Commentary on the Gospel of John

' you dwell alone in the earth, stripped and robbed of your c. xiv. 27.

defender; nay, rather, I will be with you, and though absent in the flesh will again edify you by My consolations as God, and will set you above every terror, and no man shall surpass you in boldness; for all fear shall dwindle away, and cowardice shall vanish from j^our path, and a Divine power shall spring up in you, bringing you with peaceful mind, and heart at rest, to the revelation of those things which pass man's understanding. And now. He says. Peace I give unto you, not simply, but My peace. And this was clearly nothing else but saying: I will bring the Spirit, and of Myself will abide with those who receive Him.

For that the peace of Christ is His Spirit, it needs no long argument to completely demonstrate. But I suppose one ought to say this, if He is peace in heaven and on the earth, how can it fail to be clear to everyone, that as we have said, the peace is certainly His Spirit 1 And indeed the inspired Paul said to some: And tJie peace of God Phil. iv. ivhich passeth cdl understanding shall guard your hearts and your thoughts. And surely it is right to reflect, that it is not about that peace which has reference to common thought and action that He says this. For that disposition which loathes dispute and strife has and works peace, so far as its own waverings and inclinations will allow it. And we shall not think that the peace which is here meant is something which has not a real and independent existence; but we must suppose that it is found in the temper of those who love it. How then can one think that such a peace as this surpasses all understanding? For that which nowhere and nohow has an independent existence, how could that be thought better and nobler than men, or angels, or even higher beings 1 for these too we say are mind. The peace therefore that is above all principality, and power, and thrones, and sovereignties, and excels all intellectual existence, is the Spirit of Christ, by Which the Son reconciles all things to God the Father, by willing the things that are His and by wishing to

Book 10. think and do them, and not by being perverted or falling c. XIV. 28. g^^a^y through turning aside to wickedness. And it is easy and expedient to reflect on this. For just in the same way as since the Son is by nature life, and wisdom, and power, and the Spirit is called and is His, the Spirit is of life, and wisdom, and power; so since the true and sovereign peace is He Himself and no other. His Spirit might rightly be named and thought as He is — " peace." For this reason and in a special manner referring His own peace, that is to say the Spirit, to His own nature. He says concerning Him, My peace I leave with you. That also in the holy prophets the Spirit of Christ has been so named, j^ou will easily perceive, when you hear this from Is. xxvi. the mouth of Isaiah: 0 Lord our God grant us peace: for Thou hast given ns cdl things. For as the Law brought nothing to completion, and righteousness according to it did not suffice to bring men to perfect piety. He entreats that the Holy Spirit be vouchsafed, by Whom, reconciled to God the Father, we have been admitted into fellowship with Him, who have before been shown to be reprobates through the sin that reigneth in us. Grant us then ^eace, he says. Lord; for Thou hast given us cdl things. And what he wants to show, I say, is this: " Grant us too, Lord, the peace; for we shall then confess that we have all things, and no blessing will be found lackino- to him that has once for all reached the fulness of Christ. For it is the completion of all good that God should dwell in us by the Spirit." For since the Spirit is fully sufficient to allay all tumult of the mind, and to dispel all cowardice in us. He promises to give us as provision by the way, that which is needful to maintain our courage and peace, when He says, My peace I leave tuith you: let not your heart be troubled, nneither let it he fearful.

departure hence, for you heard My sayings with your c xiv. 28. own ears, and what have I, Who cannot lie, promised unto you 1: I go away, and I come unto yov,. If then His words had threatened that His departure would leave them comfortless, and that their bereavement would be eternal, it was very likely that they would thereupon be dreadfully dismayed, and find it unbearable, and fall into excess of despondency. And whereas I said unto you not simply that I would go away, but that I would come again in due season, why then, He says, do you let into your hearts only the cause of grief, and slight by your forgetfulness that which is able ta cheer. Let that which knows how to succour arise in you to combat that which affrights: and let the power of the Comforter wrestle with the incitements to grief. For it has been ordained that I should ascend to God the Father, but I have promised to come again. He allays then the agony of grief He found in His disciples; and just as a fond and good father, compelled for some needful purpose to take his children from the nurse that bears them, and seeing a flood of tears bedewing their delicate and dear cheeks, he tries every blandishment, and by always insisting on the good that will result from her absence, arms in some sort hope against grief, where the affections are most nearly concerned; so also our Lord Jesus Christ shields the souls of His Saints from sorrow. For He knew, being truly God, that His abandonment of them would be very grievous unto them, although He were ever with them by the Spirit. And this proves His love and extreme holiness. For to wish to be with Christ, how does not that most truly become the Saints? And of a truth the admirable Paul has this aim in view when he „,.,.

That in nothing- is the Son inferior to God the Father, but rather equal to and like Him in nature.

Book 10. 28 J^f y^ loved Me, ye tvould have rejoiced, because I go unto the Father: for My Father is greater than I.

He turns the occasion of sorrow into a source of solace, and plainly rebukes them because they do not rather rejoice at what now gives them pain: and at the same time tries to teach them, that those who practise an unaffected and sincere love towards others, must not merely seek their own pleasure and advantage, but rather to benefit those they love, when an opportunity to do this gives them inducement. Therefore also Paul exhorts

1 Cor. us in the words: Love vaunteth not itself, is not pufed ' ' wp, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own.

Ibid. X. He speaks of some who seek not their own but others' good. For true love shows itself in our not only providing for our own advantage but also considering our neighbour's benefit. For our Saviour, in the words before us, persuades His disciples to lay this to heart. And, further, let us imprint the power of this thought in clearer characters on our hearts as on a tablet, and thereby attain unto the mystery of Christ. For a type taken from triflinsf thino-s will oftentimes avail to enable us to arrive even at those things which we hold to admit of no comparison. It was pleasant then, for example, to the disciples of Paul that they should be always with him,

Phil. i. but better for Paul to depart and be with Christ, as he of those who chose to love him to be eager to fulfil their Chap. i. love towards him, and not to consider that only as ^' ^^^' ^^' endurable which was pleasant to themselves, but rather to reflect upon this, that his departure would be to the benefit of their master; for he was eager to be with Christ.

You have the outline of the speculation so far as concerns Christ's human nature. Let us therefore, illuminating as it were with varied tints our sketch of the power of the mystery of Christ, clearly show the absolute truth. For the Only-begotten, heiyig in the Thil. a. form of God the Father, and in equahty with the Spirit, ' * counted it not a j^rize to he on an equality with God, and through His love towards us emptied Himself of His glory, taking the form of a servant, and underwent this that He might direct us all to perfect knowledge of vii'tue, so as to prepare us by the incomparable brightness of His miracles to behold the power, and glory, and exceeding might that is inherent in the Divine Nature. For so He might have induced those who have fallen into the depths of ignorance to recover knowledge once more, and no longer to worship the creature beyond the Creator, but to figure to themselves the One true and living God. And the Only-begotten has aided us in other ways by His incarnation, for He destroyed the power of death, and loosed the bonds of sin, and granted us to S. Luke tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over cdl the ^' ^^' power of the enemy. It was then, and with great reason, sweet and pleasant beyond all description to ourselves and the holy disciples, to have continual converse with Christ the Giver of such blessings to us, and to be ever present with Him and in His company. But it was clearly not to His advantage, so long a time to choose to abide in the guise of humility, which He had taken for our advantage, through His love to us, as we just now said: rather was He bound, when His dispensation towards us had been already suitably accomplished, to ascend to His own glory, and, with the flesh that He had c. XIV. 28. ^^g Father, which thinking it not robbery to do (for He might have had this honour in His own right), He descended to human humiliation. For while He was yet upon the earth, though He was truly God and Lord of all, He was thought no better than the rest of men, by those who knew not His glory. Nay, more, He was smitten, and spat upon, and crucified, and underwent the s. Matt, ridicule of the impious Jews, who dared to say, // Thou we tvill believe Thee. And when after He had fulfilled the mystery of our redemption, He ascended to God the

Father in the heavens, when the time of His humiliation was already past, and the period of His voluntary degradation accomplished. He showed Himself very God to the powers above. For heaven did not deny the Lord of all when He ascended, but the charge was given to the sentinels at the gates above, that the Lord of Hosts was drawing nigh, although He was borne upward in the raiment of the flesh; and the Spirit was representing the

Ps. xxiv. opening of the gates, when He said: Lift up the gates ye rulers, and be lifted up ye everlasting doors, and the

Eph. iii. God which He purposed in Christ was known unto the

He ascended to the Father, although He may be thought greater than the Son in this respect, that He remained in His everlasting home, while the Son underwent voluntary humiliation, and descended in the form of a servant, and ascended up again to His own glory, and

Ps. cix. 1. heard the words: Sit doivn on My right hand until L

7)iake Thine enemies Thy footstool. And it was to the intent that He might not seem too presumptuous, and that God the Father in the heavens had not of His own will made the Son sit on His right hand, the Father right hand, the Psalmist says this. And no one with Chap. i. any sense will say that the Father has the second place ^•^^^•^^• of honour though He has the Son on His right hand, but will rather take what I have said into consideration. For it is not the Father, but rather the Son, on account of His voluntary degradation and suffering, Who must be conceived as sitting on the right hand, and having a place from which no inferiority could be inferred, as He might be numbered among inferior beings by those who cannot comprehend the mystery of His Incarnation. Therefore a place on the right hand of His Father, against Whom no such charge can be brought, is allotted to the Son that His equality may be maintained.

