Commentary on the Gospel of John

Book 9. to the Father alone, He passes over our attributes as c. XIV. 11. gjjriall matters altogether; and not willing that the Divine essence should be thought accurately imaged in human attributes, He has reserved to Himself alone Supra the perfection of resemblance. For He says: He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. Then to these words Ibid. 11. He straightway added: Believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. For seeing that He possesses resemblance in the most absolute exactness. He must as a necessary consequence possess in Himself the Father, and be possessed (so to speak) by the Father. For think of something of the same kind, and accept it as an illustration of the words we are considering. If, for instance, any one were by chance to bring into our presence the son of Abraham or of any other man, and then were to question him as to the nature of his parent, desiring to learn precisely who and what kind of person the parent was; would not the youth employ reasonable language if he were to point to his own nature and say, " He that hath seen me hath seen my father: I am in my father, and my father is in me? " Then as a proof of his speaking the truth, would it not be fitting that he should draw attention to the identity with his father exhibited in his human doings and his physical peculiarities, and say: " Believe me for the very works' sake, seeing that I have all the qualities and can perform all the actions which pertain to human nature? " Indeed I think every one will say and will justly allow, both that he speaks the truth and that (in alleging the identity) he puts forward an accurate indication of the relationship involved in their particular actions. Why then do not they, Mic.iii.9. who 'perveH such things as are right, persuade their own (LXX.) jiscipigs to travel on the straight path of reasoning, instead of thrusting them off from the well-trodden king's highway, and taking an untrodden and rugged route, both deceiving themselves and destroying those who feel it their duty to follow them? We, however, not taking their road, will keep along the direct path;

and, giving credit to the Sacred Scriptures, we believe Chap. i. that the Son, Who is in His nature begotten of God the ^g^^^" "' Father, is of equal strength and Consubstantial with the Father, and essentially His Image; and therefore that He is in the Father, and the Father in Him.

1 2 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than

13 these shall he do; because I go unto the Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

If anyone should think to discourse hereon commensurately with the extent of the meaning of what is here submitted to us, the task would be broad and deep. But if we consider what is rather profitable for the hearers, we shall think it beseems us to grasp in general wise the things signified, and to curtail the length of our discourse. For so would the meaning be most easy to be received by most men. So then, wishing to show forth that He was Consubstantial with His own Father, and that He is a Very Image of Him; carried in the Father as in an Archetype, albeit having the Archetype in Himself, as being a Very Image both naturally and essentially, and not in virtue of any shaping Avhich implies a process of moulding and fashioning; for the Divinity transcends shape, inasmuch as it is incorporeal withal: /, He says, am in the Father and the Father is Supra in Me. But to the end that we may not look for the ^^^' identity of the resemblance and the exact conformity thereof in any other sort than as a conclusion from those prerogatives alone that attach to His nature; for it was possible therefrom to see that the similarity is essential and natural; He says: Or else, believe ^by^dnd reason of the tvorks. For indeed He very rightly thought that of a surety if any man beheld Him radiant with the like mighty works to those of God the Father, He would accept Him for a really natural Image and Likeness of His essence; for nought save what is naturally of God

Book 9. would ever do equivalent deeds to those of God; nay, c^xiv. 12, jjgij^i^ej. could the power to work wonders on any wise in equal measure with the Divine nature come to belong to any created thing. For utterly unapproachable and beyond reach to them that have been called into being out of nothing are the proper excellences of the Eternal. And in no wise was it likely that any would doubt that the Saviour's saying would be utterly irreproachable, at least in the eyes of the right-minded; yet, as God, He was not ignorant that even what was well said would be, to them that held opposite opinions, an occasion and a pretext for strange teaching. With intent then that no place for loquacity might be left herein for them that pervert such things as are right, and lest they should say it was not of His immanent might nor of His own power that the Son became a worker of wonders, but only inasmuch as He had within Him the Father doing the works: on this account, as He Himself said and insisted, the Lord (when need arose) courted them with words that might allure their minds: for He promises herein that He will be to them that believe on Him a Supplier of what things soever they will ask, and promises that He will supply to them not merely an equal power and authority but the same with increase: for greater things, He says, than I have done, shall he do. Seest thou then how He cuts short, and profitably so, the boldness of our opponents, and by His refutations of error reins in men (as it were) when they are rushing over precipices 1 For anyone will say to them: " O fools and blind, whereas ye suppose the Son to have been able to effect nothing of Himself, but rather to have been supplied by the Father with the power and authority for all those things that have been wondrously accomplished; how does He promise that He will grant to them that believe on Him to effect even greater things? How shall another, by borrowing the power from Him, effect what He has not done Himself? For notice that He has not said herein that the Father will supply power to them that believe; but,

Whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, I will do it. But Chap. i. He Who as God imparts to others the power to effect even ^-^^^^-l-' those greater things, how could He have been Himself supplied with the power by another? " So that what they say is utter nonsense, and thoughtless trash, and inventions of a devilish perversity. But no man would contemplate the power of the Son as in any wise limited, nor as extending to one thing but insufficient to reach things still greater; nay, but as doing easily whatsoever it will, and bestowing on the worthy the power to glory in thrones, it may be of equal honour, or it may be even more highly exalted. And let none suppose us to say that any of those who have set store by their faith in Him will ever have such excess of power as to be able to fashion a heaven, or to make a sun and a moon, or the brilliant choir of the stars, or peradventure to create angels, or an earth, or such things as are therein. For the aim of His words is not directed towards these things, but is bent upon the things whereon it was reasonable that so it should be; and He overpasses not the measure of the splendour that beseems mankind, in glory to wit, and holiness. For surely it is for this cause, by way of restraining His words from ranging as it were whithersoever a man might desire, and of confining Himself to those wondrous works which He did while on earth after He became man, when He draws the contrast with the greatness of the still greater deeds, that He says: " He shall do the things which I have done, and greater things than these.'' For it was not because He was too weak to accomplish the greater things, that He held back His own power within the bounds of the things which He accomplished; but when He has done what was needful, and all perchance for which opportunity offered. He kindly gives us to understand by these words, that the reach of the incomprehensible greatness of His immanent power is not limited to those things. But to the end that, preserving the order of the thoughts presented to us, we may get the minds of our hearers on the contemplation of His

Book 9. utterance, [we will repeat that] He says: Verily, I say l^^""' "' unto you, he that helieveth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater ivories than these shall he do; because I go unto the Father.

Then, " What is this? " one of the hearers might say with some reason, " I mean the Son's going to the Father in order that they who believe on Him may be able to effect things even still greater than the deeds exhibited by Himself? Surely the saying introduces some hidden subject for contemplation," To learn what it is that He says, consider Him as perhaps meaning: — "O ministers and genuine pupils of My words, so long as I abode with you on the earth, and had My conversation as a man, I did not exhibit the power of the Godhead undimmed before you: I both spake and acted as befitted the measure of My humiliation and the condition of a slave. But thereafter, when those things shall have been beseemingly accomplished, then also will the mystery of the dispensation in the flesh be completed for Me. For almost immediately I shall suffer death and shall rise to life again. And I promise to then bestow on you the power to accomplish works still greater than My own miracles. And the time for this is even now at hand, and so is the glory of their accomplishment. For I am going to the Father, that is, to sit down with Him and to reign with Him as God of God in unveiled power and authority, [and in the fulness] of My own nature to give good things unto My friends. Whatsoever ye shall ask," He says, " in My Name, I ivill do it, when the time has been completed wherein it was necessary," He says, "that I should show Myself in the garb of humiliation. I have observed all that was requisite to the proper carrying out of the scheme of the Incarnation; and now henceforth I promise that unveiledly as God I will work the works of God, not thrusting out the Father from the glory so God-befitting, but with intent that He may be glorified in the Son." For if the Offspring is glorified, the Parent also shall assuredly be glorified in Him. For the

Son, being ever in His nature God, would have been de- Chap. i. clared by many other signs; yet no less also is He dis- ^g^^^" ' closed by receiving the prayers of the saints, and granting them whatsoever they might ask and wish. How then should not the Father b^ glorified in Him? For like as He would have been grievously blamed, and naturally so, if the Offspring that came forth from Him had not been in His nature God; in like manner He will be exceeding glorious in that He has for the Fruit that came forth from His essence One Who is God and can skill so well to do all things and to enable others to do them.

But if it tends to the glory of the Father that the Son should be seen possessed of God-befitting prerogatives, what manner of punishment shall fasten upon the heretic, forasmuch as he dreads not to disparage Him with shameless blasphemies in divers manners? And I will further say another thing, in no small measure (as I deem) at issue with their crude ignorances. For if we pray to the Son and seek our petitions from Him, and He pledges His promise to grant them; how could it be that He is not by nature God, and begotten of One Who is in His nature God? For if they conceive Him not so to be, and say that He was created, how shall we any longer be distinguished from those who invoke the sun, or the heaven, or any other of the creatures? For if, exceeding mischievously, ashamed of the ungainliness of their own folly, they say that albeit a creature equally with the rest of the creatures yet He hath a certain incomparable supereminence over all; notwithstanding let them be assured that none the less will they outrage the glory of the Father, that is, the Son, so long as ever they say that He is one in the number of the things that have been made. For the issue is, not whether He is haply a great or a small creature, but whether He is a creature at all, and is not rather in His nature God; which indeed is the truth.

