29. We can therefore no longer doubt that by the end is meant an ultimate and final condition and not a dissolution. We shall have something more to say upon this subject, when we come to the explanation of this passage, but for the present this is enough to make our meaning clear. Let us, therefore, turn now to the delivering of the Kingdom, and see whether it means a surrender of rule, whether the Son by delivering ceases to possess that which He delivers to the Father. If this is what the wicked contend in their unreasoning infatuation, they must allow that the Father, by delivering, lost all, when He delivered all to the Son, if delivery implies the surrender of that which is delivered. For the Lord said, All things have been delivered unto Me of My Father763    St. Luke x. 22., and again, All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and earth764    St. Matt. xxviii. 18.. If, therefore, to deliver is to yield possession, the Father no longer possessed that which He delivered. But if the Father did not cease to possess that which He delivered, neither does the Son surrender that which He delivers. Therefore, if He did not lose by the delivering that which He delivered, we must recognise that only the Dispensation explains how the Father still possesses what He delivered, and the Son does not forfeit what He gave.

29. Regni traditionem non esse regnandi defectionem. ---Nunc igitur quia jam ambigi non potest, in fine non defectionem, sed non excessuram constitutionem esse intelligendam, quamquam adhuc quaedam in ipsa dicti absolutione sint reservata: tamen his 0418D tantum ad significationem sensus demonstratis, videamus an traditio regni defectio sit intelligenda regnandi; ut quod tradit Filius Patri, tradendo non teneat. Quod si quis stultae impietatis furore contendet; fateatur necesse est Patrem, cum tradidit omnia 0419A Filio, amisisse tradendo, si tradidisse traditis egere significet. Ait enim Dominus, Omnia mihi tradita sunt a patre meo (Luc. X, 22); et rursum: Data est mihi omnis potestas in coelo et in terra (Matth. XXVIII, 18). Si igitur tradidisse caruisse est; Pater quoque his quae dedit caruit. Quod si Pater tradendo non caruit; ne Filius quidem intelligi potest his egere quae tradit. Ergo si tradidisse omnia, his ipsis quae tradidit non videtur eguisse; reliquum est, ut in tradendo dispensationis causa noscatur, cur et Pater tradendo non careat, et Filius dando non egeat.