Commentary on the Gospel of John

* But if the embodiment were indeed of tlie nature of punishment to the wretched souls of men, how would not the Prophet rather sorrow when proclaiming these things as from God? How will that proclamation be in any way good which brings us the duration of what vexes us? For he should rather have said, if he wished to rejoice those who had received bodies by reason of sin, The dead shall not arise, and the nature of the flesh shall perish. But on the contrary he rejoices them saying that there shall be a resurrection of bodies by the will of God. How then can the body wherein both ourselves rejoice and God is well pleased be (according to the uncounsel of some) of the nature of a punishment?

10. Another. God, in blessing the blessed Abraham promised that his seed should be as the multitude innume-

Gen. XV. rable of the stars. If it be true that the soul sinning before the body is sent down to earth and flesh to be punished, God promised to the righteous man, an ignoble multitude of condemned, runagates from good, and not a seed participant of blessing. But God says this as a blessing to Abraham: hence the origin of bodies is freed from all accusal.

11. Another. The race of the Israelites spread forth into a multitude great and innumerable. And indeed justly marvellous at this does the hierophant Moses pray saying

Deut. i. Iq them, A7id hehold ye are this daij as the stars of heaven for multitude-: the Lord God of your fathers mahe you a thousand times so ma,ny more as ye are. But if it were ■ punishment to the souls of men to be in the world with bodies, and they must needs so be, and not bare of them, Moses' saying will be found to be verily a curse, not a blessing. But it is not so, it was made as a blessing: the embodiment therefore is not of the nature of punishment.

12. Another. To those who attempt to ask amiss God endures not to give. And an unlying witness to us will be

S. James the disciplo of the Saviour, saying. Ye ask and receive not, hecause ye ask amiss. If then it were a punishment to a soul to be embodied, how would not one with reason say that Hannah the wife of Elkanah missed widely of what was fit, wlien she so instantly poured her prayer unto God and Chap. ix. asked for a man cJiild. For she was asking for the down- i sam'. i.* fall of a soal and its descent into a body. How then came * God to give her the holy Samuel as her son, if it were wholly of necessity that a soul should sin, in order that so, entangled with a body, it might fulfil the woman's request. And yet God gave, to Whom it is inherent to give only good things and, by readily assenting to her. He frees her request from all blame. Hence embodiment is not a result of sin, nor yet of the nature of punishment as some say.

13. Another. If the body has been given as a punishment to the soul of man, what induced Hezekiah the king of Jerusalem, although good and wise, to deprecate not without bitter tears the death of the body, and to shrink from putting off the instrument of his punishment, and to beseech that he might be honoured with an increase of years, although he surely ought, if he were really good, not to have deprecated death, but to have thought it a burden to be entangled with a body and to have acknowledged this rather than the other as a favour. And how did God promise him as a favour saying, Behold I ivill add unto thy days fifteen Is. years, albeit the promise was an addition of punishment, ^''^^"^" • not a mode of kindness, if these set forth the truth? Yet the promise from above was a gift and the addition a kindness. Hence the embodiment is not a punishment to souls.

14. Another. If the body is given to the soul of man in the light of punishment, what favour did God repay to the Eunuch who brought up Jeremiah out of the dungeon, saying, I will give thy life for a prey and will save thee from Cf Jer. the Chaldeans? For He should rather have let him die that is. * ' He might also honour him, releasing him from the prison and punishment. What tell me did He give to the young men of Israel, in delivering them from the flame and from the Dan. iii. cruelty of the Babylonians? why did He rescue the wise Daniel from the cruelty of the lions? But verily He doeth lb. vi. these things in kindness and is glorified because of them. The dwelling in the flesh is not then of the nature of punish-

15. Anothrr. Paul teaching us that there shall be in due time an investigation before the Divine Judgment-seat of each man's life says, For we must all appear before the judgement-scat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he done, ivhetlier it be good or had. But if it be only for the things done in the body that a man either receiveth punishment at the hands of the Judge, or is accounted worthy of befitting reward, and no mention is made of prior sins^ nor any charge previous to his birth gone into: how had the soul any pre-existence, or how was it humbled in consequence of sin, as some say, seeing that its time with flesh is alone marked out, for that the things alone that were done in it are gone into?

16. Another. If souls were embodied on account of pre- Rom. xii, vious sins, how does Paul write to us saying. Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptahle unto God? For if in the nature of punishment they were given to our wretched Cf Phil, souls, how should we present then for an odour of a sweet smell to Grod? how will that be acceptable through which we received our sentence? or what kind of virtue at all will that admit of, whose nature is punishment, and root sin?

17. Another. Shewing that corruption is extended against the whole nature of man, because of the transgression in

Rom. V. Adam, Paul saith. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. How then does he say that death reigned eveoi over tliem that had not sinned, if the mortal body were given us in consequence of former sins? For where at all are they that have not sinned, if the embodiment be the punishment of faults, and our being in this life with our body is a pre-existing charge against us? Unlearned then is the proposition of our opponents.

18. Av other. The Disciples once made enquiry of our Infra ix. Saviour Concerning one born blind, and said. Master who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? For since it is written in the prophetic Scriptures, of God, that but in God's good pleasure. 97

He visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, the Chap, ix. disciples began to imagine tliat such, was the case with Exod.'xx'. this man. What then does Christ say to this? Verily I * say to you, neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, hut ^^^^ i^« tliat the ivorJcs of God should be made manifest in him. How then does He exempt them from sin, although not free from blame as to their lives? for being men, they were surely liable also to faults. But it is manifest and clear that the discourse pertains to the period prior to birth, during which they not yet existing, neither had they sinned, that Christ may be true.

19. Another. The blessed Prophet Isaiah explaining the reason of the earth being made says, He created^ it not in vain, Isa- xlv- He formed it to be inhabited. But it was altogether right that the earth should be inhabited, not filled with bare spirits, nor with fleshless and unclad souls, but with bodies suitable to it. Was it then Divine Counsel that wrought that souls should sin, in order that the nature of bodies should also come into being, and thus at length the earth be shewn to have been created not in vain? But this is absurd; the other therefore has the better.

20. Another. Wisdom the Artificer of all things says of herself in the book of Proverbs I was she in whom He re- f™!;^'"* joiced, the Creator of all that is, a7id I daily rejoiced always LXX. before Him ivhen He rejoiced in having consummated the ivorld and took delight in the sons of men. When then on His completion of the world, God rejoices exceedingly in the forming of man, how will he not be bereft of all sense who subjects the soul to previous sins and says that it was therefore embodied, and was punished after this fashion? For will not God be the maker of a prison rather than a world? will He not be delighting contrary to reason in those who are undergoing punishment? And how will He be Good who delights in things so absurd? But verily He is Good and therefore the Maker of things good: the embodiment will not therefore be of the nature of punishment.

Book I. with flesh pays the penalty of transgressions prior to its * birth in the world, and the body occupies the position of a

2 S. Pet. punishment to it, why was the Flood brought in upon the world of the ungodlij, and Noah being upright was preserved and has this recompense of his faith from God? For ought not rather those who had sinned exceedingly to have lingered longer time in the body that they might be punished also more severely, and the good to have been set free from their bonds of flesh and received the release from the body as the recompense of their piety toward God? But I suppose that the Creator of all being Righteous lays on each rank the sentence due to it. Since then He being Righteous punishes the ungodly with the death of the body, gladdens again the righteous with life together with the body: bodies are no punishment to the souls of men, that God be not unrighteous, punishing the ungodly with favour, honouring again the righteous with punishment.

