comes of pettiness of soul, and to rejoice in thoughts of meekness like breezeless calms, and to love to live as much as possible in longsufiering, to shew himself forbearing to all, and hold fast a mind wholly good, and make his conversation with his enemies not unseemly.
Book 5. For it means wTiat taken generally ^ is not difficult of * Kara ri compreliension^ yet contains it some keen mystery Mdden The more" ^^*^i^ it 6. For when He says that He shall ascend to obvious Him That sent Him, that is, to God the Father, even apart thoTigh they yet attempt to plot against Him, and do not search ceasc from persecuting Him, He is saying that He That hath Buarof^' asccudcd iuto the very Heavens can never be taken by them.
7 ahiy/xa- gut the truor meaning and that which is darkly''' signified, is this: I (He says) was sent to give you life, I came to take away from human nature death which from transgression fell upon it, and with long-suffering to bring back to God those who through sin had stumbled: I came to engraft the Divine and Heavenly Light in those in darkness, and 1^2 LXX i^oreover to preach the Oospel to the poor, to give recovery cf- S-. of sight to the blind, to preach deliverance to the captives, to 18, 19. proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And since it seems good to you in your senselessness to drive forth from you Him who sets before you so rich enjoyment of heavenly goods, after a little I Myself will take Me again to Him from "Whom I am, and te shall repent, and
8 uffTfoo. consumed by unavailing after-counsels ^ weep bitterly for yourselves, and though ye should fain find yet the Giver of Life, ye shall not then be able to enjoy Him ye long for. For after having once turned aside and departed from My Love towards you, I shall wholly shut out from you what is profitable to seek after.
Something of this kind we shall also find in the preachings of the Prophets concerning them. For a certain one Hos. V. 6. saith of them of Jerusalem, With sheep and bullocks shall they go to seek the Lord, and shall not find Him, for He hath withdrawn from them. For they who would not when it was in their power choose Life, and with foolish reasonings thrust away the good that was in their power, how shall they be fit any more to receive it? and they who made no account of missing the opportunity, how can they have. the good things out of their season? For it is while the opportunity exists and is yet present, that we must seek for the good things that are in it and of it, but when it is now passed away and gone by, superfluous at last and most vain Chap, i. is all sseeking after the good tilings it contained. And verily the blessed Paul saith, Beliold, now is the accepted ^j 2°^' time, behold now the day of salvation, and also, While we have '^?^- ""• opportunity, let us do good unto all men. For indeed, indeed it beseems those who are good in their habits, not when opportunity is now passing her prime ^, to have to seek for' 5'*'"'- ' her good things, but rather when she is commencing and shewing so to say, her most blooming presence.
And one might yet say much more about occasion out of the Divine Scripture, but leaving it for the labour-loving to search them out, I will say a little thing common, and in use among us, but which yet has no mean profit. They say then that those who make pictures on tablets, when they represent occasion in human form, represent the remaining fashion of her body as pleases them, but the head alone like this. They represent her behind as bald and very smooth, touching it with brilliant tints: but from the middle of the scull, they hang much hair over the forehead, full in front and flowing: by this form itself signifying, that while any occasion still exists, and meets us, so to say, face to face, it may easily be laid hold of, but when it is now passed, how can it any longer be taken hold of? being as it were bushy and easy to hold, while yet present, but when passed, no longer. For this the smoothness behind indicates, which all but mocks the hand of him that would hold it. Since then when occasions are passed, we have not what they bring, let us not slumber when good things are present, but rather watch, and not when search is useless, unwisely use diligence to catch what is profitable.
And where I am, ye cannot come. "With greatest gentleness ^ does He again put the race of 1 'A(tt(i6- the Jews forth from the kingdom of Heaven, adding words "^"^^ correspondent to those that He had already uttered, yet concealing therein a deep Mystery. For applying our mind more simply to the words, and admitting a more surface consideration 2 thereof, we say that it signifies something ^ airepi. of this sort, that He. will in no wise be apprehensible hyr^veewp-
Book 5. them, noi' yet will fall into their meshes^ having gone back! * to the Father. For not accessible to them shall be thai' Heaven too, and He That sitteth by God the Father Himself, how shall He be to be taken of them that seek Him? This one word therefore is not deep, but more suited to the levity of the Jews, and superior to ^ their understand-: ings (for they are found ever to mind what is more low): but the exact and secret mind of the things said is after this sort; I (He says) having escaped the snare of your unholiness, shall be received back to God the Father; for I shall surely prevent in My departure My worshippers, in order that having shewn the way that upward tends, passable to them too, I may have all with Myself. But yej cannot come where I am, that is, ye shall be found without lot in the Divine good things, ye shall be without share in My glory and alien from co-reigning with the saints, untasting shall ye abide of the gift that is in hope, unfeasting
3 iravi\yv- shall ye be of the Divine marriage-feast. Mine assembly ^ shall ye not see, ye shall not ascend up to the mansions above, nor shall behold the beauty of the Church of the first-born, unseen of you shall be the city that is above, ye shall not behold Jerusalem in her prosperity ^: for there shall My flock glorify Me, ye cannot come. For the Heaven will not receive slayers of her Lord, nor the Cherubim open the gates of Paradise for a people to enter in who fight against God, never shall a man guilty of impiety against
Gen. iii. God appease the flaming sivord, it only knows the pious
Some such thought as this shall we bring to what has been said, from all sides tracking the sense which is true and befits those who have understanding. But we will add to them some few things, shewing for profit's sake that all who attain unto devout habits, shall both be with and feast with Christ: but they who go along with Jewish unlearn- when Christ, your Life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear ivith Him in glory: and again putting forth his discourse on the resurrection, he says. And we which are alive, which l Thess.
remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be ivith the
Lord. And things akin to this is the Saviour Himself too seen discoursing of to His disciples. For as He sat and did eat with them. He says, But I say unto you, I will not drink S. Matth.
henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of Heaven: yea and to the robber who hung on high along with Him, at the very gates of death through faith in Him seizing on the grace of the saints. He saith, Verily, verily I say unto thee, to-day S, Luke shall thou be with me in Paradise. They then who by obedience ^ have honoured Him, shall be with Him unhindered, ^fvirnBeiand shall delight them in the good things that pass understanding: but they who refuse not to insult Him with their folly, albeit sons of the bridechamber *=, shall go away in sorrow to hell, to pay bitter penalties. For they shall be s. Mattii. cast out, as it is written, into the outer darkness. True therefore will be the Lord saying darkly to the Jews^ Where I ain YE cannot come.
35 The Jews said then among themselves. Whither will this man go that WE shall not find Him? will He go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles and teach the Gentiles? Seest thou herein again the wretchedness of Jewish reasonings? seest thou the most miserable surmise of grovelling mind? for they do not say that He will ascend up to Heaven, although they clearly heard, Yet a little while am Supra^ I with you, and I go unto Him that sent Me, but they are imagining the country of the Gentiles, as though among them were He That sent Him, unto Whom He promised
Book 5. to return. But the people of tlie Jews is hereby, as it ' seems, prophesying, albeit not knowing what it is saying.
