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1. That the Son was glorified by the Father in His form of a
servant, which the Father raised from the dead and set at His own
right hand, is indicated by the event itself, and is nowhere doubted
by the Christian. But as He not only said, "Father, glorify Thy
Son," but likewise added, "that Thy Son may glorify Thee," it
is worthy of inquiry how it was that the Son glorified the Father,
seeing that the eternal glory of the Father neither suffered diminution
in any human form, nor could be increased in respect of its own divine
perfection. In itself, indeed, the glory of the Father could
neither be diminished nor enlarged; but without any doubt it was less
among men when God was known only in Judea: and as yet children
praised not the name of the Lord from the rising of the sun to its
going down. But inasmuch as this was effected by the gospel of
Christ, to wit, that the Father became known through the Son to the
Gentiles, assuredly the Son also glorified the Father. Had the
Son, however, only died, and not risen again, He would without
doubt have neither been glorified by the Father, nor have glorified
the Father; but now having been glorified through His resurrection by
the Father, He glorifies the Father by the preaching of His
resurrection. For this is disclosed by the very order of the words:
"Glorify," He says, "Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify
Thee;" saying, as it were, Raise me up again, that by me Thou
mayest become known to all the world.
2. And then expanding still further how it was that the Father
should be glorified by the Son, He says: "As Thou hast given Him
power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to all that
Thou hast given Him." By all flesh, He meant every man,
signifying the whole by a part; as, on the other hand, the whole man
is signified by the superior part, when the apostle says, "Let every
soul be subject to the higher powers." For what else did He mean by
"every soul," save every man? And this, therefore, that power
over all flesh was given to Christ by the Father, is to be understood
in respect of His humanity; for in respect of His Godhead all things
were made by Himself, and in Him were created all things in heaven
and in earth, visible and invisible. "As," then, He says,
"Thou hast given Him power over all flesh," so may Thy Son
glorify Thee, in other words, make Thee known to all flesh whom
Thou hast given Him. For Thou hast so given, "that He should
give eternal life to all that Thou hast given Him."
3. "And this," He adds, "is eternal life, that they may know
Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast
sent." The proper order of the words is, "That they may know Thee
and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent, as the only true God."
Consequently, therefore, the Holy Spirit is also understood,
because He is the Spirit of the Father and Son, as the substantial
and consubstantial love of both. For the Father and Son are not two
Gods, nor are the Father and Son and Holy Spirit three Gods; but
the Trinity itself is the one only true God. And yet the Father is
not the same as the Son, nor the Son the same as the Father, nor
the Holy Spirit the same as the Father anti the Son; for the
Father and Son and Holy Spirit are three [persons], yet the
Trinity itself is one God. If, then, the Son glorifies Thee in
the same manner "as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh," and
hast so given, "that He should give eternal life to all that Thou
hast given Him," and "this is life eternal, that they may know
Thee;" in this way, therefore, the Son glorifies Thee, that He
makes Thee known to all whom Thou hast given Him. Accordingly, if
the knowledge of God is eternal life, we are making the greater
advances to life, in proportion as we are enlarging our growth in such
a knowledge. And we shall not die in the life eternal; for then,
when there shall be no death, the knowledge of God shall be
perfected. Then will be effected the full effulgence of God, because
then the completed glory, as expressed in Greek by doxa. For from it
we have the word doxason, that is used here, and which some Latins
have interpreted by "clarifica" (make effulgent), and some by
"glorifica" (glorify). But by the ancients, glory, from which
men are styled glorious, is thus defined: Glory is the widely-spread
fame of any one accompanied with praise. But if a man is praised when
the fame regarding him is believed, how will God be praised when He
Himself shall be seen? Hence it is said in Scripture, "Blessed
are they that dwell in Thy house; they will be praising Thee for ever
and ever." There will God's praise continue without end, where
there shall be the full knowledge of God; and because the full
knowledge, therefore also the complete effulgence or glorification.
4. But God is first of all glorified here, while He is being made
known to men by word of mouth, and preached through the faith of
believers. Wherefore, He says, "I have glorified Thee on the
earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do." He
does not say, Thou orderedst; but, "Thou gavest:" where the
evident grace of it is commended to notice. For what has the human
nature even in the Only-begotten, that it has not received? Did it
not receive this, that it should do no evil, but all good things,
when it was assumed into the unity of His person by the Word, by whom
all things were made? But how has He finished the work which was
committed unto Him to do, when there still remains the trial of the
passion wherein He especially furnished His martyrs with the example
they were to follow, whereof, says the apostle Peter, "Christ
suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow His
steps:" but just that He says He has finished, what He knew with
perfect certainty that He would finish? Just as long before, in
prophecy, He used words in the past tense, when what He said was to
take place very many years afterwards: "They pierced," He says,
"my hands and my feet, they counted all my bones;" He says not,
They will pierce, and, They will count. And in this very Gospel
He says, "All things that I have heard of my Father, I have made
known unto you;" to whom He afterward declares, "I have yet many
things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." For He, who
has predestinated all that is to be by sure and unchangeable causes,
has done whatever He is to do: as it was also declared of Him by the
prophet, "Who hath made the things that are to be."
5. In a way similar, also, to this, He proceeds to say: "And
now, O Father, glorify thou me with Thine own self with the glory
which I had with Thee before the world was." For He had said
above, "Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy
Son may glorify Thee:" in which arrangement of the words He had
shown that the Father was first to be glorified by the Son, in order
that the Son might glorify the Father. But now He said, "I have
glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou
gavest me to do; and now glorify Thou me;" as if He Himself had
been the first to glorify the Father, by whom He then demands to be
glorified. We are therefore to understand that He used both words
above in accordance with that which was future, and in the order in
which they were future, "Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may
glorify Thee:" but that He now used the word in the past tense of
that which was still future, when He said, "I have glorified Thee
on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do."
