25. But that which is prepared by His Father is prepared also by the Son Himself, because He and the Father are one.-^^ For we have already shown, by many modes of speech in the divine Scriptures, that, in this Trinity, what is said of each is also said of all, on account of the indivisible working^ of the one and same substance. As He also says of the Holy Spirit, " If I depart, I will send Him unto you." ^^ He did not say. We will send; but in such way as if the Son only should send Him, and not the Father; while yet He says in another place, " These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you; but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name. He shall teach you all things." -^^ Here again it is so said as if the Son also would not send Him, but the Father only. As therefore in these texts, CHAP. XII.] HUMILIATION OF THE SON. 31 SO also where He says, " But for them for whom it is prepared by my Father," He meant it to be understood that He Himself, with the Father, prepares seats of glory for those for whom He will. But some one may say: There, when He spoke of the Holy Spirit, He so says that He Himself will send Him, as not to deny that the Father will send Him; and in the other place. He so says that the Father will send Him, as not to deny that He will do so Himself; but here He expressly says, " It is not mine to give," and so goes on to say that these things are prepared by the Father. But this is the very thing which we have already laid down to be said according to the form of a servant: viz., that we are so to understand " It is not mine to give," as if it were said. This is not in the power of man to give; that so He may be understood to give it through that wherein He is God equal to the Father. " It is not mine," He says, " to give; " that is, I do not give these things by human power, but " to those for whom it is prepared by my Father; " but then take care you understand also, that if ''all things which the Father hath are mine," -^ then this certainly is mine also, and I with the Father have prepared these things.
26. For I ask again, in what manner this is said, "If any man hear not my words, I will not judge him"?^ For perhaps He has said here, '' I will not judge him," in the same sense as there, '' It is not mine to give." But what follows here? " I came not," He says, " to judge the world, but to save the world; " and then He adds, " He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him." ISTow here we should understand the Father, unless He had added, " The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." Well, then, will neither the Son judge, because He says, " I will not judge him; " nor the Father, but the word which the Son hath spoken? N"ay, but hear what yet follows: "For I," He says, "have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me. He gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak; and I know that His commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak." If there-A John xvi. 15. ^ John xii. 47-50.
fore tlie Son judges not, but " the word whicli the Son hath spoken;" and the word which the Son hath spoken therefore judges, because the Son " hath not spoken of Himself, but the Father who sent Him gave Him a commandment what He should say, and what He should speak:" then the Father assuredly judges, whose word it is which the Son hath spoken; and the same Son Himself is the very Word of the Father. For the commandment of the Father is not one thing, and the word of the Father another; for He hath called it both a word and a commandment. Let us see, therefore, whether perchance, when He says, " I have not spoken of myself," He meant to be understood thus, — I am not born of myself For if He speaks the word of the Father, then He speaks Himself,^ because He is Himself the Word of the Father. For ordinarily He says, " The Father gave to me; " by which He means it to be understood that the Father begat Him: not that He gave anything to Him, already existing and not possessing it; but that the very meaning of. To have given that He might have, is. To have begotten that He might be. For it is not, as with the creature, so with the Son of God before the incarnation and before He took upon Him our flesh, the Onlybegotten by whom all things were made; that He is one thing, and has another: but He is in such way as to he what He has.
And this is said more plainly, if any one is fit to receive it, in that place where He says: " For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself" ^ For He did not give to Him, already existing and not having life, that He should have life in Himself; inasmuch as, in that He is, He is life. Therefore " He gave to the Son to have life in Himself" means. He begat the Son to be unchangeable life, which is life eternal. Since, therefore, the Word of God is the Son of God, and the Son of God is " the true God and eternal life," ^ as John says in his Epistle; so here, what else are we to acknowledge when the Lord says, " The word which I have spoken, the same shall judge him at the last day," ^ and calls that very word the word of the Father and the commandment of the Father, and that very command- CHAP. XII.] THE TWO NATURES OF THE SON. 33 ment everlasting life "? " And I know/' He says, " that His commandment is life everlasting."
27.1 ask, therefore, how we are to understand, '' I will not judge him; but the Word which I have spoken shall judge him: " which appears from what follows to be so said, as if He would say, I will not judge; but the Word of the Father will judge. But the Word of the Father is the Son of God Himself. Is it to be so understood: I will not judge, but I will judge? How can this be true, unless in this way: viz.
