Tractate 104 (John 17:1)

1. Before these words, which we are now, with the Lord's help, to make the subject of discourse, Jesus had said, These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace; which we are to consider as referring, not to the later words uttered by Him immediately before, but to all that He had addressed to them, whether from the time that He began to account them disciples, or at least from the time after supper when He commenced this admirable and lengthened discourse. He gave them, indeed, such a reason for speaking to them, that either all He ever spoke to them may with the utmost propriety be referred to that end, or those especially, as His last words, which He now spoke when on the eve of dying for them, after that he who was to betray Him had quitted their company. For He gave this as the cause of His discourse, that in Him they might have peace, just as it is wholly on this account that we are Christians. For this peace will have no temporal end, but will itself be the end of every pious intention and action that are ours at present. For its sake we are endowed with His sacraments, for its sake we are instructed by His works and sayings, for its sake we have received the earnest of the Spirit, for its sake we believe and hope in Him, and according to His gracious giving are enkindled with His love: by this peace we are comforted in all our distresses, by it we are delivered from them all: for its sake we endure with fortitude every tribulation, that in it we may reign in happiness without any tribulation. Fitly therewith did He bring His words to a close, which were proverbs to the disciples, who as yet had little understanding, but would afterwards understand them, when He had given them the Holy Spirit of promise, of whom He had said before: These things have I spoken unto you being yet present with you. But the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you. Such, doubtless, was to be the hour, wherein He promised that He would no more speak unto them in proverbs, but show them openly of the Father. For these same words of His, when revealed by the Holy Spirit, were no more to be proverbs to those who had understanding. For when the Holy Spirit was speaking in their hearts, there was not to be silence on the part of the only-begotten Son, who had said that in that hour He would show them plainly of the Father, which, of course, would no longer be a proverb to them when now endowed with understanding. But even this also, how it is that both the Son of God and the Holy Spirit speak at once in the hearts of their spiritual ones, yea the Trinity itself, which is ever inseparably at work, is a word to those who have, but a proverb to those who are without, understanding.

2. When, therefore, He had told them on what account He had spoken all things, namely, that in Him they might have peace while having distress in the world, and had exhorted them to be of good cheer, because He had overcome the world; having thus finished His discourse to them, He then directed His words to the Father, and began to pray. For so the evangelist proceeds to say: These things spoke Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son. The Lord, the Only-begotten and coeternal with the Father, could in the form of a servant and out of the form of a servant, if such were needful, pray in silence; but in this other way He wished to show Himself as one who prayed to the Father, that He might remember that He was still our Teacher. Accordingly, the prayer which He offered for us, He made also known to us; seeing that it is not only the delivering of discourses to them by so great a Master, but also the praying for them to the Father, that is a means of edification to disciples. And if so to those who were present to hear what was said, it is certainly so also to us who were to have the reading of it when written. Wherefore in saying this, Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, He showed that all time, and every occasion when He did anything or suffered anything to be done, were arranged by Him who was subject to no time: since those things, which were individually future in point of time, have their efficient causes in the wisdom of God, wherein there are no distinctions of time. Let it not, then, be supposed that this hour came through any urgency of fate, but rather by the divine appointment. It was no necessary law of the heavenly bodies that tied to its time the passion of Christ; for we may well shrink from the thought that the stars should compel their own Maker to die. It was not the time, therefore, that drove Christ to His death, but Christ who selected the time to die: who also fixed the time, when He was born of the Virgin, with the Father, of whom He was born independently of time. And in accordance with this true and salutary doctrine, the Apostle Paul also says, But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son; Galatians 4:4 and God declares by the prophet, In an acceptable time have I heard You, and in a day of salvation have I helped you; Isaiah 49:8 and yet again the apostle, Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2 He then may say, Father, the hour has come, who has arranged every hour with the Father: saying, as it were, Father, the hour, which we fixed together for the sake of men and of my glorification among them, has come, glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You.

3. The glorification of the Son by the Father is understood by some to consist in this, that He spared Him not, but delivered Him up for us all. Romans 8:32 But if we say that He was glorified by His passion, how much more was He so by His resurrection! For in His passion our attention is directed more to His humility than to His glory, in accordance with the testimony of the apostle, who says, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross: and then he goes on to say of His glorification, Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that in 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 the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father. This is the glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ, that took its commencement from His resurrection. His humility accordingly begins in the apostle's discourse with the passage where he says, He emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant; and reaches even to the death of the cross. But His glory begins with the clause where he says, Wherefore God also has exalted Him; and reaches on to the words, is in the glory of God the Father. For even the noun itself, if the language of the Greek codices be examined, from which the apostolic epistles have been translated into Latin, which in the latter is read, glory, is in the former read, δόξα: whence we have the verb derived in Greek for the purpose of saying here, δόξασον (glorify), which the Latin translator renders by  clarifica (make illustrious), although he might as well have said  glorifica (glorify), which is the same in meaning. And for the same reason, in the apostle's epistle where we find  gloria, claritas might have been used; for by so doing, the meaning would have been equally preserved. But not to depart from the sound of the words, just as  clarificatio (the making lustrous) is derived from  claritas (lustre), so is  glorificatio (the making glorious) from  gloria (glory). In order, then, that the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, might be made lustrous or glorious by His resurrection, He was first humbled by suffering; for had He not died, He would not have risen from the dead. Humility is the earning of glory; glory, the reward of humility. This, however, was done in the form of a servant; but He was always in the form of God, and always shall His glory continue: yea, it was not in the past as if it were no more so in the present, nor shall it be, as if it did not yet exist; but without beginning and without end, His glory is everlasting. Accordingly, when He says, Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, it is to be understood as if He said, The hour has come for sowing the seed-grain of humility, delay not the fruit of my glory. But what is the meaning of the words that follow: That Your Son may glorify You? Was it that God the Father likewise endured the humiliation of the body or of suffering, out of which He must needs be raised to glory? If not, how then was the Son to glorify Him, whose eternal glory could neither appear diminished through human form, nor be enlarged in the divine? But I will not confine such a question within the present discourse, or draw the latter out to greater length by such a discussion.