Undisguisedly now He says that, being Very God, He will accept exceeding readily the prayers of His own people, and will supply right gladly what things soever they desire to receive, meaning of course spiritual gifts and such as are worthy of the heavenly munificence. And not as the minister of another's benevolence, nor yet as subserving another's kindness, does He say such things; but as, with the Father, having all things in His 1 Cor. power; and as Himself being the One through Whom, ^"^' ■ are all things, both from us to God-ward, and to us-ward from Him. For this cause Paul also prays on behalf of the worthy for such supplies of benefits as are by him ever mentioned in conjunction, in the following words: Phil. i. 2. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ; and surely no man in his senses will ever in the face of this suppose that the Father by Himself separately grants a grace, and again the Son by Himself separately and as it were in turn does so; but the grace is one and the same, albeit it is spoken of as coming through Both. Notwithstanding, it is by the Father through the Son that all good things are wi'ought for the worthy, and the distribution of the Divine gifts is made; through the Son, I say, not as accepted in the rank of a servant, as we have already explained, but as conceived to be Co-Giver and Co-Supplier, and moreover as being so of a truth. For the nature of the Godhead is one, and also is believed so to be. For although it is extended to Father and Son and to the Holy Spirit, yet it has no absolute and entire severance; I mean, into each of the Persons indicated. For we shall be orthodox in believing that the Son is naturally both of the Father and in the Father, and that the own Spirit of the Father and of the Son, that is, the Holy Spirit, is both of and in the Father. So then, forasmuch as the Godhead of Their nature both is and is conceived of as One, Their gifts will be supplied to the worthy through the Son from the

Father in the Spirit, and our offerings will be carried to Chap. i. God manifestly through the mediation of the Son: for no g'upra one comieth unto the Father hut through Him, as to be sure ver. 6. He also Himself fully confesses. So then the Son both has become and is the Door and the Way as well of our friendship as of our progress towards God the Father, and the Co-Giver as well as Distributer of His bounty, forasmuch as it proceeds from a single and common munificence. For one is the nature of the Godhead in the person and substance both of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. And forasmuch as it was unwonted in a way with them of old time, and as yet foreign to their practice, to approach the Father through the Son, He teaches this also for our profit, and laying first in His own disciples a foundation as it were of the structure, He implants in them both faith in this and knowledge, and despatches to ourselves instruction both how we are to pray and wherein lies our hope. For He promises that He will Himself give us what we ask in praj^er; a proof of the Godhead in His nature, and of the royal authority inherent in Him; adding this to the other proofs thereof.

Having ordained that when men pray they must ask in His Name and promising that He will Himself supply to them that ask whatsoever they desire to receive. He takes great thought not to seem to speak falsehood, having in view the unholy slanders of such as are wont to be captious. For a man can see, and best out of the Sacred Writings themselves, that some approach and ask earnestly in His Name, and notwithstanding in no wise receive; because God is not ignorant of what is fitting for each and profitable for the askers. Therefore to the end that our Lord Jesus the Christ might clearly exhibit who they are in reference to whom the word has been spoken and stands good, and to whom is due the grace of the promise; He straightway introduced the

Book 9. mention of the persons who love Him, in whose case the ■ ■ promise will assuredly be fulfilled, and conjoins with His saying the exactly-defined keeper of the law, showing that unto such and not unto others shall the promise of kindness and the bestowal of the spiritual blessings hold good and come to pass. For that oftentimes the bounteous hand of God is shortened in hesitation, cutting off from them that will not ask aright the consummation of their hopes, thou wilt easily understand, from what the disciple of Christ is at pains to write on this wise: s. James Ye cisJc, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, tvhen ye will spend it in your pleasures. Wherefore also again he says, about them that are wont to be double- Ibid, i. 7, minded: For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord; for \he is] a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. For to them that ask for the grace that is from above, not for establishing of virtue, but for enjoyment of carnal pleasure and worldly lusts, God well-niffh shuts fast His ear, and in no wise grants them anything; for what things soever He forbids and wholly casts out by reason of the abomination that is in them, how could He grant them to any? And the spring of all sweetness, how could it give forth a bitter stream 1 But that unto the lovers of spiritual gifts with rich and readiest hand He distributes blessings, thou shalt easily perceive, when thou hearest Him saying Is.lxv.24. unto them by the mouth of Isaiah the prophet: While 9 ■ ^"^' thou art yet speaking, 1 will say. What is it? and by Ps.xxxiv. the voice of the Psalmist: The eyes of the Lord are fxxxiii '^^P^'^ ^^'<^ righteous, and His ears are op>en unto their 16^^^ prayer.

So having determined and expressly declared that the enjoyment of the heavenly blessings, supplied, that is, through Him by the Father, is lioth due to them that love Him, and in very truth shall be theirs; He straightway goes on to describe the j)ower of love, and instructs us excellently and irreproachably, for our profit, with intent that we should devote ourselves to the pursuit thei'eof. For albeit a man say that he loves Chap. i. God, he will not therefore straightway win the credit of ^' ^^' ' truly loving, forasmuch as the power of virtue stands not in bare speech, nor is the beauty of piety towards God " fashioned in naked words; but rather it is really distinguished by means of good deeds effected and an obedient temper; and the keeping of the Divine precepts best gives living expression to love towards the Divinity, and presents the picture of a virtue wholly living and true; not sketched out in mere sounds that flow from the tongue, as we have said, but gleaming as it were and altogether radiant with brilliant colours, to wit, the portraits of good works. And indeed our Lord Jesus the Christ shows us this plainly, when He says: Not S. Matt. every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into "^"•^^• the Jcingdovi of heaven; bid he that doeth the will of My Father, Which is in heaven. For the proof of faith lies not in barren words or professions, but in the qualities of acts, and indeed the Holy Scripture says that it is Cf. dead when the works do not follow therewith. For the \( oo^e! knowledge that God is One, it says, we shall find, not Ibid. 19. only in human minds, but in the unclean devils themselves; who also shudder, even involuntarily, at the power of Him that made them. Howbeit to keep the radiance of their acts concurrent with their faith is manifestly the beauty and ornament of those only who truly love God. So then the proof of love and the most perfect definition of faith is the observance of the Evangelic decrees and the keeping of the Divine precepts. And perhaps it would be in no wise difficult to add other things hereunto, akin in their drift; only that I suppose they do not suit the present occasion. Wherefore we must once more betake ourselves to such points as are more suitable to what lies before us. Lf ye love Me, He says, ye will hee-p My commandments. For indeed thou must understand once again and call well to mind that oftentimes, when conversing with His own disciples or even with the Jews themselves, He would

Book 9. say: The words that I sj^eak are not Mi ne, bid His Wlto sent c.^xiv. 10, jjjg. ^^^ again: / sj^eak not from Myself, hut the Father Supra 10 Which Sent Me, He hath given Me a commandment, what &^ni ra j sliould Say, and tvhat I should speak; and again: The Supra 10 things therefore which I speak, are not Mine, hut His &xn. 49. j^j^^ ggj^^ jjg ^j^^ yg^ ^^^ again, notwithstanding He

& XIV. 24. j^i^Q words He addressed to us are God the Father's, He here says they are His own commandments, which He has spoken to us. And no one that has sense will suppose that He speaks falsely, for let not this thought come into the mind of a Christian; and moreover He will of course speak truly, forasmuch as He is Himself the Truth. For it was not in the manner of one of the prophets, as if with the rank of a minister and a servant, that He conveyed the message from the Father to us; but as bearing such likeness to Him that not even in word was He haf)ly observed to differ, but rather naturally to speak on such wise as the Father Himself might peradventure talk with us. For the exact similarity of essence leads us to believe that the Son also corresponds in His utterances to Him that begat Him; and inasmuch as He is Himself the Word and Wisdom and Purpose of God the Father, He says that He has received commandment what to say and what He shall speak. For we also ourselves individually see that our own minds well-nigh even lay a commandment on our speech uttered through words, as it proceeds to the world without, that it shall interpret what is in the mind itself. Small indeed is the force of the illustration as applied to God; but notwithstanding this, by taking the analogy of human things to assure us of the things that transcend them, we apprehend the Divine Mysteries as it were in a mirror and darkly.

16 And I will prcci/ the Father, and He shall give you another

17 Comforter, that He may he with you far ever, even the Sjnrit of truth: Who7n the tvorld cannot receive; for it heholdeth

He mingles once more the human with the Divine, and neither reverts to the pure glory of the Godhead, nor yet altogether confines His range within the limits of humanity, but traverses both, wondrously and at the same time indistinguishably too, forasmuch as He is at once both God and man. For He was God by His nature, inasmuch as He was the Fruit of the Father and the Effulgence of His essence; and again. He was man, inasmuch as He has become Flesh. Accordingly He speaks as God and at the same time as man: for after this manner it was possible to preserve duly such forms of language as befitted the dispensation in flesh. Notwithstanding, while we are searching for the meaning of the passage before us, we say this: that at this point also, of necessity, our Lord has introduced the mention of God the Father, for the building up of their faith, and for the exceeding profit of the hearers; as indeed the argument will demonstrate as it proceeds. For when He bade us ask in His Name, and revealed, along with the other truths, a manner of praying unused among the ancients, promising withal even very earnestly that He will give whatsoever things we wish to receive: with intent that He might not seem thereby to thrust aside the Person of God the Father, nor yet to curtail the power of Him Who begat Him, the power (I mean) of satisfying the aspirations of the saints. He said that the Father would be a Go-Supplier for our profit, and would join in bestowing on us the Paraclete: adding also the words " / ivill ask," as man; and referring peculiarly to the whole Divine and unspeakable nature what befits it especially, as in the Person of God the Father. For this was His custom, as we have oftentimes said already in the foregoing paints of this work.

Another Paraclete, however, is the name He gives to the Spirit that proceeds from the essence of God the Father and from that of Himself, For the kind of the

Book 9. essence is the same in the case of Both, not excluding j^^'^' ' the Spirit, but allowing the manner of His distinctness to be understood as lying solely in His being and sub- » iSioav- sisting *"' in a separate personality. For the Spirit is not a Son, but we will accept in faith verily and properly to be and to subsist as That Which He is; for He is the Spii-it of the Father and of the Son. But [the Son] knowing that He Himself also both is in truth a Paraclete and is so named in the Sacred Writings, He calls the Spu'it another Paraclete; not on the ground that the Spirit can skill to effect in the Saints something else perchance more than what He also can. Whose Spirit He both is and is called. And that the Son also Himself both was named and is a Paraclete, John will bear I s. John record, in his own compositions, when he says: These "''^'^" things say I unto you, that ye may not sin. And if any man sin, we have a Paraclete tuith the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the 'propitiation for our sins. So Jesus calls the Spirit another Paraclete, willing Him to be conceived of as possessing the attributes of a proper personality; albeit having so close a likeness to Himself, and able so to work in exact correspondence what things soever He Himself might haply work, as that He might seem to be the Son Himself and no whit different: for He is His Spirit. And indeed Jesus called Him the Spirit of Truth, saying also in the discourse before us that He is Himself the Truth.

