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1. In that lesson of the holy Gospel which has been read today,
from power we learn patience. For what are we as servants to the
Lord, as sinners to the Just One, as creatures to the Creator?
Howbeit, just as in what we are evil, we are so of ourselves; so in
whatever respects we are good, we are so of Him, and through Him.
And nothing does man so seek as he does power. He has great power in
the Lord Christ; but let him first imitate His patience, that he
may attain to power. Who of us would listen with patience if it were
said to him, "Thou hast a devil"? as was said to Him, who was not
only bringing men to salvation, but also subjecting devils to His
authority.
2. For when the Jews had said, "Say we not well that thou art a
Samaritan, and hast a devil?" of these two charges cast at Him,
He denied the one, but not the other. For He answered and said,
"I have not a devil" He did not say, I am not a Samaritan; and
yet the two charges had been made. Although He returned not cursing
with cursing, although He met not slander with slander, yet was it
proper for Him to deny the one charge and not to deny the other. And
not without a purpose, brethren. For Samaritan means keeper. He
knew that He was our keeper. For "He that keepeth Israel neither
slumbereth nor sleepeth;" and, "Except the Lord keep the city,
they wake in vain who keep it." He then is our Keeper who is our
Creator. For did it belong to Him to redeem us, and would it not be
His to preserve us? Finally, that you may know more fully the hidden
reason why He ought not to have denied that He was a Samaritan, call
to mind that well-known parable, where a certain man went down from
Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who wounded him
severely, and left him half dead on the road. A priest came along and
took no notice of him. A Levite came up, and he also passed on his
way. A certain Samaritan came up He who is our Keeper. He went up
to the wounded man. He exercised mercy, and did a neighbor's part to
one whom He did not account an alien. To this, then, He only
replied that He had not a devil, but not that He was not a
Samaritan.
3. And then after such an insult, this was all that He said of His
own glory: "But I honor," said He, "my Father, and ye
dishonor me." That is, I honor not myself, that ye may not think
me arrogant. I have One to honor; and did ye recognize me, just as
I honor the Father, so would ye also honor me. I do what I ought;
ye do not what ye ought.
4. "And I," said He, "seek not mine own glory: there is one
that seeketh and judgeth." Whom does He wish to be understood but
the Father? How, then, does He say in another place, "The
Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the
Son," while here He says, "I seek not mine own glory: there is
one that seeketh and judgeth"? If, then, the Father judgeth, how
is it that He judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the
Son?
5. In order to solve this point, attend. It may be solved by
[quoting] a similar mode of speaking. Thou hast it written, "God
tempt not any man;" and again thou hast it written, "The Lord your
God tempt you, to know whether you love Him."' Just the point in
dispute, you see. For how does God tempt not any man, and how does
the Lord your God tempt you, to know whether ye love Him? It is
also written, "There is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out
fear;" and in another place it is written, "The fear of the Lord
is clean, enduring for ever." Here also is the point in dispute.
For how does perfect love cast out fear, if the fear of the Lord,
which is clean, endureth for ever?
6. We are to understand, then, that there are two kinds of
temptation: one, that deceives; the other, that proves. As regards
that which deceives, God tempteth not any man; as regards that which
proves, the Lord your God tempteth you, that He may know whether ye
love Him. But here again, also, there arises another question, how
He tempteth that He may know, from whom, prior to the temptation,
nothing can be hid. It is not that God is ignorant; but it is said,
that He may know, that is, that He may make you to know. Such
modes of speaking are found both in our ordinary conversation, and in
writers of eloquence. Let me say a word on our style of conversation.
We speak of a blind ditch, not because it has lost its eyes, but
because by lying hid it makes us blind to its existence. One speaks of
"bitter lupins." that is, "sour;" not that they themselves are
bitter, but because they occasion bitterness to those who taste them.
And so there are also expressions of this sort in Scripture. Those
who take the trouble to attain a knowledge of such points have no
trouble in solving them. And so "the Lord your God tempts you,
that He may know." What is this, "that He may know"? That He
may make you to know "if you love Him." Job was unknown to
himself, but he was not unknown to God. He led the tempter into
[Job], and brought him to a knowledge of himself.
7. What then of the two fears? There is a servile fear, and there
is a clean [chaste] fear: there is the fear of suffering punishment,
there is another fear of losing righteousness. That fear of suffering
punishment is slavish. What great thing is it to fear punishment?