We have done well to introduce these explanations now, which have an intimate connexion with the present subject. Now taking up again and unfolding from the beginning the whole purpose of our disquisition, I proceed to say that continual converse with our Saviour Christ is sweet and acceptable and pleasant to us, although for our sake He has emptied Himself of His Piiil.ii.7. glory, as has been written, and taken the form of a servant and the dishonour of man's nature. For what is man's nature as compared with God! Nor was the Incarnation to the advantage of the Son, but to ascend to His Father profited Him more, and to recover His own glory and power and Divine honour in the sight of all, and no longer obscured. For He sat on the right hand by the will of His Father. For He loves Him as His own Offspring and the fruit of His Substance, and therefore He says, // ye loved Me, ye woidd have rejoiced because I go unto the Father r for the Father is greater, than I. Surely it was a proof of His Father's love towards Him that He did not sorrow over His seeming abandonment and the compulsory absence that He had taken on Himself, but rather took into consideration that He went to the glory befitting Him, and His due, and to His ancient honour, that is the Godhead manifest. Nay more, the Psalmist, though he speaks mysteries by the

Book 10. Spirit, says, Clct}') your hands, all ye people: then he ex- ^^^\'^.^ plained the occasion of the festival, and introduced the

Ibid. 5. gone up ivith a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trump: meaning by the shout and the trump the piercing and clear voice of the Spirit, when He bade the powers above open the gates, and named Him Lord of Hosts, as Supra we said just now. On the same occasion moreover, we P" shall find the choir of the Saints rejoicing with great

Ps. xcvii. joy of heart. Then too he said in one place, The Lord '... reigneth, let the earth rejoice; and in another, The Lord 1. reigneth: the Lord hath p>ut on glorious apparel, the

Lord hath put on and girded Himself luith might. For He that was with us as a man before His resurrection from the dead, when He ascended to His Father in the heavens, then put on His own glorious apparel, and girded Himself with the might that was His from the beginning, for He sat and reigneth with the Father. Then it is right and meet that those who love Him should rejoice because He has gone to His Father in the heavens, to take upon Him His own glory, and to reign again with Him as at the beginning. And He says that He is greater, not because He sat down on the right hand as God, but as He was still with us, that is, in human shape. For as He still wore the guise of a servant, and the time had not yet come that He should be reinstated. He calls God the Father greater. Moreover, when He endured the precious cross for us, the Jews brought Him vinegar and gall when He was athirst. Infra and when He drank, He said. It is finished. For XIX. 30. g^|j.gg^(jy ^Ijg ^jjj^e Qf jjig humiliation was fulfilled, and He was crucified as man. He had overcome the power of death, not as man but rather as God, I say by the working of His power and the glory and might of His conquest, not according to the flesh. The Father then is greater since the Son was still a servant and in the world, as He says that He is God of Himself, and adds this attribute to His human form. For if we believe that He degraded and humbled Himself, will it not be Chap. i. obvious to all that He descended from superiority to an °*^^^" • inferiority, and rather from equality with the Father to the reverse. The Father underwent nothing of this, and He abode where He was at the beginning. He is greater therefore than He that chose inferiority by His own dispensation, and remained in such a state until He was restored to His ancient condition, I mean His own and natural glory in which He was at the beginning. We may rightly judge that His equality with the Father, which while He might have had it uninterruptedly He did not consider robbery to take for our sake, is His own and natural position.

And as we have spoken at length about the equality of the Son with God the Father in previous books, it may well be fitting to proceed to illustrate all things in order, leaving long discussions on the subject for the present. And since a certain dull-witted heretic, receiving from the Jews some marvellous knowledge of the holy writings, and attempting to explain the verse we have before us, has committed to writing intolerable blasphemies against the Only-begotten, I deemed it a mark of feebleness, and very unbecoming to myself, calmly to pass them by, and to dismiss in silence the awful madness of the man to whom I allude. I think then we ought to encounter him in argument, and show that his words are baseless and old wives' fables, and wholly devoid of sense, and the quibbles of a perverted logic. And with reference to the same passage, I will read over to you what he has dared to write when giving the view he took of the text: " When He called His Father greater than Himself, He not only displayed His own humility but also refuted the heresy of those who maintain that His nature is twofold." And having thus shattered the opinion of Sabellius, he makes a furious and vigorous onslaught, as he thinks, on those who put the Son on an equality with the Father in these words: " Some have reached such a pitch of mad-

Book 10. ness that they cannot at all endure to say that the c. XIV. 28. jTj^^j^gj. jy superior to the divinity of the Only-begotten, but only that the Father seems to surpass Him when compared with Him in reference to the Incarnation, though they are not even able to look at them together in this aspect; and things different in kind can in no way be compared. For no one would ever say that man is wiser than a beast, or that a horse runs faster than a tortoise; but that one man has more reason than another, and that one horse has greater speed than another. Since then only things belonging to the same class are capable of comparison with each other, we must admit that the Father is greater even than the divinity of the Son. For those who fall into the contrary error of drawing a comparison with reference to the Incarnation, so far as in them lies, lessen the honour of the Father."

Such are his puerile babblings. And we must take care to show tliat he does not even know that he is Supra inconsistent with himself. For he admits that the Son ^' ' maintains becoming humility, when He says. The Father is greater than I; and I marvel that he did not also lay this to heart. For whatever was it which induced him to meddle with theology, although one would not make of no account the knowledge of the fitting time to speak or act if one were wise 1 What need was there then of such unseasonable discussion of the Divine Nature to His disciples in their agony, when He was about to depart from the world to God the Father"? For what kind of consolation could this consideration bring to them? And why does not He merely rebuke them, saying, '• If you loved Me, you would rejoice that I go to the Father, because the Father is greater than I?" Tell me then, did He think that this tended to solace the disciples, or to rid them of the sorrow they felt from their love of God, that He was going to the Father Who was greater than Himself? Although when Philip asked Him and ver. 8. said, Lord, shoic us the Father, and It sufficeth us, then indeed, and very opportunely, as the occasion for Chap. i. theological teaching had arrived, He showed that the *^"^^^'^^' Father was in Him, and He Himself in the Father, and that He was in no way inferior to Him, but distinguished by His perfect equality, when He said: Have I been so Supra long time with you, and dost thou not know Me, Philip? ^^^- ■'> • He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in 31 e? I and the Father are one. Then indeed, very oppor- Supra tunely. He unravels His discourse thereupon, and it is * worthy of admiration. But here, how is the reference opportune? Or what construction would it admit of other than His desire to allay His disciples' grief, and to furnish them, as it were, with a medicine of consolation bidding them rejoice because He " goes to the Father? " Is it not then obvious to any one, however dull-wilted he may be, from the very state of the case, that since He was hastening to return to His own glory with the Father, He bade those who loved Him rejoice at this, devising this admirable means of consolation for them with the rest?

But I will now pass this by, and will not lay much stress on their demented folly. But I say that we ought rather to go on to the following considerations. For He thought perhaps when comparing His Incarnate Nature with His Divine, they could not help making profit out of the inquiry, when we say that the Son was emptied of His glory when He became a Man. Is it not so? How could it be otherwise? But speaking of His Divine glory, in contrast with His place as a servant, and His position of subjection, we say that the Son was inferior to the Father, in so far as He was human; but that He was reinstated into His equality with the Father after His sojourn here, not endued with any new, or adventitious, or unaccustomed glory, but rather restored to that state in which He was at the beffinnino- with the Father. And indeed, the inspired writer who initiates us into mysteries, I mean Paul, no longer attributing to Him the humiliation

Book 10. belonging to man's estate after His resurrection from the c. XIV. 28. ^^^^ ^^^ ascension into heaven, exhorts us saying: 2 Cor. V. Even though tee have known Christ after the flesh, yet ^^' now we know Him so no more. And of himself again:

Gal. i. 1. Paul, an afostle of Jesus Christ, not from men, neither through man, hut through Jesus Christ. And yet, why is it that when He ssijs that on His second coming to us Phil. iii. He will change the body of our humiliation, that it may ^^" he conformed to the body of His glory, he now denies it, saying: Not from men, neitJter through man, although destined to be an apostle by Jesus Christ? But how is it that he says he knew Him not in the flesh 1 Did he 2S.Pet. then, tell me, deny the Master that bought him? God "* ^' forbid; for he is rightminded. For when the period of the actual humiliation or degradation of the Onlybegotten had been accomplished, and come to an end, He makes haste to proclaim Himself and to gain recognition, not in the character which He presented when emptied of His glory, but of His natural attributes of God. For when it had once been known and admitted that He was human, He was bound to instruct believers in Him that He was also God by nature; and for this reason He chooses to speak of His divinity, rather than anything else.

And I marvel that the heretic of whom we are speaking Supra does uot blush when he saj's that " as only things which p. 350. belong to the same class admit of comparison with each other, they must confess the Father is greater than the Divinity of the Son." For he does not perceive, it seems, that he has armed his own argument against himself. For let him answer us this pertinent inquiry: From what starting point can comparisons of things of the same class best proceed? Can we reasonably start with what they are, according to the common definition of their nature, or with the qualities which belong to, or are deficient in each, or inhere or do not inhere in each? And I will give an example, and will select that which he gave to us by way of illustration. If any one choose to compare one man with another, looking to the one Chap. i. common definition of their essence, he would find no ' " * distinction; for there is no difference between man and man, so far as each is a thinking animal, mortal, and capable of sense and knowledge, as in all men there is one and the same definition of their essence. Nor does one horse differ from another in its essential character as a horse; but one man differs from another in some special sort of knowledge, as writing, and in divers other ways. This does not affect the essence, but clearly proceeds from quite another cause. So also one horse excels another in speed, or is smaller or larger than another; but you will find that superiority or inferiority in these respects lies outside the definition of their essence, otherwise things brought into mutual comparison could have no distinctions made between them. For if one man had a less or greater degree of the essential character of man, how could we conceive or speak of him at all? Then all things of the same type in their essential characters are uniform. But the difference lies in those attributes which either inhere in them, or which lie outside (viewing them in the light of accidents). Since then, according to his premise or statement, which I will proceed to deal with, only things of like nature admit of comparison at all appropriately, he must start by admitting that the Son is of the same class as the Father, that is, of the same Essence. For so you will have the same class in view; for he proved that man might be compared with man, and horse with horse. Then let him go on to tell us the reason why, when the Son is compared with God the Father as being of the same class He has any kind of inferiority to Him, and where we shall find it, when one and the same definition of their essence belongs to things of the same class? For in the case of the essence of a class, its definition is not perfect in some cases and imperfect in others, but is one and the same for all. But we may say that any accident may have a separate cause and accrue to a thing in a different manner. VOL. TI, A a