^iyepyeias For moved by some Divine impulse ^ they present Christ to the country of the Gentiles, in the way of a suspicion thinking of what a little after became true. For He was in truth about to go unto the Gentiles and teach them, spurning Jerusalem the ungrateful mother of the Jews.
But note that they do not speak of this simply: for they surmise that He will not only depart unto the dispersed of the Gentiles, but in their stubbornness add, and ivill He teach the Gentiles, that their suspicion may again beget for them a plea of accusal. For the having intercourse with the dispersed of the Gentiles by reason of going through their cities or countries, was a common thing among the Jews and unblamed, but to explain the Law to aliens and to unfold the Divine Mysteries to the uninitiated, was a matter of
7 Sia$e- accusal '' and not unblamed by them. And verily God found fault with some who were indifferent about this, saying by Amosiv. tlie Prophet Jeremiah, And they read the Law without,
8 niKpws Keenly ^ then do they say that He loill teach the Gentiles, casting a slur on Him as readily transgressing the Law, and from what He had afore wrought on the sabbath day, believing that to do all things without heed, even if they were counter to the Divine laws, was His habit and that He thought nothing of it.
37 In the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood and cried saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.
We must search well in this too, what it is the most wise Evangelist is hinting with some extreme great care, calling the last day of the feast great, or what it was that induced our Lord Jesus Christ, as of some needful reason and belonging to the time, to say on it to the Jews, If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drhik. For He might have used other words, such as, I am the Light, I am the Truth. But turning His explanation to the matters of believing, He hath introduced the word, let him drink, as something* necessary and due to the matters of tlie feast. And the Chap. i. aim in what is before us I will endeavour briefly to say. ^' ^"'
When therefore God was ordering what belongs to the feast of tabernacles. He says thus unto Moses, On the ^^X: fifteenth day of the seventh month a feast of tabernacles unto 36, 35. the Lord, and ye shall offer whole burnt sacrifices and sacrifices seven days, and the first day shall be notable holy '^. Then after enjoining besides the mode of the sacrifices, He added again. And in the fifteenth day of this seventh ^^- 39. month, ye shall offer whole burnt offh'ings unto the Lord seven days, and the first day a rest ^ and the seventh ^ day ' *"«- a rest ^. And on the first day ye shall take you boughs of palm trees and thicJc branches of a tree and fruit of a goodly tree and willows and branches of agnus from the brook to rejoice withal. Having then already in the second book gone through every portion of the above cited passage and expended much discourse thereon, we will yet again make mention of it briefly ^. For we said that the feast of tabernacles signified the thrice longed for time of the Supra p. resurrection: that the taking houghs and the fruit of a goodly tree, and the other things besides, meant a recovery of Paradise about to be given us again through Christ. p;^62o But that since it is put at the end that one ought to take every thing out of the brook ^, and again to rejoice thereof, ' or ^"rwe said that our Lord Jesus Christ was compared to Sb/j-appou brook, in Whom we shall find all delight and enjoyment lb. in hope, and in Him shall delight us Divinely and spiritually. And that He is and is called spiritually a Brook, the most wise Psalmist too will testify to us, saying to God the Father about us. The children of men shall hojpe in the shadoiv Ps.xxxvi. of Thy ivings: they shall he inebriated with the fatness of Thy House, and Thou shalt give them, drink of the Brook of Thy delights. And the Lord Himself somewhere in the prophets d for holy convocation the LXX has more at length, De Ador. book xvii.
544 Tahcrnacles feast of. Faith allowed to help others too. Books, says. Behold I am inclining to them as a river of peace and
12 LXX. Since then the Law used to call the first and the seventh 2 kAtjtV day of the great feast notable ^, the holy Evangelist himself too called it great, not disregarding, it seems, the accustomed habit of the Jews. There being then in the ordinances about the feast a mention too of the brook, the Saviour shewing that He is Himself that brook which was foredeclared in the Law, says. If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drinlc. For see how He removes the mind of the Jews away from the types in the letter and transfers 8 ev^vus fitly ^ the things in figure, if at all they aid for the truth. For I (He says) am the Brooh which by the Lawgiver was fore-proclaimed in the account of the feast. And if one 4 &yvov, a must needs take branches of willow and agnus * and thick wiUow ^ ^ branches of trees from the brook, and Christ is not strictly * o'xwa a brook, neither yet is the fashion ^ of the feast really in these, but they will rather be symbols of spiritual things which shall be given to the pious through Christ.
But seeing that we discussed these things more at large in the second Book, as we have already said, we will not repeat ourselves, but will rather follow on to the next.
38 He that believeth in Me, as the Scripture said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
He shews that vast and ageless is the reward of faith, and 6 ivrpv. says that he who does not disbelieve shall revel in ^ richest graces from God. For he shall be so replete with the gifts through the Spirit, as not only to fatten his own mind, but even to be able to overflow into others^ hearts, like the river stream gushing forth the God-given good upon his neighbour too. This very thing used He to enjoin the holy S. Matth. Apostles, saying. Freely ye received, freely give. And the ^' ' wise and holy Paul too himself longing to be effectual unto Rom. i. this writes. For I long to see you that I may impart some spiritual gift. And one may see this most exceeding well in both the holy Evangelists and in the Evangelic teachers of the church, who on those who go to Christ through faith pouring forth most plenteous word of inspired''' teach- Chap. l. ing, spiritually delight thenij no more suffering them to 7 'eVe'e'ou ' thirst after the knowledge of the truth, with their wise soundings all but crying aloud ^ into the heart of those who ^ ^'^9^7- are being instructed. Wherefore the Psalmist rejoicing in spirit called out concerning them. The rivers lifted up, 0 Ps. xciii. Lord, tJie rivers lifted up their voices. Great and mighty sounded forth the word of the Saints, and into all the earth Pa. xix.4. went forth their voice, as it is written, and unto the ends of the world their words. Such rivers did God, the God and Lord of all, promise to set forth to us, saying by the Prophet Isaiah, The beasts of the field shall honour Me, the dra- J^^'„^^'"' (jons and the daughters of the owl, because I have given water in the wilderness and rivers in the thirsty ground to give drinh to My chosen generation^. My people whom I formed for My- ' T^'^o^ self to shew forth My praises. Very evident then it is that the Saviour says that out of the belly of him that believeth shall come forth the grace that through the spirit giveth ^ SjSokinsfcruction and eloquence^, whereof Paul too maketh men- koI i\\6- tion saying. To one is given by the Spirit the word o/icor.xii. wisdom. ^•
It is good to know besides that the Saviour applied to His own words this saying, not exactly as it had been before put out by the Divine Scripture s, but rather interpreting it according to its meaning. For we find of every one who honoureth and loveth God that he shall be like a Isa. Iviii. watered garden, and like a spring whose ivater fails not. And what He says a little before to the woman of Samaria, this now too He clearly declares. For there He says, WJwso- Supra iv. ever drinketh of this ivater shall thirst again, hut whosoever ' drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be to him a well of water springing up into everlasting life: and here again carrying up the aim of His discourse to the same meaning, He says. Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
39 But this He said of the Spirit Which they that believe on Him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet, because that Jesus ivas not yet glorified.
