Book 5. the nature, I condemn not Mine Own creation, I say not " tliat there is any transgression in man from his being man. Yet ye by reason of the flesh esteem Me as nought, and for this did ye condemn Me: but I have not so reckoned of you, but knowing that a great and honourable thing is man even though he be made of earth, albeit Very God and in the Form of the Father Who begat Me, I humbled Myself taking servant^s form and made Man: in respect of which alone am I now condemned by you, albeit Myself condemnver, 16. ing no man for this. And if 1 judge My judgment is just and t7'ue because I am not alone hut I and the Father that sent Me.
„ Doth then," will haply one say of those who think contrary to the doctrines of the Church," the Son know how „ to judge aright, only for this reason, that the Father is „ with Him when He does so? This being so (and that in „ truth) what yet hinders from.saying that the Son is in a „way directed unto uprightness through the Will of the „ Father, not possessing this in perfectness, nor able of „ Himself to act irreproachably? "
What then shall we too respond to their words? Impious, sirs, is your idea and most befitting Jewish folly alone, for not as though not possessing the power of judging rightly of Himself, does the Son so speak; for the Psalmist
Ps. vii. will testify to Him saying in the Spirit, God is a Righteous Judge. And that none other save He is Judge, Himself
Supra V. -will be our witness, saying in the Grospels, For neither doth the Father judge any man, hut hath given all judgment unto the Son. Hath then God the Father given the judgment to one who knoweth not to judge rightly? But any one (I suppose) would attribute to the uttermost folly so to deem of the Righteousness of the Father, i. e. the Son. For the Father knoweth His own OSspring and gave Him judgment, and by giving it, clearly testifies His Power to judge aright. It is therefore most manifest, that not as being impotent to judge justly does He say that the Father co-judges with Him, but the words are replete witli some thoughts akin to those above and in sequence.
Wliat then He wishes to make known, we will clearly Chap. 2. say. Ye (He says) 0 leaders and teachers of the Jews, ' ' made an evil and most unjust judgment against Me: for by reason of only the flesh, ye deem ye ought to esteem Me as nothing, although I am by Nature God. But I when I begin to judge of you, shall not put forth such a judgment against you, for not because ye are men by nature, shall I therefore deem it fit to condemn you: but having the Father in all things Co-willer and Co-judge, I condemn you justly. And why? Ye did not receive Him Who cometh from Heaven, ye have not ceased to insult Him That was sent to you from the Father, ye depreciated Me Who came for the salvation of all, for merely the fleshes sake, spurning far the Law which was ever dear to you. For where (tell me) doth Moses bid you condemn any because he was a man by nature? Ye therefore judge and reckon unjustly: for ye have not the Law as your Cowiller ^ herein, but by yourselves are bold to every daring ^ ffwededeed, having not the inspiration of the Divine will: but I not so, for having in Myself the Father as My Assessor and Co-approver ^ in all things that concern you, I judge ® o-vvSpomost justly in giving up to desolation your whole country, ffwevSoand burying it in the misfortunes of war, yea in expelling '^^^^'^ from the very kingdom of Heaven those who have so raged against Him who willeth to save them, and who for this cause came in man^s form.
1 7 -^nd in your Law it is written that the testimony of two men
1 8 is true: 1 am one that bear witness of Myself and the Father too That sent Me beareth witness of Me.
Having said that God the Father will co-judge and cocondemn those who blaspheme against Him, He taketh the pair of Persons unto something else that is profitable. For I (He says) will not refuse to tell you what I am by seem to any to be fond of boasting: for not in external endowments but in those that accrue to Me Essentially do I glory. But if in saying this, I seem to you not competent to receive from you approval for truths because I am alone and liave witnessed to Myself, I will take to Me God the Father co-working and co-witnessing'' to My Endowments. For He co-works with Me (He says) as ye see, and co-operates. For as far as regards human nature^ I should not do any thing at all, if I possessed not the being God by Nature: as far as regards My being of the Father, and having in Myself the Father, I confess that I can accomplish all things, and am witnessed to by the Nature of Him who begat Me: for as having Him in Myself by means of Sameness of Nature, I come to the achieving of all things unhindered. For our Lord Jesus Christ hath of the Divine Nature all-creative Power^ as God even though He became Man, and He is witnessed to by the Father, having Him Co-worker in all things accoi-ding as is said by Him, Of Myself I do nothing, hut the Father that clwelleth in Me, Himself cloeth the ivorhs. But we deem that the Father co-works with the Son, not as introducing some other power of His own for the achievement of the things done, to one who was wanting in power (for if we thus conceive, we shall concede that both the Power of the Father and that of the Son are surely imperfect, if ought of miracle be wrought by Them Both, as though One were not sufficient for the need) but conceiving of, and taking the words in more pious wise, we shall say that since there is in Father and Son One Godhead, and the undiffering ^ Authority and Power of the Same Nature, the works of the Son will surely be those of God the Father, those again of God the Father, the works of the Son.
But He saith, / do nothing of Myself, not as though a servant or under-worker, or in position of a learner, and waiting to be commanded by the Father, or instructed in order to accomplish wonders: but rather signifying with all precision, that having sprung of the Essence of God the Father, and like Light produced ^ Ineffably and without beginning from His Innermost Bosom' and Eternally cowith Him, and conceived of and being the Image and Impress of His Person, He hath the same Mind so to speak with Him, clearly teach that He is Co-willer in all things with Him Who begat Him, He says, I do nothing of Myself Just as though He said, I am not turned out ^ to any private will of 2 ^^c^^ki- My own, which is not in God the Father. Whatever the '^'*'" Nature of the Father wills and judges^, this same is surely 3 xoyl^ein Me too, since I beamed forth of His Bosom, and am the Very Fruit of His Essence.
Hard then are these things to explain^ and that which is unattainable by tlje very understanding may not without difficulty be unfolded through the tongue: nevertheless bringing such things as far as in us lays to a pious view ^, ^ eewpiau we shall gain to ourselves heavenly reward, and thus preserve our mind unwounded and unmoved by turnings aside unto ought else.
But we must note that the Saviour adding and crying to the Jews, And in your Law is-it written, persuades the Pharisees as of necessity to admit the pair of Persons. For I (He says) hear witness of Myself, and the Father will be with Me herein: will therefore the pair of witnesses confirmed by the book of the Law, be accepted by you, or will ye again, looking only to your envy at Me, not keep even the Law that ye admire?
In this too most especially may one, I deem, and with good reason cry out against the stolidity of the JewSj uttering that word of the Prophet, Behold 0 foolish people and without Jer. v. 2i heart. For after much discourse and often with them from ^^^• our Saviour Christ, Who over and over makes mention of God the Father in Heaven, the wretched ones sink down into so great folly as to dare to say. Where is Thy Father? For they think nought at all of Him Who is His God and Father in the Heavens, but look round at ^ and seek for ^ -^fpi- Joseph, believing him to be Christ's father and no other- rar""' wise. Thou seest then how they have been with reason called a people verily foolish and heartless: for able not so much as to raise the eye of their understanding above
Books, things of earthy they shew that true it is which was said c viii 10 Ps. Ixix. ' of them. Let their eyes he darkened that they see not, and
^^' how Thou doion their bach alivay. For of irrational creatures is the back bowed, for they have this form from nature, and there is nothing of uprightness in them. And the mind of the Jews has become in some way like the fi dTre/cTTj- beasts ^ and has declined ever downwards, seeing nothing
"'^ ^ of heavenly things. For shall we not by the very fact itself, instructed aright in this matter, think and judge truly concerning them? for if they had at all thought of God the Father in Heaven, how would they have sought in place the Unembodied? how (tell me) would they, saying most unadvisedly of God Who filleth all things, Wliere is He, not fight with the whole Divine Scripture, albeit the Divine-speaking Psalmist, going through (as he was able) his words about God, and attributing to Him the
7-10. * Thy 8pirit, and from Thy Presence whither shall I flee? if I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there, if I go down to hell, hehold Thou, if I take my wings at morning and depart unto the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy Sand lead me and Thy Right Hand, shall hold me. Yea and God Himself Who is over all, shewing clearly that He possesseth not nature circumscribed by space, saith to those so un-
Jer. xxiii. holy Jcws, Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?
