22. Wherefore, having mastered this rule for interpreting the Scriptures concerning the Son of God, that we are to dis- tincfuish in them what relates to the form of God, in which He is equal to the Father, and what to the form of a servant which He took, in which He is less than the Father; we shall not be disquieted by apparently contrary and mutually repug- nant sayings of the sacred books. For both the Son and the Holy Spirit, according to the form of God, are equal to the Father, because neither of them is a creature, as we have already shown: but according to the form of a servant He is less than the Father, because He Himself has said, " My Father is greater than I; " ^ and He is less than Himself, be- cause it is said of Him, '' He emptied Himself; " ^ and He is less than the Holy Spirit, because He Himself says, " Whoso- ever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be for- given him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven Him." ^ And in the Spirit too He wrought miracles, saying: " But if I with the Spirit of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you." * And in Isaiah He says, — in the lesson which He Himself read in the synagogue, and showed without a scruple of doubt to be fulfilled concerning Himself, — " The Spirit of the Lord God," He says, " is upon me: because He hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to pro- 3 Llatt. xii. 32. * JMatt. xii. 28.
28 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK I.
claim liberty to the captives/' ^ etc.: for the doing of which things He therefore declares Himself to be " sent/' because the Spirit of God is upon Him. According to the form of God, all things were made by Him; ^ according to the form of a servant, He was Himself made of a woman, made under the law.^ According to the form of God, He and the Father are one; * according to the form of a servant, He came not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him.^ Ac- cording to the form of God, " As the Father hath life in Him- self, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself; " ^ according to the form of a servant. His " soul is sorrowful even unto death; " and, " 0 my Father," He says, " if it be pos- sible, let this cup pass from me." ^ According to the form of God, " He is the true God, and eternal life; " ^ according to the form of a servant, " He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." ^ — 23. According to the form of God, all things that the Father hath are His,^^ and " All mine/' He says, " are Thine, and Thine are mine; " ^^ according to the form of a servant, the doctrine is not His own, but His that sent Him.-'^ CHAr. XII. — In what manner the Son is said not to hiow the day and the hour which the Father hioivs. Some things said of Christ according to the form of God, other things according to the form of a servant. In what way it is of Christ to give the kingdom, in what not of Christ. Christ tvill both judge and not judge.
Again, " Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven; neither the Son, but the Father." ^^ For He is isrnorant of this, as makinoj others irao- rant; that is, in that He did not so know as at that time to show His disciples: as it was said to Abraham, '' Now I know that thou fearest God/' ^^ that is, now I have caused thee to know it; because he himself, being tried in that temptation, became known to himself For He was certainly going to tell this same thing to His disciples at the fitting time; speak- 13 Mark xiii. 32. i* Gen. xxii. 12.
CHAP. XIL] the nescience OF CHRIST. 29 ing of which yet future as if past, He says, " Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you;"^ which He had not yet done, but spoke as though He had already done it, because He certainly would do it. For He says to the disciples themselves, " I have yet many things to say unto you; but ye cannot bear them now." ^ Among which is to be understood also, " Of the day and hour." For the apostle also says, "I determined not to know any- thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified; " ^ because he was speaking to those who were not able to receive higher things concerning the Godhead of Christ. To whom also a little while after he says, " I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal." * He was " ignorant," therefore, among them of that which they were not able to know from him. And that only he said that he knew, which it was fitting that they should know from him. In short, he knew among the perfect what he knew not among babes; for he there says: " We speak wisdom among them that are perfect." ^ Tor a man is said not to know what he hides, after that kind of speech, after which a ditch is called blind which is hidden. For the Scriptures do not use any other kind of speech than may be found in use among men, because they speak to men.
24. According to the form of God, it is said, "Before all the hills He begat me," ^ that is, before all the loftinesses of things created; and, " Before the dawn I begat Thee," ^ that is, before all times and temporal things: but according to the form of a servant, it is said, " The Lord created me in the beginning of His ways." ^ Because, according to the form of God, He said, " I am the truth; " and according to the form of a servant, " I am the way." ^ For, because He Himself, being the first-begotten of the dead,-"^ made a passage to the kingdom of God to life eternal for His Church, to which He is so the Head as to make the body also immortal, therefore 30 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK I.