The sense of what is before us demands for itself keen scrutiny and to understand sufficiently the depth of the mystery will be (and hardly) the achievement of much thoughts. How was the Spirit not, albeit so great a choir of Prophets has been set forth who are found uttering in the Spirit the Divine mysteries concerning Christ in many words. For we do not go so far astray from fit thoughts, as to deem that the mind of the saints was bereft of the
Spirit. For there shames us and as of necessity calls us unto the belief that they were in truth Spirit-clad, the very fact of prophecy and the things found in the holy writings.
iSam.x. For Samuel saith to Saul, The Spirit of the Lord shall spring upon thee and thou shall he turned into another man, came to pass as the minstrel was playing that the hand of the Lord came upon him. And our Lord Jesus Christ Him- S. Mark self also testifieth of the blessed David that in the Spirit he speaketh mysteries. And many things may one readily heap up akin to what have been said, whereby one may exceeding easily see that the saints are Spirit-clad. But in things so obvious it were superfluous or even burdensome to weary with long discourse. How the Spirit was not, we must accurately search; for I think we must deem that the blessed Evangelist speaketh true.
' Therefore tlie very trutli^ let God the All-wise ^, know; Chap. 2. for we ought not too busily to apply ourselves to things 4'^ Trcij/-' above us. But as far as we can see by pious reasonings^ ruivtdpts something of this sort conies to us. This rational living thing on the earthy I mean man^ was formed from the beginning in incorruption. And the cause of his incorruption and of his abidance in all virtue was evidently that the Spirit from God indwelt him; for He breathed upon Ms Gen.iiiJ. face the breath of life, as it is written. But he having from that ancient deceit turned aside unto sin^ then by degrees in succession received much advance thereto, along with the remaining good things he suffers the loss of the Spirit and so at length became not only subject to corruption but also prone to all sin. But when the Framer of all designed (doing exceeding excellently) to gather up all Eph. i. thi'tigs in Christ, and willed to recover again the nature of man to its pristine state, He promises along with the rest to give anew to it the Holy Ghost also, for no otherwise was it possible to get back to unshaken stability in good things. He defines therefore the time of the Descent of the Spirit upon us, and promises saying, In those days (those of the Joel ii. Saviour that is) I ivill pour out (to wit of My Spirit) upon ' all flesh. But since the time of this munificence brought the Only Begotten upon earth with Flesh, that is, made Gal. iv. 4. Man of a woman according to the Holy Scripture, God the Father began to give again the Spirit, and Christ first received the Spirit as First-fruits of the renewed nature. For John bare record saying, I saw the Spirit des- Supra i. cending from Heaven and It abode upon Him.
But He received It, how? for we must needs investigate what is said. Was it then as not having? we say not so, God forbid. For the Spirit is the Son's Own^, and not ^ ^'"^ „ supplied from without, as the things from God come to us from without, but inexists in Him naturally even as in the Father, and through Him proceedeth to the saints, apportioned by the Father as beseems each. But He is said to have received, in that He became Man, and it beseemed man to receive. And He, Son of God the Father and
Book 5. begotten of His Essence even before the Incarnation, yea * rather before all ages, nothing shames when God the Fa-
Ps. ii. 7. ther says to Him when He became Man, My Son art Thou, tJus clay have I begotten Thee. For Him Who God before ages was begotten of Him, He says that He has tJus day begotten, that in Him He may receive ns into sonship, fon the whole human nature was in Christ, in that He was Man: so is He said to the Son who hath His Own Spirit, to give It, that we in Him may gain the Spirit. For this
Heb. n. reasou therefore does He take hold of the seed of Abrahamj lb. 17. as it is written, and in all things was made liJce unto His brethren. The Only-Begotten therefore receives the Holy Ghost not for Himself (for His and in Him and through Him is the Spirit, as we before said) but, since He, having been made Man, had our whole nature in Himself, that He might uplift it all transfashioning it unto its olden state.
Besides what has been said, we must consider this too. For we shall see by going through wise reasonings, and confirmed thereto by words out of the Divine Scripture, that not for Himself did Christ receive the Spirit, but rather for us in Himself, for all good things flow through Him into us too. For since our forefather Adam being turned aside by deceit into disobedience and sin, did not preserve the grace of the Spirit, and thus in him the whole nature lost at last the God-given good, needs did God the Word Who knows not turning, become Man, in order that by receiving as Man He might preserve the Good permanently to our nature. Of such mysteries will the Divine Psalmist himself too be our exponent: for thus saith he to the Son,
Ps. xlv. Thou lovedst righteousness and hatedst wrong, therefore God, Thy God, anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. For since (says he) Thou ever lovedst righteousness (for Thou art Righteous, O God, never able to be turned aside therefrom) and hatedst wrong always (for
6 tJ) fxiffo- hatred of evil ® is innate in Thee of Nature as the Righteousloving God): therefore hath God the Father anointed Thee, for Thou Who possessest unchangeable Righteousness as an Excellence of Thine own Nature, couldest never be moved unto sin which Thou knewest not: and thus, Thou Chap. 2. preservedst undoubtedly in Thyself (in that Thou wert made Man) to the human Nature, the Holy Anointing from God the Father, i. e., the Spirit. The Only-Begotten was made therefore Man as we, that in Him first the good things returning and the grace of the Spirit rooted might be preserved securely '^ to our whole nature, the Only Begotten '^ °-p^p<^- and Word of God the Father lending us the Stability® <^^ « rh a/xe- His Own Nature, because the nature of man had been t'^'ttwtoi' condemned in Adam as powerless for stability and falling (and that most easily) into perversion. As then in the turning^ of the first the loss of good things passes through ^'rpoira7s unto the whole nature: in the same way I deem in Him too Who knoweth not turning will the gain of the abidance of the Divine Gifts be preserved to our whole race. And if we seem to any not to think and speak altogether what is proper^, let him come forward and tell us why'ja the Saviour has been called by the Divine Scriptures the Second Adam. For in that first one, the human race i Cor. proceeds from not being unto being, and having come forth, decayed, because it had broken the Divine Law: in the Second, Christ, it riseth up again unto a second beginning, re-formed unto newness of life and unto a return of incorruption, for if ought be in CJirist, a new creature, 2 Cor. v. as Paul saith. There has therefore been given to us the renewing Spirit, that is, the Holy, the occasion^ of ever- "tJ> lastmg life after that Christ was glormed, i. e., after the Eesurrection, when having burst the bonds of death and appeared superior to all corruption, He lived again having our whole nature in Himself, in that He was Man and One of us.