But any one will naturally say to those who suppose the Son alien to the essence of God the Father: " How is it, pray, that the Father gives the Spirit of Truth, that is, of the Son, not as foreign or alien, but as His own Spirit; notwithstanding that according to you He has the kind of His essence distinct from that of the Son, and, for of this there is no question, the Spirit is the Son's? And once more, how is it, if it be so that the Son is of another essence, that He gives the Spirit of the Father as His own? " For it is written that He breathed on His disciples, saying, Receive ye Chap. i. the Holy Ghost. So then will not a man suppose, and ^'^^^'^' ' very rightly, or rather will he not be even &mly con- Infra xx. vineed, that the Son, being essentially partaker of the ""' natural excellences of God the Father, has the Spirit after the same manner as the Father also would be understood to have Him: that is, not as something added or from without, for it were simple or rather mad to hold such an opinion; but as each of us has within himself his own '^ breath, and pours it forth without ' TTvevna from the inmost parts of his body '? For indeed it was for this cause that Christ breathed on them even bodily, showing that as the breath proceeds bodily from the human mouth, so also from the Divine essence the [Spirit] from Him is in God-befitting manner poured forth. Forasmuch then as He is the Spirit both of God the Father and of the Son, how can it be but that the power They thus possess at once in division and in conjunction will be altogether one? For the Father is a Father and not a Son, and the Son is a Son and not a Father; notwithstanding, the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father; moreover, it is not the Father separately by Himself, or the Son separately by Himself, Who gives the Paraclete or the Holy Spirit, but rather He is supplied to the saints from the Father through the Son. For indeed on this account [we must understand that] when the Father is said to give, the Son also gives, through Whom are all things; and that \^or. when the Son is said to give, the Father also gives, of Whovi are all things.

But that the Spirit is both Divine and not of another essence, in reference I mean to the Father and the Son, is I imagine doubtful to no one who is right-minded; and furthermore a necessary argument will convince us thereof. For if a man say that the Spirit is not of the essence of God, how then henceforward would the creature in receiving the Spirit be a partaker of God? And after what manner shall we be entitled temples o/ie.

Book 9. God, and be so, if we receive a created or an alien spirit, c.^xiv. 16, ^^^ j^Q^ rather That Which is of God? And how are 2 S. Pet. those who have a share of the Spirit imrtakers of the ^- ^' Divine nature, according to the words of the sacred writers, if He is in the number of the things that are made, and does not rather proceed for us from the Divine nature itself; not passing through it unto us, as something foreign to it, but so to speak becoming in us a certain quality of the Godhead, and dwelling in the saints, and remaining for ever — [as He does] if by cleansing the eye of their understanding by all goodness, and by unyielding earnestness in the pursuit of every virtue, they preserve the grace in their hearts. For Christ says that the Spirit is uncontainable and invisible for them that are in the ivorld, that is, for those that savour of the things in the world, and choose to love the things that are on earth; yet that He is containable and easily beheld by the saints. For what reason 1 They who have an uncleanness hard to be washed out of them, and who have filled their own mind as it were with some unhealthy humour, do not narrowly consider the beauty of the Divine nature, nor yet accept the law of the Spirit, forasmuch as they are wholly tyrannised over by the passions of the flesh; whereas the good and sober, keeping their heart free from the evils that are in the world, voluntarily induce the Paraclete to dwell within themselves, and after receiving Him keep Him and (so far as it is attainable by men) behold Him spiritually, winning therefrom something large and great and enviable for their prize. For He will sanctify them, and will make them at once fulfillers of all good things, and will release them from the shame of man-befitting slavery, and will endue them with the prerogative of the adoption of sons. And Paul Gal. iv. 6, will bear witness to this, saying: And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

Of necessity our Lord Jesus the Christ at this point finishes the discourse touching the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity. For He has already shown before, setting forth both words and facts for assurance unto them that love Him, both that He is in His nature

God and is begotten of God the Father, and is of equal might and like mind with Him. For to this end He also at one time said: What I speak, I speak not from Cf. supra though ye believe not Me, believe My works. But besides these things it was in no small measure needful also that men should receive the right and irreproachable doctrine with reference to the Holy Spirit Himself; for so might the minds of His hearers be directed wholly unto rightness of faith. Therefore I will set forth in few words what Christ teaches us by the passage before us.

God the Father, He once more, in accordance with His careful and wise plan, renders the expression of the faith secure. For it was only likely that some, not rightly understanding what was said, would think that He meant that the Holy Spirit was not of the essence of

God (as in fact some of the witless did suppose), but that He was in His nature something different; for to say " Another," among the more ignorant sort at least, might carry the appearance of some such ground for its use. So with intent to exhibit clearly that He does not wish the kind of distinctness which the Spirit possesses to be understood in any other way, save solely in virtue of His being in a peculiar and proper sense that which

Son, even as the Son is a Son and not a Father; after saying that the Paraclete shall be sent forth. He promises that He will come Himself; showing that the Spirit is not something other than what He is

Book 9. Himself, forasmuch as He is a proper Spirit proceeding ^* ^^^' ' from the Father, and is conceived of as the Son's, and for this cause is also called His Mind. For example, iCor. ii. Paul says, signifying withal this very thing: But lue ^^' have the Mind of Christ. So then, understanding the matter rightly and without all error, and rejecting as ungainly all perversion in any direction contrary to what is reasonable, and following the words of the inspired Scripture, we say that He is not something different from the Son so far as regards natural identity, but the same; yet with characteristics both distinct and personal. For, so understanding it, I imagine, the inspired Paul also oftentimes mingles Them and introduces Either as identical with the Other; the Paraclete, I mean, Eom.viii. and the Son. For thou wilt find him saying: But if ^" aiiy man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His,

Ibid. 10. and again directly after: And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of the sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Hearest thou how he expressly confesses that they have Christ who have received His

1 Cor. Spirit? And he says also in another place: For I think that I also have the Spirit of God. And he who spake

2 Cor. this unto us, also says: If ye seek a proof of Christ That ^"^' ■ speaketh in Me; and oftentimes prays that in us also, who have believed, Christ may dwell by faith, howbeit himself receiving the Holy Spirit. And let no one suppose that we say that he annuls the fixity of name or person in respect of each, or that he says that the Son is not a Son but a Spirit, or at least that he does not know the Spirit as Spirit, but says He is a Son; this was not the aim in his mind, and indeed- neither do we so believe. For he knows how to count the Persons of the Holy and Coessential Trinity, and teaches that each of the Persons signified subsists in His proper distinctness: notwithstanding he proclaims clearly that the Holy Trinity is fixed in absolute identity. Else how 1 Cor. can it be that the Spirit is and is called God? For do "^ ye not know, he says, that ye are a temple of God, and the 8j)iTit of God divelleth in you? But if, forasmuch as Chap. i. the Spii-it dwelleth in us, we are made temples of '^•^'^■■^^' God, how can the Spirit not be of God, i.e. of His Essence, whereas He makes God to dwell in us through Himself? So then by way of showing that the Spirit is not alien from His own Nature, the Only-begotten, having said that the Paraclete is being sent forth from the Father for the Saints, promises that He will come Himself and fill the place of a father, to the end that they be not found like some orphans destitute of the assistance of one to stand forth for them, and for this cause be found henceforth easy to be taken in the snares of the devil, and exceedingly easily assailed by the offences in the world, for all they be many and come as of necessity, by reason of the ungovernable madness of them that bring them to pass. So then for a shield and an irrefragable security unto our souls, the Father has given the Spirit of Christ, to fulfil in us His grace and presence and power. For it were impossible for a man's soul to effect ought that is good, or to have power over its own passions, or to escape the great subtilty of the snare of the devil, if it were not fortified by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and had not Christ Himself by reason thereof within itself. And indeed the inspired Psalmist? composing for us through the wisdom that was in him his thanksgivings on this behalf, cried aloud unto God: Lord, Thou didst crown us as with a shield of favour — Ps. v. 13. meaning by a shield of favour nothing else than the Holy Spirit Who shields us, and constrains us, by gifts of unexpected strength, to [the fulfilling of] the good pleasure of God. And so He promises that none the less He will be present and will help through the Spirit them that believe on Him, albeit He ascend into the very heavens, after His Revival from the dead, now to appear Heb. ix. in the presence of God for us, according to the words " of Paul.

c.ii\. 19. jg Yet a little while and the world beholdeth Me no more; but ye behold Me: because I live, ye shall live also.

