Chapter VII.
Objection is taken to the following passage:
“Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.” To
remove it, he shows first the impiety of the Arian explanation; then
compares these words with others; and lastly, takes the whole passage
into consideration. Hence he gathers that the mission of Christ,
although it is to be received according to the flesh, is not to His
detriment. When this is proved he shows how the divine mission
takes place.
88. There are some,
O Emperor Augustus, who in their desire to deny the unity of the divine
Substance, strive to make little of the love of the Father and the Son,
because it is written: “Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast
loved Me.”2615
But when
they say this, what else do they do but adopt a likeness of comparison
between the Son of God and men?
89. Can men indeed be loved by God as the
Son is, in Whom the Father is well-pleased?2616
He is well-pleasing in Himself; we
through Him. For those in whom God sees His own Son after His own
likeness, He admits through His Son into the favour of sons. So
that as we go through likeness unto likeness, so through the Generation
of the Son are we called unto adoption. The eternal love of
God’s Nature is one thing, that of grace is another.
90. And if they start a debate on the words
that are written: “And Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast
loved Me,” and think a comparison is intended; they must think
that the following also was said by way of comparison: “Be
ye merciful, as your Father Which is in heaven is
merciful;”2617
and
elsewhere: “Be ye perfect, as My Father Which is in heaven
is perfect.”2618
But if
He is perfect in the fulness of His glory, we are but perfect according
to the growth of virtue within us. The Son also is loved by the
Father according to the fulness of a love that ever abideth, but in us
growth in grace merits the love of God.
91. Thou seest, then, how God has given grace to
men, and dost thou wish to dissever the natural and indivisible love of
the Father and the Son? And dost thou still strive to make
nothing of words, where thou dost note the mention of a unity of
majesty?
92. Consider the whole of this passage, and
see from what standpoint He speaks; for thou hearest Him saying:
“Father, glorify Thou Me with the glory which I had with Thee
before the world was.”2619
See how He
speaks from the standpoint of the first man. For He begs for us
in that request those things which, as Man, He remembered were granted
in paradise before the Fall, as also He spoke of it to the thief at His
Passion: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, today shalt thou
be with Me in paradise.”2620
This is the
glory before the world was.
But He used the word “world”
instead “men,” as also thou hast it: “Lo! the
whole world goeth after Him;”2621
and again
“That the world may know that Thou hast sent Me.”2622
93. But that thou mightest know the great
God, even the life-giving and Almighty Son of God, He has added a proof
of His majesty by saying: “And all Mine are Thine, and
Thine are Mine.”2623
He has
all things, and dost thou turn aside the fact that He was sent, to
wrong Him?
94. But if thou dost not accept the truth of
His mission according to the flesh, as the Apostle spoke of
it,2624
and dost raise out of a mere word a
decision against it, to enable thee to say that inferiors are wont to
be sent by superiors; what answer wilt thou give to the fact that the
Son was sent to men? For if thou dost think that he who is sent
is inferior to him by whom he is sent, thou must learn also that an
inferior has sent a superior, and that superiors have been sent to
inferiors. For Tobias sent Raphael the archangel,2625
and an angel was sent to Balaam,2626
and the Son of God to the
Jews.
95. Or was the Son of God inferior to the
Jews to whom He was sent? For of Him it is written:
“Last of all He sent unto them His only Son, saying, They will
reverence My Son.”2627
And mark
that He mentioned first the servants, then the Son, that thou mayest
know that God, the only-begotten Son according to the power of His
Godhead, has neither name nor lot in common with servants. He is
sent forth to be reverenced, not to be compared with the
household.
96. And rightly did He add the word
“My,” that we might believe He came, not as one of many,
nor as one of a lower nature or of some inferior power, but as true
from Him that is true, as the Image of the Father’s
Substance.
97. Suppose, however, that he who is sent is
inferior to him by whom he is sent. Christ then was inferior to
Pilate; for Pilate sent Him to Herod. But a word does not
prejudice His power. Scripture, which says that He was sent from
the Father, says that He was sent from a ruler.
98. Wherefore, if we sensibly hold to those
things which be worthy of the Son of God, we ought to understand Him to
have been sent in such a way that the Word of God, out of the
incomprehensible and ineffable mystery of the depths of His majesty,
gave Himself for comprehension to our minds, so far as we could lay
hold of Him, not only when He “emptied” Himself, but also
when He dwelt in us, as it is written: “I will dwell in
them.”2628
Elsewhere also it stands that God said: “Go to, let us go
down and confound their language.”2629
God, indeed, never descends from
any place; for He says: “I fill heaven and
earth.”2630
But He
seems to descend when the Word of God enters our hearts, as the prophet
has said: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths
straight.”2631
We are to
do this, so that, as He Himself promised, He may come together with the
Father and make His abode with us.2632
It
is clear, then, how He comes.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
