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1. Let us give our mind's best attention, and, with the Lord's
help, seek after God. The language of the divine hymn is: "Seek
God and your soul shall live." Let us search for that which needs to
be discovered, and into that which has been discovered. He whom we
need to discover is concealed, in order to be sought after; and when
found, is infinite, in order still to be the object of our search.
Hence it is elsewhere said, "Seek His face evermore." For He
satisfies the seeker to the utmost of his capacity; and makes the
finder still more capable, that he may seek to be filled anew,
according to the growth of his ability to receive. Therefore it was
not said, "Seek His face evermore," in the same sense as of
certain others, who are "always learning, and never coming to a
knowledge of the truth;" but rather as the preacher saith, "When a
man hath finished, then he beginneth;" till we reach that life where
we shall be so filled, that our natures shall attain their utmost
capacity, because we shall have arrived at perfection, and no longer
be aiming at more. For then all that can satisfy us will be revealed
to our eyes. But here let us always be seeking, and let our reward in
finding put no end to our searching. For we do not say that it will
not be so always, because it is only so here; but that here we must
always be seeking, lest at any time we should imagine that here we can
ever cease from seeking. For those of whom it is said that they are
"always learning, and never coming to a knowledge of the truth." are
here indeed always learning; but when they depart this life they will
no longer be learning, but receiving the reward of their error. For
the words, "always learning, and never coming to a knowledge of the
truth," mean, as it were, always walking, and never getting into
the road. Let us, on the other hand, be walking always in the way,
till we reach the end to which it leads; let us nowhere tarry in it
till we reach the proper place of abode: and so we shall both persevere
in our seeking, and be making some attainments in our finding, and,
thus seeking and finding, be passing on to that which remains, till
the very end of all seeking shall be reached in that world where
perfection shall admit of no further effort at advancement. Let these
prefatory remarks, dearly beloved, make your Charity attentive to
this discourse of our Lord's, which He addressed to the disciples
before His passion: for it is profound in itself; and where, in
particular, the preacher purposes to expend much labor, the hearer
ought not to be remiss in attention.
2. What is it, then, that the Lord says, after that Judas went
out, to do quickly what he purposed doing, namely, betraying the
Lord? What says the day when the night had gone out? What says the
Redeemer when the seller had departed? "Now," He says, "is the
Son of man glorified." Why "now"? It was not, was it, merely
that His betrayer was gone out, and that those were at hand who were
to seize and slay Him? Is it thus that He "is now glorified," to
wit, that His deeper humiliation is approaching; that over Him are
impending both bonds, and judgment, and condemnation, and mocking,
and crucifixion, and death? Is this glorification, or rather
humiliation? Even when He was working miracles, does not this very
John say of Him, "The Spirit was not yet given, because that
Jesus was not yet glorified"? Even then, therefore, when He was
raising the dead, He was not yet glorified; and is He glorified
now, when drawing near in His own person unto death? He was not yet
glorified when acting as God, and is He glorified in going to suffer
as man? It would be strange if it were this that God, the great
Master, signified and taught in such words. We must ascend higher to
unveil the words of the Highest, who reveals Himself somewhat that we
may find Him, and anon hides Himself that we may seek Him, and so
press on step by step, as it were, from discoveries already made to
those that still await us. I get here a sight of something that
prefigures a great reality. Judas went out, and Jesus is glorified;
the son of perdition went out, and the Son of man is glorified. He
it was that had gone out, on whose account it had been said to them
all, "And ye are clean, but not all" (ver. 10). When,
therefore, the unclean one departed, all that remained were clean,
and continued with their Cleanser. Something like this will it be
when this world shall have been conquered by Christ, and shall have
passed away, and there shall be no one that is unclean remaining among
His people; when, the tares having been separated from the wheat,
the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their
Father. The Lord, foreseeing such a future as this, and in
testimony that such was signified now in the separation of the tares,
as it were, by the departure of Judas, and the remaining behind of
the wheat in the persons of the holy apostles, said, "Now is the
Son of man glorified:" as if He had said, See, so will it be in
that day of my glorification yet to come, when none of the wicked shall
be present, and none of the good shall be wanting. His words,
however, are not expressed in this way: Now is prefigured the
glorification of the Son of man; but expressly, "Now is the Son of
man glorified:" just as it was not said, The Rock signified
Christ; but, "That Rock was Christ." Nor is it said, The
good seed signified the children of the kingdom, or, The tares
signified the children of the wicked one; but what is said is, "The
good seed, these are the children of the kingdom; and the tares, the
children of the wicked one." According, then, to the usage of
Scripture language, which speaks of the signs as if they were the
things signified, the Lord makes use of the words, "Now is the Son
of man glorified;" indicating that in the completed separation of that
arch sinner from their company, and in the remaining around Him of
His saints, we have the foreshadowing of His glorification, when the
wicked shall be finally separated, and He shall dwell with His saints
through eternity.
3. But after saying, "Now is the Son of man glorified," He
added, "and God is glorified in Him." For this is itself the
glorifying of the Son of man, that God should be glorified in Him.
For if He is not glorified in Himself, but God in Him, then it is
He whom God glorifies in Himself. And just as if to give them this
explanation, He furthers adds: "If God is glorified in Him, God
shall also glorify Him in Himself." That is, "If God is
glorified in Him," because He came not to do His own will, but the
will of Him that sent Him; "and God shall glorify Him in
Himself," in such wise that the human nature, in which He is the
Son of man, and which was so assumed by the eternal Word, should
also be endowed with an eternal immortality. "And," He says,
"He shall straightway glorify Him;" predicting, to wit, by such
an asseveration, His own resurrection in the immediate future, and
not, as it were, ours in the end of the world. For it is this very
glorification of which the evangelist had previously said, as I
mentioned a little ago, that on this account the Spirit was not yet in
their case given in that new way, in which He was yet to be given
after the resurrection to those who believed, because that Jesus was
not yet glorified: that is, mortality was not yet clothed with
immortality, and temporal weakness transformed into eternal strength.
This glorification may also be indicated in the words, "Now is the
Son of man glorified;" so that the word "now" may be supposed to
refer, not to His impending passion, but to His closely succeeding
resurrection, as if what was now so near at hand had actually been
accomplished. Let this suffice your affection today; we shall take
up, when the Lord permits us, the words that follow.
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