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20. Our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, will so deliver up the
kingdom to God, even the Father, Himself not being thence
excluded, nor the Holy Spirit, when He shall bring believers to the
contemplation of God, wherein is the end of all good actions, and
everlasting rest, and joy which never will be taken from us. For He
signifies this in that which He says: "I will see you again, and
your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man taketh from you."
Mary, sitting at the feet of the Lord, and earnestly listening to
His word, foreshowed a similitude of this joy; resting as she did
from all business, and intent upon the truth, according to that manner
of which this life is capable, by which, however, to prefigure that
which shall be for eternity. For while Martha, her sister, was
cumbered about necessary business, which, although good and useful,
yet, when rest shall have succeeded, is to pass away, she herself was
resting in the word of the Lord. And so the Lord replied to
Martha, when she complained that her sister did not help her: "Mary
hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her."
He did not say that Martha was acting a bad part; but that "best
part that shall not be taken away." For that part which is occupied
in the ministering to a need shall be "taken away" when the need
itself has passed away. Since the reward of a good work that will pass
away is rest that will not pass away. In that contemplation,
therefore, God will be all in all; because nothing else but Himself
will be required, but it will be sufficient to be enlightened by and to
enjoy Him alone. And so he in whom "the Spirit maketh intercession
with groanings which cannot be uttered," says, "One thing have I
desired of the Lord, that I will seek after; that I may dwell in
the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to contemplate the
beauty of the Lord." For we shall then contemplate God, the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, when the Mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus, shall have delivered up the
kingdom to God, even the Father, so as no longer to make
intercession for us, as our Mediator and Priest, Son of God and
Son of man; but that He Himself too, in so far as He is a Priest
that has taken the form of a servant for us, shall be put under Him
who has put all things under Him, and under whom He has put all
things: so that, in so far as He is God. He with Him will have
put us under Himself; in so far as He is a Priest, He with us will
be put under Him. And therefore as the [incarnate] Son is both
God and man, it is rather to be said that the manhood in the Son is
another substance [from the Son], than that the Son in the Father
[is another substance from the Father]; just as the carnal nature of
my soul is more another substance in relation to my soul itself,
although in one and the same man, than the soul of another man is in
relation to my soul.
21. When, therefore, He "shall have delivered up the kingdom to
God, even the Father," that is, when He shall have brought those
who believe and live by faith, for whom now as Mediator He maketh
intercession, to that contemplation, for the obtaining of which we
sigh and groan, and when labor and groaning shall have passed away,
then, since the kingdom will have been delivered up to God, even the
Father He will no more make intercession for us. And this He
signifies, when He says: "These things have I spoken unto you in
similitudes; but the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you
in similitudes, but I shall declare to you plainly of the Father:"
that is, they will not then be "similitudes," when the sight shall
be "face to face." For this it is which He says, "But I will
declare to you plainly of the Father;" as if He said I will plainly
show you the Father. For He says, I will "declare" to you,
because He is His word. For He goes on to say, "At that day ye
shall ask in my name; and I say not unto you, that I will pray the
Father for you: for the Father Himself loveth you, because ye have
loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth
from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the
world, and go to the Father." What is meant by "I came forth from
the Father," unless this, that I have not appeared in that form in
which I am equal to the Father, but otherwise, that is, as less
than the Father, in the creature which I have taken upon me? And
what is meant by "I am come into the world," unless this, that I
have manifested to the eyes even of sinners who love this world, the
form of a servant which I took, making myself of no reputation? And
what is meant by "Again, I leave the world," unless this, that I
take away from the sight of the lovers of this world that which they
have seen? And what is meant by "I go to the Father," unless
this, that I teach those who are my faithful ones to understand me in
that being in which I am equal to the Father? Those who believe this
will be thought worthy of being brought by faith to sight, that is, to
that very sight, in bringing them to which He is said to "deliver up
the kingdom to God, even the Father." For His faithful ones,
whom He has redeemed with His blood, are called His kingdom, for
whom He now intercedes; but then, making them to abide in Himself
there, where He is equal to the Father, He will no longer pray the
Father for them. "For," He says, "the Father Himself loveth
you." For indeed He "prays," in so far as He is less than the
Father; but as He is equal with the Father, He with the Father
grants. Wherefore He certainly does not exclude Himself from that
which He says, "The Father Himself loveth you;" but He means it
to be understood after that manner which I have above spoken of, and
sufficiently intimated, namely, that for the most part each Person of
the Trinity is so named, that the other Persons also may be
understood. Accordingly, "For the Father Himself loveth you,"
is so said that by consequence both the Son and the Holy Spirit also
may be understood: not that He does not now love us, who spared not
His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all; but God loves us,
such as we shall be, not such as we are, For such as they are whom
He loves, such are they whom He keeps eternally; which shall then
be, when He who now maketh intercession for us shall have "delivered
up the kingdom to God, even the Father," so as no longer to ask the
Father, because the Father Himself loveth us. But for what
deserving, except of faith, by which we believe before we see that
which is promised? For by this faith we shall arrive at sight; so
that He may love us, being such, as He loves us in order that we may
become; and not such, as He hates us because we are, and exhorts and
enables us to wish not to be always.
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