The vilest slave and the cruel-est robber do so. It is no great
thing to fear punishment, but great it is to love righteousness. Has
he, then, who loves righteousness no fear? Certainly he has; not of
incurring of punishment, but of losing righteousness. My brethren,
assure yourselves of it, and draw your inference from that which you
love. Some one of you is fond of money. Can I find any one, think
you, who is not so? Yet from this very thing which he loves he may
understand my meaning. He is afraid of loss: why is he so? Because
he loves money. In the same measure that he loves money, is he afraid
of losing it. So, then, some one is found to be a lover of
righteousness, who at heart is much more afraid of its loss, who
dreads more being stripped of his righteousness, than thou of thy
money. This is the fear that is clean this [the fear] that endureth
for ever, It is not this that love makes away with, or casteth out,
but rather embraces it, and keeps it with it, and possesses it as a
companion. For we come to the Lord that we may see Him face to
face. And there it is this pure fear that preserves us; for such a
fear as that does not disturb, but reassure. The adulterous woman
fears the coming of her husband, and the chaste one fears her
husband's departure.
8. Therefore, as, according to one kind of temptation, "God
tempteth not any man;" but according to another, "The Lord your
God tempteth you;" and according to one kind of fear, "there is no
fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear;" but according to
another, "the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever;" so
also, in this passage, according to one kind of judgment, "the
Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the
Son;" and according to another, "I," said He, "seek not mine
own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth."
9. This point may also be solved from the word itself. Thou hast
penal judgment spoken of in the Gospel: "He that believeth not is
judged already;" and in another place, "The hour is coming, when
those who 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 judgment." You
see how He has put judgment for condemnation and punishment. And yet
if judgment were always to be taken for condemnation, should we ever
have heard in the psalm, "Judge me, O God"? In the former
place, judgment is used in the sense of inflicting pain; here, it is
used in the sense of discernment. How so? Just because so expounded
by him who says, "Judge me, O God." For read, and see what
follows. What is this "Judge me, O God," but just what he
adds, "and discern' my cause against an unholy nation"? Because
then it was said, "Judge me, O God, and discern [the true merits
of] my cause against an unholy nation;" similarly now said the Lord
Christ, "I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and
judgeth." How is there "one that seeketh and judgeth"? There is
the Father, who discerns and distinguishes l between my glory and
yours. For ye glory in the spirit of this present world. Not so do
I who say to the Father, "Father, glorify Thou me with that glory
which I had with Thee before the world was." What is "that
glory"? One altogether different from human inflation. Thus doth
the Father judge. And so to "judge" is to "discern." And what
does He discern? The glory of His Son from the glory of mere men;
for to that end is it said, "God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee
with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows." For not because He
became man is He now to be compared with us. We, as men, are
sinful, He is sinless; we, as men, inherit from Adam both death
and delinquency, He received from the Virgin mortal flesh, but no
iniquity. In fine, neither because we wish it are we born, nor as
long as we wish it do we live, nor in the way that we wish it do we
die: but He, before He was born, chose of whom He should be born;
at His birth He brought about the adoration of the Magi; He grew as
an infant, and showed Himself God by His miracles, and surpassed
man in His weakness. Lastly, He chose also the manner of His
death, that is, to be hung on the cross, and to fasten the cross
itself on the foreheads of believers, so that the Christian may say,
"God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ." On the very cross, when He pleased, He made His
body be taken down, and departed; in the very sepulchre, as long as
it pleased Him, He lay; and, when He pleased, He arose as from a
bed. So, then, brethren, in respect to His very form as a servant
(for who can speak of that other form as it ought to be spoken of,
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God"?) in respect, I say, to His very form as a
servant, the difference is great between the glory of Christ and the
glory of other men. Of that glory He spoke, when the
devil-possessed heard Him say, "I seek not mine own glory: there
is one that seeketh and judgeth."
10. But what sayest Thou, O Lord, of Thyself? "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see
death." Ye say, "Thou hast a devil." I call you to life: keep
my word and ye shall not die. They heard, "He shall never see death
who keepeth my word," and were angry, because already dead in that
death from which they might have escaped. "Then said the Jews, Now
we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets;
and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of
death." See how Scripture speaks: "He shall not see," that is,
"taste of death." "He shall see death he shall taste of death."
Who seeth? Who tasteth? What eyes has a man to see with when he
dies? When death at its coming shuts up those very eyes from seeing
aught, how is it said, "he shall not see death"? With what
palate, also, and with what jaws can death be tasted, that its savor
may be discovered? When it taketh every sense away, what will remain
in the palate? But here, "he will see," and "he will taste,"
are used for that which is really the case, he will know by
experience.