Tractate 105 (John 17:1-5)

1. That the Son was glorified by the Father in His form of a servant, which the Father raised from the dead and set at His own right hand, is indicated by the event itself, and is nowhere doubted by the Christian. But as He not only said, Father, glorify Your Son, but likewise added, that Your Son may glorify You, it is worthy of inquiry how it was that the Son glorified the Father, seeing that the eternal glory of the Father neither suffered diminution in any human form, nor could be increased in respect of its own divine perfection. In itself, indeed, the glory of the Father could neither be diminished nor enlarged; but without any doubt it was less among men when God was known only in Judea: and as yet children praised not the name of the Lord from the rising of the sun to its going down. But inasmuch as this was effected by the gospel of Christ, to wit, that the Father became known through the Son to the Gentiles, assuredly the Son also glorified the Father. Had the Son, however, only died, and not risen again, He would without doubt have neither been glorified by the Father, nor have glorified the Father; but now having been glorified through His resurrection by the Father, He glorifies the Father by the preaching of His resurrection. For this is disclosed by the very order of the words: Glorify, He says, Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You; saying, as it were, Raise me up again, that by me You may become known to all the world.

2. And then expanding still further how it was that the Father should be glorified by the Son, He says: As You have given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to all that You have given Him. By all flesh, He meant every man, signifying the whole by a part; as, on the other hand, the whole man is signified by the superior part, when the apostle says, Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. Romans 13:1 For what else did He mean by every soul, save every man? And this, therefore, that power over all flesh was given to Christ by the Father, is to be understood in respect of His humanity; for in respect of His Godhead all things were made by Himself, and in Him were created all things in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible. Colossians 1:16 As, then, He says, You have given Him power over all flesh, so may Your Son glorify You, in other words, make You known to all flesh whom You have given Him. For You have so given, that He should give eternal life to all that You have given Him.

3. And this, He adds, is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. The proper order of the words is, That they may know You and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent, as the only true God. Consequently, therefore, the Holy Spirit is also understood, because He is the Spirit of the Father and Son, as the substantial and consubstantial love of both. For the Father and Son are not two Gods, nor are the Father and Son and Holy Spirit three Gods; but the Trinity itself is the one only true God. And yet the Father is not the same as the Son, nor the Son the same as the Father, nor the Holy Spirit the same as the Father and the Son; for the Father and Son and Holy Spirit are three [persons], yet the Trinity itself is one God. If, then, the Son glorifies You in the same manner as You have given Him power over all flesh, and hast so given, that He should give eternal life to all that You have given Him, and this is life eternal, that they may know You; in this way, therefore, the Son glorifies You, that He makes You known to all whom You have given Him. Accordingly, if the knowledge of God is eternal life, we are making the greater advances to life, in proportion as we are enlarging our growth in such a knowledge. And we shall not die in the life eternal; for then, when there shall be no death, the knowledge of God shall be perfected. Then will be effected the full effulgence of God, because then the completed glory, as expressed in Greek by δόξα . For from it we have the word δόξασον, that is used here, and which some Latins have interpreted by  clarifica (make effulgent), and some by  glorifica (glorify). But by the ancients, glory, from which men are styled glorious, is thus defined: Glory is the widely-spread fame of any one accompanied with praise. But if a man is praised when the fame regarding him is believed, how will God be praised when He Himself shall be seen? Hence it is said in Scripture, Blessed are they that dwell in Your house; they will be praising You for ever and ever. There will God's praise continue without end, where there shall be the full knowledge of God; and because the full knowledge, therefore also the complete effulgence or glorification.

4. But God is first of all glorified here, while He is being made known to men by word of mouth, and preached through the faith of believers. Wherefore, He says, I have glorified You on the earth: I have finished the work which You gave me to do. He does not say, You ordered; but, You gave: where the evident grace of it is commended to notice. For what has the human nature even in the Only-begotten, that it has not received? Did it not receive this, that it should do no evil, but all good things, when it was assumed into the unity of His person by the Word, by whom all things were made? But how has He finished the work which was committed unto Him to do, when there still remains the trial of the passion wherein He especially furnished His martyrs with the example they were to follow, whereof, says the apostle Peter, Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow His steps: 1 Peter 2:21 but just that He says He has finished, what He knew with perfect certainty that He would finish? Just as long before, in prophecy, He used words in the past tense, when what He said was to take place very many years afterwards: They pierced, He says, my hands and my feet, they counted all my bones; He says not, They will pierce, and, They will count. And in this very Gospel He says, All things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you; to whom He afterward declares, I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. For He, who has predestinated all that is to be by sure and unchangeable causes, has done whatever He is to do: as it was also declared of Him by the prophet, Who has made the things that are to be.

