XXIX. 440 Believe and understand; do His Will, and know. HOMIL. Jesus Christ in saying, My doctrine is not Mine, did all one as say, I am not of Myself. For albeit we affirm and believe the Son equal to the Father, and that there exists not in Them any difference of nature and substance, neither be tween Him that begetteth and Him that is begotten hath any interval of time intervened; yet in so saying we keep and hold fast this, that the One is Father, the Other Son. Now Father is not, if having no Son; and Son is not, if having no Father: but yet the Son is God, of the Father; the Father, God, but not of the Son. not God from the Son: whereas the Father, and God from the Father. For the Lord Christ is called, Light of Light. That Light then that is not of Light, and that equal Light which is of Light, is together One Light, not two Lights. 6. and Vet. Lat. Father of the Son, Other is Son of the 6. If we have understood, thanks be to God: if any hath failed to understand, man hath done what man could; for the rest, let him see whence he may hope to have understanding. We, on the outside, as workmen, may plant and 1 Cor. 3, water, but it is God's to give the increase. My doctrine, He saith, is not Mine, but His that sent Me. Let that man hear advice, who saith, I have not yet understood. For, since it was a great and a profound thing that had been said, the Lord Christ saw, assuredly, that this so profound matter would not be understood by all, and in the next-following words He gave counsel. Wouldest thou understand? Believe. Is. 7, 9. For God hath said by the Prophet, Except ye believe, ye LXX. shall not understand. To this it pertaineth, that here also the Lord went on to add these words: If any man be v. 17. willing to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself. What meaneth this, If any man be willing to do His will? Nay, but I said, If any believe: and I gave this counsel, If, said I, thou hast not understood, believe. For understanding is the wages of believing. Then seek not to understand that thou mayest believe, but believe that thou mayest understand; since, Except ye believe, ye shall not understand. Now whereas in order to ability of understanding I counselled obedience of believing, and told you that our Lord Jesus Christ added this same in the very next sentence, why, To believe in Christ, more than to believe Christ. 441 VII.17. 29. note. we find Him to have said, If any man be willing to do JOHN His will, he shall know of the doctrine. What is, shall know? this same is, shall understand. And what is meant by, If any man be willing to do His will, this same is, to believe. Now, that the word shall know, is the same as shall understand, this all understand: but not so, that the saying, If any be willing to do His will, is meant of believing: to understand this more exactly, we need our Lord Himself to be its expounder, that He may shew whether in very deed the doing the will of His Father means, believing. What person knoweth not that to do the will of God, is, to work His work, i. e. the work that pleaseth Him? Now the Lord Himself saith openly in another place, This is the work John 6, of God, that ye believe in Him Whom He hath sent. That ye believe in Him, " in Eum," not, that ye believe Him, "Ei." supra, p. 406, True, if ye believe in Him, ye believe Him, but it does not follow that whoso believeth Him, believeth in Him. Thus the devils, too, believed Him, and yet believed not in Him. Again, of His Apostles also, we may say, we believe Paul; but not, we believe in Paul: we believe Peter; but not, we believe in Peter. For, to him that believeth IN HIM that Rom. 4, justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted unto him for righteousness. Then what is it, to believe in, or into, Him? By believing to love, by believing to prize, by believing to go into Him and to be incorporated into His members. Consequently it is none other than faith that God exacteth of us; and He findeth not what to exact, unless He have bestowed what He may find. What faith, but that which the Apostle hath in another place defined, where he most fully saith, neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircum- Gal. 5, cision, but faith which worketh by love? Not any and every sort of faith, but, faith which worketh by love: let this be in thee, and thou shalt understand concerning the doctrine. For what shalt thou understand? That this doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me: that is, thou shalt understand that Christ the Son of God, Who is the Doctrine of the Father, is not from Himself, but Son of the Father. 7. The Sabellian heresy this sentence undoeth. The 5. 6. 