I will not judge by human power, because I am the Son of man; but I will judge by the power of the Word, because I am the Son of God? Or if it still seems contradictory and inconsistent to say, I will not judge, but I will judge; what shall we say of that place where He says, " My doctrine is not mine "? How " mine," when '' not mine "? For He did not say. This doctrine is not mine, but " My doctrine is not mine: " that which He called His own, the same He called not His own. How can this be true, unless He has called it His own in one relation; not His own, in another? According to the form of God, His own; according to the form of a servant, not His own. For when He says, " It is not mine, but His that sent me," ^ He makes us recur to the Word itself. For the doctrine of the Father is the Word of the Father, which is the Only Son. And what, too, does that mean, " He that believeth on me, believeth not on me "? ^ How believe on Him, yet not believe on Him? How can so opposite and inconsistent a thing be understood — " Whoso believeth on me," He says, " believeth not on me, but on Him that sent me;" — unless you so understand it, Whoso believeth on me believeth not on that which he sees, lest our hope should be in the creature; but on Him who took the creature, whereby He might appear to human eyes, and so might cleanse our hearts by faith, to contemplate Himself as equal to the Father? So that in turning the attention of believers to the Father, and saying, " Believeth not on me, but on Him that sent me," He certainly did not mean Himself to be separated from the Father, that is, from Him that sent Him; but that men might so believe on Himself, as they believe on the Father, DE TEIN. C 34 ox THE TPJNITY. [bOOK I.
to whom He is equal. And this He says in express terms in another place, " Ye believe in God, believe also in me: " ^ that is, in the same way as you believe in God, so also believe in me; because I and the Father are One God. As therefore, here. He has as it were withdrawn the faith of men from Himself, and transferred it to the Father, by saying, " Believeth not on me, but on Him that sent me," from whom nevertheless He certainly did not separate Himself; so also, when He says, " It is not mine to give, but [it shall be given to them] for whom it is prepared by my Father," it is I think plain in what relation both are to be taken. For that other also is of the same kind, " I will not judge; " whereas He Himself shall judge the quick and dead.^ But because He will not do so by human power, therefore, reverting to the Godhead, He raises the hearts of men upwards; which to lift up. He Himself came down.
CiiAP. XIII. — Diverse tJungs are spoJcen concerning the same Christ, on account of the diverse natures of the one hypostasis. Why it is said that the Father will not judge, hut has given judgment to the Son.
28. Yet unless the very same were the Son of man on account of the form of a servant which He took, who is the Son of God on account of the form of God in which He is; Paul the apostle would not say of the princes of this world, " For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." ^ For He was crucified after the form of a servant, and yet " the Lord of glory" was crucified. For that " taking" was such as to make God man, and man God.) Yet what is said on account of what, and what according to what, the thoughtful, diligent, and pious reader discerns for himself, the Lord being his helper. For instance, we have said that He glorifies His own, as being God, and certainly then as being the Lord of glory; and yet the Lord of glory was crucified, because even God is rightly said to have been crucified, not after the power of the divinity, but after the weakness of the flesh:* just as we say, that He judges as God, that is, by divine power, not by human; and yet the man Himself will judge, just as the Lord of glory was crucified: for so He expressly says, "When the Son of man shall come in His glory, CHAP. XIII.] THE TWO NATUEES OF THE SON. 35 and all the holy angels with Him, and before Him shall be cjathered all nations; " ^ and the rest that is foretold of the future judgment in that place even to the last sentence. And the Jews, inasmuch as they will be punished in that judgment for persisting in their wickedness, as it is elsewhere writtqp, " shall look upon Him whom they have pierced."^ Tor whereas both good and bad shall see the Judge of the quick and dead, without doubt the bad will not be able to see Him, except after the form in which He is the Son of man; but yet in the glory wherein He will judge, not in the lowliness wherein He was judged. But the ungodly without doubt will not see that form of God in which He is equal to the Father. For they are not pure in heart; and '^Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." ^ And that sight is face to face,^ the very sight that is promised as the highest reward to the just, and which will then take place when He " shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father;" and in this ''kingdom" He means the sight of His own form also to be understood, the whole creature being made subject to God, including that wherein the Son of God was made the Son of man. Because, according to this creature, " The Son also Himself shall be subject unto Him, that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all." ^ Otherwise if the Son of God, judging in the form in which He is equal to the Father, shall appear when He judges to the ungodly also; what becomes of that which He promises, as some great thing, to him who loves Him, saying, " And I will love him, and will manifest myself to him"?^ Wherefore He will judge as the Son of man, yet not by human power, but by that whereby He is the Son of God; and on the other hand. He will judge as the Son of God, yet not appearing in that form in which He is God equal to the Father, but in that in which- He is the Son of man.