And if you investigate the reason why not before the resurrection but after it did the pouring forth of the Spirit take place, you will hear in reply, Christ became then the firstfruits of the renewed nature, when making none account of the bands of death He lived again as we have just now said. How then should those be quickened before the Firstfruit who come after It? For as the plant will
* from its own root (for thence is tlie beginning to it of growth): so it were impossible that we having for our root unto incorruption our Lord Jesus Christ, should be seen springing up before our root. But He shewing that the time of the Descent of the Spirit upon us was now
^"^'L come, after the revival from the dead. He breathed on His XX, 22.,., disciples, saying. Receive ye the Holy Ghost. For then was the time of the renewal indeed at the doors, yea rather within the doors. And let the searcher after learning again see whether what we say on these things too be not true. For in the beginning, as said the Spirit-clad, Moses, to us,
Gen. ii. the Creator of all, taking dust of the ground and having formed man, breathed upon his face the breath of life. And what is the breath of life, save surely the Spirit of Christ
Infra xi. Who saith, I am, the Resurrection and the Life? But since He fled away from the human nature, the Spirit which is able to gather us and to form us unto the Divine Impress, the Saviour gives us this anew bringing us again unto that ancient Dignity and reforming us unto His own Image.
Gal. iv. For therefore does Paul too say to certain. Little children of ivhom I travail in birth again until Christ he formed in you.
Let us consider again (for I will take up again the aim of my discourse) that in the holy Prophets there was a
'^''"' the Spirit, mighty to lead them to the apprehension of things to come and the knowledge of things hidden: but in those who believe on Christ, we are confident that not torch-illumination simply from the Spirit, but the Spirit Itself dwells and has His habitation. Whence rightly are we called temples too of God, though no one of the holy Prophets was ever called a Divine Temple. Since how shall we understand this, and what shall we say when we hear
S. Matth. our Saviour Christ say, Verily verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of ivomen there hath not risen a greater than John the Ba^ptist, notiuithstanding he that is least in the Jdngdom of Heaven is greater than he? And what is the liingdom of Heaven? The gift of tlie Holy Ghost accord- Chap. 2. ing to that which is said^ The hingdom of Heaven is within s*. Liike ' you: for the Spirit hath His habitation in us through ''^"" * faith. Seest thou then how He preferreth before everyone born of a woman him that is in the kingdom of Heaven even if he be below the perfect? And let no one think that we make little of the glory of the virtue of those Saints or say that those even of least account are superior. For we say not so; for incomparable is the beauty of their conversation. But for clear understanding let us briefly interpret what has been said by our Saviour. Great in truth was the blessed Baptist and through all virtue most renowned^ attaining at last to the very bounds of that righteousness which belongs to us, so that there is nought above it. Yet did he who was in this case beseech of Christ saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee and dost S_. Matth. Thou come to Me? Seest thou how being perfect, as far as pertained to men and the born of women, he beseeches to be in a manner new-created and re-born through the Holy Ghost? seest thou how he yields the greater to those new born, by his saying that himself has need of this? for if he were in better case not baptized, what persuaded him to beseech to be baptized? But if he knew that he would be in better case, when baptism came, how does he not yield the palm to those already baptized? Greater therefore than John himself does Christ say that he is who is lesser in the kingdom of Heaven, i. e. the new baptized, who has not as yet attained excellence in work; — in this only that the blessed Baptist was yet born of a woman, but the other is begotten of God as it is writ- l S. John ten, and has become partaher of the Divine Nature, hav- cf v. I8. ing indwelling in him the Holy Ghost and already called \ |* ^^^' a temple of God.
But I will recur again to what was before us. The Spirit came to be in the Prophets for the need's sake of prophesying. He indwelleth now through Christ in believers, having begun in Him first when He was made Man. For as God He has unceasingly ^ the Spirit Who is ^ «5ia-
Book 5. Essentially of His Nature* and His own. He is anointed ' for our sakes and said to receive the Spirit as Mail, not
* ^liiropi- for Himself bringing in ^ the participation of the Divine good things, but for the nature of man as we have already "taught., When then the Divine Evangelist says to us, For the Spirit was not yet because that Jesus loas not yet glorified, let us understand him to mean the full and complete habitation in men of the Holy Ghost.
41 said, Of a truth this is the Prophet. Others said, Tliis is of a truth^ the Christ. Astonishment-stricken are they at His confidence ^ as being God-befitting, and seeing that His words no longer suit the measures of man, they betake themselves to memory of the Law, as having already fore-declared of Christ, and saying that a Prophet should be raised up like to the all-wise Moses who should interpret to Israel the words from God. For so says God concerning Him to the holy Moses, I ivill raise them u]p a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee, and will put My words in His month and He shall speah unto them all that I shall command Him. From the quality therefore of His words, and the superiority of His sayings, do they say that He is already shewn to be Him who was fore-heralded through the Law. For to whom will it belong to say, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drinh, and. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture said, out of his belly, shall flow rivers of living water, save only to God by Nature? and this is the Christ. And even though the Jews thinking meanly of Him, call Him merely a Prophet, not knowing the excellence above all of Emmanuel, but meting Him like one of the rest, in this too again will they be caught applying themselves very much without understanding to the thoughts contained in the Law: for they deem that the Christ is other than the Prophet of the Law. And no marvel if the people lack accuracy herein^ where the God-opposing multitude of Chap. 2. the haughty Pharisees is itself found sick with an equal ignorance with that of the people. For in astonishment at the blessed Baptist it once said, Why baptizest thou then, '/f^P""*^* THOU be not the Christ nor Ellas neither the Prophet? For whereas two were looked for as to come, I mean the Prophet of the Law, i. e., Christ, and Elias, they were enquiring about three, imagining that the Prophet was other than Jesus. Seasonably therefore may one say of them what is spoken by the Prophet Ezekiel, As the mother, so Ezek. her daughter; thy mother's daughter art thou; for the peo- 44, 45. pie is sick with a sickness kin to that of their rulers. But we must observe that they were already full -prepared '' to ^ ■n^rpsinbelieve, and are persuaded by the Saviour^s words to marvel at Him, yet not having the leading ^ of the rulers, they are ^ ^^'Soborne along a many-branching ^ path of ideas, some calling VoAuo-x'- Him and nowjaelieving Him to be the Christ, others the Prophet, for the word of a truth annexed, has an emphasis of reasoning now fully confirmed and bringeth in the idea of faith accepted.
42 Others said. Doth Christ come out of Galilee? said not the Scripture that of the seed of David and out of Bethlehem the village where David was Christ cometh?
No careless search do the Jews make about Christ, for they were found going through every idea and through varied ideas gathering the perception of the truth. For having first marvelled through His Words, and already taken the eminent confidence ^ of His instructions as a ^■^appv^i- guide to their conjecturing something great about Him, they search besides the Divine Scripture, thinking to find thence a most unerring conception of Him: for so is its nature*^. That He shall be therefore of the seed of the thrice-blessed David and shall be revealed in Bethlehem of Judaea, they believe, persuaded by the prophecies concernins" this. For the Lord sware in tridh unto David, saith ^^-..
* Book 5. the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. And the
Mic, V. 2. Prophet saith, And thou Bethlehem house of Ephrata, little art thou to he among the thousands of Judah, for out of thee shall He come forth unto Me to he Ruler of Israel, and His Goings forth from the beginning, from the days of eternity.
