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1. We acknowledge, beloved brethren, that we are Owing you, and
ought now to repay, what was left over for consideration, how we can
understand that there is no real mutual contrariety between these two
statements, namely, that after saying, "In my Father's house are
many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you, that I go
to prepare a place for you;" where He makes it clear enough that He
said so to them for the very reason that there are many mansions there
already, and there is no need of preparing any; the Lord again says:
"And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."
How is it that He goes and prepares a place, if there are many
mansions already? If there were not such, He would have said, "I
go to prepare." Or if the place has still to be prepared, would He
not then also properly have said, "I go to prepare"? Are these
mansions in existence already, and yet needing still to be prepared?
For if they were not in existence, He would have said, "I go to
prepare." And yet, because their present state of existence is such
as still to stand in need of preparation, He does not go to prepare
them in the same sense as they already exist; but if He go and prepare
them as they shall be hereafter, He will come again and receive His
own to Himself: that where He is, there they may be also. How then
are there mansions in the Father's house, and these not different
ones but the same, which already exist in a sense in which they can
admit of no preparation, and yet do not exist, inasmuch as they are
still to be prepared? How are we to think of this, but in the same
way as the prophet, who also declares of God, that He has
[already] made that which is yet to be. For he says not, Who will
make what is yet to be, but, "Who has made what is yet to be."
Therefore He has both made such things and is yet to make them. For
they have not been made at all if He has not made them; nor will they
ever be if He make them not Himself. He has made them therefore in
the way of fore-ordaining them; He has yet to make them in the way of
actual elaboration. Just as the Gospel plainly intimates when He
chose His disciples, that is to say, at the time of His calling
them; and yet the apostle says, "He chose us before the foundation
of the world," to wit, by predestination, not by actual calling.
"And whom He did predestinate, them He also called;" He hath
chosen by predestination before the foundation of the world, He
chooses by calling before its close. And so also has He prepared
those mansions, and is still preparing them and He who has already
made the things which are yet to be, is now preparing, not different
ones, but the very mansions He has already prepared: what He has
prepared in predestination, He is preparing by actual working.
Already, therefore; they are, as respects predestination; if it
were not so, He would have said, I will go and prepare, that is,
I will predestinate. But because they are not yet in a state of
practical preparedness He says, "And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself."
2. But He is in a certain sense preparing the dwellings by preparing
for them the dwellers. As, for instance, when He said, "In my
Father's house are many dwellings," what else can we suppose the
house of God to mean but the temple of God? And what that is, ask
the apostle, and he will reply, "For the temple of God is holy,
which [temple] ye are" This is also the kingdom of God, which the
Son is yet to deliver up to the Father; and hence the same apostle
says, "Christ, the beginning, and then they that are Christ's in
His presence; then [cometh] the end, when He shall have delivered
up the kingdom to God, even the Father;" that is, those whom He
has redeemed by His blood, He shall then have delivered up to stand
before His Father's face. This is that kingdom of heaven whereof it
is said, "The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man who sowed good
seed in his field. But the good seed are the children of the
kingdom;" and although now they are mingled with tares, at the end
the King Himself shall send forth His angels, "and they shall
gather out of His kingdom all things that offend. Then shall the
righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."
The kingdom will shine forth in the kingdom when [those that are] the
kingdom shall have reached the kingdom; just as we now pray when we
say, "Thy kingdom come." Even now, therefore, already is the
kingdom called, but only as yet being called together. For if it were
not now called, it could not be then said, "They shall gather out of
His kingdom everything that offends." But the realm is not yet
reigning. Accordingly it is already so far the kingdom, that when all
offences shall have been gathered out of it, it shall then attain to
sovereignty, so as to possess not merely the name of a kingdom, but
also the power of government. For it is to this kingdom, standing
then at the right hand, that it shall be said in the end, "Come, ye
blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom;" that is, ye who were
the kingdom, but without the power to rule, come and reign; that what
you formerly were only in hope, you may now have the power to be in
reality. This house of God, therefore, this temple of God, this
kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven, is as yet in the process of
building, of construction, of preparation, of assembling. In it
there will be mansions, even as the Lord is now preparing them; in it
there are such already, even as the Lord has already ordained them.
3. But why is it that He went away to make such preparation, when,
as it is certainly we ourselves that are the subjects in need of
preparation, His doing so will be hindered by leaving us behind? I
explain it, Lord, as I can: it was surely this Thou didst signify
by the preparation of those mansions, that the just ought to live by
faith. For he who is sojourning at a distance from the Lord has need
to be living by faith, because by this we are prepared for beholding
His countenance. For "blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall
see God;" and "He purifieth their hearts by faith." The former
we find in the Gospel, the latter in the Acts of the Apostles. But
the faith by which those who are yet to see God have their hearts
purified, while sojourning at a distance here, believeth what it cloth
not see; for if there is sight, there is no longer faith. Merit is
accumulating now to the believer, and then the reward is paid into the
hand of the beholder. Let the Lord then go and prepare us a place;
let Him go, that He may not be seen; and let Him remain concealed,
that faith may be exercised. For then is the place preparing, if it
is by faith we are living. Let the believing in that place be
desired, that the place desired may itself be possessed; the longing
of love is the preparation of the mansion. Prepare thus, Lord, what
Thou art preparing; for Thou art preparing us for Thyself, and
Thyself for us, inasmuch as Thou art preparing a place both for
Thyself in us, and for us in Thee. For Thou hast said, "Abide
in me, and I in you." (10 As far as each one has been a partaker
of Thee, some less, some more, such will be the diversity of rewards
in proportion to the diversity of merits; such will be the multitude of
mansions to suit the inequalities among their inmates; but all of
them, none the less, eternally living, and endlessly blessed. Why
is it that Thou goest away? Why is it Thou comest again? If I
understand Thee aright, Thou withdrawest not Thyself either from the
place Thou goest from, or from the place Thou comest from: Thou
goest away by becoming invisible, Thou comest by again becoming
manifest to our eyes. But unless Thou remainest to direct us how we
may still be advancing in goodness of life, how will the place be
prepared where we shall be able to dwell in the fullness of joy? Let
what we have said suffice on the words which have been read from the
Gospel as far as "I will come again, and receive you to myself."
But the meaning of what follows, "That where I am, there ye may be
also; and whither I go ye know, and the way ye know," we shall be
in a better condition after the question put by the disciple, that
follows, and which we also may be putting, as it were, through him
for hearing, and more suitably situated for making the subject of our
discourse.
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