Book 10. In order to make what I have said quite clear, I will set c, XIV. 28. ]3QfQj.Q yQ^ i\^Q illustration I gave at the outset. No man differs from another in his essential character as man; but one man is pious and another wicked; and one is weak and maimed, while another is healthy and strong; and one is vile and another good. But v/hen a man accurately investigates the reasons for these distinctions, he will not trace them to their common definition of the essence, but rather attributes the causes to diseases of mind or body. As then, there is one definition of Godhead for the Father and the Son both in conception and reality (otherwise one could not but go astray), for They are compared as belonging to the same class, and I will use Supra his words for the purpose of the argument — let these p. 350. (3^eiu(jed men tell us what they think it was that paved the way for the inferiority of the Son to God the Father; was it disease, or indolence, and those things which are known to affect created beings'? Who would be so mad and such a slave of contradictions as even to lend an ear to such blasphemy? When then, being (as He is), of the same class as the living God, He Himself also is manifestly by nature God — for He is brought into comparison with the Father: and nothing can hinder His having a like state with His Father — how is He inferior?

Since, then, this adversary of the truth has given in detail a mass of contradictions, with reference to the text.

Ibid. and has not hesitated to affirm that "the Father is greater than the Godhead of the Son," let us then, after having made a brief defence of the Incarnation, and separated it in our demonstration from the consideration of the matter under discussion, compare the Divinity of the Son with that of the Father, according to Their definition; but let us previously inquire of him who dares to say this, whether he thinks that God, when He is God, is so by nature, or something else besides, but honoured with the by the bare appellation of Divinity, but that He is not Chap. l. by nature really that which He is said to be, we who are ^' ^'^^ ^^' rightminded will encounter him, and openly exclaim, " My good Sir, if He is not really God, we shall worship the creature in preference to the Creator, and not only we who inhabit this earthly sphere, but also the multitude of holy angels; and we shall also accuse every Saint who has spoken of Him as the real and true God, and most of all we charge S.John, who said of Him: We knoiu is. John that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an under- ^' ' standing, that we may know the true God, and we are in His true Son Jesus Christ: this is the true God, and eternal life." But if, rejecting all inspired writings alike, he confess that He is really God, and be so minded and still suggest the doctrine that even so He falls below the Father's dignity in some respect, has he not introduced to us a new God, wholly dissevered from His natural connexion with the Father, and conceived of as having a separate existence and not inhering in the substance of God the Father? But I think the matter is obvious to every one. For if nothing is conceived of as being greater or less than itself, but as greater than anything which is less, and less than anything which is greater, must he not perforce admit that there are two true and real Gods, so that one is thought the greater, and the other the less. So the faith of the Church is wholly destroyed and overturned by their doctrine, for we shall have not one God but two. Whose temples then are we according to the Scriptures? Surely His Who established His Spirit in our hearts. When then we find in the Holy Writings the Spirit spoken of as not of the Father only but also of the Son, what are we to infer, and what view must we take? Which of the two reject and call the other God? If, however, we are to admit a duality of Gods, one less and the other greater, we shall say that both abide in our hearts by separate Spirits, and we shall be found temples of more than one God, and there are two Spirits dwelling in us, a greater and a less, corre-

Book 10. sponding to the nature of those who gave them. For c.xjv. -. ^Yxo could tolerate such ravings, and who cannot see that their doctrine is absurd and ridiculous, after he has considered the view I have just set forth? But, perhaps, if he is forced to admit that there is a duality of Gods by nature, one the greater and the other the less, he will proceed to that doctrine that is always recurring in his writings; I mean, he will say that the Son has a separate nature — though He is not wholly devoid of the nature of a created being, yet neither does He wholly decline from the Divinity of God the Father. For those who do not scruple to say plainly that He is a creature take refuge in refinements of language, trying as it were to gloss over their profanity. When then we say that the Son has such a nature as not to be wholly God, nor yet to fall entirely into the category of creatures, but that He holds an intermediate place, so as to fall beneath the dignity of God the Father, and yet to exceed created beings in glory, we will say fii'st of all, that there is no authority to induce us to lay down the doctrine they choose to propound. For either let them satisfy us from the holy and inspired writings, or confessing they have no voucher for their private opinion, blush for laying down definitions in matters of faith from their own private judgment.

But since it occurred to them to say this in their rash folly, I will proceed to the view they have propounded. Supra and I will say once more that if only things of the same ^' ' class are properly capable of mutual comparison, — and the Son has proved that He may properly be compared with God the Father in the plainest language. The Father is greater than I, — must not then the Father be conceived of as having the same nature you attribute to the Son? What follows then? Your whole speculation is upset. For so long as you maintain that the Father is greater than the Son, but a created being is less according to you, the nature of the Only-begotten lies between the two. And when the nature of the Father is lessened to that of the Son, one of the extremes is left out, as there is no longer anything above and superior to the Chap. i. Son. And if, as he says, He is compared with the °' ^'^' * Father as being one of the same class, must not the definition of Their Essence be one and the same for both? And if you scruple to admit that the Son is of the same Essence with the Father, but rather put Him in a position of inferiority, and debase the glory of the Father to that of a being whom you reckon less than and inferior to Him, do you not see blasphemy springing up like a thorn? Does not then a root of bitterness sijringing up Heb. xii. rankle in the heart of those thus minded? Why then * do you leave the straight path of truth, and launch into such absurd discussions? Grant then to the Onlybegotten in your thoughts an equality with God the Father. For thus there will be One God, worshipped and glorified in the holy and consubstantial Trinity, both by us and by the holy angels.

29 And now I have told you before it conie to 2^'^ss, that when it is come to ^;as5, ye may believe.

A prophecy of the future is manifestly a sure pledge of what the future has in store for us. Christ confirms therefore the heart of His disciples, and seems to inspire in them a firm conviction that He is really ascending to God the Father in the heavens, to reign with Him and share His throne as God, and as God really begotten of Him. For do not. He says, set My departure, which is according to the flesh and an object of sight (for I will be with you as God for ever), on a level with that of the holy prophets. For they, as they passed from the earth and paid the debt of nature, were brought low, and died according to the law of human creatures. But I, Who am the true God, am not measured by the same standard as My creatures awaiting the time of the resurrection. For I live for ever, and I am the True Life. And I will Supra send the Comforter, and I will grant you My peace also, jj^. \ ' and will not lie; but to the intent that, when you 27. receive the promise and are illumined by the grace of

Book 10. the Holy Spirit, you may ratify the truth of My words, c.^xiv. 30, i-ecoUecting what I have said in the light of experience, and to the intent that you may have the firm conviction that I live and reign with the Father, I have foretold and spoken this to you. The fulfilment of the promise will then confirm the truth of My words. For if I be not the Life, He says, and if I be not enthroned with God the Father, how can I Myself vouchsafe Divine and spiritual graces? And I will bestow them as I have promised, and I will bring to you the Spirit and peace. Is it not then beyond dispute that I am the Life, and that I reign with the Father. For it is not the act of one who is dead, or powerless to illumine with Divine graces those who love him, but it is the act of One Who is living and powerful and Who reigns for ever. Christ therefore has hereby taught us that He made no empty prophecy of the future. For He says that He made this discourse that they might have their faith in Him confirmed, when they came to think upon and reflect on His promises, after they had experienced His grace.

31 rvorld cometh: and he hath nothing in Me; but that the world may knovj that I love the Father, as the Father gave Me commandnie7it even so I do.

Now when the impious Jews were already at hand, with the band of soldiers whom they brought, and their leader who also had promised to betray Him, and were ready to take Him and bear Him away in no long time to His sufferings upon the cross, and before the Crucifixion, He declared that He would break off" His discourse with them. For, He says, the time is short and already past. And now that the bloodthirsty spirit of the Jews is at its height against Me, and shows itself already within the gates, the time for speech with you is past, and the period of My passion has arrived. But He says, The prince of this ivorld hath nothing in Me. And I shall die very gladly, and undergo d^ath to save the world, and through reverence to My Father and love Chap. i. towards Him willingly encounter inconceivable anguish, 3i^^^' ' that I may fulfil His Will. The aim of what He says here is very plain, and compressing His words into smaller compass we say: Adam, the author of our race, underwent death by a Divine curse, through his breaking the commandment given to him, accused by himself and the devil. He indeed seems to have suffered for good reason, since the doom of punishment justly pursues those who have sinned from indolence; but the second Adam, that is our Lord Jesus Christ, Who can have no such charge brought against Him at all, for He did no i s. Pet. 8171, neither was guile found in His mouth, underwent "' ^^' His sufferings for us, having of Himself no responsibility whatever for them, but by His sufferings procured a ransom for the world, owing to His love for the Father, Who yearned for the salvation of the world. For it was truly the work of His love for the Father not to set at nought His decree and firm resolve, but to hasten to bring it into effect. And what was this decree? He willed that His own Son, though of like fashion with Himself and distinguished by His perfect equality with Him, should descend to such humiliation as to take the form of man for our sakes, and not shrink from death to save the world. This the Son did through love of His Father, Who is said to have ordered Him by His own power to suffer death in His fleshly nature, and to destroy the power of corruption, and to quicken the dead, and to restore them to their ancient state. Therefore He says that the time for speech is short. For My suffering is drawing nigh, and the presumptuous counsels of the Jews have burst into flame. I will suffer willingly, as for this cause I have come.