5. In a way similar, also, to this, He proceeds to say: And now, O Father, glorify me with Your own self with the glory which I had with You before the world was. For He had said above, Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You: in which arrangement of the words He had shown that the Father was first to be glorified by the Son, in order that the Son might glorify the Father. But now He said, I have glorified You on the earth: I have finished the work which You gave me to do; and now glorify Thou me; as if He Himself had been the first to glorify the Father, by whom He then demands to be glorified. We are therefore to understand that He used both words above in accordance with that which was future, and in the order in which they were future, Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You: but that He now used the word in the past tense of that which was still future, when He said, I have glorified You on the earth: I have finished the work which You gave me to do. And then, when He said, And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Your own self, as if He were afterwards to be glorified by the Father, whom He Himself had first glorified; what did He intimate but that, when He said above, I have glorified You on the earth, He had so spoken as if He had done what He was still to do; but that here He demanded of the Father to do that whereby the Son should yet do so; in other words, that the Father should glorify the Son, by means of which glorification of the Son, the Son also was yet to glorify the Father? In fine, if, in connection with that which was still future, we put the verb also in the future tense, where He has used the past in place of the future tense, there will remain no obscurity in the sentence: as if He had said, I will glorify You on the earth: I will finish the work which You have given me to do; and now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Your own self. In this way it is as plain as when He says, Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You: and this is indeed the whole sentence, save that here we are told also the manner of that same glorification, which there was left unnoticed; as if the former were explained by the latter to those whose hearts it was able to stir, how it was that the Father should glorify the Son, and most of all how the Son also should glorify the Father. For in saying that the Father was glorified by Himself on the earth, but He Himself by the Father with the Father's very self, He showed them assuredly the manner of both glorifications. For He Himself glorified the Father on earth by preaching Him to the nations; but the Father glorified Him with His own self in setting Him at His own right hand. But on that very account, when He says afterward in reference to the glorifying of the Father, I have glorified You, He preferred putting the verb in the past tense, in order to show that it was already done in the act of predestination, and what was with perfect certainty yet to take place was to be accounted as already done; namely, that the Son, having been glorified by the Father with the Father, would also glorify the Father on the earth.

6. But this predestination He still more clearly disclosed in respect of His own glorification, wherewith He was glorified by the Father, when He added, With the glory which I had, before the world was, with You. The proper order of the words is, which I had with You before the world was. To this apply His words, And now glorify Thou me; that is to say, as then, so also now: as then, by predestination; so also now, by consummation: do Thou in the world what had already been done with You before the world: do in its own time what You have determined before all times. This, some have imagined, should be so understood as if the human nature, which was assumed by the Word, were converted into the Word, and the man were changed into God; yea, were we reflecting with some care on the opinions they have advanced, as if the humanity were lost in the Godhead. For no one would go the length of saying that out of such a transmutation of the humanity the Word of God is either doubled or increased, so that either what was one should now be two, or what was less should now be greater. Accordingly, if with His human nature changed and converted into the Word, the Word of God will still be as great as He was, and what He was, where is the humanity, if it is not lost?

7. But to this opinion, which I certainly do not see to be conformable to the truth, there is nothing to urge us, if, when the Son says, And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Your own self, with the glory which I had with You before the world was, we understand the predestination of the glory of His human nature, as thereafter, from being mortal, to become immortal with the Father: and that this had already been done by predestination before the world was, as also in its own time it was done in the world. For if the apostle has said of us, According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1:4 why should it be thought incongruous with the truth, if the Father glorified our Head at the same time as He chose us in Him to be His members? For we were chosen in the same way as He was glorified; inasmuch as before the world was, neither we nor the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 1 Timothy 2:5 were yet in existence. But He who, in as far as He is His Word, of His own self made even those things which are yet to come, and calls those things which are not as though they were, Romans 4:17 certainly, in respect of His manhood as Mediator between God and men, was Himself glorified on our behalf by God the Father before the foundation of the world, if it be so that we also were then chosen in Him. For what says the apostle? And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren: and whom He did predestinate, them He also called. Romans 8:28-30

8. But perhaps we shall have some fear in saying that He was predestinated, because the apostle seems to have said so only in reference to our being made conformable to His image. As if, indeed, any one, faithfully considering the rule of faith, were to deny that the Son of God was predestinated, who yet cannot deny that He was man. For it is rightly said that He was not predestinated in respect of His being the Word of God, God with God. For how could He be predestinated, seeing He already was what He was, without beginning and without ending, everlasting? But that, which as yet was not, had to be predestinated, in order that it might come to pass in its time, even as it was predestinated so to come before all times. Accordingly, whoever denies predestination of the Son of God, denies that He was also Himself the Son of man. But, on account of those who are disputatious, let us also on this subject listen to the apostle in the exordium of his epistles. For both in the first of his epistles, which is that to the Romans, and in the beginning of the epistle itself, we read: Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called [to be] an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which He had promised afore by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was made for Him of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was predestinated the Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. In respect, then, of this predestination also, He was gloried before the world was, in order that His glory might be, by the resurrection from the dead, with the Father, at whose right hand He sits. Accordingly, when He saw that the time of this, His predestinated glorification, was now come, in order that what had already been done in predestination might also be done now in actual accomplishment, He said in His prayer, And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Your own self with the glory which I had with You before the world was: as if He had said, The glory which I had with You, that is, that glory which I had with You in Your predestination, it is time that I should have with You also in sitting at Your right hand. But as the discussion of this question has already kept us long, what follows must be taken into consideration in another discourse.

Tractate 106 (John 17:6-8)

1. In this discourse we purpose speaking, as He gives us grace, on these words of the Lord which run thus: I have manifested Your name unto the men whom You gave me out of the world. If He said this only of those disciples with whom He had supped, and to whom, before beginning His prayer, He had said so much, it can have nothing to do with that clarification, or, as others have translated it, glorification, whereof He was previously speaking, and whereby the Son clarifies or glorifies the Father. For what great glory, or what like glory, was it to become known to twelve, or rather eleven mortal creatures? But if, in saying, I have manifested Your name unto the men whom You gave me out of the world, He wished all to be understood, even those who were still to believe in Him, as belonging to His great Church which was yet to be made up of all nations, and of which it is said in the psalm, I will confess to You in the great Church [congregation]; it is plainly that glorification wherewith the Son glorifies the Father, when He makes His name known to all nations and to so many generations of men. And what He says here, I have manifested Your name unto the men whom You gave me out of the world, is similar to what He had said a little before, I have glorified You upon the earth, John 17:4; putting both here and there the past for the future, as One who knew that it was predestinated to be done, and therefore saying that He had done what He had still to do, though without any uncertainty, in the future.