29. Therefore both ways of speaking maybe used; the Son of man will judge, and, the Son of man will not judge: since the Son of man will judge, that the text may be true which says, "When the Son of man shall come, then before Him shall be gathered all nations; " and the Son of man will not judge, that the text may be true which says, " I will not judge him; " ^ and, " I seek not mine own glory: there is One that seeketh and judgeth." ^ For in respect to this, that in the judgment, not the form of God, but the form of the Son of man will appear, the Father Himself will not judge; for according to this it is said, "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." Whether this is said after that mode of speech which we have mentioned above, where it is said, " So hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself," ^ that it should signify that so He begat the Son; or, whether after that of which the apostle speaks, saying, " Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name:" — (For this is said of the Son of man, in respect to whom the Son of God was raised from the dead: since He, being: in the form of God equal to the Father, wherefrom He " emptied" Himself by taking the form of a servant, both acts and suffers, and receives, in that same form of a servant, what the apostle goes on to mention: " He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, in the glory of God the Father:"*) — whether then the words, " He hath committed all judgment unto the Son," are said according to this or that mode of speech; it sufficiently appears from this place, that if they were said according to that sense in which it is said, " He hath given to the Son to have life in Himself," it certainly would not be said, " The Father judgeth no man." For in respect to this, that the Father hath begotten the Son equal to Himself, He judges with Him. Therefore it is in respect to this that it is said, that in the judgment, not the form of God, but the form of the Son of man will appear. Not that He will not judge, who hath committed all judgment unto the Son, since the Son saith of Him, " There is One that seeketh and judgeth: " but it is so said, " The Father judgeth no man, CHAP. XIII.] JUDGMENT COMMITTED TO THE SON. 37 but hath committed all jiiclgment unto the Son;" as if it were said, No one will see the Father in the judgment of the quick and the dead, but all will see the Son: because He is also the Son of man, so that He can be seen even by the ungodly, since they too shall see Him whom they have pierced.
30. Lest, however, we may seem to conjecture this rather than to prove it clearly, let us produce a certain and plain sentence of the Lord Himself, by which we may show that this was the cause why He said, " The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son," viz. because He will appear as Judge in the form of the Son of man, which is not the form of the Father, but of the Son; nor yet that form of the Son in which He is equal to the Father, but that in which He is less than the Father; in order that, in the judgment. He may be visible both to the good and to the bad.
For a little while after He says, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but shall pass ^ from death unto life." Now this life eternal is that sight which does not belong to the bad. Then follows, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." ^ And this is proper to the godly, who so hear of His incarnation, as to believe that He is the Son of God; that is, who so receive Him, as made for their sakes less than the Father, in the form of a servant, that they believe Him equal to the Father, in the form of God. And thereupon He continues, enforcing this very point, " For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself." And then He comes to the sight of His own glory, in which He shall come to judgment; which sight will be common to the ungodly and to the just. For He goes on to say, " And hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man." ^ I think nothing can be more clear. For inasmuch as the Son of God is equal to the Father, He does not receive this power of executing judgment, but He has it with the Father in secret; but He receives it, so that the good and the bad may see Him 38 ON THE TrJNITY. [BOOK I.
