Chapter XVIII.
Wishing to give a reason for the Lord’s answer to
the apostles, he assigns the one received to Christ’s
tenderness. Then when another reason is supplied by others he
confesses that it is true; for the Lord spoke it by reason of His human
feelings. Hence he gathers that the knowledge of the Father and
the Son is equal, and that the Son is not inferior to the Father.
After having set beside the text, in which He is said to be inferior,
another whereby He is declared to be equal, he censures the rashness of
the Arians in judging about the Son, and shows that whilst they
wickedly make Him to be inferior, He is rightly called a Stone by
Himself.
219. We have been
taught therefore that the Son of God is not ignorant of the
future. If they confess this, I too—that I may now answer
why He declared that neither angels, nor the Son, but only the Father
knows—call to mind His wonted love for His disciples also in this
passage, and His grace, which by its very frequency ought to have been
known to all. For the Lord, filled with deep love for His
disciples, when they asked from Him what He thought unprofitable for
them to know, prefers to seem ignorant of what He knows, rather than to
refuse an answer. He loves rather to provide what is useful for
us, than to show His own power.
220. There are, however, some not so
faint-hearted as I. For I would rather fear the deep things of
God, than be wise. There are some, however, relying on the
words: “And Jesus increased in age and in wisdom and in
favour with God and man,”2802
who boldly
say, that according to His Godhead indeed He could not be ignorant of
the future, but that in His assumption of our human state He said that
He as Son of Man was in ignorance before His crucifixion. For
when He speaks of the Son, He does not speak as it were of another; for
He Himself is our Lord the Son of God and the Son of a Virgin.
But by a word which embraces both, He guides our mind, so that He as
Son of Man according to His adoption of our ignorance and growth of
knowledge, might be believed as yet not fully to have known all
things. For it is not for us to know the future. Thus He
seems to be ignorant in that state in which He makes progress.
For how does He progress according to His Godhead, in Whom the fulness
of the Godhead dwells?2803
Or what
is there which the Son of God does not know, Who said: “Why
think ye evil in your hearts?”2804
How
does He not know, of Whom Scripture says: “But Jesus knew
their thoughts”?2805
221. This is what others say, but I—to
return to my former point, where I stated it was written of the
Father: “It may be they will reverence My
Son,”—I think indeed this was written in order that the
Father, as He was speaking of men, might also seem to have spoken with
human feelings. But still more am I inclined to think that the
Son Who went about with men, and lived the life of man, and took upon
Him our flesh, assumed also our feelings; so that after our ignorance
He might say He knew not, though there was not anything He did not
know. For though He seemed to be a man in the reality of His
body, yet was He Life, and Light, and virtue came out of Him,2806
to heal the
wounds of the injured by the power of His
Majesty.
222. Ye see then that this matter has been solved
for you, since the saying of the Son is referred to the assumption of
our state in its fulness, and it was thus written concerning the
Father, in order that you might cease to cavil at the Son.
223. There was nothing then of which the Son
of God was ignorant, for there was nothing of which the Father was
ignorant. But if the Son was ignorant of nothing, as we now
conclude, let them say in what respect they wish Him to seem to be
inferior. If God has begotten a Son inferior to Himself, He has
granted Him less. If He has granted Him less, He either wished to
give less, or could only give less. But the Father is neither
weak nor envious, seeing that there was neither will nor power before
the Son. For wherein is He inferior, Who has all things even as
the Father has them? He has received all things from the Father
by right of His Generation,2807
and has shown
forth the Father wholly by the glory of His Majesty.
224. It is written, they say:
“For the Father is greater than I.”2808
It is also written:
“He thought it not robbery to be equal with God.”2809
It is written again that the Jews
wished to kill Him, because He said He was the Son of God, making
Himself equal with God.2810
It is
written: “I and My Father are one.”2811
They read “one,” they
do not read “many.” Can He then be both inferior and
equal in the same Nature? Nay, the one refers to His Godhead, the
other to His flesh.
225. They say He is inferior: I ask
who has measured it, who is of so overweening a heart, as to place the
Father and the Son before his judgment seat to decide upon which is the
greater? “My heart is not haughty nor are mine eyes raised
unto vanity,”2812
says
David. King David feared to raise his heart in pride in human
affairs, but we raise ours even in opposition to the divine
secrets. Who shall decide about the Son of God? Thrones,
dominions, angels, powers? But archangels give attendance and
serve Him, cherubim and seraphim minister to Him and praise Him.
Who then decides about the Son of God, on reading that the Father
Himself knows the Son, but will not judge Him. “For no man
knoweth the Son, but the Father.”2813
“Knoweth” it says,
not “judgeth.” It is one thing to know, another to
judge. The Father has knowledge in Himself. The Son has no
power superior to Himself. And again: “No man knoweth
the Father, but the Son;” and He Himself knows the Father, as the
Father knows Him.
226. But thou sayest that He said He was inferior,
He said also He was a Stone. Thou sayest more and yet dost
impiously attack Him. I say less and with reverence add to His
honour. Thou sayest He is inferior and confessest Him to be above
the angels. I say He is less than the angels, yet do not take
from His honour; for I do not refute His Godhead, but I do proclaim His
pity>
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