- axeipa- j^yj^^, the unassisted^ mind of the Jews was astray and failed of Christ merely on account of Nazareth situate in Galilee, wherein was the common report that our Lord was brought s. Luke up. For so says one of the holy Evangelists, And He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up. But they not knowing that He had been born in Bethlehem of Judasa of the Holy Virgin which was of the seed of David (for she was of the tribe of Judah by descent), from merely our Lord having been brought up at Nazareth fall away from the truth and miss of sound reasoning.
To no purpose do they wrangle and are split into diverse opinions, some supposing that He is the Prophet, others the Christ. And the cause of their division, that they know not Christ, nor understand the accuracy of the Holy Scriptures: for else would they believing that none other is Jesus than the Prophet of the Law, have departed from their unseasonable dispute.
They who had been sent by the chief priests and Pharisees to take the Lord, made the dissension of the multitude with one another a seasonable pretext for their daring 3 a.(pi\o- deed. For they imagined that they would with less dispute^ pov suffer them to bear Him away, as no longer careful what should befall Him, but that as having been an occasion of fighting and disturbance, they would be altogether glad at His being insulted. Yet no man laid hands on Him, not from reverence to Him, nor yet putting the bridle of piety upon their anger, but checked by His Might alone (for to its own season did He give to endure His Passion for us).
And hardly is tlie device of tlie Jews appeased *, restrained Chap. 2. by the hindrance from above. For they might not attempt 4Sv(rw'- bloodshed before the time, but must await, ungodly though '^*''^'** they be, the time of ungodliness.
45 The officers came therefore to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said unto them. Why did ye not bring Him 9
They who had been sent to hunt ° our Lord, availing to ^ Oripaaai accomplish nought of what had been commanded them took themselves again to the rulers. And they are troubled exceedingly at the arrival of the officers, not seeing them bring Him Who was sought. And believing that what they suspected had already happened, they are smitten with no small fear. For since Christ was marvelled at for His Signs above nature and His Words above measure ^, they * ^vs eV were wasted with the envy that was their foster-sister, and ^Trep^o. were again in no slight fear lest the people of the Jews de- ^^^ cidiug that it ought to follow Him, should get clear out of their hand. Supposing that this had happened (for things suspected are evermore ready to be believed) they eagerly enquire saying. Why did ye not bring Him? What was it that hindered you (say they) from bringing to its completion what was pleasing to the rulers? We are more ready to press forward to learn all, and sometimes not discerning what is sorrowful, in our eager desire even seize hold on the perception of things we deprecate.
46 Tlie officers answered, Never man spake thus ^. Seasonable in truth is it to say of our Saviour Christ, Who taJceth the wise in their own craftiness. For behold, i Cor. iii.
behold as it is written, He removed the many -tangled'^ coun- Job. v. sel, and shewed the whole nature of affairs turned contrari- }\o\i^' wise, on all sides exposing the pollution of the rulers and lxx'" their unholiness of life as being feeble and perilous, who ■^oKvttAorefused not to fight against God. For the chief Priests Cyr. ' and Pharisees, fearing lest the people of the Jews should be persuaded by the Saviour's words, send out officers to take Him, thinking that Christ's being out of the way d Thus reads S. Cyril with the uncial MSS. of the Alexandrine family, B. L.
* pected, this they that had been sent by them returned actually suffering, and what it was like that they would shudder at hearing, this they learn even against their will, and hear unexpectedly from those who speak contrary to their mind. Never spake man so.
But since they say these things in excuse for not having brought the Lord, come let us expand what they said, every way considering the sense of what was spoken. For if we delight ourselves (say they) in the teaching of the holy Scriptures, if we boast that we have been instructed in the Divine Laws, if we marvel at wisdom as some unearthly good, why do we impiously drive away One so wise, and wrong in no small measure Him Whom least we ought, seeing that we rather owe Him special Love: yea we subject our own heads to the perils of the Law, thirsting to slay Exod. without cause an Innocent and Righteous One. With such a thought may we suppose that the officers' words were with reason replete. But I think that looking at Never spaTce
^ niKpd- man so, one may say somewhat keener ^. For they wellnigh say thus, Not reasonably do ye blame us who could not now bring you Him That was sought: for how could one compel even against His Will a Man Who in regard to His Words possesseth Divine Nature? for He spake not as man, nor were His Words those befitting man, but they belong unmistakeably to Him Who is God by Nature. For let any say, if any (they say) of the holy Prophets can
Supra be found to call himself a brook, or who dared say. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and clrinli? when did the lb. 38. mighty Moses himself say to us. He that believeth on me, out of his heUy shall flow rivers of ivater of life: these things we heard Him say. He therefore is by Nature God Who
^neyaxav- without peril exalts Himself^ in words above man. But xovfifvos ^^ attempt to hunt as though by necessity and compulsion Him AVho is above the creature, how will one not say that it is most perilous? or how could He be taken by us against His Will, Who is as far above us as God above Man? Tlie officei's put forth therefore as an evident proof of the Lord being by Nature God, the words Never spake man so. On Chap, 2. all sides is the God-opposer smitten, and through what he * " ' thought to attain his desire ^, through the very same is he >TJ>Tro0oi5- unwitting slain.
It seems likely that the officers were more strongly Jewish ^, and ever cleaving to the Pharisees and sharing ' ^'''^'""^- their common mind, and ever soused^ with the words of fovSaiCetv their rulers, were persuaded to think the same with them, r\ovfi4- as being ever with them. But when they came, no ways """^ bringing the Lord, but astonishment-stricken beyond their expectation, and late and only now marvelling at Him Whom they ought not to have hated at the beginning, and thinking that all the rest ought to be persuaded by them: they say with a kind of deep anguish. Have ye also been deceived? And understand how this saying is replete with a sort of despair of any hope as regards the people. For as though the rest of the multitude had already been deceived, so many as were not over-stable, they put forth their fear as to the officers. For the remaining multitude (says it) of the common people who are not versed in the sacred Scriptures, nor yet fortified by cleaving to us, let it be granted (if so be) to them to be joined to Him with inconsiderate impulses, and easily-caught* to agree to what He hath said ^p^^^^~ and done: but whence hath this error been admitted by you ^'^'^^ too? how have yourselves also been deceived? what was it drew you off from your love to us, albeit withered in equal unbelief with us? something like this does the Pharisees' word seem to tell us.
48 Hath any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on Him 9
49 hut this people who knoweth not the law are cursed.