2. But what follows makes it more credible that His words, I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave me out of the world, were spoken by Him of those who were already His disciples, and not of all who were yet to believe in Him. For after these words, He added: Yours they were, and You gave them me; and they have kept Your word. Now they have known that all things, whatsoever You have given me, are of You: for I have given unto them the words which You gave me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from You, and they have believed that You sent me. Although all these words also might have been said of all believers still to come, when that which was now a matter of hope had been turned into fact, inasmuch as they were words that still pointed to the future; yet we are impelled the more to understand Him as uttering them only of those who were at that time His disciples, by what He says shortly afterwards: While I was with them, I kept them in Your name: those that You gave me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled John 17:12; meaning Judas, who betrayed Him, for He was the only one of the apostolic twelve that perished. And then He adds, And now come I to You, from which it is manifest that it was of His own bodily presence that He said, While I was with them, I kept them, as if already that presence were no longer with them. For in this way He wished to intimate His own ascension as in the immediate future, when He said, And now come I to You: going, that is, to the Father's right hand; whence He is hereafter to come to judge the quick and the dead in the self-same bodily presence, according to the rule of faith and sound doctrine: for in His spiritual presence He was still, of course, to be with them after His ascension, and with the whole of His Church in this world even to the end of time. Matthew 28:20 We cannot, therefore, rightly understand of whom He said, While I was with them, I kept them, save as those only who believed on Him, whom He had already begun to keep by His bodily presence, but was now to leave without it, in order that He might keep them with the Father by His spiritual presence. Thereafter, indeed, He also unites with them the rest of His disciples, when He says, Neither pray I for these alone, but for those also who shall believe in me through their word. Where He shows still more clearly that He was not speaking before of all who belonged to Him, in the passage where He says, I have manifested Your name unto the men whom You gave me, but of those only who were listening to Him when He so spoke.

3. From the very outset, therefore, of His prayer, when He lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, on to what He said a little afterwards, And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Your own self with the glory which I had with You before the world was, He wished all His disciples to be understood, to whom He makes the Father known, and thereby glorifies Him. For after saying, That Your Son may glorify You, He straightway showed how that was to be done, by adding, As You have given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him: and this is life eternal, that they might know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. For the Father cannot be glorified through any knowledge attained by men, unless He also be known by whom He is glorified, that is to say, by whom He is made known to the nations of the world. The glorification of the Father is not that which was displayed in connection with the apostles only, but that which is displayed in all men, of whom as His members Christ is the head. For the words cannot be understood as applied to the apostles only, As You have given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him; but to all, assuredly, on whom, as believing on Him, eternal life is bestowed.

4. Accordingly, let us now see what He says about those disciples of His who were then listening to Him. I have manifested, He says, Your name unto the men whom You gave me. Did they not, then, know the name of God when they were Jews? And what of that which we read, God is known in Judah; His name is great in Israel? Therefore, I have manifested Your name unto these men whom You gave me out of the world, and who are now hearing my words: not that name of Yours whereby You are called God, but that whereby You are called my Father: a name that could not be manifested without the manifestation of the Son Himself. For this name of God, by which He is called, could not but be known in some way to the whole creation, and so to every nation, before they believed in Christ. For such is the energy of true Godhead, that it cannot be altogether and utterly hidden from any rational creature, so long as it makes use of its reason. For, with the exception of a few in whom nature has become outrageously depraved, the whole race of man acknowledges God as the maker of this world. In respect, therefore, of His being the maker of this world that is visible in heaven and earth around us, God was known unto all nations even before they were indoctrinated into the faith of Christ. But in this respect, that He was not, without grievous wrong being done to Himself, to be worshipped alongside of false gods, God was known in Judah alone. But in respect of His being the Father of this Christ, by whom He takes away the sin of the world, this name of His, previously kept secret from all, He now made manifest to those whom the Father Himself had given Him out of the world. But how had He done so, if the hour were not yet come, of which He had formerly said that the hour would come, when I shall no more speak unto you proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of my Father? Can it be supposed that the proverbs themselves contained such a plain anouncement? Why, then, is it said, I will declare to you openly, but just because that in proverbs is not openly? But when it is no longer concealed in proverbs, but uttered in plain words, then without a doubt it is spoken openly. How, then, had He manifested what He had not as yet openly declared? It must be understood, therefore, in this way, that the past tense is put for the future, like those other words, All things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you: as something He had not yet done, but spoke of as if He had, because His doing of it He knew to be infallibly pre-determined.