But the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me; that is, I shall not be convicted of sin, and the Jews will not be able to establish their charge of drunkenness against Me, the devil hath no part in Me, for vices are as it were his attributes, and wickedness c. xiv.31. -^rords will be most clearly seen from what follows. For how did He sin, Who knew no sin, the true and living

God, Who was wholly incapable of turning from the path of righteousness? And we shall see this most clearly by the actual writings of the holy Evangelists.

710 crime in Him; and Matthew says that he so hated the crime, that he washed his hands before the Jews and s. Matt, said, / am innocent of the blood of this righteous man; was brought into the presence of the high priests thems. Matt, selves, and says: Now the chief priests and the whole gQ^^' ' council sought fcdse witness against the Christ, that they might put Him to death; and they found it not, though many fcdse witnesses came. Still, though accusations were sought against Him by the agency of men, the devil used them as ministers and instruments of his own malice, and it was he more than any one else who sought to find sin in Him. It is then true that the devil had no part in Him, whom Christ called prince of this world, speaking of the present moment, not as though he were truly lord of it, but as a foreign intruder who has gained by the law of conquest what does not belong to him. For by sin he subjected mankind to himself, and driving them away from God as sheep who have no shepherd, he ruled over them though they were not his own. Therefore was he rightly cast out from the kingdom he had so obtained. For Christ has become

31, 32. 2jrince of this world be casj out; and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, ivill drcau'/all men unto Myself.

us suggests the thought, that as the period of the madness Chap, l, of the Jews had come, and the priceless Cross of our °' ^^^" Saviour was well-nigh set up, He was hastening to depart with His holy disciples, to that place in which the band of men and officers found and took Him. And the thought is a plausible one. But probably there was another meaning hinted at; I mean a spiritual and hidden meaning. For when He says the words. Arise, let us go hence, He means to signify that to all of us there lies open by Him and with Him a change from one state to another, and a refuge from a worse condition in a better; in order that we may realise some such conception as this, — the passing from death unto life, and from corruption into incorruption, by Him and with Him, as I just said, as passing from one place into another. It is a fine saying then. Arise, and let us go hence; or you may interpret it to yourselves in some other way. From henceforth we are bound to be transformed from loving to think on earthly things into choosing the will to do God's pleasure; and besides this, to pass from slavery into the dignity of sonship; from earth into the city above; from sin to righteousness, — the righteousness I mean that is due to faith in Christ; from the impurity of man's nature to the sanctification by the Spirit; from dishonour to honour; from ignorance to knowledge; and from cowardice and faintheartedness to endurance in goodness.

Localising then, figurating as it were, our transgressions upon earth in the spot whereon He stood. He says. Arise, and let us go hence. For if this meaning entered into the scope of His speech, and He means to show thereby His affinity to us, it can do us no harm at all to act in this way, since He found it in His nature so to do. Moreover, in other places you will find Him saying to His own disciples: We must work the works of Him Thcd Supra sent us, ivhile it is day; the 7iight cometh, when no man can ivork. Do you hear how He implicates Himself together with us in the duty of doing work, although He c. XIV, 31. ^j^j ^jjj^g form of speech is usual with us, and we shall find it just as much amongst ourselves; and the inspired Paul, when he rebuked the Corinthians, ventured on this

1 Cor. expression, exhorting them in these words: Noiu these th ings, ony hrethren, I have in a figure transferred to r)iyself and Apollos; that in us ye might learn not to think beyond the things which are written. And there is no

Is. ixiii. question that we have not an elder, nor an angel, but the Lord of all Himself, though He was not subject to our infirmities, to point out the way to all that is good, and to turn us from our old lusts to better things. For we have been ransomed not by ourselves, nor by any other creature, but rather by Christ Himself our Saviour. Therefore, when escaping as it were with us, in our company, from the wickedness of the world. He says, Arise, let us go hence. He speaks these words not as subject to it as we are, or bound by human infirmities; but as our leader and champion and guide, to point out the way to incorruption and life in sanctification and love of God.

That the Son Is Consuhstantial with God the Father, and not of an aliiiii or foreign nature, as some of tiie perverse assert.

XV. 1 I am the true Vine, and My Father is the Ilushandman. Chap. 2.

He wishes to show us that it behoves us to love, to hold fast to our love towards Him, and how great a gain we shall have from our union with Him, when He says that He is the Vine, by way of illustration; and that those who are united and fixed and rooted in a manner in Him, and who are already partakers in His nature through their participation in the Holy Spirit are branches; for it is His Holy Spirit Which has united us with the Saviour Christ, since connexion with the Vine produces a choice of those things which belong to It, and our connexion with It holds us fast. From a firm resolve in goodness we proceed onward by faith, and we become His people, obtaining from Him the Actsxvii. dignity of Sonship, For according to the holy Paul, He that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit, As then i Cor. vi. in other places He has been called the foundation and coping-stone by the voice of the prophets, for upon Him i S. Pet. we are built up, ourselves being the stones, living and spiritual stones, into a holy priestliood for a habitation of Eph. ii. God in the Spirit, and in no other way are we able to be built up into this, save only if Christ be the copingstone, so here by a similar reflection He says that He is a Vine, as it were the mother and nourisher of its branches. For we are begotten of Him and in Him in the Spirit, to produce the fruits of life; not the old life our hold on this life by clinging as it were to Him, and holding fast to the holy commandment given to us, and by making haste to preserve the blessing of our high birth; that is, by our refusing to grieve in any way whatever the Holy Spirit That has taken up His abode in us, by Whom God is conceived to dwell in us. For in what manner we are in Christ and He in us the wise

"'■ ■ we are in Him and He in us, by the Spirit Which He i^Jdkn gcLve us; and again, Hereby know we thcd ive are in

"■ ' ■ Him; he that saith he abideth in Him ought himself cdso to walk even as He wcdked. And he makes this

His commandments abideth in Him, and He in him.

For if the keeping of His commandments worketh love towards Him, and we are joined to Him by love, surely what has been said has been shown to be true by these quotations. For just as the root of the vine ministers and distributes to the branches the enjoyment of its own natural and inherent qualities, so the Only-begotten

Word of God imparts to the Saints as it were an affinity to His own nature and the nature of God the Father, by giving them the Spirit, insomuch as they have been united with Him through faith and perfect holiness; and

He nourishes them in piety, and worketh in them the knowledge of all virtue and good works.

And when He calls the Father Husbandman, why does He give Him this title, for the Father is not idle or inert in His dealings with us, and while the Son nourishes us and sustains us in a perfect state by the Holy Spirit, the rectification of our condition is as it were the function of the whole sacred and consubstantial Trinity, and the will and power to do alb the actions done by It pervades the whole Divine Nature? Therefore it is glorified by us in its entirety, and in one single aspect. For we call God a Saviour, not gaining the graces which are compassion- ately bestowed upon us partly from the Father, and Chap. 2. partly from the Son Himself or the Holy Spirit, but ^' ^^' ^' calling our salvation the work of One Divinity. And if we must apportion the gifts which are bestowed upon us, or those activities which They display about creation, to each person of the Trinity separately, none the less do we believe that everything proceeds from the Father by the Son in the Spirit. You will think then quite rightly that the Father nourishes us in piety by the Son in the Spirit. He husbands us, that is He watches over us, and cares for us, and deems us worthy of His sustaining providence by the Son in the Spirit. For this view will be more correct than any other, in my opinion. For if we attribute to each a separate activity in His dealings with us, apart from the others, is it not beyond controversy that since the Son is called a Vine and the Father a Husbandman, we are nourished and sustained in well-being especially by the Son alone, while from the Father we receive merely His providential care. For it is the function of the vine to nourish the branches, and of the tiller of the soil to tend them. And if we think aright, we shall believe that neither the one function, if performed apart from the Father, nor the other apart from the Son or the Holy Ghost, could sustain the whole. For all proceeds from the Father by the Son in the Spirit, as we have said. Very appropriately now the Saviour called the Father a Husbandman, and it is not at all difficult to assign the cause. For it was to the intent that no one might think that the Only-begotten merely exercised care over us that He represents God the Father as co-operating with Him, calling Himself the Vine that quickens His own branches with life and productive power, and the Father a IliisbandTnan, and for this reason teaching us that providential care over us is a sort of distinct activity of the Divine Substance. For we were bound to know that God did not only make us partakers of His nature, conceived of as belonging to the Holy and con-

Book 10. substantial Trinity, but also He watches over us with c. XV. 1. ^j^g most diligent care, which is illustrated to us very appropriately on this occasion by the figure of husbandry. For when He has before spoken of the vine and its branches, how is not the illustration of the husbandman most apt, introducing the One Who takes the care and charge of the whole, that is God. And if we are convinced that the Son is really and truly in His own Father, and He has Him that begat Him in His own nature, and all things are brought to perfection by Eoth in the Spirit as by One Divinity, neither will the Father be without His share in nourishing us, nor can the Son be thought not to partake in His husbandry. For where Their identity of nature is seen in unmistakeable language, there too there is no division of activity, though any one may think that they have manifold diversities of operations. And, as there is one Substance, that is the true and real Godhead conceived of in three Persons, that is in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, is it not extremly clear and incontrovertible that when we speak of an activity of one, it is a function of the One and entire Divinity, in the way of inherent power?

Supra X. the impious Jews and said: Many good tuorks have I shoived you from My Father: for tvhich of those ivorks do ye stone Me? And again, about working on the

Father acts separately in His dealings with the world, and so also the Son. For since the Father does all things by the Son, and could not otherwise act, as He is

His wisdom and power, for this reason He, on the other hand, called the Father the doer of His own works, when the place of the vine, and we are dependent on Him as Chap. 2. branches, enriched as it were by His grace, and drinking in by the Spirit spiritual power to bear fruit.