22. Another. If to pay the penalty of previous ofiences the soul has descended into flesh and body, how did the Saviour

Infra xi. love Lazarus, raising him, and compelling him who was once set free from his bands to return to them again? But Christ did it helping him and as a friend did He honour the dead by raising him from the dead. To no purpose then is the proposition of the opponents.

23. Another. If, as those in their nonsense say, the body was given to the soul in the light of a punishment, devised on account of former sin of its, it was sin that

Rom. V. brought in the nature of human bodies. But again also death entered hy sin: sin therefore clearly appears arming itself against itself, undoing the beginning by what follows, and

S. Luke Satan is therefore divided against himself, how then shall his kingdom stand? as our Saviour saith. But verily so to.think is incredible: the contrary therefore is true.

info the world. But if it be true, that the body was given in nature of punishment to the soul of man, why, sirs, should we accuse the envy of the deviHov bringing into usthetermi-

nation of wretchedness and destroying the body which is Chap. ix. our punishment? And for what in the world do we offer thanks to the Saviour for having again bound us to the flesh through the resurrection? yet we do indeed give thanks, and the envy of the devil has vexed our nature, procuring corruption to our bodies. No mode of punishment then is the body nor yet is it the wages of our former sin.

The Evangelist in these words needfully indicates that the world was made through the Very Light, that is, the Only- Begotten. For although, having called Him most distinctly Word at the beginning, he affirmed that all things ivere made Supraver. through Him and that without EJitn nothing was brought into being, and demonstrated thereby that He was their Maker and Creator: yet it was necessary now most particularly to take this up again anew, that no room of error and perdition might be left to those who are wont to pervert the uprightness of the Divine dogmas. For when he said of the Light that it ivas in the world, that no one wresting the saying to senseless conceptions, should make the Light connumerate with the visible portions of the universe (as sun and moon and stars for example are in the world, but as parts of the universe, and as limbs of one body), profitably and of necessity does the Evangelist introduce the Only-Begotten as Fashioner and Artificer of the whole universe, and thereby again fully stablishes us and leads us into an unerring and right apprehension of the truth. For who would be so silly or have such great folly in his mind, as not to conceive that wholly other than the universe is He through Whom it is said to have been made, and to put the creature in its own place, to sever off the Creator in reasoning and to conceive that His Nature is Divine? For the thing made must needs be other in nature than the Maker, that maker and made appear not the same.

For if they be conceived of as the same, without any inherent distinction as to the mode of being, the made will mount up to the nature of the Maker, the Creator descend to that of the creatures, and will no longer have Alone the

Book I. power of bringing into being, but tliis will be found to exist ' in potential in tilings made also, if nothing at all severs them from being consubstantial with God: and so at length the creature will be its own creator and the Evangelist will endow the Only-Begotten with a mere title of honour when he says that He icas in the loorld, and the nujrtd was made hy Hun. But he knows that the Creator of all things is One in Nature. Not as the same then will made and Maker, God and creature be conceived of by those who know how to believe aright, but the one will be subject as a bondman, acknowledging the limit of its own nature: the Son will reign over it, having Rom. IV. Alone with the Father the power both to call things which he not as though they were and by His ineffable Power to bring that which is not yet into being.

But that the Son being by Nature God, is wholly Other than the creature, we having already sufficiently gone through in the Discourse of the Holy Trioity, will say nothing more here. But we will add this for profit, that in saying that the world was made through Him he brings vis up to the thought of the Father, and with the " Through Whom " brings in also the " Of Whom." For all things are from the Father through the Son in the Holy Ghost.

'Pile bearer of the Spirit is watchful and hastens to forestall the sophistry of some; and you may marvel again at the Supra ver. reasoning in his thoughts. He named the Son Very Light, and affirmed that He lighteth every man that conieth into the worhl, and besides says that He vms in the world and the world was made through Him.

But one of our opponents might forthwith say, „ If the „ Word, sirs, were light and if it lighted the heart of every „ man, unto Divine knowledge that is and unto the under- „ standing that befits man, and if it wei'^ always in the world „ and were Himself its Maker, how came He to be unknown „ even during so long periods? He therefore was not light- „ ing nor yet was He at all the Light."

The world hneiu Him not: not on His own account was He Chap, ix, unknown, says lie; but let tlie world blame its own weakness. For the Son Ughteth, the creature blunts the grace. It had imparted to it sight to conceive of Him Who is God by Nature, and it squandered the gift, it made things made the limit of its contemplation, it shrank from going further, it buried the illumination under its negligence, it neglected the gift which that it might not befall him Paul |^""' ^^• commands his disciple to watch. Nought then to the light 2 Tim. iv. is the ill of the enlightened. For as the light of the sun rises upon all, but the blind is nothing profited, yet we do not therefore reasonably blame the sun's ray, but rather find fault with the disease of the sight (for the one was lighting, the other received not the lighting): so (I deem) ought we to conceive of the Only-Begotten also, that He is Very Light. But the god of this world, as Paul too saith, hath blinded the 2 Cor. iv. minds of them which believe not, lest the light o/ the knowledge of God should shine among them. We say then that the man was subjected to blindness herein, not that he reached a total deprivation of light (for the God-given understanding is surely preserved in his nature) but that he was quenching it with his more foolish manner of life and that by turning aside to the worse he was wasting and melting away the measure of the grace. Wherefore the most wise Psalmist too when representing to us the character of such an one, then indeed (and rightly) begs to be enlightened, saying to God, Open Thou mine eyes that I may behold ivon- Ps. cxix.. drous things out of Thy law. For He gave them the law to be ig^. viii, their help, which re-kindled in us the Divine Light and f^j^^ purged away like a sort of humour from the eyes of the heart the darkness which came upon them from the ancient unlearning.

The world then is under the charge of unthankfulness alike and want of perception in this matter, both as ignorant of its own Creator, and shewing forth no good fruit from being lighted, that that again may be manifestly true of it, which was svmg by prophet's voice of the children of Israel, I looked that it should bring forth grapes, but it brought forth Isa. v. 4

Book I. thoms. For the fruit of being enlightened is verily the true * apprehension of the Only Begotten, hanging like a grapebunch from the vine branch, I mean man's understanding, and not on the contrary the uncounsel that leads to polytheistic error, like the sharp briar rising up within us and wounding to death our mind with its deceits.

1 1 He came unto His own and His own received Him not. The Evangelist pursues his plea that the world knew not its lUuminer, that is the Only-Begotten, and from the worse sin of the children of Israel, he hastens to clench the charges against the Gentiles and shews the disease of ignorance alike and unbelief which lay upon the whole world. Very appositely does he drive forward to discourse of the Incarnanation, and from speaking of the Godhead % he comes down by degrees to the exposition of the Dispensation with Flesh, which the Son made for our sakes.