Acts vii. ivhat house will ye build Me, or luhat the place of My rest? Heaven is My Throne and earth My footstool. One may therefore see the Jews in all things without understanding, when they say to the Saviour Christ, Where is Thy Father? except they say this of His reputed father after the flesh, in this too doting.
But it is likely that the words of the Jews had some other deep meaning. For since they thought that the holy Virgin had committed adultery before marriage, therefore they rail most bitterly against Christ as not even knowing from whom He is, saying, Wliere is Thy father? doting.
Jesus answered, Neither Me do ye know nor My Father, [f ye Chap. 2. had known Me, ye should have known My Father also. c.viu..
True is the word and in no respect can it be accused of lying. For they who indeed suppose Christ to be of Joseph, or of fornication, and who know not that the Word beamed forth of God the Father, how will they not with reason hear, Neither Me do ye hioiv nor My Father? For if they had known the Word that beamed forth of God the Father, and was for our sakes made in the flesh, according to the Divine Scripture, they would have known Him too Who begat Him. For most accurate knowledge of the Father is through the Son implanted '' in the understanding of the more zealous ^ hy'^^fafter learning, as He too affirmed, saying unto God the Father, I manifested Thy Name to the men, and again. Thy ^nfr^ hiowledge was made marvellous by Me. For since we know Ps. the Son, we know by Him Him Who begat Him. For q lxx. through Both is brought in the perception ^ of the Other: » irepiVoio and when the Father is mentioned, the memory of His Offspring surely comes in with it, and again with the signification ^ of the Son, the Name of Him Who begat Him ^ crr)fia<ria. comes in too. For therefore is the Son a Door (so to speak) and way leading unto the knowledge of the Father, And so does He say. No man cometh unto the Father hut hy Me. infra xiv. For we must needs first learn (as is possible) what the Son is by Nature; and so, as from Image and most accurate Impress, understand well the Archetype. For in the Son is the Father seen, and in the Nature of His own Offspring as in a mirror, is He Perfectly seen. But if this be true, as it is true, let the God-opposing Arian blush. For needs must the Impress of His Essence be in every way and manner like to Him, lest ought else than what the Father is, be supposed to be perfectly^ beaming forth in the Son. And if ' airapct- He love to be known in the Son and to shine forth in Him, '^""''^'^ He knows (I suppose) of a surety that He is Consubstantial too, and in nothing whatever inferior to His Own inherent Glory: for He would not have chosen to be believed to be in lesser case than He is by Nature. And since He loves
576 Son Ecjnal to Father; JosejjJi talni economically. Book 5. and lias willed tliis^ how must we not needs now confess c viii XQ,
' that the Son is every way like the Father, in order that through Him we may know Him also That begat Him, as we have already said, ascending aright from the Image to the Archetype, and be able to have an unblameable conception of the Holy Trinity?
Thus then he who knoweth the Son, knoweth the Father too. But consider how the Lord after having said the truth to the Jews, interweaves some other device also in His speech; for having said clearly. Neither Me do ye know nor My' Father, He draws gently off the mind of the Jews, that they should not think only humanly of Him, nor suppose that He is in truth the son of Joseph who was taken economically but should rather seek and enquire Who is the Word in Flesh, Who His Father by Nature.
That no work of Jewish might was the Suflfering- on the Cross, nor tlid Christ die from the tyranny of any, but Himself of His own will suffered this for us that He might save all.
20 These words spake He in the Treasury as He taught in the Temple, and no man laid hands on Him, because His hour had not yet come.
The most wise Evangelist profitably makes plea in behalf of the saving Passion and shews that the Death on the Cross was not of human necessity, nor did Jesus suffer death against His will from the tyranny of another, but rather did offer Himself for us a spotless Sacrifice to God the Father by reason of His inherent love for us. For since He must needs suffer (since thus would the imported corruption and sin and death be overturned). He hath given Himself a Ransom for the life of all. What then will be found in the words before us making for ^ the saving Passion, and what of profit the aim ' <rwwyoof the thoughts therein is replete with, do thou again hear. ''^''"*' For Christ (he says) was speaking tliese words not outside of Jerusalem, nor in any city of those round about, nor yet in a more insignificant town or village of Judaea, for He was standing by the very treasury, i. e., in the midst of the very courts in the Temple itself was He making His Discourse on these matters. But the Pharisees, albeit deeply cut to the heart and grieved exceedingly at what was said by Him, laid not hands upon Sim, when it was in their power most easily to do this; for He was, as I said, within the meshes. What then was it that persuaded to be quiet even against their will, those who are raging like fierce beasts? what was it that checked their anger? how was the bloodthirsty heart of the Pharisees charmed? Not yet, he says, ]iad His hour come, that is, not yet was the time of His Death at hand,
Book 5. by no otliei' liand marked out for the Saviour Christy nor yet * cast upon Him by fate (as the lying fables of the Greeks say) or by the hour (after their babbling speech), but rather marked out by Him according to the good pleasure of God the Father. For being God by Nature and Very and unknowing to miss of what was fit, full well did He know how long time it was right to live in Flesh with those on the earth, and when again to depart to heaven, having destroyed death by the death of His own Flesh. For that not by the tyranny of any, was death brought upon Him That is by Nature Life, is I suppose clear to all who are wise: for how should the bonds of death prevail over the Life by Nature? and the
Infra X. Lord Himself somewhere testifieth saying, No man taJceth My likfrom Me, I lay it down of Myself: I have power to lay it down, and again I have poiver to take it. For if the time in which He must surely suffer death, were laid down as of necessity by some other, how should we find it in His own power to lay down that Life? for it would have been taken even against His will, if His Passion were not in His own power. But if He lays it down of Himself, we shall see the Passion to be not in the Power of any other but in His own Will. For then did He permit to Jewish folly to go through to its own end, when He saw that the fit time for His Death had now come.