5. But what are we to make of the words, Whom You gave me out of the world? For it is said of them that they were not of the world. But this they attained to by regeneration, and not by generation. And what, also, of that which follows, Yours they were, and You gave them me? Was there a time when they belonged to the Father, and not to His only-begotten Son; and had the Father once on a time anything apart from the Son? Surely not. Nevertheless, there was a time when God the Son had something, which that same Son as man possessed not; for He had not yet become man of an earthly mother, when He possessed all things in common with the Father. Wherefore in saying, Yours they were, there is thereby no self-disruption made by God the Son, apart from whom there was nothing ever possessed by the Father; but it is His custom to attribute all the power He possesses to Him, of whom He Himself is, who has the power. For of whom He has it that He is, of Him He has it that He is able; and both together He always had, for He never had being without having ability. Accordingly, what ever the Father could [do], always side by side with Him could the Son; since He, who never had being without having ability, was never without the Father, as the Father never was without Him. And thus, as the Father is eternally omnipotent, so is the Son co-eternally omnipotent; and if all-powerful, certainly all-possessing. For such rather, if we would speak exactly, is the word by which we translate what is called by the Greeks παντοκράτωρ which our writers would not interpret by the term omnipotent, seeing that παντοκράτωρ is all-possessing, were it not that they felt it to be equivalent in meaning. What, then, could the eternal all-possessing ever have, that the co-eternal all-possessing had not likewise? In saying, therefore, And You gave them me, He intimated that it was as man He had received this power to have them; seeing that He, who was always omnipotent, was not always man. Accordingly, while He seems rather to have attributed it to the Father, that He received them from Him, since all that is, is of Him, of whom He is; yet He also gave them to Himself, that is, Christ, God with the Father, gave men to the manhood of Christ, which had not its being with the Father. Finally, He who says in this place, Yours they were, and You gave them me, had already said in a previous passage to the same disciples, I have chosen you out of the world. Here, then, let every carnal thought be crushed and annihilated. The Son says that the men were given Him by the Father out of the world, to whom He says elsewhere, I have chosen you out of the world. Those whom God the Son chose along with the Father out of the world, the very same Son as man received out of the world from the Father; for the Father had not given them to the Son had He not chosen them. And in this way, as the Son did not thereby set the Father aside, when He said, I have chosen you out of the world, seeing that they were simultaneously chosen by the Father also: as little did He thereby exclude Himself, when He said, Yours they were, for they were equally also the property of the Son. But now that same Son as man received those who belonged not to Himself, because He also as God received a servant-form which was not originally His own.

6. He proceeds to say, And they have kept Your word: now they have known that all things, whatsoever You have given me, are of You; that is, they have known that I am of You. For the Father gave all things at the very time when He begot Him who was to have all things. For I have given unto them, He says, the words which You gave me; and they have received them; that is, they have understood and kept hold of them. For the word is received when it is perceived by the mind. And they have known truly, He adds, that I came out from You, and they have believed that You sent me. In this last clause we must also supply truly; for when He said, They have known truly, He intended its explanation by adding, and they have believed. That, therefore, they have believed truly which they have known truly; just as I came out from You is the same as You sent me. When, therefore, He said, They have known truly, lest any might suppose that such a knowledge was already acquired by sight, and not by faith, He subjoined the explanation, And they have believed, so that we should supply truly, and understand the saying, They have known truly, as equivalent to They have believed truly: not in the way which He intimated shortly before, when He said, Do ye now believe? The hour comes, and is now come, that you shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone. But they have believed truly, that is, in the way it ought to be believed, without constraint, with firmness, constancy, and fortitude: no longer now to go to their own, and leave Christ alone. As yet, indeed, the disciples were not of the character He here describes in words of the past tense, as if they were so already, but as thereby declaring beforehand what sort they were yet to be, namely, when they had received the Holy Spirit, who, according to the promise, should teach them all things. For how was it, before they received the Spirit, that they kept that word of His which He spoke regarding them, as if they had done so, when the chief of them thrice denied Him, Matthew 26:69-74 after hearing from His lips the future fate of the man who denied Him before men? Matthew 10:33 He had given them, therefore, as He said, the words which the Father gave Him; but when at length they received them spiritually, not in an outward way with their ears, but inwardly in their hearts, then they truly received them, for then they truly knew them; and they truly knew them, because they truly believed.

7. But what human language will suffice to explain how the Father gave those words to the Son? The question, of course, will appear easier if we suppose Him to have received such words in His capacity as the Son of man. And yet, although thus born of the Virgin, who will undertake to relate when and how it was that He learned them, since even that very generation which He had of the Virgin who will venture to declare? But if our idea be that He received these words of the Father in His capacity as begotten of, and co-eternal with, the Father, let us then exclude all such thoughts of time as if He existed previous to His possessing them, and so received the possession of that which He had not before; for whatever God the Father gave to God the Son, He gave in the act of begetting. For the Father gave those things to the Son without which He could not be the Son, in the same manner as He gave Him being itself. For how otherwise would He give any words to the Word, wherein in an ineffable way He has spoken all things? But now, in reference to what follows, you must defer your expectations till another discourse.

Tractate 107 (John 17:9-13)

1. When the Lord was speaking to the Father of those whom He already had as disciples, He said this also among other things: I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for those whom You have given me. By the world, He now wishes to be understood those who live according to the lust of the word, and stand not in the gracious lot of such as were to be chosen by Him out of the world. Accordingly it is not for the world, but for those whom the Father has given Him, that He expresses Himself as praying: for by the very fact of their having already been given Him by the Father, they have ceased to belong to that world for which He refrains from praying.

2. And then He adds, For they are Yours. For the Father did not lose those whom He gave, in the act of giving them to the Son; since the Son still goes on to say, And all mine are Yours, and Yours are mine. Where it is sufficiently apparent how it is that all that belongs to the Father belongs also to the Son; in this way, namely, that He Himself is also God, and, of the Father born, is the Father's equal: and not as was said to one of the two sons, to wit, the elder, You are ever with me; and all that I have is yours. Luke 15:31 For that was said of all those creatures which are inferior to the holy rational creature, and are certainly subordinate to the Church; wherein its universal character is understood as including those two sons, the elder and the younger, along with all the holy angels, whose equals we shall be in the kingdom of Christ and of God: Luke 20:36 but here it was said, And all mine are Yours, and Yours are mine, with this meaning, that even the rational creature is itself included, which is subject only to God, so that all beneath it are also subject to Him. As it then belongs to God the Father, it would not at the same time be the Son's likewise, were He not equal to the Father: for to it He was referring when He said, I pray not for the world, but for those whom You have given me: for they are Yours, and all mine are Yours, and Yours are mine. Nor is it morally admissible that the saints, of whom He so spoke, should belong to any save to Him by whom they were created and sanctified: and for the same reason, everything also that is theirs must of necessity be His also to whom they themselves belong. Accordingly, since they belong both to the Father and to the Son, they demonstrate the equality of those to whom they equally belong. But when He says, speaking of the Holy Ghost, All things that the Father has are mine; therefore said I, that He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you, He referred to those things which concern the actual deity of the Father, and in which He is equal to Him, in having all that He has. And no more was it of the creature, which is subject to the Father and the Son, that the Holy Spirit was to receive that whereof He said, He shall receive of mine; but most certainly of the Father, from whom the Spirit proceeds, and of whom also the Son is born.