They fall away to their wonted boastfulness, casting imputation of unlearning on those who marvelled at Jesus as a wonder-worker and as bringing in things God-befitting, and crown their own heads alone with skill in the law and
Book 5. knowledsre of tlie holy Scriptures. And because themselves ' consent not to those who rightly marvel at these things, they believe that they are full of virtue. And as though the Law bade them find fault with things worthy of marvel, and cast a perverse judgment on things that surpass wonder, they plume themselves not a little, demented and of too ^airojSey. great lightuess easily cast into all uninstructedness ^. And whence they the rather ought to acknowledge Jesus now present, thence are they taken wronging themselves and ^^'iu & loeighting their collar, as it is written, for professing them- Rom, i. selves to he wise, they became fools. Albeit it had been far better to confess that they knew not the Law, than thinking and saying that they knew it well, and then dishonouring Him That was proclaimed thereby, to fall into keener doom ^:.^if^^ and be pierced with woes past escape. For he which knew, (He says) his Lord's will and did it not, shall he beaten with many stripes, hut he that hieiv not and did not, shall be beaten with few stripes. Therefore in confessing that they know the Law, themselves full well accuse their own unbelief, and laugh at the multitude as unlearned and therefore •= <r€(ra- caught^ by our Saviour's miracles, then unable to dissuade'^ j/of ^^^^' them through the declarations of the Law, they boastfully 'ee^JTo^^' insult, calling them uninstructed who were ready to undercimnge stand. For this is ever the wont of more ignorant teachers suasio7i who having nought to say of what they are asked, repel by anger the minuteness of enquirers. And they say that they who believe are cursed, while themselves would more rightly be persuaded to say this of their own selves. For it better befits the unbeliever to be accursed, seeing that the Law declares clearly of the Prophet our Saviour Christ,
Acts iii. ivhich that Prophet shall speak in My Name, that soul shall be destroyed from among his people.
51 being one of them. Doth our laiv judge a man before it heareth him and knoiv ivhat he doeth?
One of the rulers is Nicodemus, and he is numbered e So reads S. Cyril with tlieMSS. of the Alexandrine family B. L.
among those who had authority, yet not wholly unbeliev- Chap. 2. ing nor altogether vying with their folly, but already " ' pricked^ not indeed having his love to Christ yet free, yet to some degree feeling shame at ^ the convictions of his ^ ^v<yw- conscience. For that he came to Him by night, and affirmed that he knew well that He was a teacher come from God S"Pi"a and that no one could do such signs, except he had God with him, I think that all have learnt, the blessed Evangelist having clearly said it at the beginning. He therefore marvelling at Jesus along with the multitudes, is somewhat smitten at being styled along with them cursed. For consciousness ^ is quick at persuading not to be quiet in things contrary to one. As therefore aggrieved hereat, he returns upon them equal insult, not yet openly, but putting forth against them his indignation in words which have their strength ^ out of the Law, and not in unveiled open- ^ jhTnea- ness. For whereas the Law (he says) tells judges on each question before them. And thou shalt enquire diligently ^^?'' with exactness and clearness, whether it be so; ye judged recklessly those who had not been yet called to trial, and before hearing ought of them, ye bring against them so hasty a sentence. It is ye therefore (he says) who are more truly cursed, despising the Law. For it is written. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all tilings which Gal. iii. are ivritten in the hooh of the Law to do them. For in that Deut. he js indignant at the Pharisees for condemning the people ^^^'"* ^^' for only marvelling at Jesus, it is clear that he agrees with those who do believe. For being still sick of an harmful shame, and not yet mingling boldness with his zeal, he permits the faith that is in him to be not seen uncovered ^, but casting about it dissimulation like a dark- ' yv/xviiv some cloak, he as yet conceals that he is on Christ^s side; yet is he sick with a grievous sickness.
For we ought to believe fearlessly ^, glorying rather than 2 aj/woashamed, practising a transparent openness ^, and refusing sUpp^ai. slave-befitting dissimulation, for therefore did the wise ""
Rom.i. I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.
Keen therefore (for I will resume again what I was saying) is Nicodemus^ speech: for why did himself alone speak and withstand the words of the Pharisees, albeit their bloody confederacy had many others in it? But it is clear to every one, that since he was numbered among those who marvelled at Christ, he is shewing that they are accursed in their turn who lay a curse upon those whom they least ought.
52 Thei/ answered and said unto him. Art thou too of Galilee? search and see that out of Galilee hath not arisen a prophet.
Being a Jew (it says) and home-born, why dost thou feign to have no knowledge of the Galileans, and art strangely co-ignorant of our matters with those who are absolutely ignorant? and being most conversant with the most sacred Scriptures, and versed in the appointments of the Law, whence knewest thou not (he says) that it is not possible to look for a Prophet out of the Galilseans? This then is the aim of the Pharisees^ words. But we must notice this again: they spurn the multitudes as knowing nought of the things they ought to have had accurate
4 6|6ffi- knowledge of ^, and finding fault with their extreme want of learning; and loathing them and haughtily styling them uninstructed, themselves are caught sick of yet worse, and no wise differing from their inexperience. For those on receiving the miracles done through Christ, and gathering
^^^' ' cometlt, will He do more miracles than these tvhich this man hath done? at another time drawn off from so right an opinion, they missed only from Nazareth being situate in Galilee wherein the Divine Scripture proclaims that the Lord was lb. 41, 42. brought up, and they therefore said. Doth Christ come out of Galilee? said not the Scripture that of the seed of David and out of Bethlehem the village where David was, Christ
Cometh? But these loudly laughing at the ill-instructedness Chap. 2. of the people and calling them cursed therefore^ were in no ib. 49. superiority to their ignorance. For see they too say, Search and see that out of Galilee hath not arisen a prophet.
But one may with reason moved against them say, 0 ye who yield to none the palm in ill-instructedness_, ye who have missed ^ and are hard, where is the boast of your pride, 5 HjivKTOi a footprint of wisdom in you? where the understanding that belongs to those learned in the Law? for we ought not to doubt of our Saviour Christ, but to believe, nothing hesitating, God the Father saying of Him to holy Moses, A Deut. Prophet ivill I raise them up from among their brethren like unto thee. From among their brethren, how must it not surely mean of the Jews and of Israel? Verily ye shall not need accusers from without, yourselves of yourselves shall be convicted of being without understanding. For whereas our Saviour Christ teacheth and openly saith, I have come down Supravi. f7'om heaven not to do Mine own will but the will of Him That sent Me, ye were then thinking bitter things, and full besides of no slight wrath, ye said again. Is not this Jesus the son of ib. 42. Joseph, vjhose father and mother we Icnow? how saith He now, I have come down from heaven? Since then thou confessedst in plain words that thou knewest exactly His father and mother, thou knewest surely that He is of the root of Israel: how then saidst thou that He was a Galilaean Who was born of Jews? how an alien Who was of Israel? for not surely the having been brought up in Galilee, and having spent some time there, removes him that is of Israel from his I'ace, since nought would hinder him that is sprung of Galilaeans from being a Jew by race if he should come into the land of the Jews. Vain therefore is it for the Pharisees wise in their own conceits to say of Christ our Saviour, that out of Galilee hath not arisen a Prophet. For they should rather have enquired how it was that He Who was of Jewish parents came to be a Galilaean, and so at length to consider His bringing up at Nazareth, and not on this account stray away from believing.