Now that the Passion is close at hand, and brings along with it the moment of His Assumption, He says that He will be invisible to the world, that is, to them that value the enjoyment of things temporal before the Divine blessings, and set more store by earthly things than by heavenly. And by way of making our belief to the end thereof kindred and consistent with what has been already said above, we shall be right in saying, that God the Father has given the Paraclete, i.e. the Holy Spirit, of course through the Son; for all things are through Him from the Father. Notwithstanding He has come, not on all indiscriminately, both evil and good, but on them on whom it was fitting He should go forth. For so far forth as touches the most rich and unstinted grace of the Giver, no man of all in the earth remained a

Joel ii. non-partaker: For I ivill pour out. He says in the prophets, of ray Sjnrit on all Jlesh. Yet each man is unto himself an accessory cause of his possessing or else wholly failing to get the God-given blessing. For some men, because that in no wise do they strive to cleanse their own mind by all goodness, but love exceedingly to dwell in the evils in the world, shall abide non-partakers of the Divine grace, and shall not see Christ in themselves, forasmuch as they have a heart void of the Spirit. For this cause albeit they are ranged on the side of the Protector of the orphans they are torn in pieces by simply everything that is strong enough to overreach, be it a passion or a devil, or yet any other worldly lust, and by everything that can drag them down as it were and overpower them unto sin. Howbeit, unto the holy and them that were purposed to receive Him, He said, as was likely He would, forasmuch as they were going to

Supra endure none of those ills, / will not leave you orphans, I am coming unto you. And so He says He shall be invisible and wholly unbeheld by them that mind the things in the world, after His Departure hence, I Chap. i. mean His Ascension into heaven. But He says He^'^^^" * will be found visible unto the holy, forasmuch as the Holy Spirit is putting a certain Divine and spiritual ^ flash in the eyes of their heart, and sowing therein all ' i^apmgood knowledge. ^^"^^

For we shall either suppose that this is what He means by Yet a little while and the tuoiid beholdeth Me no more; but ye behold Me; or else turning aside to a different point of view — especially when there is intertwined with His words the saying Because I live, ye shall live also — we reason somewhat on this wise. For after His Revival from the dead, when He had effected for our nature the return unto that whereunto it existed from the beginning, and had made man incorruptible, He ascended, as it were by way of first-fruits and in the Temple of His own Body first, unto God the Father in heaven. But after in the meanwhile accomplishing a short time. He will descend again, as we believe, and will return again unto us, in the glory of His Father ivith the s. Matt. Holy Angels, and will set up the appalling tribunal ^^^" ^''* before all men, both evil and good. For all created things shall come to judgment. And rendering becoming awards, corresponding to the life each one has led, He will say to them on the left, i.e. to those that have minded the things in the world: Depart from Me ye ibid. xxv. cursed, into the eternal fire ^prepared for the devil and ^^' his angels; howbeit to them on the right, i.e. to the holy and good: Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit Ibid. 34. the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For they shall be with Christ and shall reign with Him, and shall revel in the heavenly blessings, having been made conformable to His Resurrection, and escaped the meshes of the ancient corruption, being endued with the long and ineffable life, and living endlessly with the ever-living Lord. For that they who have practised a life dear to God and exalted; shall be with Christ without ceasing, to wit contemplating His

Book 9. divine and unspeakable beauty, Paul will make clear c.xiv.20. ^Yiere he says: For the Lord Himself shall descend from iv. 16, 17. Heaven, with a shout, tvith the voice of the archangel, and with the trumiJ of God: and the dead in Christ shcdl rise first: then lue that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever he ivith the Lord; and again, to them that have chosen to mortify worldly Col. iii. passions: For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ ^' ^" in God. When Christ, Who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also tvith Him be manifested in glory. So — for I will sum up the meaning of the Lord's saying — the lovers of the evil things in the world shall go down to Hades and be banished from the presence of Christ; howbeit there shall be with Him and dwell with Him for ever the lovers of virtue, they who have kept inviolate the earnest of the Spirit, and being with Him of a surety they shall also behold His Divine Beauty Is. ix. 19. without all hindrance. For, he says, the Lord shall be thine eternal Light, and God thy glory. And it is also likely that this is what the Lord means to make manifest, when we hear Him saying: Yet a little while and, the tvorld heholdeth Me no more; hut ye behold Me; because L live ye shall live cdso. Howbeit in no wise will He speak falsely in sayingthat the time intervening, before His Revelation as it were, is a little while. For to God Who always is, even what is a long time with us counts utterly for nothing; and the Psalmist will testify this Ps. xc. 4. when he says: For a thousand years in Thy sight, 0 Lord, are but as yesterday that is past, and. a watch in the night.

20 In that day ye shall knov/ that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.

The meaning of the passage before us is somewhat hard to reach, and as it were demands that the inquiry applied to it be keen, and imposes very considerable delay on our discourse: howbeit we believe that Christ will once more direct us into truth. Now some, albeit Chap, i, among the number of those once supposed among the ^' ^^^' impious heretics to be of eminence, refusing malignantly to confess that the Son is of the essence of God the Father, and is therefore in Him, conceive that the union is an accidental one and not one of nature; and in fact they have written — belching forth thereby what proceeds from their own minds, not from the Holy Spirit — that, forasmuch as the Son is loved by the Father, and Himself loves the Father in return, it is after this sort that He is in Him. And these demented men bring as a proof hard to overthrow, the words attached to the clause before us, to wit concerning us and Him; and indeed they say, resting withal their blasphemies on the Is. xxxvi. staff of a reed, that as we are said to be in Him, and ' have Him in ourselves, and are not united to Him in the matter of our essence, but the manner of the union is determined by our capacity to love and be loved in return; so the Son also, one of them would say, is not at all within the essence of God the Father, but being wholly distinct in the matter of His nature, and being quite differently characterised, is understood to be in the Father solely by virtue of the law of love. For it is their aim, as we said just now, to show that the Onlybegotten is an effect and a creature, and produced and honoured merely with His preeminence over the rest of the creatures, notwithstanding He is external to the essence of God the Father.

But forasmuch as 'concerning this we have already spoken at length, assaying thereby to show to the best of our power, that the Son is by nature in the Father and that the union which He has with Him is substantial, we will forbear further for the present to extend our remarks touching this subject. Howbeit we will not wholly leave as it were the ground of the argument clear for our opponents to overrun, but will set the battle in array against them in a few words, exhibiting so far as possible at once the mischief and the ignorance

Book 9. of their wicked and loathsome artifice; and particularly c.xiv.u. ^g ^^Y[ say: If it is solely by reason that He is loved and loves that the Son is in the Father, and if by the same law we are in Him and He in us, and no different bond of union is discernible, whether we consider that which binds the Son to the Father, or us to Him and Him to us: in what sense or on what principle, I pray you, does He say that it is in that day we shall know the mystery of this? For seemingly we do not yet know that the Father loves the Son, and the Son also loves the Father; nor, I suppose, do we yet know our own condition, but a vain calculation mocks us, when we think that the Son loved us, and for this cause won us unto the Father, and that we also loved Him! For when He says In that day ye shall knoiv, He shows that the time of the knowledge is not yet present; then, why did the Lord all in vain make our ears ring with His Supra iii. words: The Father loveth the Son? For that He Himself loves the Father, who will deny? And how, I pray you, said He also that His choosing to suffer in our be- Infra XV. half was a clear proof of His love to us- ward? For greater loire hath no man than this, He says, that a man lay doum His life for His friends. And why did He manifestly seek for love from us towards Himself, and that for this cause we should be eager to fulfil His good pleasure? For he that loveth Me, He says, will keep My commandments. For when shall we keep the Divine commandment, if at the present we make no account thereof? Forasmuch then as it is fit we believe that the Son loves the Father, and loves us and is beloved by us, how is it not consistent to conceive that the Son has purposed to signify something diverse from this, and not to define the manner of the union by the law of love; or rather that He has manifestly introduced it to us as after some different sort, when He says: In that day ye shall knoiv that I am in My Father and ye in Me and I in you. ■. But peradventure the opponent will answer, that since Christ says " in that day." 313 before the Passion Christ said such things as these to us, Chap. i. to wit that He loves the Father and is loved again by ^' ^^^' ' the Father, and He loves us also and we Him; but that after the Passion and the Kevival from the dead, when we saw that He burst the bonds of death, we learnt tliat He is in the Father, forasmuch as also He is loved, and for this cause rose from the dead. For this cause also He is in us and we in Him, according to the same law of love.

But we reply: Your opposition is exceeding idle, and wholly without understanding, and a tissue of rotten words. But, excellent Sirs, consider once more that what we knew of a truth before the Resurrection from the dead, there was no need to learn after the Resurrection. For if it was only imperfectly that we believed that the Son is loved of His own Father, and Himself loves the Father, it was indeed necessary to await the Resurrection, with intent we might therefrom have the perfection of knowledge. But if the Father be worthy of belief when He says even before the Resurrection: He is My beloved s. Matt. Son; and if the Saviour Himself also speaks true when "^- ^^• He says: TJte Father loveth the Son; and if the law of Supra iii. love is fittingly to be conceived in its entire perfection; " why do ye foolishly strike at us with hard words? And why, thrusting aside the beauty of the Truth, do ye fashion you an unsightly lie, dragging outside of the Father's essence the Son that is of Him and throusrh Him, and withal inventing right rotten words, and contriving tricks of absurd argumentation 1 For that the Only-begotten loved us, and that we also loved Him, will be open to any one to see with utmost readiness, so he be willing to regard intently the nature of the truth: For being in the form of God the Father, He counted it not Phil. ii. a prize to be on an equality with God, but emptied Him- ' self, taking theforTn of a servant. Then what, I pray you, was the ground of such actions? Was it not the law of love towards us? And how is it possible to doubt? And our willingness too on behalf of Christ and readi-

EooK 9. ness to abandon our very life to the persecutors, that we c. XIV. 20. j^g^y j^^^ deny our own Lord, will it not supply proof to demonstration of our love to Him 1 But a man will also say that this either is entirely true, or will condemn the Holy Martyrs as having wrought a desperate struggle for Christ for no useful end, and endured so grievous a danger all unrecompensed. So then, whereas it is proved with all clearness that the Father has towards the Son love in perfection, and that in like sort also He loves the Father, and we Him and He us, what reason could there be in supposing that the discernment thereof is referred perchance to other times, when the Lord says: In that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.

