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1. It is a worthy subject of inquiry how these words of the Lord are
to be understood, "But I have called you friends: for all things
that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." For
who is there that dare affirm or believe that any man knoweth all things
that the only-begotten Son hath heard of the Father; when there is
no one that can comprehend even how He heareth any word of the
Father, being as He is Himself the only Word of the Father? Nay
more, is it not the case that a little afterwards, in this same
discourse, which He delivered to the disciples between the Supper and
His passion, He said, "I have yet many things to say unto you,
but ye cannot bear them now"? How, then, are we to understand that
He made known unto the disciples all that He had heard of the
Father, when there are many things that He saith not, just because
He knows that they cannot bear them now? Doubtless what He is yet to
do He says that He has done as the same Being who hath made those
things which are yet to be. For as He says by the prophet, "They
pierced my hands and my feet," and not, They will yet pierce; but
speaking as it were of the past, and yet predicting what Was still in
the future: so also in the passage before us He declares that He has
made known to the disciples all, that He knows He will yet make known
in that fullness of knowledge, whereof the apostle says, "But when
that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done
away." For in the same place he adds: "Now I know in part, but
then shall I know, even as also I am known; and now through a glass
in a riddle, but then face to face." For the same apostle also says
that we have been saved by the washing of regeneration, and yet
declares in another place, "We are saved by hope: but hope that is
seen is no hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But
if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for
it." To a similar purpose it is also said by his fellow-apostle
Peter, "In whom, though now seeing Him not, ye believe; and in
whom, when ye see Him, ye shall rejoice with a joy unspeakable and
glorious: receiving the reward of faith, even the salvation of your
souls." If, then, it is now the season of faith, and faith's
reward is the salvation of our souls; who, in that faith which worketh
by love, can doubt that the day must come to an end, and at its close
the reward be received; not only the redemption of our body, whereof
the Apostle Paul speaketh, but also the salvation of our souls, as
we are told by the Apostle Peter? For the felicity springing from
both is at this present time, and in the existing state of mortality,
a matter rather of hope than of actual possession. But this it
concerns us to remember, that our outward man, to wit the body, is
still decaying; but the inward, that is, the soul, is being renewed
day by day. Accordingly, while we are waiting for the immortality of
the flesh and salvation of our souls in the future, yet with the pledge
we have received, it may be said that we are saved already; so that
knowledge of all things which the Only-begotten hath heard of the
Father we are to regard as a matter of hope still lying in the future,
although declared by Christ as something He had already imparted.
2. "Ye have not chosen me," He says, "but I have chosen
you." Grace such as that is ineffable. For what were we so long as
Christ had not yet chosen us, and we were therefore still destitute of
love? For he who hath chosen Him, how can he love Him? Were we,
think you, in that condition which is sung of in the psalm: "I had
rather be an abject in the house of the Lord, than dwell in the tents
of wickedness"? Certainly not. What were we then, but sinful and
lost? We had not yet come to believe on Him, in order to lead to
His choosing us; for if it were those who already believed that He
chose, then was He chosen Himself, prior to His choosing. But how
could He say, "Ye have not chosen me," save only because His
mercy anticipated us? Here surely is at fault the vain reasoning of
those who defend the foreknowledge of God in opposition to His grace,
and with this view declare that we were chosen before the foundation of
the world, because God foreknew that we should be good, but not that
He Himself would make us good. So says not He, who declares,
"Ye have not chosen me." For had He chosen us on the ground that
He foreknew that we should be good, then would He also have foreknown
that we would not be the first to make choice of Him. For in no other
way could we possibly be good: unless, forsooth, one could be called
good who has never made good his choice. What was it then that He
chose in those who were not good? For they were not chosen because of
their goodness, inasmuch as they could not be good without being
chosen. Otherwise grace is no more grace, if we maintain the priority
of merit. Such, certainly, is the election of grace, whereof the
apostle says: "Even so then at this present time also there is a
remnant saved according to the election of grace." To which he adds:
"And if by grace, then is it no more of works; otherwise grace is no
more grace." Listen, thou ungrateful one, listen: "Ye have not
chosen me, but I have chosen you." Not that thou mayest say, I am
chosen because I already believed. For if thou wert believing in
Him, then hadst thou already chosen Him. But listen: "Ye have
not chosen me." Not that thou mayest say, Before I believed I was
already doing good works, and therefore was I chosen. For what good
work can be prior to faith, when the apostle says, "Whatsoever is
not of faith is sin"? What, then, are we to say on hearing such
words, "Ye have not chosen me," but that we were evil, and were
chosen in order that we might be good through the grace of Him who
chose us? For it is not by grace, if merit preceded: but it is of
grace: and therefore that grace did not find, but effected the merit.
3. See then, beloved, how it is that He chooseth not the good,
but maketh those whom He has chosen good. "I have chosen you," He
saith, "and appointed you that ye should go and bring forth fruit,
and [that] your fruit should remain." And is not that the fruit,
whereof He had already said, "Without me ye can do nothing"? He
hath chosen therefore, and appointed that we should go and bring forth
fruit; and no fruit, accordingly, had we to induce His choice of
us. "That ye should go," He said, "and bring forth fruit." We
go to bring forth, and He Himself is the way wherein we go, and
wherein He hath appointed us to go. And so His mercy hath
anticipated us in all. "And that your fruit," He saith, "should
remain; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, He
may give it you." Accordingly let love remain; for He Himself is
our fruit. And this love lies at present in longing desire, not yet
in fullness of enjoyment; and whatsoever with that longing desire we
shall ask in the name of the only-begotten Son, the Father giveth
us. But what is not expedient for our salvation to receive, let us
not imagine that we ask that in the Saviour's name: but we ask in the
name of the Saviour only that which really belongs to the way of
salvation.
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