And since we who have chosen the right path are assailed by the trenchant arguments of our adversaries, who try to persuade us to take a false view, we will make things clear to our hearers, compressing into short compass what one of them has set forth at length. " Well," he says, " has the Only-begotten refuted and brought to shame those who think that He is of the same Substance with God the Father. For note how He clearly calls Himself the Vine and the Father the Husbandman: for as the vine is not the same in substance with the husbandman, for the one is wood and the other is man, and these things are altogether separate and alien in nature, so the Son is not of the same Essence with the Father, and the definition of Their Essence is widely different and distinguishes Them, if the One is a Husbandman and the Other a Vine. For there is no question that some people unjustifiably attempt to prove that this has only reference to the Incarnation. For He does not say that His Flesh is the Vine, but rather His Godhead. But will it not be clear to everyone," he says, " that our body has no dependence on the Flesh of the Saviour as the branches on the vine, nor yet is the fruit of the Saints fleshly but spiritual? Therefore," he says, " putting on one side for the present all reference to the flesh, we say that the meaning of the speech relates to the Divinity itself of the Son; and we maintain that that Divinity is the Vine on which we depend by faith."

These idle ravings then suggested themselves to him, as he capriciously rejected according to his own private judgment the correct interpretation of the Divine doctrine, and distorted it, in his headstrong folly, into conformity with his own preconceived theory. But we who cling to the truth are quite of the opposite opinion, and following in the lines of the knowledge of the holy

Book 10. fathers shall retain the correct doctrine. We may now c. XV. 1. pertinently inquire, according to our lights, how we ought to interpret the meaning of the text, and we must also see how and in what manner we may equip ourselves to encounter their arguments. For if we saw that no harm could steal therefrom unto the hearts of the simple-minded, we would pass them over in silence, and, rightly disdaining to intermeddle with their vain theories, have embarked on the investigation of the ensuing passage. But since such doctrines would be very calamitous if they gained acceptance, does it not follow that we ought, fired with religious zeal, to enter on the contest of words and arguments? For thus the wickedness of our adversaries can be very easily detected. Let us commence by saying that it is the height of folly unseasonably to reject what has been given by way of illustration and brought in as a similitude of the relations of the Trinity to display the manner of Their Nature or Essence. For I say that those who wish rightly to comprehend anything that is said, do well in looking at the purpose of the discussion, and ought attentively to consider what is the meaning of the Maker of the speech in His conversation. For consider, too, in the light of what lies before us, whether I do not seem to you to speak well. It was not the purpose of our Saviour Christ to teach the disciples that He was different in nature or separate from the Father; and it was not for this reason that He resolved to call Him That begat Him the Husbandman and Himself the Vine. For if this was His aim, why did He not end His speech here, without adding any qualification to it? For He would have illustrated what His purpose was, according to your idea, without chance of confusion, if He had merely given these names to Himself and the Father. But now, after premising that He was the Vine, and saying that we depend on Him as branches, and then investing the Father with the character of the Husbandman, He makes it quite clear and obvious to all, I think, that He has no such meaning as you suppose, and wishes, by Chap. 2. palpable illustrations visible to the bodily eye, to ^' ^^' * persuade His hearers that all power of producing the fruits of the Spirit proceeds from Him; as the branches which grow up from the root are pervaded by its inherent quality. For every good thing which we have is given; but it is not so with God. For He is in Himself the originator of His own peculiar attributes, glory and might, which appertain to Him alone. Therefore Christ, being as it were the root, is the Vine, and we are the branches. And if He called the Father the Husbandman, do not think that He spoke of Him as being different in substance. For He does not mean this, as we have said; but wishes to point out that the Divine Nature is the root and origin in us of the power of producing the fruits of ihQ Spirit of life, besides the blessings we have spoken of, tending us like a husbandman, and extending over those who are called by faith to partake in it the providence of love. The unlikeness of the illustrations used then has no reference to the definition of the essence, for it is not the purpose of our Saviour Christ to speak on that subject, but His teaching has quite another object.

And since the deluded heretic chooses to propound his false views in his folly, and says that no argument Cf. supra will induce those who as it were distort the aim of the P" words which are before us from their right meaning, and attribute to them a reference to the Incarnation of Christ, for we were not united to Him in the body, nor yet did the Apostles as branches abide in the body of Christ, nor were they after this fashion connected with Him, but in temper of mind and faith unfeigned; let us briefly reply to this, and show him that he is altogether astray, and does not follow aright the holy writings. For that we are spiritually united with Christ in a disposition made conformable to perfect love, in true and uncorrupted faith, in virtue and purity of mind, the statement of our doctrine will no way deny. For we confess that he is c. XV. 1. ^^ reference is intended to our union with Him after the flesh, we will point out that he is wholly out of harmony with the inspired writings. For how could it be disputed, or what right-minded man could deny, that Christ is the Vine in this relation 1 And we, as being branches after a figure, receive into ourselves life out of

Eom. xii. and proceeding from Him, as Paul says: For ive are all one body in Christ, seeing that ive who are many are one

1 Cor. X. bread: for we cdliKirtahe of the one bread. And let any one account for this and give us an interpretation of it without reference to the power of the blessed mystery. Why do we receive it within us? Is it not that it may make Christ to dwell in us corporeally also by participation and communion of His Holy Flesh 1 Rightly would he

Eph. iii. answer, I deem. For Paul writes, that the Gentiles have fia jxirtakers, and fellow-heirs of Christ. How are they shown to be " embodied "? Because, being admitted to share the Holy Eucharist, they become one body with Him, just as each one of the holy Apostles. For why did he (S. Paul) call his own, yea, the members of all as well as his

1 Cor. vi. own, the members of Christ? For he writes thus: Knoiv ye not that your members are members of Christ? Shcdl I then take away the members of Christ, and make them m,embers of a harlot? God forbid. And the Saviour

Supra Himself says: He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood, abideth in Me, and I in him. For here it is especially to be observed that Christ saith that He shall be in us, not by a certain relation only, as entertained through the affections, but also by a natural participation. For as, if one entwineth wax with other wax and

' (f Ti melteth them by the fire there resulteth of both ^ one, so through the participation of the Body of Christ and of His precious Blood, He in us, and we again in Him, are co-united. For in no other way could that which is by nature corruptible be made alive, unless it were bodily entwined with the Body of That Which is by nature by Which Eternal Life is imijlanted in us. 371

Life, the Only-begotten. And if any be not persuaded Ghap. 2. by my words, give credence to Christ Himself, crying ^' ^^' * aloud: Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the Supra vi. Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, ye have ' not life in yourselves. He that eateth My Flesh and drinJceth My Blood, hath eterncd life; and I will raise him up in the last day. Thou hearest now Himself plainly declaring that, unless we " eat His Flesh, and drink His Blood," we " have not in ourselves," that is, in our flesh, " Eternal Life." But Eternal Life may be conceived to be, and most justly, the Flesh of that which is Life, that is, the Only-begotten. And how or in what manner this raises us up on the last day hear now; and I will not scruple to tell you. For since the Life, that is the Word which shone forth from God the Father, took unto Himself flesh, the flesh became transformed into a living principle, and it is inconceivable that the life should be vanquished by death. Therefore, since the life is in us, it will not endure the bondage of death, but will wholly vanquish corruption, since it cannot endure its results. For corruption does not inherit in- i Cor. corruption, as Paul says. For if Christ uses the emphatic ^^' expression, / luill raise him up, He not only invested His own Flesh with the power of raising those who are asleep, but the Divine and Incarnate Word, being one with His own Flesh, says, / ivill raise him up, and with good reason. For Christ is not severed into a duality of Sons, nor can any one think that His Body is alien from the Only-begotten, as no doubt no one could maintain that the body in which the soul dwells is alien from it.

When then by these disquisitions Christ has been shown to us to be the Vine in this sense, and we the branches, inasmuch as we partake in a fellowship with Him that is not merely spiritual but also corporeal, why does he talk so vainly, asserting that, since our dependence on our fellowship with Him is not corporeal, but consisting rather in faith and disposition to love according to the law, He did not call His own Flesh, he says, the vine,

Book 10. but rather His Godhead? And yet, why, some one may ^' ^^' say, does he reject the interpretation that is more fitting and appropriate to the passage, and hasten to adopt one widely divergent? For shall we not grant that Christ is the Vine in a more appropriate way also according to the fellowship of the flesh, and that we are branches through the similarity of our nature? For that which proceeds from the vine is of like nature with it. And this we say, not as attempting to deny the possibility of union with Christ by right faith and sincere love, but rather from a wish to point out that Christ is the Vine and we are the branches, both in a spiritual and corporeal sense.