Let not then the haughty Pharisee brag of his own daring deeds, nor puffed up with exceeding ill-counsel say. If Christ were by Nature God, how came He not to be without my meshes? how escaped He not my hands? for he will hear in reply from those who love Him, Not thy meshes, 0 sir, prevailed, for it were nought hard for God supreme over all to crush thy snare, and pass forth of the net of thy impiety: but the Suffering was the salvation of the world, the Passion the undoing of death, the Mighty Cross the overthrow of sin and corruption. This He knowing as God, submitted Himself to thy unholy daring. For what, tell me, was the hindrance to thy enfolding Him the7i especially when thou wert gnashing thy teeth at Him, as He was teaclmig by the very treasury? and if it was the work of thy might to over- come Clii'ist, wliy didst tliou uot make Him a prisoner then? Chap. 3. But tliou stoodst in au^er unmitigated- to bloodshed all/, ] revealed, yet doing nought of the things thou wouldest. For not yet did He will to suffer. Who was persuaded by thy mad folly, as by bits which may not be snapped. These things may one with reason opposing to the vain talk of the Jews, shame them even against their will, into not bragging of what they least ought. And one may well admire the holy Evangelist reasonably shewing, and clearly saying that the Saviour was teacJiing these things in the temple by the Treasury and no man laid hands on Him: for he was witnessing so to speak to Christ's own words, which He said to the Jews when they were at hand to take Him, As against s. Matth. a robber are ye come out with swords and staves for to take Me? daily did I sit teaching in the temple and ye laid no hold on Me. And one would not (I suppose) say, if one thought rationally, that He was blaming the Jews, that they had not brought on His Passion untimely, nor yet that letting slip the right time, they were advancing too slowly to shed blood: but rather He is convicting them, as unwisely supposing that they should have prevailed even against His will, and could have seized by force Him who may not suffer except He will. For I was sitting teaching in the temple and ye laid no hold on Me, for then I willed it not, nor would ye now avail to do this, except I willingly subjected Myself to your hands. Hence one may on all sides see, that no work was it of Jewish might to put our Lord to death; but to their unholy daring may one attribute the attempt, to our Saviour Christ the will to suffer for all, that He might free all and, having bought them with His own Blood, present them to God the Father. For God, as Paul saith, ivas in Christ, reconciling 2 Cor. v. the ivorld unto Himself, and in all forgiveness ^ restoring that 3 djuj/r/o-jwhich had fallen away from friendship with Him, unto what '"*'"^^ it was in the beginning.
21 He said therefore unto them again, I go My loay, and ye shall seek Me and shall die in your sins.
That we must needs take hold of the present time for whatever one may receive profit from to oneself, does Christ here-
* and to take after-counsel for what is profitable, clearly brings no gain but ministers wailing befitting the negcf. Ps. lect. Our Lord therefore being good and gracious *, as it is ■" eiri6i/^i)j written, both bears with those who dishonour Him and f^j. ' aids those who insult Him and is found as God superior to all the littleness of man. Yet does He for their good threaten to depart from them, and says plainly I go My way, that He may implant in them a more resolved mind, and that they considering that they ought not to leave their dirpa- Redeemer when present frustrate ^ of His work. He may whet them to pass on to the faith and may make them now at length more ready unto obedience. And having cried out, I go My tuay, and threatened departure from the whole nation. He subjoined economically the damage therefrom ensuing unto them. For (He says) Ye shall die in your sins; and we shall see the nature of the thing bringing in the truth of what is said. For they who did not at all receive Him Who came to us from Heaven that He might justify all through faith, how shall they not beyond all contradiction die in their sins, and not receiving Him Who can cleanse them, how will they not have lasting defilement from their impiety? For to die unredeemed, yet laden with the weight of sin, to whom is it any doubt where this will conduct the soul of man? For deep Hades will, I deem, receive such an one, and he will continue in great darkness, yea he will inhabit fire and flames, with reason numbered among those of whom it has been said by Pro-
Isa. Ixvi. phet's voice. Their tuorm shall not die neither shall their fire he quenched, and they shall he for a sight to all flesh. Whereof that they may escape the trial, Christ kept manifoldly calling them to a speedy turning away from their wonted unbelief, saying not only that He should leave them and go away, but also of necessity putting before them how great misfortune they will thence undergo. For ye shall die (He says) in your sins. But since He put in between. And ye shall seeh Me, and hitherto we do not find the Jews seeking Him, we shall reasonably go to some other meaning: for He must needs be True. For even though Chap. 3. they now in the body and yet in full enjoyment® of the g ■g^^J^j_' pleasures of the flesh, for their exceeding senselessness CitJ-^voi. seek not their Redeemer, yet when they wretched fall into hell and have their abode in the place of punishments, when they are in the ill itself, then, then will they seeli even against their will. For there (He says) is weeping s. Matth. and gnashing of teeth, each (it is likely) of those there wailing his carelessness in what was good, and well-nigh saying what is in the Book of Proverbs, I have not obeyed ^i"°^- ^* the voice of him that instructed me and taught me. Therefore as Paul saith. Let us therefore fear lest, a '-promise Heb. iv. being left us of eivtering into His Rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For we must rtt/i, that we may i Cor. obtain, and not by our disbelief insult Him Who draws us out of bitter bondage, but submit ourselves and with upturned hands lay hold on the grace.
Not only does He say that they shall die in their sins, but declares clearly that, ascending not to the mansions above, they will remain outside of the good things of the kingdom: for they who received not Him Who came from above, how could they also follow Him ascending up? Doable therefore is the punishment to them who believe not, and not in any single thing their loss. For just as they who have fallen into bodily loss of health must needs suffer and endure the trials '^ of the suffering and besides be deprived of the I raSen^ii. pleasures of health; so and not otherwise do they who have " '^'''*'*''" departed into Hades, and there undergo punishment proportionate to the sins, both endure the state of punishment and lose the enjoyment of the hope of the saints. Most excellently then does our Lord Jesus Christ say not only that they shall die in their sins, but also that they shall not mount up to the mansions above: for binding them as by a twofold cord, does He haste to draw them away from their inherent ill-counsel. From all sides saving that which was cf. Ezek. lost and binding up the broken and raising up that which
Infra xiv. of the sheep) does He tell His own disciples, I will go and p^^epare a place for you, and will come again and receive you with Myself, shewing that the very heaven will be accessible to the saints and teaching that the mansions above have been prepared for them that love Him, but to those who have chosen to disbelieve Him, rightly and needs does He say. Whither I go ye cannot come. For who at all will follow the All-holy Christ, if he love not the cleansing that is through faith? or how shall he that is yet defiled and that
I think that this meaning has now too not amiss been put on the words before us, but if one must go about and view it differently, and say yet something else besides, we will not shrink from doing this too. WJiither I go, ye cannot come. Being Very God, I am absent from no one, I fill all things, and being with all, I dwell specially in Heaven, gladly having abode with holy spirits. But since I am the human-loving ^ Framer of all things, I deemed intolerable the loss of My creation, I beheld man going away to utter destruction, I viewed him falling from sin unto death, I must needs reach forth an helping Hand to him as he lay, I must needs in every way aid him overcome and falling. How then was it meet to save that which was lost? it needed that the Physician should be with those in peril, it needed that Life should be there present with the dying, it needed that Light should have its abode with those in darkness. But it were not possible that ye being men by nature should take wing to Heaven and have your abode with the Saviour. Therefore have I Myself come to you, I heard the Saints oftentimes crying aloud, Ps. cxliv. Bmv Thy Heavens o Lord and come down; I bowed the Heavens therefore and have come down; for in no other way could ye look to come hither. Yet do I endure to remain Chap. 3. with you, do ye more resolutely lay hold of life, purify yourselves through faith while He is with you Who knows to, and can, compassionate with authority. For I shall go, yea shall return again whither ye cannot come; even though ye should seek the Giver of salvation by an untimely aftercounsel, ye shall not find Him: what follows ye may see. For ye shall surely die in your sins, and weighed down by your own transgressions, shall go mourning to the prisonhouse of death, there to pay the penalty of your lengthened unbelief. The Saviour then being good and exceeding loving to man, compels the Jews by fears of future punishment even against their will to be saved.