For away with their idle talkings and the pretentiousness of their God-hating speculations! But we waxing bold in the consciousness of bearing the torch of the Spirit, will not hesitate to say what seems to be right, with intent to clear up the questions at issue. So then, Supra having said above: Because I live ye shall live also, ver. 19. straightway He is found to have added: In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you. Then to what man, upright and wont to think Heb.iv.7. rightly, would it not be abundantly clear, that He limits a day, the time to wit of the knowledge hereof, upon which we ourselves also, renovated after His likeness, shall ascend unto eternal life, escaping from the curse of 9 Read- death? And something after this sort the ^ Christ-bearer ^"^' seems to me to indicate — I mean, Paul — when, revealing <p6pos to US the Divine Mystery, he writes to some: For ye Col. 111. 3. ^^.^^ ^^^ ^^^^ i^j-^ ^g ^^^ ^^^^ Christ in God; when then

Christ, which is your life, shcdl aj)X>ear, then sTicdl ye also afpecLr rvith Him in glory. For He shall transform the body of our humiliation — this body assuredly, and not a diverse — to be conformable unto His glory, and shall transmute the nature of man unto the ancient type with power unspeakable, changing all things easily unto.whatsoever He will, none forbidding; for He is very

God That maheth all things and changeth the fashion of Chap. i. them, as it is written. So then at that day, or time, ^^^^^ ^ * when ye also yourselves shall live — for I do live, albeit 8. made man like unto you, and clad with the body which as touching its proper nature is subject to corruption — ye shall recognise clearly, He says, that 1 a'tn in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you. And we shall be disposed to think that the Lord said this unto us, not with intent we might suppose that He is in the Father according io the law of love, as indeed our opponents thought fit to believe, but according to the power of a deep mystery, which is also both difficult to conceive, and hard to utter; howbeit I will essay how I may be able to expound it.

Now I hold that the mind of any man on earth is very far from equal to the accurate exposition hereof; notwithstanding, in the fervour of love, albeit with powers of sight and utterance but little whetted, let us now consider the aim of the Incarnation of the Only -begotten. Let us, I pray you, examine the cause, wherefore, being as God in the form of God the Father, He counted it not Phil. ii. a ijrize to he on an equality with God, hut emptied ^' '^' Himself, taking the form of a servant, and endured the Heb. xii. ci'oss despising the shame. For in this way the depth ' of the mysteries before us will be manifest, so far as is possible, howbeit hardly so. But we shall learn how the Son is in the Father, naturally, that is, and not by virtue of the relation of being loved and loving as invented by our opponents; and we again in Him after the same sort, and He in us. Well then, one cause the wise Paul expounded was a true and most general cause of the Incarnation of the Only-begotten, when he said: For God the Father was pleased to gather together in one Eph.i.io. all things in Christ; and " gathering in one," both the name and the thing, plainly involves the bringing back again and resumption of the things that have digressed to an unconformable end unto what they were in the beginning. Then desiring to put before us in a clear

Book 9. light the methods of the gathering in detail, at one time c^xiv._. j^g gaid: For what the Laiu could not do, in that it vms 3, 4. ' v)eak through the flesh, God, sending His oiun Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as an offering for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the ordinance of the Law might he fulfilled in us, ivho ^valk not after the flesh, hut Heb. ii. after the Spirit; and at another again: Since then the ' ' children are sharers in flesh and hlood. He also Himself in like manner partook of the same; that through death He might hring to nought him that had the power of death, that is the devil; and might deliver all them tvho through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. And herein we have two methods of the gathering together which Paul expounded the doctrine of the Incarnation of the Only-begotten as of necessity involving; but a further method, inclusive of the others, was set forth by the wise Evangelist John. For he S. John writes thus touching Christ: He came unto His own, and they that were His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on His Name: lohich ivere born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the tuill of man, but of God. So then it is abundantly evident and manifest I conceive unto all, that it was for these causes especially that, being by nature God and of God, the Only-begotten has become man; namely with intent to condemn sin in the flesh, and by His own Death to slay Death, and to make us Sons of God, regenerating in the Spirit them that are on earth unto supernatural dignity. For it was, I trow, exceeding good, after this sort to gather together again into one and to recover unto the ancient estate the sore-stumbled race, to wit, the human. Again, let us set each of the causes just given side by side with the Lord's saying, and thereupon make such remarks that seem fit. For we must inquire in what sense it may be seemly to conceive that God the Father condemned sin in the flesh by sending His o^vn Son in likeness of sinful flesh. For albeit the Son were by Chap. l. nature God and had shone forth from His essence and '^' ^^^' ' possessed naturally the immutability of His proper being, and for this cause in no wise could stumble into sin, or turn aside anywhither into what is not right, the Father caused him voluntarily to descend into the ^ flesh • Readthat is subject to sin, with intent that making: very \°^', flesh His own, He might bring it over unto His own crdpHa natural property, to wit, sinlessness. For, I conceive, we shall not be right in believing that it was with intent to eflect this for the Temple of His own Body alone that the Only-begotten has been made man; for where were the glory and profit of His Advent unto us to be seen, if He accomplished the salvation of His own Body alone 1 But we believe rather that it was to secure the benefits for all nature through Himself and in Himself first as in the firstfruits of humanity, that the Only-begotten has become like us. For like as we have followed after not only death but all the suflferings of the flesh, undergoing this suffering in the first man by reason as well of the transgression as of the divine curse; after the same sort, I conceive, shall we all of us follow Christ, as He saves in many ways and sanctifies the nature of the flesh in Himself. Wherefore also Paul said: And as we love the iCor.xv. image of the earthy, we shall bear also the image of the heavenly. For the iviage of the earthy, to wit of Adam, is to be in sufferings and corruption; and the irnage of the heavenly, to wit of Christ, is to be in impassibility and incorruption. So then the Word being God by nature condemned sin in His own flesh, by charging it to cease its activity, or rather so amending it as that it should move after the good pleasure of God, and no longer at its own will; and so whereas the body was natural. He made it spiritual. This then is one method of the gathering together; but the method that is most befitting and appropriate to the drift of the passage before us shall follow it. And it will be our task to speak touching eternal life and the slaying of Death, and how

Book 9. the Only -begotten removed from human nature the cor- 0. xiv. 20. ruption that came of the transgression. Therefore foras- 14^ ■ "■ much as the children are partakers of blood and flesh, He cdso in like manner took part in the same with intent to slay Death, and that He that created all things unto Wisd. i. immortality and made the generations of the world hecdthful, according as it is written, might remould once more the fashion of things unto their ancient estate. And once again, albeit my argument be more minute 2 Read- than behoves, yet, as it needs must, it ^ shall proceed, ^vp%r]ae- Setting forth the ancient condition of our estate. For I '^'" conceive the sincere purpose to grasp the meaning of the words before us, will wholly escape the dangers that come of mere loitering. So then this rational creature upon earth, I mean man, was made from the beginning Col. iii. after the image of Him that created him, according to ^^' the Scriptures; and the meaning of image is various.

For an iviage may be, not after one sort, but after many; howbeit the element of the likeness to God that made him, which is far the most manifest of all, was his incorruptibility and indestructibility. But never, I conceive, would the creature have been sufficient unto himself to be so, merely by virtue of the law of his own nature; for how could he that is of the earth in his own nature have been shown to possess the glory of incorruption, unless it were from the God that is by nature both incorruptible and indestructible and ever the same, that he was enriched with this boon in like manner as 1 Cor. iv. with all others? For tvhat hast thou, that thou didst not ^' receive? saith somewhere unto us the inspired Paul, with exceeding reason and truth. With intent then that what was once brought into being out of that which is not, might not, by sinking back to its own original, once more vanish into nothing, but rather be preserved evermore— for this was the aim of Him that created it — Gen.ii. 7. God makes it partaker of His own nature. For He breathed into his face the breath of life, i.e. the Spirit of the Son, for He is Himself the Life with the Father, holding all things together in being. For the things Chap. i. that are receptive of life both move in Him and live, ^' ^^' ^_^' according to the words of Paul. 28.

And let none of us found hereupon any words of false teaching, by supposing that we said that the Divine inbreathing has become a soul unto the living creature; for this we deny, guided unto the truth of the matter by ^such ^ Eeadreasoning as this. If any suppose that the Divine in- ^^f^g^ breathing became a soul, let him tell us whether it was turned aside from its own nature and has been made into a soul, or has it remained in its own identity? For if they say it has been on anywise changed and that it traversed the law of its own nature, they will be convicted of blasphemy; for they will say that the immutable and ever-unchanging Nature is altogether mutable; whereas if it was in no wise turned aside, but has ever remained what it always was, after coming forth from God, to wit His inbreathing, how did it deflect unto sin, and become susceptible of so great diversity of ^ passions? For, I trow, they would not say that there * Readis, in anywise, in the Divine Nature the possibility of ^^^^'-^ transgression. But to get over the words due to the subject before us without using lengthy proofs, I say we must repeat this once again and say,- — that no one, I imagine, rightly minded would suppose that the Breath which proceeded from the Divine Essence became the creature's soul, but that after the creature was ensouled, or rather had attained unto the propriety of its perfect nature by means of both, soul and body to wit, then like a stamp of His own Nature the Creator impressed on it the Holy Spirit, i. e. the Breath of Life, whereby it became ^moulded unto the archetypal Beauty, and completed after the image of Him that created it, enabled unto every form of excellence, by virtue of the Spirit given to dwell in it. But whereas, being free of will, and entrusted with the reins of its own purposes — for this also is an element in the image, forasmuch as God has power over His own purposes— it turned and has

Book 9. fallen — but how this came to pass the Holy Scripture c. XIV. 20. jjjyat teach you, for the account of it therein is plain — God the Father both determined and took in hand to gather together once more in Christ the nature of man unto its ancient estate, and willing it accomplished it withal. So then it naturally follows that we should observe how it has come to pass. It was not otherwise possible for man, forasmuch as he was of a nature that was perishing, to escape death, save by recovering that ancient grace, and partaking once more in God Who holdeth all things together in being and preserveth them in life through the Son in the Spirit. Therefore He hath become partaker of blood and flesh, i.e. He hath become man, being by nature Life, and begotten of the Life that is by nature, i. e. of God the Father — to wit, His Onlybegotten Word, with intent that ineffably and inexpressibly and as He alone could skill to do, uniting Himself with the flesh that by the law of its own nature was perishing. He might bring it back unto His own Life and make it through Himself partaker of God the Father.