For it were no marvel if the world knew not, says he, the Only-Begotten, seeing that it had left the understanding Ps. xlix. that befits man, and was ignorant that it is and was made in honour, and compared to the beasts that ])erish, as the Divine Psalmist also said; when the very people who were supposed above all to belong to Him shook Him off when present with the Flesh and would not receive Him when He came among them for salvation to all, recompensing to faith the kingdom of Heaven. But observe how exact is his language about these things. For the world he accuses of not at all knowing Him Who lighteth it, elaborating for it a pardon so to speak just on this account, and preparing beforehand reasonable causes for the grace given to it: but of those of Israel who were reckoned among those specially belonging to Him, he says. Received Him not. For it would not have been true to say. Knew Him not, when the older law preached Him, the Prophets who came after led them by the hand to the apprehension of the truth. The sen- Rom, xi. tence therefore of severity ^ upon them was just,. even as the 22.

goodness too upon tlie Gentiles. For the world, or the Gen- Chap. ix. tiles, ha\dng lost their relation '^ ^ with God through their i olKei'waTy downfall into evil, lost besides the knowledge of Him Who enlighteneth them: but the others, who were rich in knowledge through the law and called to a polity pleasing to God, were at length voluntarily falling away from it, not receiving the Word of God Who was already known to them and Who came among them as to His oivn. For the whole world is God^s own, in regard of its creation, and its being brought into being from Him and through Him: but Israel will more fitly be called His own ^, and will gain the glory hereof, both on account of the election of the holy fathers and for that he was named the beginning and the first-born of the children of God. For Israel is My son, My first-horn, Exod. iv. says God somewhere to Moses: whom also setting apart for Himself as one and picked out. He was wont to call His own people, saying to Pharaoh king of Egypt Let My people go. lb. viii. i. Proof from the books of Moses also shews that Israel specially pertains unto God. For luhen, it says, the Most High ivas Deut. dividing the nations, ivhen he was separating the sons of Adam, lxx. ' he set the hounds of the nations according to the numher of the angels of God, and his people Jacoh hecame the Lord's portion, Israel the lot of his inheritance. Among whom He also walked, as in His own lot and special portion, saying, I am not sent S. Matt. hut unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

But when He was not received, He transfers the grace to the Gentiles, and the ivorld which kneiv Him not at the beginning is lighted through repentance and faith, and Israel returns to the darkness whence he had come forth. Wherefore the Saviour too saith. For judgement I am come into this Infra ix. world, that they which, see not might see, and that they which see might he made hlind.

12 But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, to them that believe on His Name.

A right judgement verily and worthy of God! The firstborn, Israel, is cast out; for he would not abide in ownness ~ - fV oiKd-

' otvn, he rejected the Bestower of Nobility, he thrust away the Giver of Grace: the Gentiles received Him by faith.

Therefore will Israel with reason receive the wages of their folly, they will mourn the loss of good things, they will receive the bitter fruit of their own ill-counsel, bereft of the sonship; and the Gentiles will delight themselves in the good things that are through faith, they shall find the bright rewards of their ff^evB^"' obedience and shall be planted out^ in his place. For they fffTui shall be cut out of the olive tree ivJiick is wild hu nature, and

Isa. i. 4. Israel shall hear. Ah simful nation, a j^&ojjle laden tvith iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters, they have for sahen the Lord, they have provohed the Holy One of Israel unto anger: but one of Christ^s disciples shall say to iS.Pet.ii. jj^Q Gentiles, But ye are a chosen generation, aroyal^yriesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should sheto forth the praises of Him Wlio hath called you out of darkness into His tnai'vellous Light. For since they received the Son through faith, they receive the power to be ranked among the sons of God. For the Son gives what is His alone and specially and of nature to be in their power, setting it forth as common, making this a sort of image of the love for man that is inherent to Him, and of His love for the world. For

1 Cor. XV. in none other way could we who bore the image of the earthy escape corruption, unless the beauty of the image of the heavenly were impressed upon us, through our being called to sonship. For being partakers of Him through the Spirit, we were sealed unto likeness with Him and mount up to the

Gen. i. 27. primal character of the Image after which the Divine Scripture says we were made. For thus hardly recovering* the pristine beauty of our nature, and re-formed unto that Divine Nature, shall we be superior to the ills that have befallen us through the transgression. Therefore we mount up unto dignity above our nature for Christ's sake, and we too shall be sons of God, not like Him in exactitude, but by grace in imitation of Him. For He is Very Son, existing from the Father; we adopted by His Kindness, through the Gentiles received. 105 grace receiving / have said, Ye are gods and all of you are Chap. ix. children of the Most High. For the created and subject Ps.ixxxii". nature is called to what is above nature by the mere nod and ' will of the Father: but the Son and God and Lord will not possess this being God and Son^ by the will of God the Father, nor in that He wills it only, but beaming forth of the Very Essence of the Father, He receives to Himself by Nature what is Its own Good. And again He is clearly seen to be Very Son, proved * by comparison with ourselves. For ^ SoKifiasince that which is by Nature has another mode of being from that which is by adoption, and that which is in truth from that which is by imitation, and we are called sons of Ood by adoption and imitation: hence He is Son by Nature and in truth, to Whom we made sons too are compared, gaining the good by grace instead of by natural endowments.

13 Which were begotten, not of blood nor of the will of the fiesh nor of the will of man but of God.

They who, he says, have been called by faith in Christ unto sonship with God, put off the littleness of their own nature, and adorned with the grace of Him Who honoureth them as with a splendid robe mount up unto dignity above nature: for no longer are they called children of flesJi, but rather offspring of God by adoption.

But note how great guardedness the blessed Evangelist used in his words. For since he was going to say that those who believe Sirehegotten of God, lest any should suppose that they are in truth born of the Essence of God the Father and arrive at an exact likeness with the Only-Begotten, or that of Him too is less properly said. From the womb hefore Ps. ex. 3, the Bay star begat I Thee, and so at length He too should be brought down to the nature of creatures, even though He be said to be begotten of God, needs does he contrive this additional caution. For when he had said that poiuer was given to them from Him Who is by Nature Son, to become sons of God, and had hereby first introduced that which is of adoption and grace, without peril does he after- aiKT]v from God the Father and raising up the bond to the nobility of its Lord, by means of His warm love to it.

What more then, will one perchance say, or what special have they who beheve in Christ over Israel, since he too is Isa. 1. 2. ga^i(j ^Q have been begotten of God, as in, I begat and exalted sons, hit they rejected Me? To this I think one must say, Heb.x.i. first, that the Law having a shadoio of good things to come, and not the very image of the tilings, did not give to the children of Israel to have even this in truth, but limned as lb. ix. 10. in type and outline upon them, until the time of reformation, as it is wi'itten, wherein they should at length be manifested who should more fitly and truly call God Father, because the Spirit of the Only-Begotten dwells in them. Rom.vm. Yov the One had the spirit of bondage to fear, the other the spirit of adoption unto liberty, whereby we cry Abba, Father. Therefore the people who should attain unto sonship through faith that is in Christ, were fore-described in Israel as it were in shadow, even as we conceive that the circumcision in Spirit was fore-typified in theirs of old in the flesh, and in short, all of ours were in them in type. Besides, we say that Israel was called to sonship typically through the me- 1 Cor. X. diator Moses. Wherefore they were baptized into him too, as Paul saith, in the cloud and in the sea, and were refashioned out of idolatry unto the law of bondage, the com- Gal. iii. mandment contained in the letter being ministered by angels: but they who by faith in Christ attain unto sonship with God, are baptized into nought originate, but into the Holy Trinity Itself, through the Word as Mediator, Who conjoined to Himself things human through the Flesh which was united to Him, being conjoined of nature to the Father, in that He is by Nature God. For so mounteth up the bond unto sonship, through participation with the in truth Son, called and so to say raised up to the dignity which is in Him by Nature. Wherefore we who have received the regeneration by the Spirit through faith, are called and are begotten of God.