23 A7id He said unto them. Ye are from beneath, I am from
Some one haply of those who have a more studious mind and are wont to approve the more subtle of the Divine Thoughts, will enquire what it was that induced our Lord Jesus Christ, Who but now addressed the Jews and said, I go My way, and ye shall seeh Me, to add as something Supra necessary. Ye are from beneath, I am from above. For these words seem somehow not to harmonise altogether with those above, but they are replete with a hidden economy. For since He is God, having no need as the Divine Evangelist John himself somewhere says, that any one should testify o/ Supra ii. man, for He hneiv what was in man, for He penetrateth even Heb. iv. to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts o/nd conceptions of the heart: He is not ignorant of the unlearned fantasies of the Jews, who, since a gross and feeble mind was their inmate, when they heard from the Saviour's Lips, I go My way, foolishly thought either that leaving Judsea He would flee somewhere or that He is saying somewhat of this kind. While I live and survive believe, lest death should befall me. For, I go My way, taken in its common meaning signifies this too. And it is no wonder if the Jews have fallen into such uncounsel 4s even to imagine something
' God by Nature, but looking only to this body which is of the earth, they imagined that He was a man as one of us.
Supra Therefore does the Saviour blaming them say, Y's, judge after the flesh. Removing them therefore from so puerile and grovelling a notion. He again teaches thena that not of any one subject to birth and decay are they reasoning such things, but of Him Who is in truth begotten from above and from God the Father. Not to Me therefore (He says) will belong death and flight, for I am from above, i. e., God from God (for God is above all) but you will this rather befit. For from beneath are ye, that is of nature subject to death and falling under decay and dread. Of Me therefore (He says) do ye letting go your own weakness imagine nought of this sort, for not of equal honour with the Lord is the bond, with Him Who is from above and begotten of God the Father that which is fro^n beneath and of the earth.
But that from above signifies the Eternal Generation of the Son from God the Father, wise reasoning will persuade us to hold. For from above understood of place signifies the being from Heaven, but nought would be in the Son special above the creature that is below and subject to God, if He come only from Heaven, since the more part of the
Heb. i. angels too sent forth to minister walk below, ordering some of the affairs on the earth, descending from above and from
Supra Heaven. And the Saviour is a witness to us saying. Verily verilji I say unto you, ye shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. Since then angels too descend from above, from heaven, why vainly does Christ boast as of something great and surpassing the whole creation, in having come I mean /rom above? But one may without the smallest toil and trouble see Who is by Nature the Only-Begotten, what the angels that are from Him. Needs therefore does fi-om above signify to us not this From Heaven which is common [to Him
> e'le'Aa^- and the Angels] but that the Son beamed forth ^ from the Nature Which is most exalted and above all things. Therefore doth, from above in regard to the Only-Begotten Alone, signify the being from God and nought else. For while all Chap. 3. tilings are said to be and to exist from God, the Son has ^' ^"^' ' * this special above all, viz., to be of the Very Essence of the Father by Generation and not as creatures by creation.
That the Son is by Nature God, wholly remote from likeness to the creature, as regards Essence.
He shewed herein and very clearly what is the meaning of Above, what of Beneath. For since it was like that the Pharisees able to understand nothing would consider what had been said in a more corporal manner, and understand the Above and Beneath of place and would thence stray into many notions, profitably did our Lord Jesus Christ bare His word of the obscurity that seemed to have been cast upon it and from all want of clearness, putting more clearly in the sequel what He had said darkly. For ye (He says) are of this ivorld, i. e., from beneath, I am not of this ivorld, this then is From above. For God overpasses all that is created, not having superiority in local exaltation (for it were foolish and utterly uninstructed to conceive of the Incorporeal as local) but surpassing things originate by the inefiable Excellences of Nature. Of this Essence does the Word say that He is, not the creation, but the Fruit and Offspring. For observe how He says not. From above have I been created and made, but rather, I am, that He may shew both whence He is and that He was ever Eternally with His own Progenitor. For He is as the Father too is: but He That is and is Eternally with Him That is, how He was not, let the folly of them who think otherwise* say.
But haply the foe of the Truth will withstand us saying, „ Not without qualification hath Christ said, I am not of „ the world, but by adding This, He hath shewn accurately a i. e., the Arians, Cf. at the end of was not,' or ' He was not before He was the Symbohim Nicaenum, "But those begot,' etc., these doth the Catholic and who say, 'There was a time when He Apostolic Church of Godanathematize."
Therefore among creatures is the Son (for this is what thy language, O sir, is working out for us), among those who have originate nature will the Creator be surely classed, putting about Him some angelic perchance and slavebefitting dignity you deem that yourself will escape the charge of blasphemy. For do you not know, that though you attribute to Him that highest position and status which the holy angels will be conceived of as having, though you confess that He is above every Princedom and Authority and Throne, and yet believe Him to be originate, you sin against Him no whit the less? For there is no worthy place whatever of superiority over the rest to the Only- Begotten, so long as He is at all conceived of as created. For not in having precedence of any hath He glory but in being not originate, yea rather God of God by Nature. But THOU again art classing Him Who beamed forth from God and therefore is God, with things originate, and thou reckonest Him to be a part of the world, and if not perchance of this one yet of another (for imagined distinction of worlds will make no difference at all, in respect of havingbeen made): and dost thou not blush putting the Word Who sitteth with Him Who begat Him, in the category of His guards and those who stand before Him? for dost thou not hear Gabriel saying to Zacharias, I am Gahriel that stand in the Presence o/?- ^"^® God and I was sent to speah unto thee, and Isaiah, I saw the Isa. vi. Lo7'd of Sabaoth sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the Seraphim were standing round about Him. And (marvel!) the Prophet was beholding the Son and called Him Lord of Sabaoth, and introduces Him as King with the highest Powers as Body-guard. And that it really was the Glory of the Only-Begotten which he was beholding, the wise John will testify saying, These things said Esaias because ^ he Infra xii. saw His glory: and of Him spake he. Wherefore the Divine Paul too, both from His Co-sitting with God the Father and ffvWfywv Angels said (i. e., God the Father) at any time, My 8on art yvwffiv Thou, this day have I begotten Thee? (for in the word I have
' begotten, He shews that the Son is by Nature God of God) lb. 13. and again. But to ivhich of the Angels said He at any time,
God the Father of either being wont to do aught unjust or as dishonouring the nature of the angels, when He honoured that by a position below the Son. For what hinders (may one say) since God the Father is just and good, His making
Son be altogether among things originate, and con-natural with them in respect of having been created, even though by some other excellences He surpass the measure belonging to them, just as they may surpass us. But not unrighteous is God the Father, who bade the Angels to stand in the
Presence, and gave this Dignity to their nature, having His own Son co-seated with Himself, since He knows that He is by Nature God, and that His own Offspring is not alien from
His Essence. How then is He any longer originate, how of an originate world and not rather in the same [state] wherein is Very God, i. e., above all things that are conceived of and acknowledged to exist in every world?
world; and by the word this, ye affirm that the other world is meant, saying that He is of it, let us see again if ye are not staying yourselves upon rotten arguments, prompted to rea-
" or levity, son and think thus by only your own want of thought ''^. For the word This, or of this (as it may be), or whatever we say
Bar. iii. pointing out to US the One and only God, says. This is our
Him, but if the word This were altogether significant of another, how would not another be accounted of in comparison of Him? yea and the righteous Symeon too, prophesy- Crap. 4. ing the mysteiy of Christ, says. Behold this child is set for the s. Luke fall and rising again of many dead in Israel and for a sign "•"^■** which is spohen against, although unto whom is it not most manifest, that not as severing us from other persons does the righteous man say. This, but intimating that He Who is now present and has been set for this, is by Himself? Therefore when Christ says, I am not of this ivorld, not surely as being of another world does He say it, but as defining and laying down in a more corporeal form, as if two places, the originate nature I mean and that of the Man Who is Ineffable and above every essence, He puts the Jews in the place of things originate, saying. Ye are of this world, Himself He altogether severing from things created, and connecting with the other place, I mean Godhead, says, I am not of this world. Hence contrasting (for our knowledge) the Godhead with the world," He gives Of this to the latter. Himself He apportions to God Who hath begotten Him and to the Essence which is Supreme over all.