1 Tim. ii. For He is Mediator hetiveen God and men, according as ^' it is written, knit unto God the Father naturally as God and of Him, and again unto men as man; and withal having in Himself the Father and being Himself in the Heb. i. 3. Father; for He is the impress and effulgence of His Person, and not distinct from the Essence, whereof He is impress and wherefrom He proceeds as eff'ulgence; but both being Himself in It, and having It in Himself; and again having us in Himself according as He wears our nature and our body has become entitled the Body Supra i. of the Word. For the Word roas made flesh, according ^^- to the utterance of John. And He wears our nature, remoulding it unto His own Life. And He is also Himself in us; for we have all been made partakers of Him, and have Him in ourselves through the Spirit; for, for

2 Pet. i. this cause we have Both, being made partakers of the ^' Divine Nature, and are entitled sons, after this sort having in us also the Father Himself through the Son,

And Paul will testify hereof where he says: Because ye Chap. i. are sons God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your '^•'^'^•^o. hearts,crying, Abba, Father. For His Spirit is not something diverse fi'om the Son, I mean as touching the law of identity, to wit, identity of nature.

This being the result of the progress of our discourse of these things, let us now take the meaning of what has been set forth, and adapt it to the interpretation of our Saviour's words: For in that day ye shall know, He says, that I am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you. For I live Myself, He says, for I am Life by nature, and have shown the Temple of My own Body alive; but when ye also yourselves, albeit ye are of a corruptible nature, shall behold yourselves living in like manner as I do, then indeed ye shall know exceeding clearly, that I, being Life by nature, did knit you through Myself unto God the Father, Who is also Himself by nature Life, making you partakers as it were and sharera in His Incorruption. For naturally am I in the Father — for I am the Fruit of His Essence and Its real Offspring, subsisting in It, having shone forth from It, Life of Life — and ye are in Me and I in you, forasmuch as I appeared as a man Myself, and made you partakers of the Divine Nature by putting My Spirit to dwell in you. For Christ is in us through the Spirit, converting that which has a natural tendency to corruption into incorruption, and transferring it from the condition of dying unto that which is otherwise. Wherefore also Paul says that He that raised Jesus Rom.viii. Christ from the dead, shall quicken also your mortcd bodies, through His Spirit that dtuelleth in you. For albeit the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, yet He comes through the Son, and is His Own; for all things are through the Son from the Father. For that it was through the Spirit we were wrought anew unto eternal life, the Divine Psalmist will bear us record, when he cries as unto the God of all: When Thou openest Thine Ps. ciii. Hand, all things shall be filled with goodness; ivhen ^^~^^' VOL. ri. Y

Book 9. Thati twmest away Thy Face they shall he troubled; Thou ^' ^^^' " ■ shalt take away their breath and they shall fail and shall turn again to their dust. Tiioii shalt send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be made, and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth. Hearest thou how the transgression that was in Adam, and the " turning atvay'' as it were from ^Kead- the Divine precepts, sore ^troubled the nature of man, ^owiTCL- and made it return to its own earth 1 But when God P"^*" sent forth His Spirit, and made us partakers of His own Nature, and through Him renewed the face of the earth, we were transfigured unto neiuness of life, casting off the corruption that comes of sin, and once more grasping eternal life, through the grace and love towards mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom and with Whom unto God the Father, be glory with the Holy Spirit unto the ages. Amen.

That in nothing is the Son inferior to God the Father, but rather equal to and like Him in nature; on the words: If ye loved Me, ye luould have rejoiced, because I go unto the Father: for the Father is greater than I.

That the Son is Consubstantial with God the Father, and not of an alien or foreign nature; on the words: / aTii the Vine, ye are the branches^ and My Father is the hushandma.n.

Book 10. 21 He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is c. XIV. 21. ^j^^^ loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My

Our Saviour here says that the revelation of the mystery in us will then be clearest, when we see our- Cf. ver. selves living in conformity with His likeness. For as I live, He says, ye shall live also; the mind of each being fulfilled as it were not with what he has heard and believed merely, but rather with what he actually enjoys, when he has reached the completion of the promise. For experience is more powerful than language in ability to convince and satisfy. That we may not think that all without distinction are endowed with the power to partake of so holy a blessing, even though they be not good men and illuminated by the fear of God, He has added at once to His speech the qualification, " they that love Me; " clearly showing thereby that no others will be allowed to choose so incomparable a grace, but those who have chosen to live most righteously: for they would be " those that love Him." For even if it be the fact that Christ raises the bodies of all men, for there will be a resurrection of the evil and the good alike, yet not to all without distinction will a new life of glory and felicity be given. For it is clear that some only rise again to punishment, and will have a life more grievous than any death, while others spending ages of blessedness, will actually live the desirable and holy life in Christ. For that they who are doomed to receive c.xiv.2l. the sentence of punishment from Christ on the occasion of the judgment, will abide without a taste of the blessed life, although they shared with the Saints the lot of resurrection, He makes plain by these words: He Supra that helieveth on the Son liath eternal life, hut he that oheyeth not the Son shall not see life, hut the wrath of God shall abide on Him. For know that although while all the evil and the good alike await the resurrection, He says that those who are fast bound by the charge of disobedience cannot even attain to a glimpse of the life, as He declares that it is not the mere act of resurrection that is life, but that that life rather consists in rest and glory and felicity, spiritual of course and of no other kind. A spiritual kind of felicity is meant, the perfect knowledge of God and the complete revelation of the mysteries of Christ, not as in a glass and in riddles, even as now showing the characters of the object of our quest dimly, but shining out to us and glistening in perfect purity and making our knowledge quite complete. For that which is in part shall he done aivay, as i Cor. Paul says. ^"'- ^^'

Our Lord Jesus Christ then, when He teaches us that to those who choose to love Him and to those who do His commandments is the promise of His revelation given, and to them it is more appropriate and pertinent, and not to those who are otherwise minded and who do the contrary, has conveyed this useful lesson in the words: He that hath My commandments and keepeth Supra them, he it is that loveth Me. And a man has His ^^^' ' commands when he has received the faith, and, laying it to heart, has let into his inmost soul the unpolluted and unmistakeable teaching of the Gospel commandments. And he fulfils them by carrying them out into actuality, and by making haste to distinguish himself by the light of his actions. Such a man then is perfect and wholly wedded to righteousness, a shining light by his faith and conduct, who has witness borne him of his holiness after

Book 10. the pattern of Christ. For At the mouth of two or three ^''^^^''^.7.' ivitnesses shall every word he established, accordiDg to

Deut.xix..^'jj gurely love, and no less also the Son will love him. For as He is of the same Substance, so also has He the same Will as His Father. For as the Substance is one the Will also is one, and there is one purpose over all, and there is no discord severing Their Wills in twain. For to those who are thought worthy of the Divine love He promises that He will give a glorious reward and that He will crown them with exceeding great blessings. Supra For / will manifest Myself unto him, He says. For to the pure in heart the mystery of the Godhead will be clearly revealed, and Christ gives them light, illuminating the path of every duty by His Spirit, and unveiling Himself and making Himself visible as it were by the ineffable torchlight of the soul. And those who have made their choice once for all are blessed and worthy of all admiration. And methinks the prophet David was a Pb. man after this sort when he says, / will hear what the

' Lord God u'ill say in me. And so is also the Divine 2 Cor. Apostle when he exhorts us, saying, If ye seek a 2^roof xm. 3. ^j.' (j]^r^,igi fjigi sjDeaJceth in me; for He speaks of things concerning Himself in His Saints by His Spirit; yea, reveals other mysteries besides. Therefore it is true that knowing these things well, the Saints sometimes say, iCor. ii. Unto us God revealed them through the Spirit; some- Tbid 16 ^i™®^' -^'^^ '^^^ have the viirul of Christ, meaning by His mind His Spirit.

22 Judas {)iot Iscariot) saifh unto Him, Lord, ivhat is come to 2)as8 that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world?

It is out of love that the disciple proceeds to make this inquiry, but he clearly does not quite understand our Saviour's language. For our Lord Jesus Christ promised to His Saints a kind of special knowledge and not like that vouchsafed to others. For the characters of Divine mysteries are more defined and shine out far more c. xiv. 22. clearly among the men of God: while those who have not yet attained to such purity of heart as to be able definitely to choose the knowledge of those things which pass understanding by the gift of the Spirit, display their knowledge in bare logical processes, and it is limited to their chance acquaintance with the doctrine that Christ is God and truly the Son of the living God, Although then there lies this vast difference between them, widely dissevering the knowledge of the vulgar from that which is seen in the Saints, the disciple, making no distinction, proceeds to inquire why He does not promise to reveal Himself to all in the world, but only to the Saints. And by the exclamation, Hoiu comes it to pass? he means to hint at some such meaning as this: Is the aim of Thy coming amongst us, Lord, to give to some a complete knowledge of Thyself, which to others is wholly denied 1 For we heard in the prophets that all flesh shall see the salvation of God, and Is. xl. 5. Thou Thyself didst cry out, saying, Rejoice and be glad, Zech. ii. daughter of Sion, for lo! I come and shall dwell in thy ' midst, saith the Lord, and all nations shall flee to the Lord on that day and shall be His people. And when we had continual converse with Thee, we heard with our own ears Thy voice when Thou didst say unto us, /, if I Supra he lifted up from the earth, ivill draw all men unto ^"" ' Myself; and Thou saidst also to the Jews themselves. And other sheep L have tvhich are not of this fold; them Supra also I must bring, and they shall become one flock, one ^' shepherd. Now then, when the expectation is raised that Thy grace will be poured upon all men and that all will be gathered in to the knowledge of God, and when Thou Thyself hast made us this clear promise and the voice of the holy prophets bears this testimony- — What is come to p)ass? cries the Apostle. Whither has the purpose of the promise then shifted and diverted 1 Why dost Thou manifest Thyself not to all that are in the world but only to us 1 This then and no other I think