And then, when He said, "And now, O Father, glorify Thou me
with Thine own self," as if He were afterwards to be glorified by
the Father, whom He Himself had first glorified; what did He
intimate but that, when He said above, "I have glorified Thee on
the earth," He had so spoken as if He had done what He was still to
do; but that here He demanded of the Father to do that whereby the
Son should yet do so; in other words, that the Father should glorify
the Son, by means of which glorification of the Son, the Son also
was yet to glorify the Father? In fine, if, in connection with that
which was still future, we put the verb also in the future tense,
where He has used the past in place of the future tense, there will
remain no obscurity in the sentence: as if He had said, "I will
glorify Thee on the earth: I will finish the work which Thou hast
given me to do; and now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own
self." In this way it is as plain as when He says, "Glorify Thy
Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee:" and this is indeed the whole
sentence, save that here we are told also the manner of that same
glorification, which there was left unnoticed; as if the former were
explained by the latter to those whose hearts it was able to stir, how
it was that the Father should glorify the Son, and most of all how
the Son also should glorify the Father. For in saying that the
Father was glorified by Himself on the earth, but He Himself by the
Father with the Father's very self, He showed them assuredly the
manner of both glorifications. For He Himself glorified the Father
on earth by preaching Him to the nations; but the Father glorified
Him with His own self in setting Him at His own right hand. But on
that very account, when He says afterward in reference to the
glorifying of the Father, "I have glorified Thee," He preferred
putting the verb in the past tense, in order to show that it was
already done in the act of predestination, and what was with perfect
certainty yet to take place was to be accounted as already done;
namely, that the Son, having been glorified by the Father with the
Father, would also glorify the Father on the earth.
6. But this predestination He still more clearly disclosed in
respect of His own glorification, wherewith He was glorified by the
Father, when He added, "With the glory which I had, before the
world was, with Thee." The proper order of the words is, "which
I had with Thee before the world was." To this apply His words,
"And now glorify Thou me;" that is to say, as then, so also now:
as then, by predestination; so also now, by consummmation: do Thou
in the world what had already been done with Thee before the world: do
in its own time what Thou hast determined before all times. This,
some have imagined, should be so understood as if the human nature,
which was assumed by the Word, were converted into the Word, and the
man were changed into God; yea, were we reflecting with some care on
the opinions they have advanced, as if the humanity were lost in the
Godhead. For no one would go the length of saying that out of such a
transmutation of the humanity the Word of God is either doubled or
increased, so that either what was one should now be two, or what was
less should now be greater. Accordingly, if with His human nature
changed and converted into the Word, the Word of God will still be
as great as He was, and what He was, where is the humanity, if it
is not lost?
7. But to this opinion, which I certainly do not see to be
conformable to the truth, there is nothing to urge us, if, when the
Son says, "And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own
self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was,"
we understand the predestination of the glory of His human nature, as
thereafter, from being mortal, to become immortal with the Father:
and that this had already been done by predestination before the world
was, as also in its own time it was done in the world. For if the
apostle has said of us, "According as He hath chosen us in Him
before the foundation of the world," why should it be thought
incongruous with the truth, if the Father glorified our Head at the
same time as; He chose us in Him to be His members? For we were
chosen in the same way as He was glorified; inasmuch as before the
world was, neither we nor the Mediator between God and men, the matt
Christ Jesus, were yet in existence. But He who, in as far as He
is His Word, of His own self "made even those things which are yet
to come," and "calleth those things which are not as though they
were," certainly, in respect of His manhood as Mediator between
God and men, was Himself glorified on our behalf by God the Father
before the foundation of the world, if it be so that we also were then
chosen in Him. For what saith the apostle? "And we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the first-born among many brethren: and whom He did
predestinate, them He also called."
8. But perhaps we shall have some fear in saying that He was
predestinated, because the apostle seems to have said so only in
reference to our being made conformable to His image. As if,
indeed, any one, faithfully considering the rule of faith, were to
deny that the Son of God was predestinated, who yet cannot deny that
He was man. For it is rightly said that He was not predestinated in
respect of His being the Word of God, God with God. For how
could He be predestinated, seeing He already was what He was,
without beginning and without ending, everlasting? But that, which
as yet was not, had to be predestinated, in order that it might come
to pass in its time, even as it was predestinated so to come before all
times. Accordingly, whoever denies predestination of the Son of
God, denies that He was also Himself the Son of man. But, on
account of those who are disputatious, let us also on this subject
listen to the apostle in the exordium of his epistles. For both in the
first of his epistles, which is that to the Romans, and in the
beginning of the epistle itself, we read: "Paul, a servant of
Jesus Christ, called [to be] an apostle, separated unto the gospel
of God, which He had promised afore by His prophets in the Holy
Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was made for Him of the seed
of David according to the flesh, who was predestinated s the Son of
God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the
resurrection from the dead." In respect, then, of this
predestination also, He was gloried before the world was, in order
that His glory might be, by the resurrection from the dead, with the
Father, at whose right hand He sitteth. Accordingly, when He saw
that the time of this, His predestinated glorification, was now
come, in order that what had already been done in predestination might
also be done now in actual accomplishment, He said in His prayer,
"And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self with the
glory which I had with Thee before the world was:" as if He had
said, The glory which I had with Thee, that is, that glory which
I had with Thee in Thy predestination, it is time that I should
have with Thee also in sitting at Thy right hand. But as the
discussion of this question has already kept us long, what follows must
be taken into consideration in another discourse.
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