„ But " (says he) „ God the Father will in nothing wrong „ the nature of the angels, if He do not please to honour it „ in the same degree as the Son. For variety in the creation, „ or the apportioning glory in befitting degree to each, in no „ wise argues that God is unjust, since how then should we „ be less than the angels, albeit we confess that God is „ Righteous? What then we are in respect of the angels, „ that are the angels too in respect of the Son; for they „ yield as to one better than they, the being in greater „ honour than themselves be."
But, most excellent sir, shall we reply, shaming the unlearned heretic, if even though we be remote from the glory of the angels, since we come short of the piety too that is inherent in them and though there be much variety in the creation and diversity, and superiority in honour or inferiority according to the will of Him Who made them, yet is the being created common to all, and in this there is nought at all that surpasseth or cometli short of other. For that an angel should excel a man in honour and glory is nought
Book 5. Wonderful^ or an archaugel too an angel; but the powei' of ' mounting up to the glory of Him Who made all things, we shall find to accrue to no one of creatures: for not any of the things that have been made will be God, nor will the bond be equal in honour with the Lord, co-sitting with Him and co-reigning. What measure then of honour will there be to the Son? being according to you originate and
Supra p. of the spiritual world, will He have God-befitting Dignity? how will that which is connatural with the creation mount up to the same glory as He Who is by Nature God, albeit
Isa. xlii. God saith. My Glory ivill I not give to another'^ what (tell me) put the devil forth of the heavenly halls? was it the thirsting for honour which beseemed the originate nature, yet better and greater than the measure which accrued to him, and was it in this that the nature of his crimes lay?
lb. xiv. or was it that he dared to say, I will he like the Most Sigh? For the creature pictured to itself that it could mount up to the Nature of its Maker and be co-throned with God Who has the power over all. Wherefore he hath also fallen
S. Luke as lightning, as it is written, /rom heaven. But thou springing heedlessly upon things so insecure, accountst it nothing that the Son being according to you of some world, and consequently parcel of the creation, should be called by way of honour by God the Father to sit with Him, though Essence in no wise bestow upon Him this nor call Him to Dignity befitting and due to it. For He receives, if it be as YE in your babbling say, things above the creature in the way of favour. Away with such blasphemy, man, for we will not be thus minded, may God avert it! For we believe that angels and archangels and those in yet higher place than they, are diversely honoured by the Authority and Counsel of the All-wise God, Who allots to each of the things that are a just Decree: but as to the Son by Nature, we will not imagine that He is so, for no glory by way of favour and imported hath He, but since He is of the Essence of God the Father, Very God of God by Nature and Very, He is co-throned and co-seated with Him, having all things under His Feet as God, and of the Father with the Fa- tlier in God-befitting way aloft above the whole creation. Chap. 4, c. viii. 24, Wherefore rightly heareth He, For all things are Thy ser- Ps. cxix.
vants. And since from all sides He is found to be Very God, it is (I suppose) wholly clear that He is not of this world, i. e., originate. For the world here signifies to us the nature of created things, carrying the comparison from a part unto the whole that is conceived of as created. As then God withdrawing Himself from all connaturalness with the creature said in the Prophets, For I am God and not man (and Hos. xi. not because He said that He is not man as we, shall we surely therefore class Him with angels or any other of things originate, but from part going unto the whole, will confess that God is by Nature Other than all things originate), so I deem that we ought piously to understand the hard things that come in our way; for we see in a mirror hy i.C"""- /" "r« 1 • 1 xm. 12.
Having by few words overturned the most ill-counselled fantasy of those who thus conceived, and convicted them again of talking nonsense about Himself, He returns so to speak to the original aim of His Speech, and resuming it again He shews them in how great ill they will be and into what they will fall, if they most unreasonably repulse any believing on Him. A thing very befitting a wise and grave master is this too: for I think that a teacher ought not to quarrel with the ignorance of his hearers nor to be slack in his care for them, even if perchance they do not very readily take in the knowledge of the lessons, but anew, yea many times, to return to the same things and go through the same words (since verily the enduring ploughman cleaving the field and having exhausted no slight toil thereon^ when he has sown the seed in the furrows^ if he see any spoilt, he turns again to the plough, and grudges not to sow upon the now ruined parts): for having missed his aim the first time he will not altogether do the same the second. A like habit the Divine Paul too practising somewhere says, To Phil. iii.
Book 6. say "^ the same things to you to me indeed is not grievous, hut 'for you it is safe. Seest thou that as the teacher is found superior to sloth, then to the hearers often follows the being ■ in safe practice? Serviceably then does our Lord Jesus Christ repeating His Discourse with the Jews affirm that the penalty of not believing on Him will be in no passing things: for He says that they who believe not must surely die in their sins. And that death in transgressions is an heavy burden, because it will deliver the soul of man unto the all-devouring flame, none may doubt.
For if ye believe not that I am, ye shall die in your sins.
He explains more exactly what will happen, and having made the mode of salvation most evident, He shews again by what way they going shall mount up to the life of the saints, and shall attain to the city that is above, the heavenly Jerusalem. And not only does He say that one ought to believe but affirms that it must needs be on Him. For we are justified by believing on Him as on God from God, as on the Saviour and Redeemer and King of all and Lord in truth. Therefore He says. Ye shall perish if ye believe not that I am. But the I (He says) is He of Whom it is Isa. Ix. 1. written in the Prophets, Shine shine o Jerusalem for thy Light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen u^on thee. For I (saith He) am He Who of old bade go to the putting off of the diseases of the soul and Who promised the Jer. iii. healing of love through saying, Betwn ye returning children and I will heal your hachslidings. I am He Who declared that the God-befitting and olden goodness and fi a;/e|t- incomparable forbearance ^ should be poured on you, and Isa. xliii. therefore cried aloud, I, I am He That hlotteth out thy sins and I will not remember. I am (He says) He Who by the lb. i. 16 Propliet Isaiah also said. Wash you, maJce you clean, imt ^^- away your wichednesses from your hearts from before Mine
Lyes, cease from your wichednesses, and come and let us reason together saith the Lord, even though your sins be as scarlet, I will whiten tliem as snow, even though they he Wee crimson, I Chap. 4. will tvhiten them as wool. I (says He) am He concerning whom again Isaiah the Prophet himself says, 0 Zion that lb. xl,9— hringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain, o Jerusalem that hringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength, lift ye up, he not afraid; heholdyour God, hehold the Lord Cometh with strength and His Arm with mle, hehold His reward with Hhn and His ivorh before Him: lihe a shepherd shall He feed His JtocJc, He shall gather the lamhs with His Arm and shall comfort those that are with young: and again, Theoi the eyes of the blind shall he opened and the ears ib. xxxv. of the deaf shall hear; then shall the lame man leap as an ' hart, and the tongue of the stammerers he clear. I am (He saith) He of Whom again it is written that suddenly shall Mai. iii. come to His Temple the Lord Whom ye are seehing, even the Messenger of the covenant Whom ye are desiring, hehold He cometh, saith the Lord of hosts, and who shall abide the Day of His Coining? or who shall stand in His Sight? for He shall enter in as fire in a smelting house and as the sope of fullers. I am (He saith) He Who for the salvation of all men promised to offer Myself for a Sacrifice to God the Father through the voice of the Psalmist and cried, 8a- Ps. xl. crifice and offering Thou woiddst not, a Body preparedst Thou Me; whole burnt offerings and for sin Thou delightedst not in, then I said, Lo I come, in the chapter of the Booh it is ivritten of Me, to do Thy Will, 0 God. I am. He saith, and the very law through Moses did preach Me, saying thus, A Pro- Deut.
phet of thy brethren liJce unto me will the Lord thy God raise le. up unto thee, unto Him shall ye hearhen; according to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly.