Book 10. is the meaning of the disciple's words. It is well to show ^- ^^"^^ -• what it was that in fact led him astray from truly apprehending our Saviour's words. Supra For when our Lord Jesus Christ used the words, A little tvhile, and the world heholdeth Me no more; but ye behold Me, it is very clear that by the ivorld He did not at all mean those who are in this life or living upon the earth, for all men are in this world, evil and good alike: but by the world He rather meant those who are persuaded to mind earthly things, who have yoked their understanding to the vanity of the world. The disciple then, not quite understanding this, thought that He said that of all the rest of mankind who dwell in this earthly sphere He would escape the eye, I mean the inner and secret vision of the soul, and would be wholly unseen, and known by no living man but His disciples only; and this was the cause of the disciple's misapprehension. For if he had understood at first, he would never have proceeded to ask, Whcd is come to pass that Thou vnlt manifest Thyself wnto us, and not unto the world? For he had this meaning I have spoken of suggested to him through his taking the signification of the word in its common and generally-received sense. For we are accustomed to mean by tlte ivorld, using it in its wellworn and obvious sense, all the inhabitants of the world, just as when one speaks of the city one means all the dwellers in it. Still the disciple, even when he says these words, deserves our admiration. For see how he longs that the glory of the Saviour should shine forth through all the world like the sun, although if he had only been taking thought for his own personal welfare, he might, as he had the promise of knowledge, have enjoyed blessings peculiar to himself. But it was not enough to gratify his soul that the boon should be granted as it were to him individually, but because he was at once a lover of God and of his fellow men he longs for the glory of the Saviour to have a wider field and that grace should be extended to all his brethren.

For what joy can equal the being called to the complete c.xiv. 23. knowledge of God?

23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he loill keep My word: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

When He saw that the disciple did not quite understand, He goes back again to what He said at first, and teaches clearly that He will not manifest Himself to His own, according to the conception he had formed in his mind, but that the manner of His manifestation will be special to His disciples, and not that common to the rest of mankind. For the vulgar, and those, for instance, who have just escaped from the deceitfulness of idols and have been called to the knowledge of the Living God, rest their faith on bare and unquestioned axioms, merely having learnt to know that there is no idol in the ivorld, and iCor. that the Living God is One only; while they who have their minds illumined by every virtue and are already in a state to fitly apprehend Divine and hidden mysteries, will receive the torch of the Spirit, and will behold with the eyes of the soul the Lord Himself, Who has taken up His abode in them. The knowledge therefore that the Saints possess is not common to the rest, but is in a manner special and distinct and widely diverse. Christ then benefits us by every kind of word and way. For, first of all, anyone that loves Him is very broadly distinguished from the rest, showing as it seems to me, and as I justly apprehend, that it has not been given to all men to receive the power of His grace, but only to those in whom the glory of intimate connexion with Him may be seen indwelling through their keeping His commandments.

Then in what way He will declare Himself and how He will take up His abode in them He goes on to declare. For 3Iy Fcdher ivill love him, He says. For any man who has honoured by his obedience to the Son the Father from Whom He springs, -will reap His love as

^- ^'^- • -wrill be the issue thereof and what profit such a man will gain when He says, / and the Father tuill come unto him and make Our abode with him. For when our Saviour Christ dwells in us by the Holy Spirit, surely there too will be also His Father; for the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of the Father Himself also, and the inspired Paul at one time speaks of the Spirit as belonging to the Father, and at another as belonging to the Son: not by way of logical contradiction, but rather saying what is true of either, for it is so in fact. He says then

Rom.viii. to somc: He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies through His

Ga,\Av. 6. Spirit that dwelleth in you. Then again, And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Do you see that the same Spirit is of the Father and the Son 1 When then the Only-begotten dwells in your hearts, the Father is not far from you: for the Son hath in Himself the Father, being of one substance with Him, and is Himself by nature in the Father.

This then we may give as the definition and incontrovertible doctrine of the faith; and I should be glad to question thereupon those who have chosen heretical opinions from excess of ignorance and who arm their tongues with conceits about the Spirit. For what have they to answer when we say to them, " If the Spirit is created and alien to the substance of God, as you say, how can God abide in us through Him 1 And how can he that receiveth the Spirit partake of God? " For if it is within the bounds of possibility by the agency of any created being whatever for us to partake of the ineffable Divine Nature, what can be found to hinder God the Father thrusting aside the Spirit and by means of any other created being that He chooses to select dwelling in us and sanctifying us? But this is impossible: for no one can partake of the living God by any other means than by the Spirit. The Spirit therefore is God and of

God, and is not numbered among creatures, as some c.xiv. 23. think.

This consideration also must be taken into account. That which partakes of anything as being superior in nature and distinct from what it is itself must of necessity be different in nature from that which is partaken of. If then the Spirit is created or made, what remains for the sum of creation to partake of? Surely not itself! For in that case both that which partakes and that which is partaken of would alike owe their origin to a creator. But as it is, we being by nature both created and begotten partake of the Spirit as being different in nature from ourselves. The Spirit therefore is not created. And if this is true, and it is true, the Spirit is God and of God, as we have said. For nothing that exists can escape being included in the category of created things except the living God alone, from Whom the Holy Spirit, ineffably proceeding, dwelleth in us as He from Whom He springs. For He is an attribute of His Substance, and as it were a quality of His holiness.

So much for my controversy with these heretics. But as against the Anomoeans and those who have resolved on war with the Son, who are diseased with a like and kindred madness to these which we have just spoken of, I will refute them as briefly as possible. // a man love Me, he will keep My luord; and My Father will love Him, and We luill come unto him, and make Our abode with him. What, then, my good Sirs, have you to say if any one chooses to inquire and desires to know of you whether we shall have two Gods indwelling in us, the Father and the Son, or whether you conceive of one God as really existing in us. For if the Son is wholly distinct in nature and is conceived of as having a separate nature, how can we avoid believing that there is a duality of Gods in us when we keep His commandment? And if we are temples of one, that is, and not of two Gods, when the Father and the Son take up Their abode in us, how can you prove that the two coalesce

Book 10. unto unity in us, as, according to your crazy notion, ^^•^'^■"^' identity of nature is out of the question? For either you must say that Christ has told us falsehoods, and that the Father only dwells in us by the Spirit, or He Himself dwells in us and the Father is absent. But this is absurd, and there is one God in us when we receive both. The Only-begotten then will appear to be not different in substance from His Father, but of Him and in Him, as the light includes the effulgence which proceeds from it. Such, and no other, is the true meaning of the mystery. And certainly the inspired Paul did not call us temples of two Gods, but clearly of one and the 1 Cor. iii. same. Know ye not, he says, that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God divelleth in you? You see that making the Father and Son coalesce in identity of Substance he says that we have been made temples not of Gods but of one God. Why then do you bring your rash arguments into conflict with the power of the truth, and sow the seed of your poisonous impiety in those who are wont heedlessly to handle the holy and inspired writings?

When He has premised and rightly defined who those that love Him are, and of what blessings they will partake, He at once proceeds to treat of others who have not yet chosen to love Him. " For they will not keep My words," He says; for this is the meaning of the saying, "he will not keep My word," spoken as if of and concerning one man, even though it has a broad and generic signification. And this that He says has a very apt connexion with what precedes. For, if the keeping of His commandments or His Word is a clear proof of love towards Him, surely the converse of this will be true. For treating His bidding as of no account and thrusting His commandment aside will be a sign that we refuse to love Him, as these are the acts of men inured to evil-doing. But just as He promised that together with God the Father He would Himself abide c. xiv. 24. with those who keep His laws, for the same reason, I think, He will pass away from and wholly abandon those who do the reverse. For thus the truth of Solomon's saying will be seen: Into the soul of him that Wisd. i. maketh iniquity wisdom will not enter, nor diuell in the body given over to sin. For in common life you can observe that a similar result follows: for does not a man gain repute by conversing with those who are likeminded and who choose the same path of life, rather than with others 1 And Every creature loves his like, Sir. xiii. according to the saying, and Man will seek union with ' his like. And if it seems most desirable even among ourselves to live with those of similar habits to ourselves, how can we escape the reflection that this is still more the case with God 1 For as He is good by nature and the beginning and source of all virtue. He takes up His abode not in the lovers of wickedness but in the workers of virtue, and disdains the impure, and with good reason. As then we ourselves are naturally eager to rid our houses of filth and stench if any such there be, disdaining to live in them, will not the pure and all-holy God still more disdain the polluted soul, and abominate a heart sunk in the slough of sin '? Of this there can be no question. For that he that doth not keep His commandment will be found among these and not elsewhere, being as he is impure and of filthy lusts, our speculation will perforce teach you. For in not keeping the Divine commands the origin of sin is found.

For just as the deprivation of light introduces its opposite, I mean darkness, just so refusing to do virtuous acts causes wickedness to spring up. For inasmuch as the subject-matter that underlies them is one and the same, things diverse from each other in quality may admit of comparison (I am far from saying they are identical) according to the law of contraries.

Book 10. opposed to each other in quality, or how could one ^' ^^^' *■ ■ speak without falling into error? But both characters cannot belong to any one among us in the same relation and be fulfilled in action. For either a man is good or bad, though he may not have reached the height of iniquity or virtue. Then when the one principle is powerful within us. the other, that is the opposite, will be weak. And so if the formal principle of virtue consist in keeping His commandments, is it not most plain that in not keeping them wickedness originates 1 Just as to have in himself the Father and the Son, which is the origin and basis of all satisfaction of soul and glory, is in store for him that keeps His commandments, so he that keepeth them not is wholly cut off from participation in the ineffable Divine nature; which is, in effect, incapacity to enjoy any blessing. If any man then think it a good and desirable thing to partake of the Divine nature and to have God Who is the Father of the universe indwelling and abiding in the shrine of the heart by His Son, in the Spirit, let him thoroughly purge his soul, and wash away the stain of wickedness, by whatever means he can; and most of all, by all kinds of well-doing. For then will he become truly the Cf. ver. temple of God; and He will rest and abide in him, supra, according to the Scripture. For then it will not be with him as it was with the lawyer mentioned in the Gospels, who did not wait for grace from the Saviour, but said that he went self-called to follow Him; and, eager to s. Matt, seize so desirable a blessing, exclaimed, Master, I ivill ^"'' ■ folloiv Thee ivhither soever Thou goest: but what said Ibid. 20. Christ to him as in a parable and in riddles. The foxes have holes and the birds of the heaven have nests, but the Son of Man hath not ivhere to lay His Head. By foxes and birds of the Jieaven He meant wicked and unclean devils, and the spirits of the world and of the air, which love to dwell and take up their abode in the hearts of pleasure-seekers, fulfilling their own lusts, and so crampinsf the miserable souls of those who receive them that

God can find no place at all for rest in them. This is c. xiv. 24. what He means by laying His Head.