Further, the statement of the truth is simple and obvious; but our adversary, in his wickedness, disdains the admission that Christ was the Vine in a corporeal sense also, as conferring His own Life on the branches, that is to say on us, just as the visible and earthly vine confers life on the branches that cling to it. He distorts and does violence to the meaning of the thought, making it have reference only to His Godhead. For he thought that he might thus bring a calumny against it, raising this ignorant contention: " If the Son is the Vine," he Supra says, "and the Father the Husbandman, and the Son dif- ^' fers in nature from Him, as in the figure of the vine, the

And he thinks he has built up a profound, trenchant, and incontrovei-tible theory against the doctrines of the Church, but will no less here also be convicted of folly. For when he first asserts that the Son is alien in nature, and places Him outside the Substance of Him That begat Him, how then can he any longer call God a Father, and the Son a Son in any sense? For if he says that He was not begotten, that is, proceeded from the Substance of the Father, just as the offspring of men from men, how could He be in any true sense the Son? How then can he set 1 S. John aside the blessed John, when he says: He that denieth "■ the Son, loill deny the Father also: he that confesseth the

Son, confesseth the Father also'? And the saying is true. Chap. 2. For the denial or confession of the One altogether involves the denial or confession of the Other. For the Father could not exist if the Son did not; nor could the Son be conceived of if He That begat Him were not conceived of with Him. If then he denies the Son, for he says that He belongs to another class, he thereby denies the Father also. What answer then, my good Sir, have you to make? Whom has faith left? Where is the glory of the Holy Trinity 1 For the nature that rules over the universe is hereby wholly taken away; that nature which is shown to us in plain language in the Holy Scripture. For their temerity and falsehood force us into the midst of difficult discussions. But, perhaps shrinking from so prodigious a blasphemy, he says that the Son belongs to another class, but was begotten of God the Father. But we will ask him once more to tell us how then does he grant and confess that He is begotten 1 For if as one of created beings, according to a state of mind that is in love and according to will, for all things are said to be produced from God, this none the less involves the same blasphemy. And if he says that He is truly the Son, but asserts that He is alien, and asserts even after saying this that He is different in class, even after this admission he commits an impiety against the Father Himself. For that which the nature of created beings disdained to suiSer, this he would show that God underwent. For surely is not that which is truly the offspring of anything by nature manifestly of the same substance with the father of it? Is it not quite obvious to every one? The world then proceeds according to a suitable principle, for no creature produces anything different in kind from itself. And only in God shall we find the reverse, since He has begotten the Son different in kind and not of His own Nature.

It were likely then that our adversary should not like to make any reply; but if he persists in his folly, and thinks that the Son is different in kind from God the Father, we will not be slack in our advocacy of the doc-

Book 10. trines of the truth. For we shall show that he says that ^' ^^' ' God the Father is the same in kind with created beings; and how, or in what way, you may now learn. He clearly contends and maintains that it is not so much the flesh as the Divinity Itself of the Only-begotten that is called the Vine. Suppose it is so then. For I will ask the question, and let him make the reply. "Does he think that the Son is truly God, or not; or does he maintain that He is spurious, or that His dignity only consists in empty titles? " And if he maintains that He is not God by nature, let him ponder over the testimony of the Only- Supra begotten Himself, when He says, / am the Truth. For "^" ■ the truth has only one form, and does not admit of the spurious or mis-named. And let him accept the witness hereon of the most wise John, when he clearly exclaims, 1 s. John and says: And tve are in the true God, Jesus Christ: ^' " ' this is the true Ood and eternal life. But if perhaps he is ashamed of this, and gives up his contention, and confesses that the Son is truly God, we will not shift our position, but will use his own words to overturn what he Supra said. " Is not the Father, as the Husbandman, different p. 367. ^j^ nature from the vine; for the one is man and the other wood? " Thus must not the vine be conceived of as really and truly of the same nature with its branches 1 And I suppose some would attain such a pitch of folly as to venture to deny w^hat is so clear. When then, being truly God, He is of the same Substance with the true and living God, that is the Father, and He is the vine, and we are the branches, of the same nature plainly for this reason with the vine; shall not we ourselves also surely be Gods by nature, putting oif as it were our own nature? But such an idea, only those wicked men, who shrink from no impiety, can entertain. For we have been created, and the Son is God by nature. Then how can this be? And how can that which was said of Him be true, if the branches are of the same nature with the vine? For it must be that either we ourselves are i;plifted into the nature of the true Godhead, or that is brought down to make God human, or men Divine. 375 us. For the branches are of like nature with the vine. Chap. 2. And since the Son clearly says: / and the Father are g^ ^^ one, either we shall ascend with Him to perfect likeness x. 30. with the Father, or the Father Himself will be drawn down with the Son, Who is like in nature to us, into our likeness. You see then what a mass of blasphemies we have arising from his statement. Therefore we will rather follow the true doctrine, believing that the Son says by way of illustration: " I am the Vine, ye are the branches, My Father is the Husbandman,"

2 Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He taketh it away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He cleanseth it, that it may hear more fruit.

Our connexion with Christ is of the mind, and implies a power of union affecting the tenor of our lives; perfectinsf us in love and faith. And the faith dwells in our hearts, making the manifestation of the Divine knowledge complete: while the manner of the love requires us to keep the commandment laid down for us by Him. For thus He also indicated him that loves Him, saying: " He that loveth Me will keep My commandments." We Cf. supra must know then that being united with Him by faith, ^^^" " and giving effect to the manner of our union in mere barren confessions of faith, and not clenching the bond of our union by the good works that proceed from love, we will be branches indeed, but still dead and without fruit. For faith without works is dead, as the Saint says. S. James If then after this manner the branch be seen to exist Qf"26 fruitlessly, depending, so to speak, from the trunk of the vine, know that such a man will encounter the pruningknife of the husbandman. For He will wholly cut it off, and will give it to the fire to consume as worthless rubbish; for this is the judgment of the barren, as I think also in the case of the fig-tree, which was set before us by way of parable. The lord of the vineyard says to the tiller of the soil: Cut it doiun; tvhy doth it also cumber s. Luke the ground? So in this case too I think that the God "^"^^ '''

Book 10. and Father of all mows down the thick and barren ^' ^^' ' burden of branches that hangs down from the vine in the figure with no produce of fruit. And I think that the Overseer of our souls, that is God, wishes to show by the parable here employed what and how great is the injury which the soul that is cut off from fellowship with Him has to endure. For it will wholly wither away, and become barren of every good work, and will unquestionably be abandoned to punishment, and be the prey of all consuming flames. Moreover, by the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel, wishing to show this very Ezek. XV. clearly. He said: Son of man, what is the vine-tree more than any other tree, or than a branch ivhich is among the trees of the forest? Shall wood he taken thereof to do any luork? Or luill men take it to hang any vessel upon it? The yearly purging of it the fire performs; and at last it faileth. Is it meet for any work? Know then that that which has once been cut off and wholly severed is altogether useless, and cannot be taken to serve for any necessary purpose, but is soon only useful for firewood. Is it not clear that if we be a branch, and have been drawn away from the deceitfulness of a plurality of gods, and have confessed the faith of Christ, but are still barren, so far as the union which shows itself in works is concerned, we shall surely suffer the fate of the barren branches? And what then? For we are wholly cut off, and we shall be given to the flames, and shall have lost besides that life-giving sap, that is to say, the Spirit, Which we once had from the Vine. For that which Christ said of the man who buried his talent one may see accomplished in the case of those who have suffered complete severance. For just as the talent was taken away from him at once, so I think also is the Spirit taken from the branch, as in figure of sap or quality. And why is it taken away? That the Spirit of the Lord may not seem to share in the condemnation of those who are doomed to go to the perdition of fire by the sentence of the judge. For if eai-thly rulers will not therefore the branches need purging. 377"

on a sudden determine the fate of those who have once Chap. 2. been held in honour, and dignified by kingly favours, °' ^^' '^' but if such an one be convicted of some crime for which he may justly pay the penalty, this fate could not overtake him before he has been robbed of his honours; is it not necessary then that the soul that has been sentenced by the verdict from above to the fate of punishment, should in a manner be divested of, and lay aside, the grace of the Spirit before experiencing the evils 1 We say further that the barren branch will suffer such a fate, wishing to confirm our minds as far as possible, to be prone to lay fast hold on love towards Him by the active principle of virtue within us and faith unshaken, while He says that the fruitful branch will not at all be left without experiencing the care of the tiller of the soil, but will be throughly cleansed, so as to be more able to bear fruit. For God works with those who have chosen to live the best and most perfect life, and to do good works so far as in them lies, and have elected to seek perfection as citizens of God. He, as it were, uses the working-power of the Spirit as a pruning-hook, and circumcising in them sometimes the pleasures which are always calling us to fleshly lusts and bodily passions, and sometimes all those temptations which are wont to assail the souls of men, defiling the mind by divers kinds of evils. For this we say is that circumcision which is not the work of hands, but is truly that of the Spirit, of which Paul in one place says: For he is not a Jeiu, ivhich is one outwardly: Rom. ii. neither is that circumcision ivhich is outward in the ^^' ^^' flesh. But he is a Jeiu, which is one inwardly: and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. And in another place, again: In Whom ye also believed ColU.u. and were circumcised tvith a circur)icision not made tuitJi hands. And therefore they say to some, that if the branches of the vine in the figure suffer any purging, that cannot take place, I suppose, without suffering.

Book 10. For it is painful so far as, and to the extent that, the c. XV. 2. ^rood can suffer pain. In the same way then we must think it affects the Saints: and, if we consider attentively, we shall give them our consent and approval. For our God, Who loves virtue, instructs us by pain and tribulation. Moreover the prophet Isaiah says thus: Is. iv. 4. When the Lord shall have washed aivay the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. And Heb. xii. the inspired Paul himself too says: // ye endure ^" chastening, God dealeth tuith you as sons, for ivhat son is there whom his father chasteneth not.? Nay, more, the choir of the Saints themselves, who exceed all conception, do not reject the instruction given by the Holy Ones, but rather eagerly welcome it with the Jer.x.24. words: Instruct us, Lord, but in judgment, and not in lurath, that Thou make us not feiv. For in wrath will be accomplished the complete severance of the barren branches, for He sends them to punishment; but in judgment rather — that is, consideration and in mercy — will be accomplished the purging of those which bear fruit, which brings but small pain, to the quickening of their fertility, and occasioning a greater abundance of blossom springing up. Further, some accepting this Is. xxvi. exclaim: Lord, by brief tribidation dost Thou chasten ^^' us; for the tribulation of purification lasts but a short while, but, giving us instruction from above, makes us blessed. And we will receive the blessed David as a Pg. xciv. witness, who thus exclaims: Blessed is the man whom 12, 13. TJiou, Lord, chastenest, and instructest in Thy law, to comfort him in evil days. For the days of the impartial judgment are truly days of evil omen, and di'eadful to those who are wholly cut off and doomed to the perdition of punishment by fire; but to those who are chastened in that day the Lord robs them -of their terrors. For such a man can no way be numbered among those who are doomed to judgment and punishment, as he is not a barren branch. Let then the fervour that shows itself in Chap. 2. works be combined with the confession of the faith, and let it unite action with the doctrines concerning God. For then shall we be with Christ, and experience the secure and safe power of fellowship with Him, escaping the peril that results from being cut off from Him.