.... CAP. i. 13. Son, so against the Holy Ghost too, saying that He is originate and created, and to thrust Him forth altogether from Consubstantiahty with God the Father, come let us again arraying the word of the true Faith against their unbridled tongues, beget occasions of profit both to ourselves and to our readers. For if neither God by Nature, O sirs, nor yet of God, is He Who is His Own Spirit and therefore Essentially inexistent in Him, but is other than He, and not removed from being connatural with things made, how are we who are begotten through Him said to be hegotten of God? For either we shall say that the Evangelist certainly lies, or (if he is true and it be so and not otherwise), the Spirit will be God and of God by Nature, of Whom we too being accounted worthy to partake through faith to Christ-ward, are rendered partakers of the Divine Nature and are said to be hegotten o/2S.Pet,i. God, and are therefore called gods, not by grace alone winging our flight to the glory that is above us, but as having now God too indwelling and lodging in us, according to what is said in the prophet, Iiviil dwell in them and walk in them.?„ ^°r. vi.

For let them tell us who are filled full with so great un- xxvi. 12. learning, how, having the Spirit dwelling in us, we are ac- L^""^* "'• cording to Paul temples of God, unless He be God by Nature. For if He be a creature and originate, wherefore does God ^^- ^'^• destroy us, as defiling the temple of God when we defile the body wherein the Spirit indwells, having the whole Natural Property ^ of God the Father and likewise of the Only- ^Satji/tV Begotten? And how will the Saviour be true in saying: ISioTrjra If a man love Me, he ivill keep My Words: and My Father will Infra love him and lue will come unto him and make Our abode with him and rest^ in him? albeit it is the Spirit Who dwells in ^ KaraXvus, and through Him do we believe that we have the Father and the Son, even as John himself said again in his epistles. Hereby know we that ive dwell in Sim and He in us, because 1 S. John He hath given us of His Spirit. And how at all will He be called Spirit of God, if He be not of Him and in Him by Nature and therefore God? For if being, as those say, originate, He is the Spirit of God, there is nothing to hinder

108 God the Son was made Flesh, capTi4 *^® ot^er creatures too from being called spirits of God. For this will have already overtaken them in potential, if it is at all possible that originate essence should be Spirit of God.

And it were meet in truth to set forth a long discourse upon these things and to satiate more at length, overturning the uncounsels of the heretics. But having already suflfi-

14 And the Word vjas made Flesh. 8 KaOapids He has now entered openly ^ upon the declaration of the Incarnation. For he plainly sets forth that the Only-Begotten became and is called son of man; for this and nought else does his saying that the Word teas made Flesh signify: for it is as though he said more nakedly The Word ivas made Man. And in thus speaking he introduces again to us nought strange or unwonted, seeing that the Divine Scripture offctimes calls the whole creature by the name of flesh Joel 11.28. alone, as in the prophet Joel: I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh. And we do not suppose that the Prophet says that that the Divine Spirit should be bestowed upon human flesh soul-less and alone (for this would be by no means free from absurdity): but comprehending the whole by the part, he names man from the flesh: for thus it was right and not otherwise. And why, it is needful I suppose to say.

Man then is a creature rational, but composite, of soul that is and of this perishable and earthly flesh. And when it had been made by God, and was brought into being, not having of its own nature incorruption and imperishableness (for these things appertain essentially to God Alone), it was sealed with the spirit of life, by participation with the Divi- Gen. ii. 7. nity gaining the good that is above nature (for He breathed, it says^ into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul). But when he was being punished for his translb. iii. 19. gressions, then with justice hearing Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return, he was bared of the grace; the breath of life, that is the Spirit of Him Who says I am the Life, departed from the earthy body and the creature falls immortality, since to the flesh too alone was it said, Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return. It needed therefore that that in us which was specially imperilled, should with the greater zeal ^ be restored, and by intertwining ^ yopy6. again with Life That is by Nature be recalled to immortality: it needed that at length the sentence. Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return should be relaxed, the fallen body being united ineffably to the Word That quickeneth all things. For it needed that becoming His Flesh, it should partake of the immortality that is from Him. For it were a thing most absurd, that fire should have the power of infusing into wood the perceptible quality of its inherent power and of all but transfashioning into itself the things wherein it is by participation, and that we should not fully hold that the Word of God Which is over all, would inwork in the flesh His own Good, that is Life.

For this reason specially I suppose it was that the holy. Evangelist, indicating the creature specially from the part affected, says that the Word of God became Flesh, that so we might see at once the wound and the medicine, the sick and the Physician, that which had fallen unto death and Him Who raised it unto life, that which was overcome of corruption and Him Who chased away the corruption, that which was holden of death and Him Who is superior to death, that which was bereft of life and the Giver of life.

But he says not that the Word came into flesh but that It ivas made Flesh, that you may not suppose that He came to it as in the case of the Prophets or other of the Saints by participation, but did Himself become actual Flesh, that is man: for so we just now said. Wherefore He is also God by Nature in Flesh and with Flesh, as having it His own, and conceived of as being Other than it, and worshipped in it and with it, according to what is written in the prophet Isaiah, Men Isa. xlv. of stature shall come over unto thee and they shall he thine: LXX. theij sJiall come after thee; in chains they shall come over and they shall fall down unto thee, they shall malce supplication unto thee, for God is in thee, and there is no God

Book I- heside thee. Lo tliey say that God is in Him, not severing *tlie Flesh from the Word; and again they affirm that there is none other God save He, uniting to the AVord that which He bears about Him, as His very own, that is the temple of the Virgin: for He is One Christ of Both.

A7id dwelt among ns. The Evangelist profitably goes over again what he has said, and brings the force of the thought to a clearer comprehension. For since he said that the Word of God was made Flesh, lest any out of much ignorance should imagine that He forsook His own Nature, and was in truth changed into flesh, and suffered, which were impossible (for the Godhead is far removed from all variableness and chana^e into ought else as to mode of being): the Divine exceeding well added straightway And dwelt among tis, that considering that the things mentioned are two, the Dweller and that wherein is the dwelling, you might not suppose that He is transformed into flesh, but rather that He dwelt in Flesh, using His own Body, the Temple that is from the

Col.ii. p. Holy Virgin. For in Rim dwelt cdl the fulness of the Godhead bodily, as Paul saith.

But profitably does he affirm that the Word dwelt in us, unveiling to us this deep Mystery also: for we were all in Christ, and the community of human nature mounteth up

1 Cor. XV. unto His Person: since therefore was He named the last Adam, giving richly to the common nature all things that belong to joy and glory, even as the first Adam what pertained to corruption and dejection. The Word then dwelt in all

Rom. i. 4. through one that the One being declared the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, the dignity might come unto all the human nature and thus because of

Ps. One of us, I have said Ye are gods and all of you are children

Pliil.ii.7. tic union with Him Who bare the form o/the servant; yet in us after the likeness of the One because of the relation after

angels hut the seed of Abraham, whence in all things it be- Chap. ix. hoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, and to become in truth Man? Is it not clear to all^ that He descended unto the condition of bondage, not Himself giving thereby ought to Himself, but bestowing Himself on us, ^/i«^ wethrough 2Cor.viii. His Poverty might be rich, and, soaring up through likeness to Him unto His own special good, might be made gods and children of God through faith? For He Who is by Nature Son and God dwelt in us, wherefore in His Spirit do we cry Rom. viii. Abba Father. And tlie Word dtvells in One Temple taken for our sakes and of us, as in all, in order that having all in Himself, He migld reconcile all in one body unto tlie Father, Epii. ii. as Paul saith.