Therefore with reason (says He) shall ye perish and shall pay to the Judge most righteous Doom, for your much unholiness of manners not giving heed to Him Who through many saints was fore-heralded to you, and attested by the things too which I work. For verily and in truth no argument will liberate from the obligation of undergoing punishment those who believe not on Him, seeing that the
25 They said therefore to Him, Who art Thou?
Their word commingled with fiercest anger proceeds from 'dAafo- boastfulness ''. For they eagerly ask^ not to learn and believe, but out of much madness they spring (so to speak) on Christ. For He says in more simple word, I am, not adding, God of God, nor yet ought else to indicate His inherent Glory; but in lowly wise and apart from all boasting He says only this 8 ehu-aQe- I am, leaving it to the better instructed ^ to add what was wanting; and they go on to wildest and unbridled madness, and from unmeasured haughtiness they all but cut short the Saviour's word not yet advanced to its completion, and so to say rebuke and interrupt Him in the middle and say. Who art Thou? This is the part of one who openly says, Dost Thou dare to think of Thyself ought greater than we know? we know that Thou art son of the carpenter, a man low and most poor, of no note with us and altogether nought. They therefore condemn the Lord as being nought, looking only to His family after the flesh, but the Magnificence that pertains to His works, and still more His Generation from above and from the Father, whence they might specially recognize that He is by Nature God, they do not so much as admit into their mind. For who will work the things that befit God Alone? will not He surely Who is by Nature God? but Christ wrought them; He therefore was and is God, even when made Flesh for the salvation and life of all. But they whose belief is confined to their own mis-counsels, and take no account at all of our Divine and Divinely-inspired Scripture; they in regard of the very things for which they 1 Tim. i. ought to give thanks, do disparage Him, knowing neither what they say, nor ivhereqf they affirm.
Punctuating therefore with emphasis at the word Thou, and throwing back what is called the acute accent, we take the word as a question with note of admiration: for they of verse. Jews spoJceii to first though unworthy. 595 say ThoUj as tliouffh^ Thou Who art nothing at all, and art Chap. 4.
c viii 2S known b}^ us to be so. Thou Who art mean and of mean extraction, what canst Thou say illustrious of Thyself, what worth speaking of those about Thee? For nought of such daring is foreign to Jewish madness.
I am dishonoured (He says) albeit I invite unto everlasting life, unto forgiveness of sins, unto putting off of death and corruption, unto holiness, unto righteousness, unto glory, unto boasting in the sonship with God: yea I Who would crown you with all these, am counted for nought, and esteemed by you thus worthless, yea verily I am in deserved condition (He says) because I made a beginning of discourse with you, because I have spoken somewhat that could profit you, and devised to save those who were ou the point of descending to such deep depravity as to aim at repaying bitter requital to Him Who hath elected to save them.
Something else besides does Christ appear to indicate to us hereby. It was right (He says) that I should not converse at all with you at the beginning but on them rather should confer this who shall most gladly rejoice in My words and without delay submit their neck to the Gospel ordinances. He means by these the multitude of the Gentiles. But while we conceive of Him as saying thus, we will guard against the words of the adversaries. For one of those who are wont to fight against Christ will haply say, „ If the Son ought not „ to address the Jews at the beginning, but rather the Gen- „ tiles. He missed of what was fit, by doing this rather than „ that." But we will reply. Not as fepenting of His own or of the Father's Will, does the Son say thus, nor yet as having transgressed what befitted the Economy (for God would not have devised ought which did not altogether beseem to be): but by saying that not to you was it right to speak at the beginning, nor among you to lay a foundation of saving teaching. He shews that both the Father and Himself are by Nature True and Loving to man. For lo He freely gave
Book 5. to the iinlioly Jews tliougli not worthy of it the saving word, ' having put in the second place the multitude of the Gentiles albeit more readily making it their aim both to believe and obey Him.
What was it then which persuaded Him to prefer and fore-honour before the rest the stiflFnecked people of the
Jews? To them He made through the holy Prophets the promise of His Coming, to them was the grace due for the
S. Matth. fathers' sake. Wherefore He also said, I was not sent hut unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and to the Syro- Ib. 26. phenician woman. It is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast it to the dogs. Therefore has Israel been honoured and ranked before the Gentiles, although he had the crookeder disposition. But since he knew not the Lord of all and the Perfecter of the promised good things, the grace of the teaching departed at last to the Gentiles, whom it behoved the Lord at the beginning and first to have addressed, not in regard of the promise made to the fathers, but in regard of their innate obedience.
26 / have many things to say and to judge of you.
Seeing that the Jews condemn Him more recklessly, and though they have nothing at all to accuse Him of, are haughty on account only of the poorness of His Birth after the Flesh, and therefore say that He is nought. He shamed Supra them mildly, having said above more openly, Yn judge after ver. 15. ^/^g jlesh, I judge no man. But judging after the flesh will reasonably have some such meaning as this: They who delight only in earthly things, see nought of the heavenly good things, but looking only to illustriousness in this life, admire the wealthy or Mm who boasts in some other petty 9Solapl- glories^. But they who after the law of God examine VsievKoi. thoroughly ^ into the nature of things say that he is really v6iJ.fyoi the man worthy of love and admiration, who has within him the desire to live according to the counsel and will of Him ^rhiT/jLi- Who hath made him. For low position^ after the flesh will «^oirpe- nothing harm the soul of the man who is accustomed to do well,and on the other hand illustrious portion in this Hfe and said just now, who look not to holiness, who use not to prove their walk^, their manners, but turn aside their mind to only ^ ToAtrer.
earthly things and deem worthy of all admiration him that Phil. iii.
is brought up in wealth and luxury. Ye then, 0 most unwise rulers of the Jews, albeit by the Law of Moses instructed unto accuracy of giving judgment, judging upon no grounds at all, condemn for only bodily low estate Him Who through many wondrous works is shewn to you to be God. But I will not imitate your ill-instructedness, nor will I pass such kind of judgment on you: for nothing at all is human nature. For what is this perishable and earthly body? rottenness and the worm and nought else. Yet I will not for this reason condemn you, nor because ye are men by nature, will I therefore decide that ye ought wholly to be ■spurned: / have many things to say and to judge of you, that is, every accusing word has a full office to you-ward*, *ir\ovrelnot of one thing alone shall I accuse you, but of many, and in none shall I speak falsely as do ye. I have to judge you as disbelieving, as braggarts, as insulters, as fighters against God, as without feeling, as unthankful, as wicked, as lovers of pleasure rather than habitually loving God, as receiving honour one of another and seeking not the honour that com- ^"4^* eth from the Only *, as setting on fire the spiritual vineyard, as not feeding aright the flock entrusted to you by God, as not leading them by the hand unto Him That is proclaimed by the Law and the Prophets, i. e., Me. Such things will the Saviour be declaring to the Jews, but by adding, I have yet many things to say and to judge of you, He threatens them that He will one Day appear as their Judge, Who seemed to them to be nought by reason of the Flesh.