3. He proceeds: And I am glorified in them. He now speaks of His glorification as already accomplished, although it was still future; while a little before He was demanding of the Father its accomplishment. But whether this be the same glorification, whereof He had said, And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Your own self with the glory which I had with You before the world was, is certainly a point worthy of examination. For if with You, how can it be in them? Is it when this very knowledge is imparted to them, and, through them, to all who believe them as His witnesses? In such a way we may clearly understand Christ as having said of the apostles, that He was glorified in them; for in saying that it was already accomplished, He showed that it was already foreordained, and only wished what was future to be regarded as certain.

4. And now, He adds, I am no more in the world, and these are in the world. If your thoughts turn to the very hour in which He was speaking, both were still in the world; to wit, He Himself, and those of whom He was so speaking: for it is not in respect of the tendency of heart and life that we can or ought to understand it, so that they should be described as still in the world, on the ground that they still savored of the earthly; and that He was no longer in the world, because divine in the disposition of His mind. For there is one word used here, which makes any such understanding altogether inadmissible; because He does not say, And I am not in the world; but, I am no more in the world: thereby showing that He Himself had been in the world, but was no more so. And are we then at liberty to believe that He at one time savored of the worldly, and, delivered at length from such a mistake, no longer retained the old disposition? Who would venture to shut himself up in so profane a meaning. It remains, therefore, that in the same sense in which He Himself also was previously in the world, He declared that He was no longer in the world, that is to say, in His bodily presence; in other words, showing thereby that His own absence from the world was now in the immediate future, and theirs later, when He said that He was no longer here, and that they were so, although both He and they were still present. For He thus spoke, as a man in harmony with men, in accordance with the prevailing custom of human speech. Do we not say every day, he is no longer here, of one who is on the very point of departure? And such in particular is the way we are wont to speak of those who are at the point of death. And besides all else, the Lord Himself, as if foreseeing the thoughts that might possibly be excited in those who were afterwards to read these words, added, And I come to You: explaining thereby in some measure why He said, I am no more in the world.

5. Accordingly He commends to the Father's care those whom He was about to leave by His bodily absence, saying: Holy Father, keep through Your own name those whom You have given me. That is to say, as man He prays to God in behalf of His disciples, whom He has received from God. But attend to what follows: That they may be one, He says, even as we. He does not say, That they may be one with us, or, that they and we may be one, as we are one; but He says, That they may be one, even as we: meaning, of course, that in their nature they may be one, even as we are one in ours, which certainly would not be spoken with truth, unless in this respect, that He, as God, is of the same nature as the Father also, in accordance with what He has said elsewhere, I and the Father are one; and not with what He also is as man, for in this respect He said, The Father is greater than I. But since one and the same person is God and man, we are to understand the manhood in respect of His asking; but the Godhead, in as far as He Himself, and He whom He asks, are one. But there is still a passage in what follows, where we must have a more careful discussion of this subject.

6. But here He proceeds: While I was with them, I kept them in Your name. Since I am coming, He says, to You, keep them in Your name, in which I myself have kept them while I was with them. In the Father's name, the Son as man kept His disciples, when placed side by side with them in human presence; but the Father also, in the name of the Son, kept those whom He heard and answered when praying in the name of the Son. For to them had it also been said by the Son Himself: Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it you. But we are not to take this in any such carnal way, as that the Father and Son keep us in turn, with an alternation in the guardianship of both in guarding us, as if one succeeded when the other departed; for we are guarded all at once by the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, who is the one true and blessed God. But Scripture does not exalt us save by descending to us: as the Word, by becoming flesh, came down to lift us up, and fell not so as to remain Himself in the depths. If we have known Him who thus descends, let us rise with Him who lifts us up; and let us understand, when He speaks thus, that He is marking a distinction in the persons, without making any separation of the natures. While, therefore, the Son in bodily presence was keeping His disciples, the Father was not waiting the Son's departure in order to succeed to the guardianship, but both were keeping them by Their spiritual power; and when the Son withdrew from them His bodily presence, He retained along with the Father the spiritual guardianship. For when the Son also as man assumed the office of their guardian, He did not withdraw them from the Father's guardianship; and when the Father gave them to the guardianship of the Son, in the very giving He acted not apart from Him to whom He gave them, but gave them to the Son as man, yet not apart from that same Son Himself as God.

7. The Son therefore goes on to say: Those that You gave me, I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled. The betrayer of Christ was called the son of perdition, as foreordained to perdition, according to the Scripture, where it is specially prophesied of him in the 109th Psalm.

8. And now, He says, come I to You; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. See! He says that He speaks in the world, when He had said only a little before, I am no more in the world: the reason of which we have there explained, or rather have shown that He Himself explained it. Accordingly, on the one hand, as He had not yet departed, He was still here; and because He was on the very point of departure, in a kind of way He was no more here. But what this joy is whereof He says, That they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves, has already been elucidated above, where He says, That they may be one, even as we are. This joy of His that is bestowed on them by Him, was to be fulfilled, He says, in them; and for that very end declared that He had spoken in the world. This is that peace and blessedness in the world to come, for the attaining of which we must live temperately, and righteously, and godly in the present.