And we beheld His glory, the glori/ as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Having said that the Word was made Flesh, that is Man, and having brought Him down to brotherhood with things made and in bondage, he preserves even thus His Divine dignity intact and shews Him again full of the own Nature of the Father inherent to Him. For the Divine Nature has truly stability in Itself, not enduring to suffer change to ought else, but rather always unvarying and abiding in Its own Endowments. Hence even though theEvangehst says that ^/le Word was made Flesh, he yet affirms that It was not overcome by the infirmitiesof the flesh, nor fell from Its pristine Might and Glory, when It clad Itself in our frail and inglorious body. For we saw, he says. His Glory surpassing that of others, and such as one may confess befits the Only-Begotten Son of God the Father: for full was He of grace and truth. For if one looks at the choir of the saints and measures the things that are wondrously achieved by each, one will with reason marvel and be delighted at the good things that belong to each and will surely say that they are filled with glory from God. But the Divines and witnesses say that they have seen the glory and grace of the Only-Begotten, not competing with that of the rest, but very far surpassing it and mounting up by incomparable excellencies, having no measured grace, as though another gave it, but perfect and

And if it seem good to any to test more largely what has been said, let him consider with himself both the deeds that are wonderfully done by each of the saints and those of our

Heb. iii. servants about the house. He as a Son over Ins oum house.

Ps.cxviii. Blessed he he that cometh in the Name of the Lord, but of the

Jer. vii. saints God the Father says, I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets. And the one were recipients of the Infra x. grace from above, the other as Lord of Hosts says. If I do '' ' not the worhs of My FatJier, believe Me not: hut f I do, tJumgh ye helieve not Me, heUeve My worhs. If then the Only-Begotten is seen by the very works to be as great in power as the Father, He will conformably be celebrated by equal honours, as the Doer of equal works, and will surely as much surpass, even when in the Flesh, those who have been called unto brotherhood, as God by Nature overleaps the limits of men, and the Yery Son the sons by adoption. S. Luke But since it is written in the blessed Luke, And Jesus increased in unsdom and grace, we must observe here that the Spirit-clad said that the Son hath His glory full of grace. Whither then will that which is full advance, or what addition will that at all admit, beyond which there is nought? Hence He is said to increase, not in that He is Word and God, but because He ever more greatly marvelled at, appeared more full of grace to those who saw Him, through His achievements, the disposition of those who marvelled advancing, as is more true to say, in grace, than He Who is Perfect as God. Be these things then spoken for profit, though they be somewhat discursive.

15 Jo/in bare ivitness of Him and cried. The most wise Evangelist follows again the course of his thoughts and makes the sequel duly correspondent to what Chap.Ix. preceded. For when he said of the Son of God^ we beheld Supra His Glory, the Glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father, that he might not appear to alone say this (the word we have seen not suiting a single person), he joins with himself his namesake witness, having one and the same piety with himself. I then, says he, bear witness (for I have beheld what I said), and the Baptist likewise bears witness. A most weighty pair of Spirit'clad, and a notable pair of men foster-brothers in truth and unknowing how to lie.

But see how exceeding forcible he made his declaration. For he not only says that John hears witness of Sim, but profitably adds and cried, taking his proof from the words The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, and this too Is. xl. 3. exceeding well. For it was possible that some of the opponents might say, When did the Baptist witness to the Only- Begotten or to whom did he impart the things regarding Him? He cried then, says he, that is, not in a corner does he utter them, not gently and in secret does he hear witness: you may hear him crying aloud more clear than a trumpet, (not you alone hearing these things,) widespread and to all is his speech, glorious the herald, remarkable the voice, great and not unknown the Forerunner.

This was He of Whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred [^fias become ] before me, for He was before me.

Having named the witness same-minded and same-named with himself, and having shewn that he used a great voice for the service of his preaching, he profitably adds the mode too of his testimony: for it is in this in particular that the whole question lies. What then do we find the great John crying regarding the Only-Begotten? He that cometh after me has hecotne before 7ne for He was before me. Deep is the saying and one that demands keen search into its meaning.

For the obvious and received meaning is thus: As far as belongs to the time of the Birth according to the Flesh, the Baptist preceded the Saviour, and Emmanuel clearly followed and came after by six whole months, as the blessed

Book l Luke related. Some suppose that John said this, that ft may be understood thus, He that cometh after me, in point of age, is preferred before me. But he who fixes a keener

^ '" that this view introduces us to futile ideas and carries us far from the needful subject of consideration. For the holy Baptist is introduced as a witness, not in order to shew that Christ was once later, then again earlier in the time of

Supra ver. ]jjg Birth, but as a CO- witness of His Qlory, the Glory as of tJie Only -Begotten of tJie Father full of grace and truth.

What meaning then can one give to such unseasonably introduced explanations as these? or how can one give us any clear interpretation, by understanding of time the words before us. He That cometh after one became before me? For be it laid down beyond a doubt that the Lord came after the Baptist, as being second to him in time according to the Flesh: how will He be also before him, I mean in time? for due order and sequence call us to this sense analogously to what preceded. But I think that it is evident to every one, that this is an impossibiHty. For that which cometh short of anything in point of time will never have the start of its leader. Hence it is a thing utterly senseless and altogether past behef, to imagine that the holy Baptist said of time after the Flesh, He that cometh after me has hecome before me. But understanding it rather in accordance with the line of thought that preceded, we will believe that it was said in some such sense as this. The blessed Baptist meetly carries up his mode of speaking from a customary phrase to its spiritual import, and advances as it were from an image drawn from our affairs to the exposition of subtler thoughts.

For that which leads is ever considered to be more glorious than those which are said to follow, and things which succeed yield the palm to those that precede them. As for example, he who is a skilled worker in brass, or carpenter, or weaver, takes the lead and has superiority over him who is conceived as following by being a learner and advancing to perfect knowledge. But when such an one has surpassed the skill of his teacher and leaving that behind attains to something superior, I deem that he who is surpassed Chap. ix. may not unfitly say of his outstripping pupil, He that cometh after me, has become before me.

Transferring then after this sort the force of our idea to our Saviour Christ and the holy Baptist, you will rightly understand it. Take now the account of each from the beginning. The Baptist was being admired by all, he was making many disciples, a great multitude of those who came for Baptism was always surrounding him: Christ, albeit superior, was unknown, they knew not that He was Very God. Since then He was unknown, while the Baptist was admired. He seemed I suppose to fall short of him; He came a little after him who had still the higher position in honour and glory from men. But Se That cometh after has become before, being shewn to be greater and superior to John. For the One was at length revealed by His works to be God, the other not surpassing the measure of human nature, is found at last to have become after.

Hence the blessed Baptist said darkly. He that cometh after me has become before me, instead of. He who was once behind me in honour, is beheld to be more glorious, and surpasses by incomparable excellencies the measure that befits and belongs to me. Thus understanding the words, we shall find him a witness of the Glory of the Only -Begotten and not an unseasonable setter forth of useless things. For his saying that Christ is greater than himself who has a great reputation for holiness, what else is it than witnessing to His especial glory?

Having said that He has become before me, he needfully adds. For He was before me, ascribing to Him glory most ancient, and affirming that the precedence of all things accrued not to Him in time, but is inherent in Him from the beginning as God by Nature. For He was before me, says he, instead of. Always and every-way superior and more glorious. And by His being compared with one among things originate, the judgment against all is concentrated in

116 All that we have a gift from the Son's fulness. Book I. behalf of Him Wlio is above all. For we do not contemplate the great and glorious dignity of the Son as consisting m this alone that He surpassed the glory of John, but in His surpassing every originate essence.