But He That setit Me is Trite, and I the things which I heard from Him, these speak I unto the world.
* to revile Him^ He returns again to what He was saying at the beginning, reserving the judging them and that in all freedom for not this present but for the fitting time, and retaining to the time of the Appearance its pro-
Infra per aim (for He came not to judge the ivorld hut to save the ivorld, as Himself says). Wherefore keeping fast hold of the things befitting Him, and repeating the word that calls unto salvation. He carries on His exhortation. For herein was it meet that we should both marvel at the measure of His Forbearance and the exceedingness of His inherent Love for man: wherefore doth Peter too write
1 S. Pet. of Him, Who when He vms reviled, reviled not again, when He suffered. He threatened not hut committed Himself to Him That judgeth righteously. Therefore will I expend (He says) discourse upon you now in particular, not for what ye are wont to do it, for faultfinding I mean and exercise unto nought that is profitable: but having reserved the judging you for its fit time, I will keep to what is for your good, and will not cease from care of you, even though ye of your innate madness foolishly insult Me. I said there-
Supra fore to you just now, I am the Light of the ivorld, he that folloiveth Me shall not tvalk in darhiess, hut shall have the Light of Life; at this ye unreasonably vexed sprang sharply lb. 13. upon Me saying, Thou hear est record of Thyself, Thy record lb. 14. is not true; to this again I, Even though I hear record of Myself, My record is trite, for I know whence I came and ivhither I go. But if I seem^to be burdensome to you saying these things to you, if I be not a reliable witness of the Dignities accruing to Me by Nature, yet He That sent Me is True and the things which I heard of Him, these speah I unto the ivorld. I speak the same (He says) as the Father Who sent Me, I utter words conformable to His, in saying that I am by Nature Light. The things then which I heard God the Father say of Me, these things I speah to the world. If then I speak false according to you, and My record is not true, ye must certainly needs say that the Father spake falsely before Me. But He is True: therefore I do not speak falsely, and if ye do not believe My Words, reverence (He Chap. 4. says) the Voice of Him That sent Me. For what said He of Me? Behold a Man, The Day-spring ^ His Name, and ^^^^^- '^^• again to those who reverence Him, And unto you that fear ^ avaroKri My Name shall the Sun of righteousness arise and healing 2. m His wings; and to Me Whom ye unknowing insult. He says. Behold I have given Thee for a Covenant of the people^ Isa. xlix. for a light of the nations. But that I am also a Light was cf. xlii. 6. told you by Him, for He says. Shine shine 0 Jerusalem for It- Ix. l. thy Light is come and the glory of the Lord hath risen upon thee. These things did I hear the Father Who sent Me say of Me, and therefore do I say that I am the Light of the ivorld, but YE disparaged Me, because of the Flesh only judging not rightly, and therefore are ye bold to say frequently. Thou bearest record of Thyself, Thy record is not Supra true.
Therefore (for it is meet to sum up the whole mind of what is before us) He shews that the Jews are fighting right against God, and that not only with His words, but also with the Father's decree. For He knows that His Son is by Nature Light and calls Him therefore Dayspring and Sun of Eighteousness, but they pulling down the destruction of unbelief upon their own heads reject the Truth calling good evil and therefore shall rightly the Woe follow ^(^' ^' them.
27 Thet/ knew not that He spake to them of the Father.
The Spirit-clad is astonishment- stricken at the senselessness of the Jews, and with great reason: for what more without understanding than such, who, when much discourse and often had been made to them concerning God the Father, conceive not of Him a whit when they hear our
Saviour saying, But Ho That sent Me is True? What then is Supra the plea, and why the blessed Evangelist says that the Jews knew not that Christ in these words signified God the Father to them, we must needs say. For since the Saviour said to
ver. 19. ^g^g true, the Evangelist brings in those who know not the
Son, as ignorant of the Father too. For the Son is (so to speak) a Door and Gate unto the knowledge of the Father, hy Me. For the mind darting up from Image to Archetype i imageth the other from what is before it. It was necessary therefore to shew that the Jews had no conception of the
6 avaydi- Father, since they would not be led, upward mounting^ from knowledge of the Son to conception of the Father. Wherefore does the Evangelist clearly shew that when Christ says.
Supra JIq That sent Me is True, they hneiv not that He s^ahe to them of the Father.
28 When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am.
Imitating the most excellent physicians, He lays bare the cause of their soul's infirmity and clearly opens what it was that hinders their going with resolution to understanding and faith towards Him. For since looking at the Flesh and its family, they were induced to think slightingly of Him and, having this vail over the eyes of their understanding, they would not know that He is God even though He is seen as Man, needs did He address them saying. When ye have lifted up the 8on of Man then shall ye hnoiv that I am, i. e., when ye cease from your slight and grovelling conception of Me, when ye have some lofty and super-mundane thought of Me, and believe that I am God of God, even though for your sakes I am become Man as you, then shall ye know clearly that I am the Light of the world (for this I just now told you): for what would any longer hinder (He says) Him Who is wholly admitted to be Very God, from being also Light of the world? For not to so great depth of madness Supra and daring will. any go as then too to venture to say. Thy record is not true, for he will in no wise accuse what God by Nature and Vei'y shall say.
It is then most evident from the words too of the Saviour, if mere man no hope for us; tJieir iJunishment. 601 tliat if we have a mean opinion of Him and consider Him to Chap. 4. be bare Man and bereft of tbe Godhead by Nature, we shall surely both disbelieve Him and not admit Him as Saviour and Redeemer. And what is the result? we have fallen from our hope. For if salvation is through faith and faith be gone '^, what will yet save us? But if we believe and ^ <PpovSri lift up to God-befitting height the Only-Begotten even though He hath become Man, advancing as with a fair wind and speeding across the all-troublous sea of life, we shall safe moor in the city that is above, there to receive the rewards of believing.
When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that
Having with many and good words bathed^ the wrath of^ ireptathe Jews, He sees it not a whit the less swelling ^. For they a^a-^p^J cease not heedlessly blaspheming, yea at one time they set 'J"*""^" aside His Speech and impiously call Him a liar: for to say Thy record is not true, what else is it than this? at another Supra time again, to Him out of love declaring the things that belong to salvation and on this account saying. If ye he- lb. 24. Ueve not that I am, ye shall die in your sins, they began hotly to oppose Him and arraying against those utterances of love their words of madness said, Who art Thou? For lb. 25. them therefore who thus unmitigatedly wallowed in unreasoning audacity there was need of a word that should sober them and persuade them to be more gently disposed and put a bridle on their tongue even against its will. Therefore was He threatening them telling them most clearly that they shall not escape punishment for their impiety, but even though they see Him for the present forbearing, yet when their impiety towards Him has gone forth to its dread consummation, I mean Death and the Cross, they shall undergo all-dread justice and shall receive in return intolerable lot, that of the war with the Romans, which after the Saviour's Cross befell them from the wrath above from God. And that they should suflPer all-terrible things, the Saviour again signified more
Book 5. clearly to tliem saying, at one time to tlie weeping women, S. Luke ' Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me hut weep for yourselves lb! xxi " ^^^^ f^'"' yo'^'^ children, at another again. When ye shall see 1^... Jerusalem compassed %vith armies, then shall ye say to the 30. mountains, Cover us and to the hills. Fall on us ^. For to such, an extent do the sufferings of the war overcome the Jews, that every kind of death was to them pleasanter and rather to be chosen than the trial of them: their removal from their country, the enslavements of those who inhabit it and their most savage slaughter and the famines in every city and their child-devourings therein Josephus too relates in his history.