Tractate 108 (John 17:14-19)

1. While the Lord is still speaking to the Father, and praying for His disciples, He says: I have given them Your saying; and the world has hated them. That hatred they had not yet experienced in those sufferings of their own, which afterwards overtook them; but He speaks thus in His usual way, foretelling the future in words of the past tense. And then, subjoining the reason of their being hated by the world, He says, Because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. This was conferred on them by regeneration; for by generation they were of the world, as He had already said to them, I have chosen you out of the world. It was therefore a gracious privilege bestowed upon them, that they, like Himself, should not be of the world, through the deliverance which He was giving them from the world. He, however, was never of the world; for even in respect of His servant-form He was born of that Holy Spirit of whom they were born again. For if on that account they were no more of the world, because born again of the Holy Spirit; on the same account He was never of the world, because born of the Holy Spirit.

2. I pray not, He adds, that you should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil. For they still accounted it necessary to be in the world, although they were no longer of it. Then He repeats the same statement: They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. For so are they kept from the evil, as He had previously prayed that they might be. But it may be inquired how they were no more of the world, if they were not yet sanctified in the truth; or, if they already were, why He requests that they should be so. Is it not because even those who are sanctified still continue to make progress in the same sanctification, and grow in holiness; and do not so without the aid of God's grace, but by His sanctifying of their progress, even as He sanctified their outset? And hence the apostle likewise says: He who has begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6 The heirs therefore of the New Testament are sanctified in that truth which was adumbrated in the purifications of the Old Testament; and when they are sanctified in the truth, they are in other words sanctified in Christ, who said in truth, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. As also when He said, The truth shall make you free, in explanation of His words, He added soon after, If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed; in order to show that what He had previously called the truth, He a minute afterwards denominates the Son. And what else did He mean by the words before us, Sanctify them in the truth, but, Sanctify them in me?

3. Finally, He proceeds, and doing so fails not to suggest the same with increasing clearness: Your speech (sermo) is truth. What else did He mean than I am the truth? For the Greek Gospel has λόγος, which is also the word that is found in the passage where it is said, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And that Word at least we know to be the only begotten Son of God, which was made flesh, and dwelt among us. Hence also there might have been put here as it actually has been put in certain copies, Your Word is truth; just as in some copies that other passage is written, In the beginning was the speech. But in the Greek without any variation it is λόγος in both cases. The Father therefore sanctifies in the truth, that is, in His own Word, in His Only begotten, His own heirs and His (the Son's) co-heirs.

4. But now He still goes on to speak of the apostles, for He proceeds to add, As You have sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. Whom did He so send but His apostles? For even the very name of apostles, which is a Greek word, signifies in Latin nothing more than, those that are sent. God, therefore, sent His Son, not in sinful flesh, but in the likeness of sinful flesh; Romans 8:3 and His Son sent those who, born themselves in sinful flesh, were sanctified by Him from the defilement of sin.

5. But since, on the ground that the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, has become Head of the Church, they are His members; therefore He says in the words that follow, And for their sakes I sanctify myself. For what means He by the words, And for their sakes I sanctify myself, but I sanctify them in myself, since they also are [part of] myself? For those of whom He so speaks are, as I have said, His members; and the head and body are one Christ, as the apostle teaches when he says of the seed of Abraham, And if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, after having said before, He says not, And to seeds, as in many, but as in one, And to your seed, which is Christ. If, then, the seed of Abraham is Christ, what else is declared to those to whom he says, Then are you Abraham's seed, but then are you Christ? Of the same character is what this very apostle said in another place: Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh. Colossians 1:24 He said not, of my afflictions, but of Christ's; for he was a member of Christ, and in his persecutions, such as it behooved Christ to suffer in the whole of His body, he also was filling up his own share of His afflictions. And to be assured of the certainty of this in the present passage, give heed to what follows. For after saying, And for their sakes I sanctify myself, to let us understand that He thereby meant that He would sanctify them in Himself, He immediately added, That they also may be sanctified in the truth. And what else is this but in me, in accordance with the fact that the truth is that Word in the beginning which is God? In whom also the Son of man was Himself sanctified from the beginning of His creation, when the Word was made flesh, for the Word and the man became one person. Then accordingly He sanctified Himself in Himself, that is, Himself the man in Himself the Word; for the Word and the man is one Christ, who sanctifies the manhood in the Word. But in behalf of His members He says, And for their sakes I,— that is, that the benefit may be also theirs, for they too are [included in the] I, just as it benefited me in myself, because I am man apart from them — I sanctify myself, that is, I sanctify them as if it were my own self in me, since in me they also are I. That they also may be sanctified in the truth. For what else mean the words they also, but [they] in the same way as I; in the truth, and that truth am I? After this He now begins to speak not only of the apostles, but also of the rest of His members, which we shall treat of, as grace may be granted us, in another discourse.

Tractate 109 (John 17:20)

1. The Lord Jesus, in the now close proximity of His passion, after praying for His disciples, whom He also named apostles, with whom He had partaken of that last supper from which His betrayer had taken his departure on being revealed by the sop of bread, and with whom, after the latter's departure, and before beginning His prayer in their behalf, He had already spoken at length, conjoined all others also who were yet to believe in Him, and said to the Father, Neither pray I for these alone, that is, for the disciples who were with Him at the time, but for them also, He adds, who shall believe in me through their word. Whereby He wished all His own to be understood: not only such as were then in the flesh, but those also who were yet to come. For all that have since believed on Him have doubtless believed, and shall yet believe till He come, through the word of the apostles; for to themselves He had said, And ye also shall bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning; and by them was the gospel ministered even before it was written, and every one assuredly who believes in Christ believes the gospel. Accordingly, those who He says should believe in Him through their word, are not to be understood as referring only to such as heard the apostles themselves while they lived in the flesh; but others also after their decease, and we, too, born long afterwards, have believed on Christ through their word. For they that were then with Him preached to the others what they had heard from Him; and so their word, that we too might believe, has found its way to us, and wherever His Church exists, and shall yet reach down to posterity, whoever and wherever they be who shall hereafter believe in Him.

