Chapter VII.

Objection is taken to the following passage: “Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.” To remove it, he shows first the impiety of the Arian explanation; then compares these words with others; and lastly, takes the whole passage into consideration. Hence he gathers that the mission of Christ, although it is to be received according to the flesh, is not to His detriment. When this is proved he shows how the divine mission takes place.

88. There are some, O Emperor Augustus, who in their desire to deny the unity of the divine Substance, strive to make little of the love of the Father and the Son, because it is written: “Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.”955    S. John xvii. 23. But when they say this, what else do they do but adopt a likeness of comparison between the Son of God and men?

89. Can men indeed be loved by God as the Son is, in Whom the Father is well-pleased?956    S. Matt. iii. 17. He is well-pleasing in Himself; we through Him. For those in whom God sees His own Son after His own likeness, He admits through His Son into the favour of sons. So that as we go through likeness unto likeness, so through the Generation of the Son are we called unto adoption. The eternal love of God’s Nature is one thing, that of grace is another.

90. And if they start a debate on the words that are written: “And Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me,” and think a comparison is intended; they must think that the following also was said by way of comparison: “Be ye merciful, as your Father Which is in heaven is merciful;”957    S. Luke vi. 36. and elsewhere: “Be ye perfect, as My Father Which is in heaven is perfect.”958    S. Matt. v. 48. But if He is perfect in the fulness of His glory, we are but perfect according to the growth of virtue within us. The Son also is loved by the Father according to the fulness of a love that ever abideth, but in us growth in grace merits the love of God.

91. Thou seest, then, how God has given grace to men, and dost thou wish to dissever the natural and indivisible love of the Father and the Son? And dost thou still strive to make nothing of words, where thou dost note the mention of a unity of majesty?

92. Consider the whole of this passage, and see from what standpoint He speaks; for thou hearest Him saying: “Father, glorify Thou Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.”959    S. John xvii. 5. See how He speaks from the standpoint of the first man. For He begs for us in that request those things which, as Man, He remembered were granted in paradise before the Fall, as also He spoke of it to the thief at His Passion: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with Me in paradise.”960    S. Luke xxiii. 43. This is the glory before the world was. But He used the word “world” instead “men,” as also thou hast it: “Lo! the whole world goeth after Him;”961    S. John xii. 19. and again “That the world may know that Thou hast sent Me.”962    S. John xvii. 21.

93. But that thou mightest know the great God, even the life-giving and Almighty Son of God, He has added a proof of His majesty by saying: “And all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine.”963    S. John xvii. 10. He has all things, and dost thou turn aside the fact that He was sent, to wrong Him?

94. But if thou dost not accept the truth of His mission according to the flesh, as the Apostle spoke of it,964    Rom. viii. 3. and dost raise out of a mere word a decision against it, to enable thee to say that inferiors are wont to be sent by superiors; what answer wilt thou give to the fact that the Son was sent to men? For if thou dost think that he who is sent is inferior to him by whom he is sent, thou must learn also that an inferior has sent a superior, and that superiors have been sent to inferiors. For Tobias sent Raphael the archangel,965    Tob. ix. 3. and an angel was sent to Balaam,966    Num. xxii. 22. and the Son of God to the Jews.

95. Or was the Son of God inferior to the Jews to whom He was sent? For of Him it is written: “Last of all He sent unto them His only Son, saying, They will reverence My Son.”967    S. Matt. xxi. 37. And mark that He mentioned first the servants, then the Son, that thou mayest know that God, the only-begotten Son according to the power of His Godhead, has neither name nor lot in common with servants. He is sent forth to be reverenced, not to be compared with the household.

96. And rightly did He add the word “My,” that we might believe He came, not as one of many, nor as one of a lower nature or of some inferior power, but as true from Him that is true, as the Image of the Father’s Substance.

97. Suppose, however, that he who is sent is inferior to him by whom he is sent. Christ then was inferior to Pilate; for Pilate sent Him to Herod. But a word does not prejudice His power. Scripture, which says that He was sent from the Father, says that He was sent from a ruler.

98. Wherefore, if we sensibly hold to those things which be worthy of the Son of God, we ought to understand Him to have been sent in such a way that the Word of God, out of the incomprehensible and ineffable mystery of the depths of His majesty, gave Himself for comprehension to our minds, so far as we could lay hold of Him, not only when He “emptied” Himself, but also when He dwelt in us, as it is written: “I will dwell in them.”968    2 Cor. vi. 16. Elsewhere also it stands that God said: “Go to, let us go down and confound their language.”969    Gen. xi. 7. God, indeed, never descends from any place; for He says: “I fill heaven and earth.”970    Jer. xxiii. 24. But He seems to descend when the Word of God enters our hearts, as the prophet has said: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.”971    Isa. xl. 3. We are to do this, so that, as He Himself promised, He may come together with the Father and make His abode with us.972    S. John xiv. 23. It is clear, then, how He comes.

CAPUT VII.

Objectio petita ex hoc loco: Dilexisti eos, sicut et me dilexisti, ut diluatur, primo Arianorum expositionis impietas demonstratur, deinde comparantur eadem verba cum similibus, ac demum totus locus consideratur. Hinc deducitur Christi missionem, etsi secundum carnem accipienda est, illi non officere. Quo probato, qui fiat divina missio describitur.