11. Thus spoke the Lord (it is scarcely sufficient to say), as
one dying to dying men; for "to the Lord also belong the issues from
death," as saith the psalm. Seeing, then, He was both speaking to
those destined to die, and speaking as one appointed to death
Himself, what mean His words, "He who keepeth my saying shall
never see death;" save that the Lord saw another death, from which
He was come to deliver us the second death, death eternal, the death
of hell, the death of damnation with the devil and his angels? This
is real death; for that other is only a removal. What is that other
death? The leaving of the body the laying down of a heavy burden;
provided another burden be not carried away, to drag the man headlong
to hell. Of that real death then did the Lord say, "He who keepeth
my saying shall never see death."
12. Let us not be frightened at that other death, but let us fear
this one. But, what is very grievous, many, through a perverse fear
of that other, have fallen into this. It has been said to some,
Adore idols; for if you do it not, you shall be put to death: or,
as Nebuchadnezzar said, If you do not, you shall be thrown into the
furnace of flaming fire. Many feared and adored. Shrinking from
death, they died. Through fear of the death which cannot be escaped,
they fell into that which they might happily have escaped, had they
not, unhappily, been afraid of that which is inevitable. As a man,
thou art born art destined to die. Whither wilt thou go to escape
death? What wilt thou do to escape it? That thy Lord might comfort
thee in thy necessary subjection to death, of His own good pleasure
He condescended to die. When thou seest the Christ lying dead, art
thou reluctant to die? Die then thou must; thou hast no means of
escape. Be it today, be it tomorrow; it is to be the debt must be
paid. What, then, does a man gain by fearing, fleeing, hiding
himself from discovery by his enemy? Does he get exemption from
death? No, but that he may die a little later. He gets not security
against his debt, but asks a respite. Put it off as long as you
please, the thing so delayed will come at last. Let us fear that
death which the three men feared when they said to the king, "God is
able to deliver us even from that flame; and if not," etc. There
was there the fear of that death which the Lord now threatens, when
they said, But also if He be not willing openly to deliver us, He
can crown us with victory in secret. Whence also the Lord, when on
the eve of appointing martyrs and becoming the head-martyr Himself,
said, "Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have
no more that they can do." How "have they no more that they can
do"? What if, after having slain one, they threw his body to be
mangled by wild beasts, and torn to pieces by birds? Cruelty seems
still to have something it can do. But to whom is it done? He has
departed. The body is there, but without feeling. The tenement lies
on the ground, the tenant is gone. And so "after that they have no
more that they can do;" for they can do nothing to that which is
without sensation. "But fear Him who hath power to destroy both body
and soul, in hell fire." Here is the death that He spoke of when
He said, "He that keepeth my saying shall never see death." Let
us keep then, A brethren, His own word in faith, as those who are
yet to attain to sight, when the liberty we receive has reached its
fullness.
13. But those men, indignant, yet dead, and predestinated to
death eternal, answered with insults, and said, "Now we know that
thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets." But not in
that death which the Lord meant to be understood was either Abraham
dead or the prophets. For these were dead, and yet they live: those
others were alive, and yet they had died. For, replying in a certain
place to the Sadducees, when they stirred the question of the
resurrection, the Lord Himself speaks thus: "But as touching the
resurrection of the dead, have ye not read how the Lord said to Moses
from the bush, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but of the
living." If, then, they live, let us labor so to live, that after
death we may be able to live with them. "Whom makest thou thyself,"
they add, that thou sayest, "he shall never see death who keepeth my
saying," when thou knowest that both Abraham is dead and the
prophets?
14. "Jesus answered, If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing:
it is my Father that glorifieth me." He said this on account of
their saying, "Whom makest thou thyself?" For He refers His
glory to the Father, of whom it is that He is God. From this
expression also the Arians sometimes revile our faith, and say,
See, the Father is greater; for at all events He glorifies the
Son. Heretic, hast thou not read of the Son Himself also saying
that He glorifies His Father? If both He glorifieth the Son, and
the Son glorifieth the Father, lay aside thy stubbornness,
acknowledge the equality, correct thy perversity.
15. "It is." then, said He, "my Father that glorifieth me;
of whom ye say, that He is your God: and ye have not known Him."
See, my brethren, how He shows that God Himself is the Father of
the Christ, who was announced also to the Jews. I say so for his
reason, that now again there are certain heretics who say that the God
revealed in the Old Testament is not the Father of Christ. but some
prince or other, I know not what, of evil angels. There are
Manicheans who say so; there are Marcionites who say so. There are
also, perhaps, other heretics, whom t is either unnecessary to
mention, or all of whom I cannot at present recall; yet there have
not been wanting those who said this. Attend, then, that you may
have something also to affirm against such. Christ the Lord calleth
Him His Father whom they called their God, and did not know; for
had they known [that God] Himself they would have received His
Son. "But I," said He, "know Him." To those judging after
the flesh He might have seemed from such words to be self-assuming,
because He said, "I know Him." But see what follows: "If I
should say that I know Him not, I shall be a liar like unto you."