The Evangelist in these words accepts the true testimony of the Baptist, and makes clear the proof of the superiority of our Saviour, and of His possessing essentially the surpassing every thing originate, both in respect of glory itself (whereof he is now more especially speaking) and of the bright catalogue of all the other good things.

For most excellently, says he, and most truly does the Baptist appear to me to say of the Only-Begotten, For He was before me, that is far surpassing and superior. For all we too, who have been enrolled in the choir of the saints, enjoy the riches oiHis proper good, and the nature of man is ennobled with His rather than its own excellences, when it is found to have ought that is noble. For from the fulness of the Son, as from a perennial fountain, the gift of the Divine graces springing forth comes to each soul that is found worthy to receive it. But if the Son supplies as of His Natural fulness, the creature is supplied: — how will He not be conceived of as having glory not similar to the rest, but such as will beseem the Only-Begotten of God, having the superiority over all as the fruit of His own Nature, and the pre-eminence as the Dignity of His Father's Being? And I think that the most wise Paul too when defining as to the nature of all things, was moved thereby to true ideas, so as hence at length 1 Cor. iv. to address the creature, For ivhat hast thou that thou didst not receive? For together with being, the well-being after such and such wise, is God's gift to the creature, and it has nothing of its own, but becomes rich only with the munificence of Him Who gives to it. But we must note again that he says that the Son is full, that is, All-perfect in all things, and so greatly removed from being lacking in anything whatever, that He can bestow even on all, refusing diminution, and preserving the greatness of His own excellence always the same.

17 And grace for grace, for the law was given by Moses, but Cnw.ix. grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.. ■,.

Having said that the glory of the Only- Begotten was found more brilliant than any fame among men, and introducing the greatness in holiness incomparable above all saints that is in Him, he studies to prove this from those who have mounted up to the height of virtue. Of John then the Saviour saith, Verilij I saij unta you, Among them that are s.- Matt. horn of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. But this so great and exalted man, he brought forward but now, as himself says, crying and saying with a loud voice. He that cometh after me is preferred before me for ^upraver. He tvas before me. But since John^s glory was inferior and gave place to the Only-Begotten, how must one not needs suppose that no one of the saints besides is brought up to equal measure with the Saviour Christ in regard of the glory which appears in the splendour of their actions? The Saints then that lived at the time of the Advent, not being able to surpass the virtue of John, nor mounting up to the measure that accrued to him, will with him yield the victor's palm to Christ, if the blessed Baptist gaining the highest summit in what is good, and having failed in no manner of excellence, receives not through the voice of another the judgment of inferiority to Him, but himself sealed it against himself, speaking, as a saint, truly. But since it was necessary that Emmanuel should be shewn tobegreaterandbetterthan the saints of old, needs does the blessed Evangelist come to the hierophant Moses first; to whom it was said by God, I hnow thee Exod. before all and thou didst find grace in My sight. For that he was known before all to God, we shall know by this again: If, Num. xii, he says, there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will mahe Myself known unto him in a vision and will speahunto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, ivho is faithful in all Mine house. With him will Ispeah mouth to mouth, even apparently and not in darJc speeches. The all-wise Moses having therefore so great excellency above the elder saints, he shews that the Only-Begotten is in every way superior and of more renown, that He might be shewn in all things to have Col. i. I8.

Book I. the pve-eminence, as Paul saith.: and therefore lie says, ■ * ' * And grace for grace, for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ: for I tliink that the blessed Evanglist would indicate something of this kind: The great Baptist, he says, made true confession declaring Supra ver. openly respecting the Only-Begotten, He that cometh after lb! 16. me is jprefe^rred before me, for He ^vas before me, for of His fulness have all we received. And let no one suppose that the Only-Begotten surpasses John or the rest of the saints who belonged to the times of the Advent, but came short of the glory of the elder saints, who were illustrious in holiness in the times before the Advent; for he will see Him, says he, far surpassing the measure of Moses, although he possessed the superiority in holiness as compared with them; for the Lawgiver clearly affirmed that He knew him before all. John then was convicted by his own mouth of coming behind the glory of Christ: he comes short of His splendour, and there is no question at all about him, or anything to embarrass the finding out of the truth.

Whence then shall we find that the hierophant Moses himself also came short of the glory of the Lord? Let the student, he says, diligently examine the evangelic grace given to us by the Saviour, in contrast with the grace of the law that was through Moses. For then will he see that the ISon was as much superior, as He is proved to be the Lawgiver of better things than the polity of the law and introducing things superior to all those which were through Moses. For the law, he says, tvas given through Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. What then is the distinction between the law and the grace that comes through the Saviour, let him again see who is fond of search and an ally of good labours; we will say a little out of much, believing that boundless and vast is the number of the thoughts thereto belonging. The Law therefore was condemning the Gal. iii. world (for God through it concluded all under sin, as Paul ^"* saith) and shewing us subject to punishments, but the Savilijfra xii. our rather sets it free, for He came not to judge the ivorld '' but to save the world. And the Law too used to give grace to men, calling them to the knowledge of God, and drawing Chap. ix. away from the worship of idols those who had been led ' ' ' ' astray and in addition to this both pointing out evil and teaching good, if not perfectly, yet in the manner of a teacher and usefully: but the ti'iitli mid grace which are through the Only-Begotten, does not introduce to us the good which is in types, nor limn things profitable as in shadow, but in glorious and most pure ordinances leads us by the hand unto even perfect knowledge of the faith. And the Law used to give the spirit of bondage to fear, but Christ J^om-vi". the spirit of adoption unto liberty. The Law likewise brings in the circumcision in the flesh which is nothing (for cir- iCor.vii. cunwision is nothing, as Paul writes to certain): but our Lord Jesus Christ is the Giver of circumcision in the spirit and ^"i"- "• heart. The Law baptizes the defiled with mere water: the Saviour with the Holii Ghost and with fire. The Law brings §: ^/**" in the tabernacle, for di, figure of the true: the Saviour bears Heb. ix. up to Heaven itself and brings into the truer tabernacle, lb. viii,2. ivhich the Lmxl pitched and not man. And it were not hard to heap up other proofs besides,, but we must respect our limits.

But we will say this for profit and need. The blessed Paul in few words solved the question, saying of the law and of the Saviour^s grace, For if the ministration of C07idem- ^ ^°^' "'• nation be glory, much m,ore doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For he says that the commandment by Moses is the mnnistration of condemnation; the grace through the Saviour, he calls the ininistration of righteousness, to which he gives to surpass in glory, most perfectly examining the nature of things, as being clad with the Spirit. Since then the Law which condemns was given by Moses,, the grace which justifies came by the Only-Begotten, how is not He, he says, superior in glory, through Whom, the better things were ordained? The Psalmist then will also be true, crying aloud in the Spirit that our Lord Jesus Christ surpasses the whole illustrious multitude of the saints. For v)ho, he says, amsng the clouds shall be made equal unto the ^^-. Lord? or who shall be likened unto the Lord among the sons LXX

■ ■ ' ' will yield the palm to Christ, and will never think that they ought to aim at equal glory with Him, when he who was

LXX.' second place: and they who were called sons of God at the time of the Advent, will not be wholly likened to Him Wlio is by Nature Son, but will acknowledge their own measure, when the holy Baptist says that he himself is far behind, of

S. Matt, whom He That knoweth the hearts says. Among them that are horn of ivomen there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. True therefore is the blessed Evangelist, say-

Supraver. ing that he has seen His glory, the glory as of the Only- Begotten of the Father, that is, which beseems the Only- Begotten Son of God the Father, and not rather those who are called to brotherhood with Him, of whom He is Firstborn.