89. [Alias cap. III.] Exsistunt tamen, Imperator auguste, qui hanc divinae unitatem substantiae negare cupientes, extenuare studeant Patris et Filii 0666D charitatem; quia scriptum est: Et dilexisti eos, sicut et me dilexisti (Joan. XVII, 23). Quod cum dicunt, qui aliud agunt, nisi inter Dei Filium et homines aequalitatem quamdam comparationis inducunt?

90. Numquid sic diligi possunt a Deo homines quemadmodum Filius, in quo complacuit Pater? Ille 0667A per se complacet, nos per ipsum: in quibus enim Deus Filium suum ad imaginem suam cernit, eos per Filium adsciscit in gratiam filiorum; ut quemadmodum per imaginem ad 567 imaginem sumus, sic per generationem Filii in adoptionem vocemur. Alius igitur naturae amor sempiternus, alius gratiae.

91. Aut si ex verbis faciunt quaestionem, quia scriptum est: Et dilexisti eos, sicut et me dilexisti; et comparationem factam putant: ergo et illud comparative dictum putant: Estote misericordes, sicut et Pater vester qui est in coelis, misericors est (Luc. VI, 36); et alibi: Estote perfecti, sicut et Pater meus, qui in coelis est, perfectus est (Matth. V, 48). Quod si ille secundum plenitudinem majestatis suae perfectus est, nos autem perfecti secundum virtutis accedentis 0667B profectum; etiam Filius diligitur a Patre secundum semper manentis plenitudinem charitatis: in nobis autem charitatem Dei virtutis emeretur profectus.

92. Vides igitur quam gratiam Deus dederit hominibus, et tu Patris et Filii vis dissolvere naturalem et individuam charitatem; et tu verba adhuc discutis, ubi unitatem majestatis advertis?

93. Vide totum hunc locum, ex cujus affectu loquatur; habes enim dicentem ipsum: Clarifica me, Pater, claritate ea quam habui, priusquam mundus esset, apud te (Joan. XVII, 5). Vide quia ex primi hominis loquatur affectu; quia nobis ea petitione deposcit, quae ante peccatum in paradiso homo meminerit esse collata, ut et latroni in passione memoravit: Amen, amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in 0667C paradiso (Luc. XXIII, 13). Haec est ante mundum claritas. Mundum autem pro hominibus dixit, sicut habes: Ecce mundus totus post ipsum abit (Joan. XII, 19); et alibi: Ut cognoscat hic mundus quia tu me misisti (Joan. XIV, 31).

94. Et tamen ut scires magnum Deum et salutarem et omnipotentem Dei Filium; indicium suae majestatis admiscuit dicendo: Et mea omnia tua sunt, et tua mea (Ibid. 10). Omnia habet, et tu missum esse ad injuriam derivas?

95. Qui si secundum carnem non accipis missum, ut Apostolus dixit (Rom. VIII, 3), et ex verbo simplici praejudicium struis, quo dicas inferiores a superioribus mitti solere: quid ad illa respondes, quia Filius ad homines missus est? Nam si minorem putas 0667D eum qui mittitur, eo videlicet a quo mittitur; disce quod et minor majorem misit, et majores ad minores missi sunt. Nam et Tobias Raphaelem archangelum misit (Tobiae IX, 3), et angelus ad Balaam missus 0668A est (Num. XXII, 22), et Dei Filius ad Judaeos (Matth. XXV, 24).

96. Numquid ergo minor etiam Judaeis Dei Filius, ad quos mittebatur? De ipso enim scriptum est: Novissime autem misit eis filium suum unicum dicens: Verebuntur filium meum (Matth. XXI, 37). Et vide quia ante servos, postea filium nominavit; ut scias quod Deus Filius unigenitus secundum divinitatis potentiam nec nomen habet, nec consortium commune cum servis: reverendus mittitur, non cum famulis conferendus.

568 97. Et bene addidit, meum, ut non unus de multis, nec degeneris naturae, nec minoris alicujus potestatis: sed verus a vero, et paternae imago venisse substantiae crederetur.

0668B 98. Esto tamen, minor sit qui mittitur, eo a quo mittitur; ergo et Pilato minor Christus, quoniam Pilatus misit eum ad Herodem. Sed sermo non praejudicat potestati: Scriptura, quae missum dicit a Patre, missum dicit a praeside.

99. Unde si sobrie de Dei Filio quae digna sunt, opinemur; ideo missum intelligere debemus, quia ex illo incomprehensibili inenarrabilique secreto majestatis profundae dedit se comprehendendum pro captu nostro mentibus nostris Dei Verbum, non solum cum se exinaniret, sed etiam cum habitaret in nobis, sicut scriptum est: Quoniam inhabitabo in illis (II Cor. VI, 16). Denique et alibi habes quia Deus dixit: Venite, descendamus, et confundamus linguas eorum (Gen. XI, 7). Non enim Deus de loco 0668C aliquando descendit, qui ait: Ego coelum et terram compleo (Jerem. XXIII, 24); sed in eo descendere videtur, si nostros Dei Verbum penetret affectus, sicut dixit propheta: Parate viam Domino, rectas facite semitas ejus; (Esai. XL, 3); ut quemadmodum ipse promisit, veniens cum Patre, apud nos faciat mansionem. Evidens est igitur quomodo veniat.