judging, inasmuch as He is the Son of man. Since the sight of the Son of man will be shown to the bad also: for the sight of the form of God will not be shown except to the pure in heart, for they shall see God; that is, to the godly only, to whose love He promises this very thing, that He will show Himself to them. And see, accordingly, what follows: " j\Iarvel not at this," He says. Why does He forbid us to marvel, unless it be that, in truth, every one marvels who does not understand, that therefore He said the Father gave Him power also to execute judgment, because He is the Son of man; whereas, it might rather have been anticipated that He would say, since He is the Son of God? But because the wicked are not able to see the Son of God as He is in the form of God equal to the Father, but yet it is necessary that both the just and the wicked should see the Judge of the quick and dead, when they will be judged in His presence; " Marvel not at this," He says, " for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." ^ For this purpose, then, it was necessary that He should therefore receive that power, because He is the Son of man, in order that all in rising again might see Him in the form in which He can be seen by all, but by some to damnation, by others to life eternal. And what is life eternal, unless that sight which is not granted to the ungodly? " That they might know Thee," He says, " the One true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." ^ And how are they to Imow Jesus Christ Himself also, unless as the One true God, who will show Himself to them; not as He will show Himself, in the form of the Son of man, to those also that shall be punished?
31. He is '' good," according to that sight, according to which God appears to the pure in heart; for " truly God is good unto Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart." " But when the wicked shall see the Judge, He will not seem good to them; because they will not rejoice in their heart to see Him, but all " kindreds of the earth shall then wail because of Him," * namely, as being reckoned in the number of all the 1 John V. 22-29. ^ jolm xvii. 3. ^ Ps. Ixxiii. 1. * Apoc. i. 7.
CHAP, xiil] judgment co.aimitted to the son. 39 wicked and unbelievers. On this account also He replied to him, who had called Him Good Master, when seeking advice of Him how he might attain eternal life, " Why askest thou me about good? there is none good but One, that is, God." ■•• And yet the Lord Himself, in another place, calls man good: " A good man," He says, '•' out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things: and an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth evil things." ^ But because that man was seeking eternal life, and eternal life consists in that contemplation in which God is seen, not for punishment, but for everlasting joy; and because he did not understand with whom he was speaking, and thought Him to be only the Son of man: Why, He says, askest thou me about good? that is, with respect to that form which thou seest, why askest thou about good, and callest me, according to what thou seest. Good Master? This is the form of the Son of man, the form which has been taken, the form that will appear in judgment, not only to the righteous, but also to the ungodly; and the sight of this form will not be for good to those who are wicked. But there is a sight of that form of mine, in which when I was, I thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but in order to take this form I emptied myself^ That one God, therefore, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, who will not appear, except for joy which cannot be taken away from the just; for which future joy he sighs, who says, '' One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord: " * that one God, therefore. Himself, I say, is alone good, for this reason, that no one sees Him for sorrow and wailinc^, but onlv for salvation and true joy. If you understand me after this latter form, then I am good; but if according to that former only, then why askest thou me about good? If thou art among those who " shall look upon Him whom they have pierced," ^ that very sight itself will be evil to them, because it will be ■ penal. That after this meaning, then, the Lord said, " Why askest thou me about good? there is none good but One, that is, God," is probable upon those proofs which I have alleged, because that sight of God, whereby we shall contemplate the substance of God unchangeable and invisible to human eyes (which is promised to the saints alone; which the Apostle Paul speaks of, as " face to face; "^ and of which the Apostle John says, " We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is; " ^ and of which it is said, '' One thing have I desired of the Lord, that I may behold the beauty of the Lord," and of which the Lord Himself says, " I will both love him, and will manifest myself to him; " ^ and on account of which alone we cleanse our hearts by faith, that we may be those " pure in heart who are blessed, for they shall see God: " * and whatever else is spoken of that sight: which, whosoever turns the eye of love to seek it, may find most copiously scattered through all the Scriptures), — that sight alone, I say, is our chief good, for the attaining of which we are directed to do whatever we do aright. But that sight of the Son of man which is foretold, when all nations shall be gathered before Him, and shall say to Him, " Lord, when saw we Thee an hungered, or thirsty, etc.? " will neither be a good to the ungodly, who shall be sent into everlasting fire, nor the chief good to the righteous. For He still goes on to call these to the kingdom which has been prepared for them from the foundation of the world. For, as He will say to those, " Depart into everlasting fire; so to these, " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you." And as those will go into evei4asting burning; so the righteous will go into life eternal. But what is life eternal, except " that they may know Thee," He says, " the One true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent "? ^ but know Him now in that glory of which He says to the Father, " Which I had with Thee before the world was." ^ For then He will deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father,^ that the good servant may enter into the joy of his Lord,^ and that He may hide those whom God keeps in the hiding of His countenance from the confusion of men, namely, of those men who shall then be