Let not, then, self-assumption be so guarded against as to cause the
relinquishment of truth. "But I know Him, and keep His saying."
The saying of the Father He was speaking as Son; and He Himself
was the Word of the Father, that was speaking to men.
16. "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw, and
was glad." Abraham's seed, Abraham's Creator, bears a great
testimony to Abraham. "Abraham rejoiced," He says, "to see my
day." He did not fear, but "rejoiced to see it." For in him
there was the love that casteth out fear. He says not, rejoiced
because he saw; but "rejoiced that he might see." Believing, at
all events, he rejoiced in hope to see with the understanding. "And
he saw." And what more could the Lord Jesus Christ say, or what
more ought He to have said? "And he saw," He says, "and was
glad." Who can unfold this joy, my brethren? If those rejoiced
whose bodily eyes were opened by the Lord, what joy was his who saw
with the eyes of his soul the light ineffable, the abiding Word, the
brilliance that dazzles the minds of the pious, the unfailing Wisdom,
God abiding with the Father, and at some time come in the flesh and
yet not to withdraw from the bosom of the Father? All this did
Abraham see. For in saying "my day," it may be uncertain of what
He spoke; whether the day of the Lord in time, when He should come
m the flesh, or that day of the Lord which knows not a dawn, and
knows no decline. But for my part I doubt not that father Abraham
knew it all. And where shall I find it out? Ought the testimony of
our Lord Jesus Christ to satisfy us? Let us suppose that we cannot
find it out, for perhaps it is difficult to say in what sense it is
clear that Abraham "rejoiced to see the day" of Christ, "and saw
it, and was glad." And though we find it not, can the Truth have
lied? Let us believe the Truth, and cherish no doubt of Abraham's
merited rewards. Yet listen to one passage that occurs to me
meanwhile. When father Abraham sent his servant to seek a wife for
his son Isaac, he bound him by this oath, to fulfill faithfully what
he was commanded, and know also for himself what to do. For it was a
great matter that was in hand when marriage was sought for Abraham's
seed. But that the servant might apprehend what Abraham knew, that
it was not offspring after the flesh he desired, nor anything of a
carnal kind concerning his race that was referred to, he said to the
servant whom he sent, "Put thy hand under my thigh, and swear by the
God of heaven. What connection has the God of heaven with
Abraham's thigh? Already you understand the mystery: by thigh is
meant race. And what was that swearing, but the signifying that of
Abraham's race would the God of heaven come in the flesh? Fools
find fault with Abraham because he said, Put thy hand under my
thigh. Those who find fault with Christ's flesh find fault with
Abraham's conduct. But let us, brethren, if we acknowledge the
flesh of Christ as worthy of veneration, despise not that thigh, but
receive it as spoken of prophetically. For a prophet also was
Abraham. Whose prophet? Of his own seed, and of his Lord. To
his own seed he pointed in saying, "Put thy hand under my thigh."
To his Lord he pointed in adding, "and swear by the God of
heaven."
17. The angry Jews replied, "Thou art not yet fifty years old,
and hast thou seen Abraham?" And the Lord: "Verily, verily, I
say unto you, Before Abraham was made, I am." Weigh the words,
and get a knowledge of the mystery. "Before Abraham was made."
Understand, that "was made" refers to human formation; but "am"
to the Divine essence. "He was made," because Abraham was a
Creature. He did not say, Before Abraham was, I was; but,
"Before Abraham was made," who was not made save by me, "I
am." Nor did He say this, Before Abraham was made I was made;
for "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth;" and
"in the beginning was the Word." "Before Abraham was made, I
am." Recognize the Creator distinguish the creature. He who spoke
was made the seed of Abraham; and that Abraham might be made, He
Himself was before Abraham.
18. Hence, as if by the most open of all insults thrown at
Abraham, they were now excited to greater bitterness. Of a certainty
it seemed to them that Christ the Lord had uttered blasphemy in
saying, "Before Abraham was made, I am." "Therefore took they
up stones to cast at Him." To what could so great hardness have
recourse, save to its like? "But Jesus" [acts] as man, as one
in the form of a servant, as lowly, as about to suffer, about to
die, about to redeem us with His blood; not as He who is not as the
Word in the beginning, and the Word with God. For when they took
up stones to cast at Him, what great thing were it had they been
instantly swallowed up in the gaping earth, and found the inhabitants
of hell in place of stones? It were not a great thing to God; but
better was it that patience should be commended than power exerted.
Therefore "He hid Himself" from them, that He might not be
stoned. As man, He fled from the stones; but woe to those from
whose stony hearts God has fled?
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