We made these observations because we thought we ought to deal with the investigation of the passage after a spiritual manner, and it is likely that Christ wished to hint at some other meaning, by His clearly saying: Every branch in Me that heareth not fruit. He taketh it away; and every branch that beareth fruit. He cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit. For by the branch that has been taken away from fellowship with Christ by the severance of the Father, He means, I think, the people of the Jews, who are not capable of bearing fruit; against whom the thriceblessed John declares that the axe will be brought; s. Matt, saying that the wood which is cut off will be given "^' "'■ over to the flames; while by those branches which do not need to be completely cut off, but which abide in the Vine, and which are to be purged by the providence of God, He means those among the Jews themselves who believed, and the converts to them from other nations, who have one and the same purification; for it is accomplished in the Holy Spirit, according to the Scriptures: but the manner of their purification is separate and distinct. For the children of Israel have cast off from them the wish to guide their life and conduct by the Mosaic Law, while the heart of the worshippers of idols is stripped of the past deceitfulness that held sway over their hearts, and also of the rubbish of impure and ignorant customs, in order that they may bring forth the fruit of the divine training of the Gospel, which may be meet for the table of God, and be acceptable to Him. And that what we have said is clearly true there is no difficulty in satisfying ourselves from the inspired writings themselves. For the inspired

Book 10. Paul enjoins those of the Jews who believed, when c. XV. 2. j^g^j.^jjg ligt^t of the doctrines of the Gospel, they were once more backsliders, honouring the shadows of the Gal. V. 4. Law: Ye are alienated from CJirist, ye tvho ivoidd he justified by the Laiu; ye are fallen aivay from grace. Ibid. 2. And again: / say unto you that if ye receive circunicision, Christ ivill profit you nothing. And if the wish to be justified according to the Law alienates them from Christ, is it not beyond question that it is the discarding of the Law as a guide of conduct that invites the power of union with Christ? In this way, then, the Israelites are circumcised, or rather purged, and so also he that once worshipped the creature more than the Creator, by getting rid of his past disease. And what Rom. V. does Paul say to them 1 For if, while we ivere enemies, ^^' we luere reconciled to God, through the death of His

Son, much more, being reconciled, shall tue be saved by His life. And he charges them in another passage, and Gal. iv. 9. says: But noiv, after ye have come to knoiu God, or rather to be known of God, how turn ye back again to the iveak and beggarly rudiments of the ivorld whereunto ye desire to be in bondage over again? As therefore those who are willing to serve the beggarly elements become alienated from Christ, while those who do not endure to serve the creature rather than the Creator become one with Him, shall we not confess that the manner of the purification of the Gentiles shall be the most profitable cutting away by the Spirit of the old deceit, bringing in all manner of good things to us in divers ways in its stead? For in the putting off and casting aside of evil things, the beauty of virtue is conspicuous by contrast. For where vileness is di'iven out, there holiness is seen to arise.

cumcision that we conceive of through the Spirit. We have humbled then the rash and impious hardihood of our adversaries, who did not scruple to maintain that as Christ spoke of Himself as the Vine, and God the

Father as the Husbandman, He could not be the same by nature with Him. " For no argument shall convince Supra identical in essence." When then the Son is found to be a Husbandman through the circumcision by the Spirit, they must be of this mind for the future, that since husbandmen are of the same class with each other, in so far as they are men, it is clear that the Son is not alien to God the Father, but like in substance with

He makes then His disciples a palpable and convincing demonstration of the art of the purifier of their souls; for already, He says, they are purged, not through a participation in anything else, but merely by the ivord spoken unto them, that is, the divine guidance of the Gospel. And this word proceeds from Christ. What man of sense, then, can any longer call in question that the Father has, as it were, a pruning-knife and hand, through whose instrumentality everything exists; that is, the Son, fulfilling the activity of that husbandry in us, which He attributes to the person of the Father, teaching us that all things proceed from the Father but by the instrumentality of the Son"? For it is the Word of the Saviour that purgeth us, though the husbandry of our souls is attributed to God the Father. For this is His Living Word, sharp as a sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both Heb. iv. joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts "' and intents of the heart. For, reaching into the depths of each man's inmost soul, and having every man's

Bo)K 10. hidden purpose revealed before It as God, It brings Its c. XV. 3. j^gQQ g(jgQ ^Q he^T upon our vain pursuits by the working of the Spirit. For in this, I suppose, we shall deem our purification to consist. And all things that profit us in the attainment of virtue It increases and multiplies to bear the fruit which is conceived in righteousness.

When then the manner of His husbandry of our souls is shown in the excellence of its operation, the ingenious and impious attempt of our adversaries is surely brought to nought, when they say that the Son is distinct in nature from God the Father, as He is called the Vine, and the Father the Husbandman. Let us consider and reflect on the fact that He declares that His disciples are clean, not through the special and distinct working of God the Father in them, that is, apart from the Onlybegotten, but because they were obedient to His Word. As then He is the Quickener of our souls by the Son, and in the Son, in the same way as He is also the Husbandman or Guardian, He may properly be thought to act not otherwise than by the Son. And if those who start the argument against us think they ought to abide by the false theory they once broached, and, as Christ said that He was the Vine, think they are therefore, as it were, perforce compelled to degrade Him into a separate and foreign nature, what is there now to hinder us too from going to the same height of shamelessness, and distorting the meaning of the illustration, and being converted against our will by a like folly, and choosing to revolt from this puerile and ridiculous conception? For if, since He is spoken of as the Vine, they think that for this reason He falls away from His natural relationship with God the Father, and is wholly difterent in Substance, since the vine and the husbandman are not identical in nature; why cannot we also, encountering them with an argument as ignorant and unscholarly as their own, say this — Are only the branches profited by the care of the tiller of the soil; and will the branches that depend from the stem alone reap the profit of His Chap. 2. art, or will the nourisher or nurse too of the branches, ^' ^^' that is, the vine, to which they cling and are fixed bynature, require some tending? I do not think this will be difficult to demonstrate. For our adversary himself will at once agree with us that if the trunk were not tended, the branches could not remain in good condition. Since then Christ has called Himself the Vine, and the trunk itself of the vine requires the fostering care of the tiller of the soil, or it will be wholly and entirely ruined, we shall draw the inference that the Son is on a level with ourselves, and requires, as we do, the Father's providence, that He may not Himself be distorted from what He is into something else, and fall away from His native dignity or the position that He holds. For the ridiculous argument of the enemies of divine truth, reduces itself to this.

But let us have done with these diseased and foolish ravings, and enter upon a discussion concerning the Holy Apostles. For He says: Already ye are clean, because of the luord which I have spoken unto you: just as though He were to say, the manner of your spiritual purification, which is conceived of as by the Spirit and in the Spirit, has been wrought by the Father, through My Word on you fii'st. Behold, casting off" the burden of the vain customs and corruption of this world, be ready to bring forth fruits acceptable to God: rid yourselves of the vain and profitless law of the Jews, and pay heed to it no more. My Word has purified you: for no longer do you conduct your lives by the Mosaic Law, or according to the dispensation of the writings thereof. For you will not seek sanctification in what ye eat and drink, nor in doctrines of baptisms, nor yet in sacrificial atonements; but consider that ye are established in firm faith, and make haste to appease God by every kind of good work. For in them is seen the power of spiritual bondage. Those who are destined to be pure will be, He. says, even as you are. For they, just escaping from the

Book 10. net of the devil, and getting away from the snares of idol- ^' ^^ ■ ^' worship, will be taught no longer to be governed by his decrees; but, shaking off the impurity of former customs as vain rubbish, and being thus for the future fitted to bear the fruits of the virtue that loves God, will be joined to Me in the manner of branches; and, being dependent on their love towards Me, will have their hearts enriched by the influences of the Spirit, and, imbibing the grace of My goodness, will continue stedfast to the end and be nurtured in righteousness. The Israelites, when they have been converted to faith in Me, and have been attached to Me in the manner of branches, then receiving into their mind purification through My Word, no longer devote themselves to the service of the letter; and not fixing their heart, as now, on shadows and types, bear the fruit of a true and spiritual service to God. For Supra God is a Spirit, and they that wo ship Him, oinist ivor~. ^^' ' ship in Spirit and truth. At the same time also He shows clearly, as in a figure, to His disciples the beauty that will belong to those who are about to be purified, and gives them the greatest encouragement to attain the still more ample excellence; showing them that their service and the training of their past teaching had not been vain — that teaching of the Gospel, through Avhich they were destined to benefit those who dwell in the whole world — displaying themselves as an example to those that believe on Christ. For it has been written concerning the Heb. xiii. Saints, that it behoves us to watch closely the issue of '• their life, and to imitate their faith. And Paul incites

1 Cor. xi. those who serve God to be imitators of himself. 1.

4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in Me.