He was " created in the beginning of the ways " of God in His work. Tor, according to the form of God, He is the begin- ning/ that also speaketh unto us, in which " beginning " God created the heaven and the earth; ^ but according to the form of a servant, " He is a bridegroom coming out of His chamber."^ According to the form of God, "He is the first-born of every creature, and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist; " according to the form of a servant, " He is the head of the body, the Church." * According to the form of God, " He is the Lord of glory." ^ Trom which it is evident that He HimseK glorifies His saints: for, " Whom He did pre- destinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glori- fied." ^ Of Him accordingly it is said, that He justifieth the ungodly; ^ of Him it is said, that He is just and a justifier.^ If, therefore. He has also glorified those whom He has justified. He who justifies. Himself also glorifies; who is, as I have said, the Lord of glory. Yet, according to the form of a ser- vant. He replied to His disciples, when inquiring about their own glorification: " To sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but [it shall be given to them] for whom it is prepared by my Father." ^ 25. But that which is prepared by His Father is prepared also by the Son Himself, because He and the Father are one.-^^ For we have already shown, by many modes of speech in the divine Scriptures, that, in this Trinity, what is said of each is also said of all, on account of the indivisible working^ of the one and same substance. As He also says of the Holy Spirit, " If I depart, I will send Him unto you." ^^ He did not say. We will send; but in such way as if the Son only should send Him, and not the Father; while yet He says in another place, " These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you; but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name. He shall teach you all things." -^^ Here again it is so said as if the Son also would not send Him, but the Father only. As therefore in these texts, CHAP. XII.] HUMILIATION OF THE SON. 31 SO also where He says, " But for them for whom it is pre- pared by my Father," He meant it to be understood that He Himself, with the Father, prepares seats of glory for those for whom He will. But some one may say: There, when He spoke of the Holy Spirit, He so says that He Himself will send Him, as not to deny that the Father will send Him; and in the other place. He so says that the Father will send Him, as not to deny that He will do so Himself; but here He ex- pressly says, " It is not mine to give," and so goes on to say that these things are prepared by the Father. But this is the very thing which we have already laid down to be said according to the form of a servant: viz., that we are so to understand " It is not mine to give," as if it were said. This is not in the power of man to give; that so He may be under- stood to give it through that wherein He is God equal to the Father. " It is not mine," He says, " to give; " that is, I do not give these things by human power, but " to those for whom it is prepared by my Father; " but then take care you understand also, that if ''all things which the Father hath are mine," -^ then this certainly is mine also, and I with the Father have prepared these things.
26. For I ask again, in what manner this is said, "If any man hear not my words, I will not judge him"?^ For perhaps He has said here, '' I will not judge him," in the same sense as there, '' It is not mine to give." But what follows here? " I came not," He says, " to judge the world, but to save the world; " and then He adds, " He that rejecteth me, and re- ceiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him." ISTow here we should understand the Father, unless He had added, " The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." Well, then, will neither the Son judge, be- cause He says, " I will not judge him; " nor the Father, but the word which the Son hath spoken? N"ay, but hear what yet follows: "For I," He says, "have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me. He gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak; and I know that His commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak there- fore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak." If there- A John xvi. 15. ^ John xii. 47-50.
32 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK I.
fore tlie Son judges not, but " the word whicli the Son hath spoken;" and the word which the Son hath spoken therefore judges, because the Son " hath not spoken of Himself, but the Father who sent Him gave Him a commandment what He should say, and what He should speak:" then the Father assuredly judges, whose word it is which the Son hath spoken; and the same Son Himself is the very Word of the Father. For the commandment of the Father is not one thing, and the word of the Father another; for He hath called it both a word and a commandment. Let us see, therefore, whether perchance, when He says, " I have not spoken of myself," He meant to be understood thus, — I am not born of myself For if He speaks the word of the Father, then He speaks Him- self,^ because He is Himself the Word of the Father. For ordinarily He says, " The Father gave to me; " by which He means it to be understood that the Father begat Him: not that He gave anything to Him, already existing and not pos- sessing it; but that the very meaning of. To have given that He might have, is. To have begotten that He might be. For it is not, as with the creature, so with the Son of God before the incarnation and before He took upon Him our flesh, the Onlybegotten by whom all things were made; that He is one thing, and has another: but He is in such way as to he what He has. And this is said more plainly, if any one is fit to receive it, in that place where He says: " For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Him- self" ^ For He did not give to Him, already existing and not having life, that He should have life in Himself; inasmuch as, in that He is, He is life. Therefore " He gave to the Son to have life in Himself" means. He begat the Son to be un- changeable life, which is life eternal. Since, therefore, the Word of God is the Son of God, and the Son of God is " the true God and eternal life," ^ as John says in his Epistle; so here, what else are we to acknowledge when the Lord says, " The word which I have spoken, the same shall judge him at the last day," ^ and calls that very word the word of the Father and the commandment of the Father, and that very command- CHAP. XII.] THE TWO NATURES OF THE SON. 33 ment everlasting life "? " And I know/' He says, " that His commandment is life everlasting."