Book 5. with His miracles^ albeit whetted to tlie uttermost hostility, ' they gainsay from merely His country, since He was (according to their surmise) from Galilee. Their suspicion thence being therefore loosed, not doubtful at length would have been their faith, if they had been wise s.
viii. 12 Again therefore spake Jesus tmto them, saying; I am the Light of the tvorld.
Supra p. As we Said that Jesus had made His Discourse in accordance with what was written of the feast, when at its Supra vii. last day He was standing crying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drinh, because the oracle of Moses had ^^X;.. made mention of the brook: so now too does He make His explanation most seasonable, and due to the nature of things. For since He saw that the teachers were partners yras sick of the like with them they laughed at, drenched (so to speak) all of them in one night of unlearning and seeking to get hold of His Mystery yet finding nought at all. He brings forward the reason of the want of understanding that is in them, crying, I am the Light of the world. Ye (He says) going through the whole holy Scripture and thinking to test the things spoken of Me through the Prophets, are far astray of the way of Life. And no marvel: for He is not in you Who revealeth mysteries and illumineth the whole world, and like a sun shineth into the hearts of them that receive Him. And needs must he who has not within him the Divine and spiritual Light surely walk in darkness and stumble on many absm'dities therefrom.
But that the Only-Begotten is by Nature Light, as beaming forth from God the Father Who is by Nature Light, we have shewn at great length in the first book, on the
7 lUws fj Light not specially or solely ''' of them of Israel, but of all s The history of the Womau taken in place as do most of the oldest MSS. adultery is omitted by S. Cyril from this also.
the ivorld. And herein He tells a thing most true: for He Chap. 2. says that He it is Who infused into all the nature the light of understanding ^, and like some deposit of seed sowed ^/^j,^ the understanding befitting man in every one who is called <l>ws into being, according to what is said of Him, He was the Supra i, 9. Very Light Which lighteth every man that cometh into the • ivorld. But I think that there is something keen ^ deep ' '^tKp6v buried in the words. For if what He had said were not replete with something of this kind. He would have merely said, I am the Light. But since He hath added. Of the world, I think that now too He wills something of this sort to be hinted. God was known in Judcea alone, m Israel alone Ps. Ixxvi, was His Name great; and all the rest of the earth a deep ' darkness filled, not one of those that were in the world possessing the Divine and heavenly Light, save only Israel.
But as then while all the nations in this world were together banished from the knowledge of Grod, and lay as it were in some rank of their own, the Lord's portion was Deut. His people, Israel the cord of His inheritance: so again when the spiritual sun was transferred unto the whole world, and ], «l<^ ti^"
, oA(tiUy not the light taken away from them of Israel and removed unto included the Gentiles, Israel was found to be external to allf^: for ^orM that while they waited for light darkness came to them, as it is y^^ted written, awaiting brightness, they walked in gloom. Not in Isa.lix.9. vain then saith the Saviour when communing with the Pharisees, I am the Light of the ivorld, for He threatens well that He will remove from Israel and will transfer the grace unto the whole world, and will spread forth the ray of Divine knowledge at last upon others.
But we must observe that although by His hearers He was seen as Man and with flesh. He does not say. In Me is the Light, but, I am the Light, that none divide Christ after the Economy of the Incarnation into a pair of sons: for One Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul saith, both before Flesh and l.Cor. with Flesh, and One and Alone in Verity Son is the Word of God the Father, even when He was made Man, not counted apart from the Temple that was taken of a woman: for His
Book 5. as regards Sonsliip, is not free from blaspliemy. But we ■ must know that though we saj^ that the Word of God was made Flesh, we do not say that He was clad in flesh alone, but in the word flesh we signify the whole man.
He thatfoUoweth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
He is again persuading them on all sides to aim at hunting after Avhat is profitable, and to desire rather to be led by His appointments, than to choose to follow their own unlearning and bereave themselves of everlasting life. He shews how great shall be the profit to those who are obedient to Him, 1 Tim. ii. seeing He is by Nature Good and iviUeth all men to he saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. But since He knew as God that they would gainsay. He fashions His speech after an elder image of things and from what had befallen their ancestors He declares plainly that the desire to follow Him will be to their great profit. It was written Ps, then of them of Israel, that in-Uie daytime Cilso He led them
14. * ^vith a cloud and all the nigJtt with a light of fire. For when they were crossing the wide desert, hasting unto the Land of promise, a cloud was suspended over them like a roof in the day driving off the sun's flame, by Divine Counsel that is: by night a pillar of fire contending with the darkness and marking out to the travellers their un-erring road did lead them. For just as they who at that time followed the guiding and conducting fire, escaped straying, and were borne straight forward along their right and holy ground, recking nought of night or darkness: so he that followeth Me, i. e., who goeth in the track of My teachings, shall in no wise be in the dark, but shall gain the light of life, that is, the revelation of My mysteries able to lead him by the hand unto everlasting life. The Lord being a skillful workman in His speech, in no wise provokes the Pharisees, who rage and rave not a little, by telling them more openly that they shall both abide in the dark and shall die in their unbelief: but in other guise does He tell them this, transferring unto the better the force of His speech.
For whereby He here promises that he who has chosen to Chap. 3. follow Him shall have the light of life, by this same does He shew covertly, that by refusing to follow they shall have dearth of that light which availeth to recover them unto life. For is it not clear to all and unhesitatingly to be received, that to those who flee what cheers ^, the reverse ^ fvevixiTv must needs befall? True then was the word of our Saviour and undoubted that which was contrived through His skill.
13 The Pharisees therefore said, Thou hearest record of Thyself, Tliy record is not true.
Dull and slow is the Pharisee, and most hardly led unto the power of seeing the Godhead of the Lord: he errs again by reason of the flesh, and imagines nought beyond what he sees. For while seeing that He uses utterances * beyond 4 ^vj/uao-t man and hearing words most God-befitting," he yet conceives of bare man, not looking to the illustriousness of the Godhead nor opening the eye of his understanding to look at Emmanuel. For to whom will it belong to say, I am the Supra light of the world, save to One and Alone God That is by Nature? who of the holy Prophets dared to say such a word? what angel ever burst forth such a word? let them traverse the whole God-inspired Scripture and search into the sacred and Divine Word, and shew us this. But they making no account of what necessarily follows ^, deem that they ought s ^s,v to contradict, and advance hotly to what alone they know ^^"^'"^ " accurately, accusal out of love of fault-finding. For they depreciate Him as not being the Light of the world, accusing the things spoken by Him, affirming that not true is His record. For theij are wise to do evil, hut to do good tJieij jer.iv.22. have no knowledge, and suppose that they can overturn and that by chicanery ^ His record, attempting to invalidate it « Ka\ from just merely our own customary ways, not by the Ict^driKws commands of the Law.