When then (He says) ye having betrayed to the cross the Son of man endure your retributive punishment, and pay penalties correspondent to your daring deeds against Me, tJien shall ye weeping hioiv that I am the All-Powerful, that is God. For if one sparrow enter not the snare of the I aOffl fowler without the will of God ^, how shall a whole country, (He saith) and the beloved ^ nation go on to destruction so complete, except God supreme over all had surely permitted that so it should be? Evil therefore and all-dread is the contempt of God which bringeth to the consummation of I "^T thino^s to be deprecated ^. Wherefore Paul too rebuketh
Rom. ii. some. Saying of God, Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and long suffering, not hioiving that the goodness of God is leading thee to repentance, but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath in the Day of wrath?
Christ spent long time dwelling with the Jews, and speaking in every synagogue, so to say, and addressing them every sabbath- day and, setting before them often and ungrudgingly profitable teaching, was continually inviting them to the illumination through the Spirit, and verily He f S. Cyril transposes the words Cover phet Hosea [x. 8.] us and Fall on us again in the last Book? Cf. Jer. xi. 15, Isa. v, 1, and of Benof this commentary and also on the Pro- jamin, Deut. xxxiii. 12.
light of the ivorld; but tliey thinking most foolishly were s'upra" ever gainsaying Him who said these things, for (says he) ^*^'"' *" Thou bearest record of Thyself, Thy record is not true. And ib. 13. not at contradictions in words did the daring of the Jews stay^ nor only in love of reviling was their untamed audacity consummated, but going without stint through all savageness, they at last betrayed Him both to Cross and Death. But since He was by Nature Life, having burst the bonds of death. He arose from the dead and (as was reasonable) departs from Jewish defilement and hasted away from Israel and that with justice, and betaking Himself to the Gentiles, He invited all to the Liffht, and to the blind He?■ Luke freely bestowed recovery of sight. It befell then that after from isa. the Death on the Cross of our Saviour Christ, the under- lxx. standings of the Jews were darkened, in that the Light had departed forth from them, and that the hearts of the Gentiles were enlightened, in that the Very Light beamed upon them. When then. He says, ye have lifted u]) the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am, instead of, I will await the consummation of your impiety, I will not bring upon you wrath before its time, I will accept the Passion and Death, I will endure along with the rest this too. But when ye shall betray to the Cross the Son of Man deemed by you to be bare man, then shall ye hioio, even against your will, that not falsely have I said that I a«i the Light of the world. For when ye see yourselves darkened, the innumerable multitude of the Gentiles enlightened by having Me with them, how will ye not even against your will agree that I am of a truth the light of the world? For that the Saviour was going to depart from the Synagogue of the Jews after His coming to Life again ^ from the dead, is doubtful to none (for it has '' o.vafiibeen accomplished and done): yet may one see it somehow (yea even clearly) from His words, While ye have the Light Infra walk in the Light, lest darkness come njpon you. For the repression and withdrawal of light generates darkness, and again the presence of light causes darkness to vanish. Therefore is Christ shewn as being of a truth Light, Who
Book 5. darkened the Jews througli His Departure from tliem, and ' enlightened the Gentiles through His Presence with them and a bitter lesson to the Jews was their experience of dread things.
IVhen ye have lifted up the So7i of Man, then shall ye know that I am.
Since looking only (He says) to the flesh, ye believe that I am mere Man, and deem that I am one like yourselves, but the Dignity of the Godhead and the Glory from thence, do not so much as enter your mind: — a most evident token to you of My being God of Truly God and Light of Light, shall be your all-dread and most lawless deed of daring, the Cross that is and the Death of the Flesh thereupon. For when ye &irpa- see the issue of your mad folly frustrate of its purpose* and the snare of death crushed in pieces (for I shall surely rise from the dead): then shall ye even against your will and of necessity at length assent to what I said to you and shall confess that I am by Nature God. For I shall be superior to death and decay, I being by Nature Life shall raise again My Temple. But if to overmaster death and to triumph over the meshes of corruption belong to Him Who is by Nature God and to no other being, how shall I not (all contradiction and all doubt being removed) be shewn thereby to overcome all things mightily and without trouble? therefore does the Saviour say that His Cross shall be a sign to the Jews and a most evident demonstration of His being by Nature God. And this you may see Him elsewhere too, clearly saying: for when many and unnumbered prodigies had been shewn forth by Him, the Pharisees once came to Him tempting
S. Matth. Him and saying. Master, we would see a sign from Thee. But He since He saw the imaginations which were going on in them, and was not ignorant that they were bitterly minded, lb. 39, 40. says. An evil and adulterous generation seeJceth after a sign, and a sign shall not be given to it, but the sign of the 'prophet Jonas; for as Jonas ivas three days and three nights in the' whale's belly, so shall the Son of man too be three days and Chap. 4. three nights in the heart of the earth. Hearest thou how to ' ' * the Jews asking a sign as a proof that He is God by Nature, even though they said it tempting Him, He says that no other shall be shewn to them save the sign of the jprophet Jonas, i. e. the three days death and the coming to life again ^ from the dead? For what token of God-befitting ^ «'"'^'- authority so great and manifest, as to undo death and overthrow decay, albeit by Divine sentence having the mastery over human nature? For in Adam it heard, Dust thou art Gen. iii, and unto dust shall thou return; but it was in the power of Christ the Saviour both to end His Anger, and by blessings to overthrow the death which from His curse prevailed. But that the Jews exceedingly feared the sign of the resurrection as mighty to convince that Christ is by Nature God, their final deed^ will clearly tell us, for when ® Soo^athey heard of the Resurrection of the Saviour, and that He was not found in the tomb, terrified and exceeding fearful thereat, they planned to buy off the informations''' of the ^ o-^^osoldiers by large money. For they gave them money to say. His disciples came by night and stole Him while we slept. S. Matth. Mighty therefore is the sign of the Resurrection, having undoubted demonstration that Jesus is God, whereat the hard and unbending heart of the Jews was sore troubled.
That not inferior in Might and Wisdom to God the Father is the Son, yea rather His very AYisdom and Might.
He speaketh in more human wise, in that the Jews could not otherwise understand, nor endure to hear from Him un-
2 '^Kara^^ vailed 1 things God-befitting. For on these matters are a-fevSo- ■ti^ey found hurliuff ^ stones at Him, and setting" it down ^ as infra x. drawing therefore the surpassmgness of God-befitting glory and having much bereft His language of its splendour, He condescends most excellently to the infirmities of the hearers, and since searching into their mind within He finds that they know Him not to be God, He fashions His Discourse in human wise, that their dispositions may not be again kindled unto anger and they foolishly dart away from cleaving to Him even a little. Ye shall hioiu therefore (He says) when ye have lifted up the Son of Man, that I am, ye shall know again in like manner that of Myself I do nothing, hut as My Father taught Me, so I spealc.
And what need of these words (tell me) may some one haply say, and what does Christ teach us herein? There-
4 aTToAe- fore wc will say, piously and with fair distinction expanding^ T6S, beat- each of the things said; Ye have never ceased (He saith) fine°&s falling upon My Deeds, as though wrought madly and unmetal- liolily, ye condemned Me oft as not refusing to transgress, as wont to act contrary to the Lawgiver. For I loosed the paralytic from his so great infirmity, I compassionated a man on the sabbath. But seeing (He saith) you who ought to have wondered at it, finding fault thereat and missing much of what befit Me, yea even just now I explaining to