27.1 ask, therefore, how we are to understand, '' I will not judge him; but the Word which I have spoken shall judge him: " which appears from what follows to be so said, as if He would say, I will not judge; but the Word of the Father will judge. But the Word of the Father is the Son of God Himself. Is it to be so understood: I will not judge, but I will judge? How can this be true, unless in this way: viz. I will not judge by human power, because I am the Son of man; but I will judge by the power of the Word, because I am the Son of God? Or if it still seems contradictory and in- consistent to say, I will not judge, but I will judge; what shall we say of that place where He says, " My doctrine is not mine "? How " mine," when '' not mine "? For He did not say. This doctrine is not mine, but " My doctrine is not mine: " that which He called His own, the same He called not His own. How can this be true, unless He has called it His own in one relation; not His own, in another? Ac- cording to the form of God, His own; according to the form of a servant, not His own. For when He says, " It is not mine, but His that sent me," ^ He makes us recur to the Word itself. For the doctrine of the Father is the Word of the Father, which is the Only Son. And what, too, does that mean, " He that believeth on me, believeth not on me "? ^ How believe on Him, yet not believe on Him? How can so opposite and inconsistent a thing be understood — " Whoso believeth on me," He says, " believeth not on me, but on Him that sent me;" — unless you so understand it, Whoso believeth on me believeth not on that which he sees, lest our hope should be in the creature; but on Him who took the creature, whereby He might appear to human eyes, and so might cleanse our hearts by faith, to contemplate Himself as equal to the Father? So that in turning the attention of believers to the Father, and saying, " Believeth not on me, but on Him that sent me," He certainly did not mean Himself to be separated from the Father, that is, from Him that sent Him; but that men might so believe on Himself, as they believe on the Father, DE TEIN. C 34 ox THE TPJNITY. [bOOK I.
to whom He is equal. And this He says in express terms in another place, " Ye believe in God, believe also in me: " ^ that is, in the same way as you believe in God, so also believe in me; because I and the Father are One God. As therefore, here. He has as it were withdrawn the faith of men from Him- self, and transferred it to the Father, by saying, " Believeth not on me, but on Him that sent me," from whom neverthe- less He certainly did not separate Himself; so also, when He says, " It is not mine to give, but [it shall be given to them] for whom it is prepared by my Father," it is I think plain in what relation both are to be taken. For that other also is of the same kind, " I will not judge; " whereas He Himself shall judge the quick and dead.^ But because He will not do so by human power, therefore, reverting to the Godhead, He raises the hearts of men upwards; which to lift up. He Him- self came down.
CiiAP. XIII. — Diverse tJungs are spoJcen concerning the same Christ, on account of the diverse natures of the one hypostasis. Why it is said that the Father will not judge, hut has given judgment to the Son.
28. Yet unless the very same were the Son of man on account of the form of a servant which He took, who is the Son of God on account of the form of God in which He is; Paul the apostle would not say of the princes of this world, " For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." ^ For He was crucified after the form of a servant, and yet " the Lord of glory" was crucified. For that " taking" was such as to make God man, and man God.) Yet what is said on account of what, and what according to what, the thoughtful, diligent, and pious reader discerns for himself, the Lord being his helper. For instance, we have said that He glorifies His own, as being God, and certainly then as being the Lord of glory; and yet the Lord of glory was cruci- fied, because even God is rightly said to have been crucified, not after the power of the divinity, but after the weakness of the flesh:* just as we say, that He judges as God, that is, by divine power, not by human; and yet the man Himself will judge, just as the Lord of glory was crucified: for so He ex- pressly says, "When the Son of man shall come in His glory, CHAP. XIII.] THE TWO NATUEES OF THE SON. 35 and all the holy angels with Him, and before Him shall be cjathered all nations; " ^ and the rest that is foretold of the future judgment in that place even to the last sentence. And the Jews, inasmuch as they will be punished in that judgment for persisting in their wickedness, as it is elsewhere writtqp, " shall look upon Him whom they have pierced."^ Tor whereas both good and bad shall see the Judge of the quick and dead, without doubt the bad will not be able to see Him, except after the form in which He is the Son of man; but yet in the glory wherein He will judge, not in the lowliness wherein He was judged. But the ungodly without doubt will not see that form of God in which He is equal to the Father. For they are not pure in heart; and '^Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." ^ And that sight is face to face,^ the very sight that is promised as the highest reward to the just, and which will then take place when He " shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father;" and in this ''kingdom" He means the sight of His own form also to be understood, the whole creature being made subject to God, including that wherein the Son of God was made the Son of man. Because, according to this creature, " The Son also Himself shall be sub- ject unto Him, that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all." ^ Otherwise if the Son of God, judging in the form in which He is equal to the Father, shall appear when He judges to the ungodly also; what becomes of that which He promises, as some great thing, to him who loves Him, say- ing, " And I will love him, and will manifest myself to him"?^ Wherefore He will judge as the Son of man, yet not by human power, but by that whereby He is the Son of God; and on the other hand. He will judge as the Son of God, yet not ap- pearing in that form in which He is God equal to the Father, but in that in which- He is the Son of man.