For where does the Law (let them tell us) say that a man^s testimony of himself is invalid? For wearisome I suppose and unendurable at times is a porson^s witnessing excellences to himself: and verily the most wise compiler
Book 5. of Proverbs saith, Let thy neighbour ^praise thee and not thine p'rov.' ' oivn mouth, a stranger and not thine oivn lips. Yet not altoxxvii. 2. gg^jigp false is that wliicli is said by any of himself. For let any of the Pharisees come forward, and let him tell us what we shall do when the blessed Samuel testifies most excellent things to his own self. For he is somewhere found 1 Sam. to be making his defence to those of Israel and saying, TJie Lord is witness against you and His anointed is witness this day that ye have not found ought in my hands. But if the Law forbad any one to witness to himself, how (tell me) came Samuel to set it at nought, albeit the Divine Scripture Ps, xcix. saith of him. Holy ^ was Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among them that call upon His name, they called upon the Lord and He answered them, in the pillar of the cloud did He speaJc imto them, they kept His testimonies and the ordinances that He gave them. Seest thou how he was con- 7 o-y/zTpe- joined with Moses as having virtue commensurate'' with him, and is witnessed to by the Spirit as an accurate keeper of the Law? How then did he trangress the Law by witnessing to himself, will one say? But he did not trangress it; for he is witnessed to as keeping it, and he hath witnessed to himself. The Law then forbids to none to witness to himself. And moreover what shall we say, when we see Ps. vii. the blessed David saying, 0 Lord my God, if I did this, if Lxx. / recompensed those that recompensed me evil? yea moreover Jer. XV. the blessed Jeremy saith, 0 Lord God of hosts, I sat not in the assembly of the moclcers, but was circumspect because of Acts xxii. Thy Hand: and the most wise Paul again, though taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, as 1 Cor. iv. himself too testified, openly cries out, For I am conscious of nought of myself. ■
Let the Pharisee therefore say again of each of these. Thou bearest record of thyself, thy record is not true, even though to those who refuse not to chide the very Lord of all, tlie behaving most ill to the rest is a matter of course^. But Chap. 2. this we say, resuming again what we were saying, that the s ','7nr7^Aacontradiction of the Pharisees is no necessary one taken out l?^J^ '^"''' of the ordinances of the Law, but made only out of what '''°cf{'. "°t prevails in common custom, and from the habit not seeming toilsome to be one befitting good^ people. And their contradiction veiling out of the Law is rather railing, to steal away those who ^e'Trjeace'tn are already marvelling at Him and are persuaded that they ought to believe. For they revile Him as not true, and damaging the credit of what He just now said, the wretched ones draw forth the destruction of blasphemy upon their own heads.
14 Jesus answered and said wito them, Though I hear record of Myself, My record is true, because I know whence I came and whither I go.
On Christ saying that He is what He is by Nature and truly (for He openly declared, I am the Light of the world) Supra the multitude of the Pharisees unrecking of danger^ deemed 1 (plxoKivthat He spake falsely. For in their exceeding folly they knew not that when some set forth their own nature and tell what is essentially inherent in them, we shall not, if we think aright, suppose that they do so out of boasting, nor shall we say that they are bent on hunting ^ vain-glory, ^ (pi\o. but rather that they declare what they really are. As for '"'*"' example we say that when an angel pointing out his own nature says, I am an angel; when a man shewing what he is says, I am a man: yea, if one should clothe with voice the sun, and it teaching the property of its nature should say, I hasting around the circuit of the heaven, let forth bright light to those on the earth: — one would not reasonably suppose, that it were witnessing to itself things not its, but what it really was by nature. Li the same way (I deem) as to our Saviour Christ too, even though Ho says that He is the Light, He will say the truth, and will be found boasting not less than they in things external to Him.
The many therefore living in ill-instructedness, not understanding Emmanuel, suppose that Ho is vain-glorious
Book 5. and attack Him as though one of us, and have not shuds'upra ' dered to say, Thy record is not true, to Him Who cannot lie, 1% ^et ^^^' guile was not found in His Mouth, as it is written. But ii. 22. it behoved Him to lead by the hand them who were astray, having fallen away exceedingly from the truth, and gone away from right reasoning, and in all forbearance to tell them that they had missed of what was becoming, unholily ascribing the love of even lying to Him Who is from above and begotten of God the Father. For true (He says) is My record, even though I bear record of Myself. For in men is sometimes seen the desire from self-love of witnessing things most excellent to themselves, even though they have them not (for prone to ill is their nature); but to Me (He says) belongs not the power of being sick of the same ills as those on the earth. For I hiow whence I am. Light of Light and Very God of Very God the Father, having the Nature that is beyond the reach of infirmity. For even though (He says) I became Man because of My Love for men, yet not on this account shall I be deemed bereft of God-befitting Dignity, but I remain what I am by Nature, God. A clear proof of this, is My knowing whither I go: for I shall ascend unto the heavens to the Father of Whom I am. This I suppose one would say pertained not to a man as we are, but to Him Who is by Nature God even though He became Man. Hence the words I know ivhence I am, indicates that the Son is by Nature of the Father, and the luhither I go, a demonstration of God-befitting Au- Eph. iv. thority (for He will ascend as God, above the heavens, as ^^' Paul saith); yet hath it some fit threat, even if not altogether clear, against the impiety of the Jews. For that He shall full soon depart altogether from their race, does He here evidently say; and leaving them in dearth of the Divine Light, will prepare them for being in ignorance and deep darkness, as He shews them elsewhere more clearly: Infra xii. for He says. While ye have the Light, walk in the light lest darkness come upon you.
We shall again find the Lord of all using gentleness most worthy of love; for not with equal wrath does He repay those who blaspheme Him^ albeit knowing that they ought to participate in bitter punishment: but imitating the more gentle of physicians. He will (I deem) in this too be rightly marvelled at. For they often make no account of the slights of the sick, but forbearing most patiently make their skill helpful to them, curing what gives them pain, and railed at at times, they explaining what is for the good of health persuade them to be diligent in what is for their good and make known the cause of their sickness. And the Lord Jesus Christ both bears with those who blaspheme Him and reviled He does them good, He binds up the wounds of them who insult Him: yea and most clearly counts up to them the causes ^ of their unbelief in Him, whence their ^ iyKK^fisickness befell them. For ye (He says) judge after the '*"^" flesh, i. e., ye err, and with great reason, since ye look to this fl,esh alone, albeit ye ought far rather to give heed to the magnificence of the deeds: believing that I am such an one as you because I am clothed in your flesh, ye have been greatly deceived, and not contemplating the deep mystery of the Economy with Flesh, ye put forth a most ill-advised judgment against Me, saying that the Truth lies. But I shall put ofi" judging you until another time, for God sent Supra Hi. not His Son into the world to judge the world, hut that the ivorld might he saved.
I think then that the question before us has been solved not amiss *: but one may going through other thoughts 4 ovk also make the sense clear as far as we are able. Ye (He '"'"-"V"^* says) judge after the flesh, 1 judge no man. Having nought at all (He says) to find fault with and not able to reasonably blame My Wonder-workings, ye depreciate them only on account of the flesh, and because I am seen a Man as you, ye impiously class Me as nothing. But I (He says) do not for this condemn you; for not because ye are men by nature, shall I therefore esteem you as nothing nor for this shall ye render account to the Judge. I find not fault with