That the Only-Begotten is Alone by Nature the Son from the Father, as being of Him and in Him.

18 iVo man hath seen God at any time; the Only-Begotten God^, Wliich is in the Bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.

See again lierem tlie vigilance.of the Spirit-clad. He was not ignorant that some would surely say, bitterly^ search- ^ TriKpJreing into the things which are spoken of the Only-Begotten: You said, good sir, that you had beheld His Glory, the glory Supra as of the Only-Begotten of the Father: then when you ought to unfold to us the explanation of this and to tell us some thing God-befitting and due, you made your demonstration from His superiority to Moses and to the measure of John, as though one could not in any other way see His Glory, although the blessed Prophet Isaiah says, / saiu the Lord Isa. vi. sitting u^pon a throne high and lifted up and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the Seraphim, each one had six wings, with twain he covered his face and with twain lie covered his feet and with twain he did fly; and one cried unto another and said. Holy, holy, holy, is the Loed of hosts; th& whole earth is full of His glory: Ezekiel again cried openly to us that he both saw the Cherubim, having a firmament Hke a sapphire resting upon their heads, and upon a throne likewise the Lord of Hosts: his words are these. And there Ezek. i. was a voice, says he, from the firmament that was over their ' heads, and above the firmameyit that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it: and I saw as the colour of

Book I. amher, from the appearance of Ids loins even upwards and 'from the appearance of his loins even doimiioards, I saiv as it were the appearance of fire and it had brightness round about, as the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the lilceness of the glory of the Lord.

Since therefore it was not unlikely that not a few of the more unlearned would say some such things to us, needs does the blessed Evangelist hasten to cut short their attempts, saying, No man hath seen God at any time; for the Only-Begotten Himself being God, Wliich is in tlie bosom of God the Father, made this declaration to us, saying most

Infra vi. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save He Which is of God, He hath seen the Father. For to the Son Alone That is by Nature is the Father visible and that in such wise

2 (iKdaai as one may think ^ that the Divine Nature Divinely sees and is seen, and to none other of things which are. Yet will the speech of the holy Prophets in no way be false when they

Isa. vi. 1. cry aloud that they saw tits Lord of Hosts: for they do not aihrm that they saw that very essential Thing that the Na-

Ezek. i. ture of God is, but they themselves too openly cry out, Tli is is the appearance of the UTieness of the Glory of the Lokd.

^^^^ out of things such as are ours, and was rather a likeness giving things Divine as it were in a picture, while the truth of them mounts up to excellence above mind and speech. Most ex-

^"' ' beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father, full of grace arid truth, bring in the demonstration

Wisdom thereof from His superiority to all. For like as from the beauty of the creatures proportionably is the Power of the

Ps. xix. 1. Creator of all beheld, and the heavens without voice declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth His handywork: so again will the Only-Begotten be proved superior in Glory and more resplendent, surpassing apprehension, as regards the power of the eye^ as God; and wherein He surpasses the crea- Chap.X. ture, therein deemed of and glorified as being above it. Such thought then and no other I deem that the words now before us are replete with. But we must note again that he both calls the Son Onhj-Ber/otten, God, and says that He is in the Bosom oftlie Father, that He may be shewn again to be outside of any connaturality with the creature and to have His own proper * Being of the Father and in the Father, For if He ^ l^ia^ovis verily Only -Begotten God, how is He not Other in nature than they who are by adoption gods and sons? For the Only-Begotten will be conceived of not among many brethren, but as the Only one from the Father. But since, while there are as Paul saith many who are are called gods in heaven and earth, the Son is Only-Begotten God, He will clearly be outside of the rest and will not be reckoned among those who are gods by grace, but will rather be Very God with the Father. For so does Paul conjoin Him, saying to us. But to us One God the Father of Whom are all things, i Cor.viii, a}id One Lord Jesus Christ by Who7n are all things. For the Father being by Nature One God, the Word That is of Him and in Him will not remain external from being God, eminent in the ownness^ of Him Who begat Him, and ascend- 5 is^STnTt hag essentially to equal Dignity, because He is by Nature God.

Therefore does he say that He is in the Bosom of the Father, that you may again conceive His being in Him and of e rh eV aii- Him ^ according to what is said in the Psalms: From the '^Jirlf ^^ womb before the day-star begat I Thee. For as here he puts ^\^' ^' From the womb, because of His being of Him and that really '^, from likeness of things belonging to us (for ^ yvnaiws things born of men proceed from the womb); so too when he says in the bosom, he would plainly shew the Son all but iu the womb of the Father which begat Him forth ^, (as it were in ^ {^(pavTisome Divine gleaming forth and unspeakable forth-come ^ » irpoJS^ unto His own Person 1°), but which yet possesses Him, since not '" "-^ocTaby cutting away ^ or division after the flesh, did the Divine • a-woKo- Offspring come forth ^ of the Father. And indeed the Son ^.^po^Kvsomewhere says that Ho is in the Father and has aa-ain the Fa- P^

Book I, ther in Him. For the very own of the Father's Essence passing 3 riyap ' ossentiallj ^ into the Son, shews the Father in Him, and the!.'"."dTiTJj. Father again has the Son rooted in Himself in exact sameness Kws hiri- of Essence and begotten of Him, yet not by division or interval of place, but inherent and ever co-existing; thus rather shall we piously understand that the Son is in the Bosom of the Father, not as some of those who are wont to fight Rom. iii. against God have taken it, ivhose da'mnation is just: for they jviic. iii. pervert all equity, as the Prophet says, undoing the ears of iCQj._y;;j the simpler ones and sliming without heed^ against the 12 11. hrethren, for whom Ghrist died.

KToos What it is then that these both think and say and try to teach others, we must needs say. When the holy Evangelist says that the Son is in the Bosom of God the Father, and the children of the Church think rightly, and affirm that He is therefore of the Father and in the Father, and contend and that aright, that the true mode of Generation must be preserved; straightway they that are drunk with all unlearning laugh outright and even dare to say: Your opinion, sirs, is all nonsense: for not well-instructedly do ye think of God, deeming that because the Son is said to be in the Bosom of the Father, He is therefore wholly of His Essence, and foolishly imagining that He is the Fruit of the Inoriginate Nature. For have ye not heard, say they, in the Gospel parables, when Christ Himself was discoursing of the Rich ^•.^J,^^^ man and Lazarus, that it came to pass that Lazarus died and was carried by the angels into Ahraham/s bosom? will ye then grant, because Lazarus was in the bosom of Abraham, that therefore he is of him and in him by nature, or will ye not rightly refuse to say this, and yourselves too with us allow that love is meant by the "bosom''? we say therefore that the Son is in the Bosom of God the Father, instead of

Infra iii. in His lovc, as Himself also says. The Father loveth the Son. But when the fault-finders hit us with these words, though they be zealous to nought but railing, then we too will answer them, arraying against them the right word of the truth: The bosom, good sirs, according to you means love: iiiiia iii. foi- this wc just now heard you say. Shall we then, since God lessly say that both the world itself and the gates of Sion are in the bosom of God the Father? And when He says too to the hierophant Moses, Put thine hand into thy hosom, Exod. iv. does He bid him, tell me, love his hand and not rather keep it hidden? Then how shall we not incur great laughter hereby, yea rather how shall we not behave with impiety towards the Father Himself, if we say that all things are in His Bosom, and make that common to the rest which is the special prerogative of the Only-Begotten, in order that the Son may have nought above the creature?