29. Therefore both ways of speaking maybe used; the Son of man will judge, and, the Son of man will not judge: since the Son of man will judge, that the text may be true which says, "When the Son of man shall come, then before Him shall be gathered all nations; " and the Son of man will not 36 ON THE TRINITY. [bOOK I.
judge, that the text may be true which says, " I will not judge him; " ^ and, " I seek not mine own glory: there is One that seeketh and judgeth." ^ For in respect to this, that in the judgment, not the form of God, but the form of the Son of man will appear, the Father Himself will not judge; for according to this it is said, "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." Whether this is said after that mode of speech which we have men- tioned above, where it is said, " So hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself," ^ that it should signify that so He begat the Son; or, whether after that of which the apostle speaks, saying, " Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name:" — (For this is said of the Son of man, in respect to whom the Son of God was raised from the dead: since He, being: in the form of God equal to the Father, wherefrom He " emptied" Himself by taking the form of a servant, both acts and suffers, and re- ceives, in that same form of a servant, what the apostle goes on to mention: " He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, in the glory of God the Father:"*) — whether then the words, " He hath committed all judgment unto the Son," are said according to this or that mode of speech; it sufficiently appears from this place, that if they were said according to that sense in which it is said, " He hath given to the Son to have life in Himself," it certainly would not be said, " The Father judgeth no man." For in respect to this, that the Father hath begotten the Son equal to Himself, He judges with Him. Therefore it is in respect to this that it is said, that in the judgment, not the form of God, but the form of the Son of man will appear. Not that He will not judge, who hath committed all judgment unto the Son, since the Son saith of Him, " There is One that seeketh and judgeth: " but it is so said, " The Father judgeth no man, CHAP. XIII.] JUDGMENT COMMITTED TO THE SON. 37 but hath committed all jiiclgment unto the Son;" as if it were said, No one will see the Father in the judgment of the quick and the dead, but all will see the Son: because He is also the Son of man, so that He can be seen even by the ungodly, since they too shall see Him whom they have pierced.
30. Lest, however, we may seem to conjecture this rather than to prove it clearly, let us produce a certain and plain sen- tence of the Lord Himself, by which we may show that this was the cause why He said, " The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son," viz. because He will appear as Judge in the form of the Son of man, which is not the form of the Father, but of the Son; nor yet that form of the Son in which He is equal to the Father, but that in which He is less than the Father; in order that, in the judg- ment. He may be visible both to the good and to the bad. For a little while after He says, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemna- tion; but shall pass ^ from death unto life." Now this life eternal is that sight which does not belong to the bad. Then follows, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." ^ And this is proper to the godly, who so hear of His incarnation, as to believe that He is the Son of God; that is, who so receive Him, as made for their sakes less than the Father, in the form of a servant, that they believe Him equal to the Father, in the form of God. And thereupon He continues, enforcing this very point, " For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself." And then He comes to the sight of His own glory, in which He shall come to judgment; which sight will be common to the ungodly and to the just. For He goes on to say, " And hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man." ^ I think nothing can be more clear. For inasmuch as the Son of God is equal to the Father, He does not receive this power of executing judgment, but He has it with the Father in secret; but He receives it, so that the good and the bad may see Him 38 ON THE TrJNITY. [BOOK I.
judging, inasmuch as He is the Son of man. Since the sight of the Son of man will be shown to the bad also: for the sight of the form of God will not be shown except to the pure in heart, for they shall see God; that is, to the godly only, to whose love He promises this very thing, that He will show Himself to them. And see, accordingly, what follows: " j\Iarvel not at this," He says. Why does He forbid us to marvel, unless it be that, in truth, every one marvels who does not under- stand, that therefore He said the Father gave Him power also to execute judgment, because He is the Son of man; whereas, it might rather have been anticipated that He would say, since He is the Son of God? But because the wicked are not able to see the Son of God as He is in the form of God equal to the Father, but yet it is necessary that both the just and the wicked should see the Judge of the quick and dead, when they will be judged in His presence; " Marvel not at this," He says, " for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." ^ For this purpose, then, it was necessary that He should therefore re- ceive that power, because He is the Son of man, in order that all in rising again might see Him in the form in which He can be seen by all, but by some to damnation, by others to life eternal. And what is life eternal, unless that sight which is not granted to the ungodly? " That they might know Thee," He says, " the One true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." ^ And how are they to Imow Jesus Christ Himself also, unless as the One true God, who will show Himself to them; not as He will show Himself, in the form of the Son of man, to those also that shall be punished?