We shall know then, by an accurate investigation of the words before us, that the being received of Christ through faith pure and true is the first work of that zeal which is requisite and dear to God. For this is the meaning of being numbered among the branches, which Chap.2. cUng to the true Vine, I mean Christ. But the fruit of our second meditation is by no means less in importance than our fii-st, but it has, indeed, an even more pregnant meaning: the loving to be united to God, and to lay fast hold on Him, through a love exhibited in works, which has the fulfilment of the holy and Divine command. For this causes us inseparably to inhere in, and to be closely united to. Him, as the Psalmist expresses it: My soul Ps. Ixiii. lias been joined unto Thee. The being received then as it were into the rank of branches will not be sufficient for complete joy of heart, or for the sanctification which, as it were, exhibits Christ sanctifying us. But I maintain that the following Him purely through love perfect and imfailing is also necessary. For by this means, the power of union or intimate conjunction with the Father may be best maintained and preserved. When therefore Christ said to His disciples. Already ye are clean he- Supra cause of the word which I have spoken unto you; lest any one of those who have once been purified should be considered incapable of falling away, even though he should bestow no care to remain in a state of grace. He adds this useful injunction — that it is necessary to cd)ide in Him. And what will this be? Nothing else, as I think, but quite obviously that which Paul well expresses: Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take i Cor. x. heed lest he fall. For a thousand backslidings befall those " who think that they are firmly fixed, and who do not take great precautions not to lose the place which they have obtained; and I think that we require the utmost modesty and sobriety, even though a man think himself firmly fixed by the progress he has abeady made towards establishing himself in righteousness. He then has shown the nature and extent of the punishment of him who has, as it were, been cut off" from intimate union with God, through slipping back from negligence into what is wrong, in the statement. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, so neither

Book 10. can ye, except ye abide in Me. For unless the branch c.xv.5,6. j^g^^ supplied to it from its mother the vine the lifeproducing sap, how would it bear grapes, or what fruit will it bring forth, and from what source? You will perceive that the language of Christ has an application by analogy to ourselves. For no fruit of virtue will spring up anew in us, who have once fallen away from intimate union with Christ. To those, however, who are joined to Him Who is able to strengthen them, and Who nourishes in righteousness, the capacity of bearing fruit will readily be added by the provision and grace of the Spirit, as by life-producing water. And knowing Supra this, the Only-begotten said in the Gospels: // any man vn. 37. thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. And to this, the Evangelist, inspired by the Spirit, has testified, when in his Ibid. 39. excellent explanation he says: But this spake He of the Spirit, Which they tlicd believe on Him, tvere to receive. And the blessed David, speaking as though to God the Ps.xxxvi. Father, thus addressed Him: With Thee is the fountain ' ' of life, and Thou shcdt give them to drink of the river of blessedness. For by the fountain of Divine and spiritual life and of the fulness of blessedness, who else could be meant but the Son, Who fattens and waters our souls in the position of branches clinging to Him by faith and love, with the quickening and joy-giving grace of the Spirit.

5 / am the Vine, ye are the branches: he that ahideth in Me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for

6 apart from Me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, lie is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the Jlre, and they are burned.

Our Lord Jesus Christ openly says that He has been called the Vine for this reason, and this reason only, that we may clearly understand, and not merely perceive with the eyes of the body, as by a palpable, sensible, and most visible figure, that to those who are eager to be closely joined to Him, and who choose to enjoy a close union Chap. 2. with His nature, will be added the capacity and the ^' ^^' conditions requisite for the production of virtue and spiritual fruit-bearing; since they are evidently provided, from its source, as from the vine their mother, with a potential and an actual force. In those however who have as it were been torn away or cut off from their hold on Him, by turning to what is wrong and to conduct displeasing to God, not merely will no capacity of a fitness for virtue, or of being able to show the fruits that spring from goodness be seen, but the doom of being consumed by all-devouring fire, as by an inevitable necessity, will await them. For that which is useless for righteousness seems fit to pay the penalty, just as the withered branches will be only useful for the fire.

You would find an indisputable and true proof of what we have said, not by perusing the chapters of the saints of old, but rather by applying your attention to the study of the holy Apostles themselves. For they, by neglecting in no way love towards Christ, but abiding in Him, and considering that nothing whatever should be set before righteousness towards Him, have become known throughout the world. And they exhibited through the world the fruit of their virtue, and showing themselves a pattern of a God-loving state, as a bright image to all under the sun, they wreathed for themselves the fadeless crown of glory with God. But he, who by a few pieces of silver was entrapped into the net of destruction, I mean the base and most mercenary Judas, was cut off" from the true Vine, that is Christ, and withered away in a certain sense, and lost together his position of discipleship and the quickening quality of the Spirit. For he was cast outside, according to the saying of the Saviour. For he became alienated from Christ, and was given over like rubbish to him that chastises with fire. Pertinently then does our Lord Jesus Christ set forth to His hearers the joy of heart that springs from the desire of intimate union with Him, and on the other hand place before them the

^' ^^' twofold method of salvation. For either by an aim which looks forward to glory and life, or our dread of the chastisement by fire, we shall lay hold more earnestly, with all the strength of our mind, on intimate union with Him.

But He calls the Father Husbandman, attributing to His Divine Nature the watchful care over us, as also we have previously shown at length. For He will be found doing the work of a hand to the Husbandman, Who uses no other hand, according to His Consubstantiality both from Him, and in Him; as is really the case, and as it is in our power to see in the following way. For as a proof that all things are done by the Son, as by the hand of the Father, listen to what the Father Himself says respecting

Acts vii. His creatures: My Jiand made all these things; whereas all things were made by the Son, according to the holy writings.

We must observe that the divine Paul figures darkly to us the true cutting, even though it be not that of a

Rom. xi. vine, when he says: Behold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in His goodness: otherivise thou also shalt be cut off.

7 If y^ abide in Me, and My tvords abide in yov, ye shall ask whatsoever ye ivill, and it shall he done unto you.

He says that the love of unbroken union with Him, and the keeping in mind as a Divine and spiritual treasure entrusted to them the pure treasure of the lessons of the Gospel, and the true instruction of the doctrines of the faith, established also by unerring interpretations, will be the root of the most perfect goodness. For the whole discourse of the Saviour would convey this meaning to us, if we consider the aim set forth in the Gospels. For in the promise of Christ that He will continually give what is good to those who ask Him, how shall we deny that a very clear pledge of this is given to us? I suppose it is necessary to inquire what in addition is the accurate Chap. 2. meaning of the words: If ye abide in Me, and My ^' ^^' '^' words abide in you, ye shall ask tvhatsoever ye ivill, and it shall be done unto you. For can any one say that to abide in Christ can be attained without keeping in oneself also His words 1 Now to this question men of sense will doubtless answer " No." For our hearer must remember, that when inquiring into the kind of love towards Christ, and investigating what it was, and how it could exist in perfection, we said that there are two Supra methods given; I mean that through faith which is wholly ^' ' blameless, and that again which projects itself in actuality, which enters secretly by pure love. And if we trust our Saviour's words that this is so with us, it follows that they adopt a dangerous and intolerable explanation of the relationship, in admitting the bare faith, which consists in words only, but not receiving the love which is moulded by right actions to perfection. They indeed abide in Christ in the sense of the relationship that results from belief, and so far as they do not adopt another religious worship; but when they no longer have His words in themselves they will be condemned. And we do not go so far as to say that, burying the preaching of the Gospels in oblivion, they are altogether unmindful of the words of the Saviour, submitting everything to their own pleasures, and directing their unbridled impulse to the consideration of earthly things alone, and, on account of this, carry themselves away from the true Vine, and, despising the favour of intimate relationship with Him, by their own passions, they deem the citizenship that is in Christ of no account. Now concerning every such person Christ Himself says: JSfot every one that saith s. Matt. unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdoTii of^^^' ' heaven: but he that doeth the will of My Father Which is in heaven. And that faith which is alone, and by itself, and which does not obtain the assistance of the light that proceeds from works, will not suffice to secure an intimate relationship with God, the disciple of Christ

Book 10. also proves, saying: Tliou believest that God is one; c. XV. 7. ^/^g devils also believe and shudder. Shall one then say ii, 19. to those who think that a faith bare and alone will be sufficient to enable them to get possession of the fellowship that is from above, — will even the band of demons rise to fellowship with God, since they acknowledge His Unity, and have believed in His Existence? How could this be? For the mere knowledge that the Creator and Producer of all things is One God is useless. But I think it necessary that the confession of piety towards Him should accompany faith. For such a man abideth in Christ, and will be seen to possess His words, according

Ps. cxix. to the text in the Book of Psalms: / have hept Thy saying in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee. Just as if any one should place into a brazen vessel the element of fire, he will make the vessel entirely the sharer of the warmth arising from it, so also the mind which in soul and heart is wholly possessed by the Divine and heavenly doctrine, by striving up to every kind of virtue is always thereby inflamed towards it. For it is

Ibid. 140. written: Thy tuord is very pure: therefore Thy servant loveth it.

" Let him therefore," He says, "who establishes himself therein, and has attained to this high honour, so as to remain in Me,. and to have My words in him, go boldly on, and with complete confidence ask for whatever tendeth to bliss, and without delay it shall be given him. For," He says, "I will grant it." "Well then," says our opponent, " if any one should ask for what is wrong, will He take more fully of this, and will He that loves virtue allot him such a portion as this? " Get thee behind me, thou man of evil counsel! For God will provide nothing that is opposed to His own Nature, nor any of those things which are numbered among evil things. But my view seems more appropriate: does it not appear right and just? It is clear then that He who abides in Christ, and has His words in him, knows, by the very fact of his goodness and righteousness, how to think only those things which are acceptable to God. Chap. 2. For it is clear that He has permitted to those who have ^' ^^' ' His Word in their hearts to ask whatsoever they may reasonably wish; well knowing that they only aim at a participation in blessings of a spiritual and Divine nature. As then our (^'aviour Christ has excellently defined, in these words, the character of the man who prays and asks to receive whatever he wills from God, let us mould our own condition into conformity with this ideal, if we desire to obtain the heavenly blessing. But if you know that you are yourself not such an one as Christ has just indicated to us, take it not ill if you stumble, but if the effort seems burdensome to you, uniting with your faith the glory which proceeds from good works, (for this is abiding in Christ), and, having in yourself His words, go forward in confidence, and yourself receive without delay whatever you request from God.