442 The Sabellian heresy and its refutation. HOMIL. Sabellians, namely, have dared to say, that the Son is the XXIX. self-same as He Who is the Father; the names, two; the v. 18. 2, 4. 43. reality, one. If the names were two, and the reality one, it would not be said, My doctrine is not Mine. Why, if Thy doctrine be not Thine, O Lord, whose is it, unless there be Another Whose it may be? What Thou hast said, the Sabellians do not understand; for they have not seen the Trinity, but followed the error of their own heart. Let us, worshippers of the Trinity and Unity of Father and Son and Holy Ghost, and One God, understand concerning the doctrine of Christ, that it is not His. And the reason why He hath said, that He speaketh not of Himself, is, that Christ is the Father's Son, and the Father is Christ's Father, and the Son is, of God the Father, God, but not God the Father, of God the Son, God. 8. He that speaketh of himself, seeketh his own glory. 2 Thess. This will be he that is called Antichrist, extolling himself, as saith the Apostle, above all that is called God, and that is worshipped. For he it is whom the Lord announced as one that will seek his own glory, not the glory of the John 5, Father, and said to the Jews, I am come in the Name of My Father, and ye have not received Me: another will come in his own name, him ye will receive. He signified that they will receive Antichrist, who shall seek the glory of his own name, puffed up, not solid; and therefore not stable, but of course ruinous. But our Lord Jesus Christ hath set us a mighty example of humility: yea, for He is equal with the Father; yea, He, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: yea, John 14, Himself hath said, and most truly said, Have I been so long time with you, and have ye not known Me? Philip, he that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father; yea, for Himself hath ib.10,30. said, and most truly said, I and the Father are One. If then He is one with the Father, equal to the Father, God of God, God with God, coeternal, immortal, alike unchangeable, alike without time, alike Creator and Disposer of times; 9. a Comp. Hom. xxxvi. 6: xlvi. 9: lxxi. 2. In St. Augustine's time this sic intelligunt. Serm. 129, 7. Comp. Why men reject Christ and will receive Antichrist. 443 VII.18. and yet, for that He came in time, and took upon Him the JOHN form of a servant, and in fashion was found as a man, Phil. 2, doth seek the glory of the Father, not His own: what 7. oughtest thou to do, O man, thou, who when thou doest aught good, seekest thine own glory; when thou doest aught ill, dost meditate calumny against God? Give good heed unto thyself: thou art a creature, acknowledge the Creator: thou art a servant, despise not the Lord: thou art adopted, but not for thine own deservings; seek the glory of Him, from Whom thou hast this grace, thou a man adopted: of Him, Whose glory He sought Who is from Him, the Alone Begotten. But He that seeketh His glory that sent Him, the Same is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. But in Antichrist there is unrighteousness, and he is not true; because he will seek his own glory, not His by Whom he was sent: for indeed he is not sent by mission, but only suffered by permission. Let all us, then, who pertain to the Body of Christ, lest we be led into the snares of Antichrist, not seek our own glory. But if He sought His glory that sent Him, how much more should we seek the glory of Him that made us! Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you keepeth the Law? Why go ye about to kill Me? The people answered and said, Thou hast a devil: who goeth about to kill Thee? Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work, and ye all marvel. Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man. If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the Law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at Me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day? Judge not according to the person, but judge righteous judgment. 1. THE Lesson of the Holy Gospel of which we have heretofore discoursed to you, our beloved brethren, is immediately followed by the Lesson of to-day, which has been now read. The Lord spake, and was heard both by disciples. and Jews; the Truth spake, and was heard both by true and liars; Charity spake, and was heard both by friends and foes; the Good spake, and was heard both by good and bad. They heard, but He discerned; and whom His discourse profited and would profit, He saw and foresaw, In them that then were, He saw; in us that were to be, He foresaw. Then let us hear the Gospel even as we would hear the Lord Himself present; and let us not say, O happy they who were able to see Him! for many among them saw, 骷 F C t |