Hence bidding good bye to their ill- counsel, we will go on the straight road of thoughts of the Truth, when the Son is said to be in the Bosom of the Father, conceiving of Him as of Him and in Him: and accurately taking in the force of the thought, we shall find it thus and not otherwise. The Only- Begotten God, he says. Which is in the Bosom of the Father, He hath declared. For when he said Only-Begotten and God, he straightway says, Which is in the Bosom of the Father, that He may be conceived of as Son of Him and in Him Naturally, saying Bosom of the Father instead of Essence, as by corporeal simile. For things manifest are types of things spiritual, and things among us lead us by the hand to the apprehension of the things which are above us: and the corporal things are often taken in the way of image and introduce to us the apprehension of subtler thoughts, even though they be in their proper time understood as they were uttered, as I mean that to Moses, Put thine hand into thy hosom. And it will no way hurt our argument to say that Lazarus was laid in Abraham's bosom, but will aid it rather and will go along with our thoughts. For the Divine Scripture says so to speak thus: Lazarus having died and deceased from his life in the body, was carried into Abraham's bosom, instead of "was numbered among Abraham's children." For " I have made thee a father of many nations," said God to him, for so is it somewhere written of him. For a father q/^^"-^^"« many nations have I made thee.

'" ' 20 and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him. Who art thou? And he confessed and denied not; hit confessed, I am not the Christ.

The Evangelist recalls his own words and endeavours to explain to us more fully (doing exceeding well) what he had already told us told us briefly as in summary. For having sai d

' ' same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, needs does he bring in the mode also of the witness given by him.

For when, he says^ the chiefs of the Jewish divisions after the Law, sentjpriests and Levites to him, bidding them ask him, whathe would say of himself, then very clearly did he confess, spurning all shame for the truth\s sake. For he said, I am i not the Christ. Therefore neither do I, says he, the compiler j lb. 8. of this Book, lie saying of him. He tvas not the Light hid to hear ivitness of the Light.

21 And they asked him, Wliat then? Art thou Elias?and he saith, I am not. Art thou that Prophet? And he answered, No.

lb. 20. Having said by way of explanation, he confessed, I am not the Christ; he tries to shew how or in what manner the confession was made; and he appears to me to wish thereby to lay Rom. i. bare the ill -instructedness of the Jews. For professing themselves to he wise they hecame fools, and puSed up at their knowledge of the Law, and ever putting forward the commandments of Moses and asserting that they were perfectly instructed in the words of the holy Prophets, by their fooHsh questions they are convicted of being wholly uninstructed. 5 ^y ^.^ For the hierophant Moses saying that the Lord should be npocp-nrov revealed as a Prophet^ foretold to the children of Israel, TJie Deut. Lord thy God ivill raise iip unto thee a Fro^'ihet from the midst

16. * ' of thee, of thy hrethren, like unto me, unto Him shall ye hearken; according to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in

?: ¥^"* the wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight: and in addition to these the Prophet Joel ^ says of

the Tishbite (he was Elias) Behold, I send you Elijalt the Chav.X. Tishhite '^ who shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, MaL^v". ' and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, lest I come ayid g'_ ^uke smite the earth with a curse. ^- ^^'

There being then three, who were promised should come, Christ and John and Elias, the Jews expect that more will come, that they may rightly hear. Ye do err not knoiving the S. Matt. Scriptures. For when they enquired of the blessed Baptist and learned that he was not the Christ, they answer. What then? art thou Elias? and on his saying I am not, when they ought to have asked respecting the fore-runner (for he it was that remained) they ignorantly return to Christ Himself, Who was revealed through the Law as a Prophet. For see what they say, not knowing what was told them through Moses, Art thou the Prophet? and he answered. No. For he was not the Christ, as he had already before declared.

22 23 What say est thou of thyself? I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.

He accuses them sharply as knowing nothing, and accredits the design or purpose entrusted to him by Prophetic testimony. For I come, he says, to say nothing else than that He, The Looked for, is at length at the doors, yea rather the Lord within the doors. Be ye ready to go whatsoever way He bids you, ye have gone the way given you through Moses, take up that by Christ: for this the choir of the holy Prophets foretold you.

Isaiah. Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Isa. ii. 3. Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways and we ivill ivalk in His patJis.

The same. And an highway shall be there and a way, and Vo. xxxv. it shall be called The ivay of holiness; no lion shall be there ' nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, but the redeemed shall walk there.

Book I. The Same. I will give beginning '^ to Sion, and will exliort Isa.'xii. * Jerusalem unto the way.

Lxx, The same. And I will bring the blind by a way that they lb. xhi. Icneio not: I will lead them in p)ctths that tJiey have not hnoivn. Jer.vi.i6, Jeremiah. Stand ye in the umys and see and ash for the old 2J(^ths, where is the good way and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.

WTiat then is the good way and that purifies those who Infra xiv. ^alk in it, let Christ Himself say: I am the Way.

24 And they had been sent from the Pharisees. ^ They who were sent from the Jews (they were Levites and certain of those who belonged to the priesthood) were convicted of asking foolish questions. For supposing that Christ was one person, the Prophet declared by the Law another,

Supra they said, after the holy Baptist had said, I am not the Christ, '" '" ' jlyi thou the Prophet? But lo, the multitude of the Pharisees

6 SoKTjo-i- also is caught in conceit of wisdom ^rather than ha vinar really an accurate knowledge ot the Divme oracles, i^ or umy, it says, baptizest thou at all, if thou be not the Christ nor Elias neither the Prophet? and they are shewn again to be full of no small senselessness against the Baptist. For they do not, it seems, vouchsafe to put him in the number of those expected, but sick with the haughtiness that was their foster-sister ^, they deem that he is nought, albeit he be fore-announced by the

Matt.iii.* one crying in the ivilderness Prepare ye the ivay of the Lord: receiving not his word, they rebuke him without restraint saying after this sort: There is nought in thee. Sir, worthy of credit, nor wondrous nor great: why baptizest thou even at all? why dost thou, who art absolutely nothing, take in hand so great a thing? It was the habit of the ungodly Pharisees to act thus, to disparage one who was already in order that they might always procure for themselves honours at the hand of the Jews, and might procure to themselves incomes '^ of monev, they desire that none save them- ' -^opi. selves should appear illustrious. For thus slew they the heir Himself also, saying Come let tis hill Him and let us s. Matt. TT- ' 1 •, xxi.38.

Much enduringly ^ does the blessed Baptist bear with the « 'Ai/eitfault finders: and very seasonably does he make the declaration regarding himself a basis of saving preaching: and teaches those who were sent from the Pharisees now even against their will that Christ was within the doors. For I, he says, am bringing in an introductory^ Baptism, washing those ' 'r«'5adefiled by sin with water for a beginning of penitence and teaching them to go up from the lower unto the more perfect. For this were to accomplish in act, what I was sent to preach. Prepare ye, I mean, the way of the Lord. For the Giver of the greater and most notable gifts and SuppHer of all perfection of good things, standeth among you, unknown as yet by reason of the veil of flesh, but so much surpassing me the Baptist, that I must deem myself not to have the measure even of a servant's place in His Presence. For this I deem is the meaning of, / am not tvorthy to unloose His shoe-latchet.

And in saying what is true, he works something else that is useful, for he persuades the haughty Pharisee to think lowlily, and brings himself in as an example of this.

But he says that these things were done in Bethahara beyond Jordan, putting this too as a sign of accurate and careful narration. For we are all accustomed, so to speak, in our accounts of thmgs that require it to mention also the places where they happened.