Let us then cleanse our hearts from every defilement, for so will God dwell in us and will render us proof against all the malice of the devil, and will make us happy and blessed, and will render us partakers of His ineffable Divine nature.

24 And the word which ye hear is not Mine hut the Father's Who sent Me.

He once more deals with a difficult subject which required of Him accurate explanation, and again brings forward illustrations by which they might have their understanding better fitted to fully comprehend the depth of the mystery. And He confirms the minds of His hearers in order that they might not be allured by the ignorant prejudices of the Jews, and in their desire to bring their own ideas into conformity with the Jewish do despite unto the holy teaching of the Gospel. What I wish to say is this in plain words: For the law having Heb. ix. a shadow and an impressed type until a time of reformation, according to the saying of Paul', hath Gal. iii. been our tutor to bring %s unto Christ, and provided, as " it were, a preliminary training for virtue according to godliness. If any one then were to call the Mosaic dispensation preparatory to true worship in Spirit, he would not miss the mark. For, for this reason, the Law brought nothing to perfection; but our Lord Jesus Christ showed us no longer the shadows of things, but the reality itself openly, no longer sketching the outline of virtue in types and figures, as Moses did, but setting it up naked in the public sight, accomplishing the perfect man in righteousness. The instruction of the words of Christ was then a shifting and moulding of the types into truth. And since, as the truth was already shining forth, it was superfluous for the shadow any longer to prevail, Christ ordained that those who came to Him by faith should no longer frame their conduct by the types

Book 10. of the Law. This was very grievous to the Jews, for c.xiv. - • ^j-jpy thought that Christ came to destroy the old Law, S. Matt, although they heard Him saying openly, / come not to V. 1/, \b. ^l^^l^,^y^ i]i^ Laiu, hut to ftdfil. For I say unto you, one jut or one tittle shall in no luise pass atuay from the Lata till all things he accomplished. The realisation of excellence which was introduced by the laws of Christ brings with it the fulfilment of the shadow of the Law, as we have Cf. Rom. just said. For inasmuch as in their headstrong passion ^' ^" they became backsliders into disobedience, and assuming a zeal for the Law not according to knowledge, they thought themselves to be advocating the Law by rejecting the commandments of Christ, it was for this very reason in order that He might not seem to any to be laying down some new and peculiar laws adverse to the will of God the Father He conveyed this useful and necessary rebuke— Tlie word which ye hear is not Mine, hut the Father s Who sent Me. Let not any one of those who come to Me by faith, He says, think that I have made any discourse not in accord with the will of God the Father. The tidings of the Gospel are His and not anothel-'s, but He gave them not as ashamed of the older enactments, nor again as though the better commandment had been unveiled at the moment; but rather because the type had been moulded into reality at the fitting time. For He That said those things by Me to the men of old time says this also now to you: for I am the living Word That interprets the ineffable Will of God Is. ix. 6. the Father, wherefore am I called the Angel of greed counsel.

For either after this manner we shall receive the saying, I mean the following — TAe word which ye hear is not Mine, hut the Father s Who sent Me, or we shall understand it in another way. For He says that His own word is the word of God the Father, that they who keep it may know that they honour God when they are persuaded by the words which come from Him: while others, falling into the contrary extreme and not dis- daining by disobedience to insult the commandment cxiv. 25, given to them, sin against the nature of the Most * Highest. Now it was possible in two ways to confirm the minds of His hearers: for either the wish to honour God would incline them at all events to obedience, or the fear of coming into conflict with Him would also have this effect. For the calculation of what is useful and expedient runs through both methods. And when He says, " It is not My word," He does not at all put out of our sight the peculiar character which He bears as the Word and God. And, while He still wears His homely shape, and appears and truly is in the guise of manhood, and is really like as we are when He is saying this, He is not willing that His word should be thought merely human, but really Divine and regal; of necessity merging His character in that of the Father, in order that He might not by sundering Himself admit the conception of two Sons, as the Son is one and the same both before and after His Incarnation. For Christ is one, and not two, as some say: for the Word proceeding from the Supra Father, being God, became flesh according to the saying ^' ^^" of John not by conversion into flesh, but by enshrining His divinity in flesh from the womb of the holy virgin. In order then that we may not think His word is merely human, or divest the Gospel teaching of its Divine character, but may be convinced that it comes from the God Who is over all, appropriately and with great reason, inasmuch as He was then appearing to them in the form of man. He attributes His words to His Divine Nature, as in the character of God the Father, from Whom and in Whom He is by nature as His effulgence and His word and the Express Image of His Person. Heb. i, 3.

26 you. But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send unto you in My Name, He shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said.

Contrariwise, His speech has in it the human element, and is not quite foreign to the standards we apply to VOL. II, z

Book 10. ourselves, to the extent that the mind into which it ^^^^'^•-^' entered was fitted to receive the words before us.

Perhaps some one will plausibly say that Christ is not amongst us according to the power of His Godhead, although He fills the Universe and is not wholly separated from anything, but rather encompasses with unspeakable might earth and heaven, and does not leave the depths of the abyss: for where is not God? When, then. He says, These things have I spoken unto you, wJule yet abiding ivith you, we must think that He there speaks as a man; and since He was about to vanish from our sight, I mean according to the flesh, He says this when the preparation for His departure into heaven was complete; and He says that the most perfect and complete revelation to us of the mystery is through the Comforter, that is the Holy Ghost, sent from the Father in His Name, I mean that of the Son. For as His Spirit is Christ in us, therefore He says. He shall teach you all things that I said. For since He is the Spirit of Christ,

1 Cor. ii. and His mind, as it is written, which is nought else but what He is, in regard to identity of nature, even though He be both conceived of and is existent. He knows all that is in Him. And Paul will be our witness,

Ibid. 11. saying, For who knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man ivhich is in him? even so the things of God none knoiveth save the Spirit of God,. Wherefore as knowing what is in the counsel of the Only-begotten, He reporteth all things to us, not having the knowledge thereof from learning, that is; that He may not seem to fill the rank of a minister and to transmit the words of another but as His Spirit, as we said just now, and knowing untaught all that belongeth to Him of Whom and in Whom He is. He revealeth to the Saints the Divine mysteries; just as man's mind too, knowing all things that are therein, ministereth externally by uttered word the desires of the soul whose mind it is, being mentally discerned in the thoughts, and named as something else than itself, not other by nature, but as a part complemental of the whole, existing in it and c. xiv. 25, believed to go forth from it. Such a relation as this is * inapplicable to the ineffable Divine Nature. For small is all the power of illustrations, even if it go on to subtleties. The perfect knowledge then is begotten in the fSaints by the Spirit. And indeed the inspired Paul exhorts some: / also, having heard of the faith in the Eph. i. Lord Jesus tuhich is among you, and the love which ye show to'ward all the Saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my iirayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelcdion in the knoivledge of Him; having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, tuhat the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the Saints, and tuhat the exceeding greatness of His potuer to us-ward who believe, according to the working which He hath ivr ought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly p)laces, far above all rule, and authority, and poiver, and dominion, and every name thcd is named, not only in this luorld, but cdso in that tvhich is to come. For in the revelation of these things by the Spirit working in us in an unspeakable way, we see the deep meaning of the Incarnation and the power of the hidden mystery. And that His Spirit, indwelling in the Saints, accomplishes the presence and the power of Christ Himself and teaches all things that He has spoken unto us, Paul will once more make none the less clear to us by the words: For this cause L botu my knees unto the Eph. iii. Father, from Wliom every family both in heaven and on ' ' earth is named, that He tvould grant you, according to the riches of His glory, that ye may be strengthened with po'iver through His Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith to the end; thcd ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend tuith cdl the Saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to knoiu

Book 10. the love of Christ, xvhich passeth knoidedge, that ye may ' he filled unto all the fulness of God.

Furthermore, we must show that when He said that all would be revealed by the Spirit to the Saints, He does not give them over to another master — do not think that: but He keeps them by His side, through the Spirit, no longer seen by the eye of the flesh, but rather gazed upon as became a God by the intellectual vision of the heart.

2 7 Peace I leave vnth you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart he troubled, neither let it he fearful.

Herein when He reminds His holy Apostles of His ascension into heaven, and prepares them for the knowledge that they will be left thereby alone by the saying:

Supra These things have I s])ohen unto you while yet abiding ' with you. He was stricken at heart by the knowledge, being as He was by nature God, that the saying gave them no small alarm, and put them into great fear and trembling, and by laying a burden of grief upon them had stirred the mind of each to its depths. For what could be more grievous than their sorrow, and what so burdensome as to be robbed of the highest blessings and to undergo the unexpected loss of that which was most dear to them? He therefore stablishes them when they were disturbed by grief and fear. For the cause and root of their sorrow, His being about to leave them and go to His Father, was most well-grounded. But He considered their apprehension of unknown suffering as the cause of their grief, and very readily, as He Who was strong to save was no longer present, according to the actual vision of the body. And how does He stablish them, and in what way does He produce in them the brightness of a cheerful spirit, and how are their minds lulled again into a Divine calm? Peace I give unto you, He says. My peace I leave with you. I have often told