2. In this prayer, therefore, Jesus may seem to have omitted praying for some of His own, unless we carefully examine His words in the prayer itself. For if He prayed first for those, as we have already shown, who were then with Him, and afterwards for those also who should believe in Him through their word, it may be said that He prayed not for those who were neither with Him when He so spoke, nor afterwards believed through their word, but had done so at some previous time either of themselves, or in some other supposable manner. For was Nathanael with Him at that time? Was Joseph of Arimathea, who begged His body from Pilate, and of whom this same evangelist John testifies that he was already His disciple? Were His mother, Mary, and other women who, we know from the Gospel, had been prior to that time His disciples? Were those with Him then, of whom this evangelist John frequently says, Many believed on Him? For whence came the multitude of those who, with branches of trees, partly preceded and partly followed Him as He sat on the ass, saying, Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord; and along with them the children of whom He Himself declared that the prophecy had been uttered, Out of the mouth of babes and of sucklings You have perfected praise? Whence the five hundred brethren, to all of whom at once He would not have appeared after His resurrection 1 Corinthians 15:6 had they not previously believed on Him? Whence that hundred and nine who, with the eleven, were a hundred and twenty, when, being assembled together after His ascension, they waited and received the promise of the Holy Spirit? Whence came all these, save from those of Whom it was said, Many believed on Him? For them, therefore, the Saviour did not at this time pray, seeing it was for those He prayed who were then with Him, and for others not who had already, but who were yet to believe in Him through their word. But these were certainly not with Him on that occasion, and had already believed on Him at some previous period. I say nothing of the aged Simeon, who believed on Him when an infant; of Anna the prophetess; Luke 2:25-38 of Zachariah and Elisabeth, who prophesied of Him before He was born of the Virgin; of their son John, His forerunner, the friend of the Bridegroom, who both recognized Him in the Holy Spirit, and preached Him in His absence, and pointed Him out when He was present to the recognition of others; — I say nothing of these, as it might be replied that He ought not to have prayed for such when dead, who had gone hence with their great merits, and having met with a welcome reception were now at rest; for a similar answer is also given in connection with the righteous of olden time. For which of them could have been saved from the damnation awaiting the whole mass of perdition, which has been caused by one man, had he not believed, through the revelation of the Spirit, in the one Mediator between God and men as yet to come in the flesh? But behooved He to pray for the apostles, and not to pray for so many who were still alive, but were not then with Him, and had already at some previous period been brought to the faith? Who is there that would say so?

3. We are therefore to understand that their faith in Him was not yet such as He wished it to be, inasmuch as even Peter himself, to whom, on making the confession, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, He had borne so excellent a testimony, was disposed rather to hinder Him from dying than to believe in His resurrection when dead, and hence was called immediately thereafter by the same of Satan. Those, accordingly, are found to be the greater in faith who were long since deceased, and yet, through the revelation of the Spirit, had no manner of doubt that Christ would rise again, than those who, after attaining to the belief that He should redeem Israel, at the sight of His death lost all the hope they previously possessed regarding Him. The best thing for us, therefore, to believe is, that after His resurrection, when the Holy Spirit was bestowed, and the apostles taught and confirmed, and from its outset constituted teachers in the Church, others, through their word, attained the proper faith in Christ, or, in other words, that they then got firm hold of the faith of His resurrection. And in this way also, that all those who seemed to have already believed on Him really belonged to the number of those for whom He prayed, when He said, Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe in me through their word.

4. But we have still in reserve for the further solution of this question the blessed apostle, and that robber who was a villain in wickedness, but a believer on the cross. For the Apostle Paul tells us that he was made an apostle not of men, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ: and speaking of his own gospel, he says, For I neither received it of man, neither did I learn it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. How then was he among those of whom it is said, They shall believe in me through their word? On the other hand, the robber believed at the very time when in the case of the teachers themselves such faith as they previously possessed had utterly failed. Not even he, therefore, believed on Christ through their word, and yet his faith was such that he confessed that He whom he saw nailed to the cross would not only rise again, but would also reign, when he said, Remember me when You come into Your kingdom. Luke 23:42

5. Accordingly it remains that if we are to believe that the Lord Jesus, in this prayer, prayed for all of His own who either then were or should thereafter be in this life, which is a state of trial upon earth, we must so understand the expression, through their word, as to believe that it here signified the word of faith itself which they preached in the world, and that it was called their word because it was primarily and principally preached by them. For it was already in the course of being preached by them in the earth when Paul received that same word of theirs by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Whence also it came about that he compared the Gospel with them, lest by any means he had run, or should run, in vain; and they gave him their right hand because in him also they found, although not given him by them, their own word which they were already preaching, and in which they were now established. And in regard to this word of the resurrection of Christ, it is said by the same apostle, Whether it were I, or they, so we preach, and so ye believed; 1 Corinthians 15:11 and again, This is the word of faith, he says, which we preach, that if you shall confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. Romans 10:8-9 And in the Acts of the Apostles we read that in Christ, God has marked out [the ground of] faith unto all men, in that He has raised Him from the dead. Acts 17:31 Accordingly, this word of faith, because principally and primarily preached by the apostles who adhered to Him, was called their word. Not, however, on that account does it cease to be the word of God because it is called their word; for the same apostle says that the Thessalonians received it from him not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God. 1 Thessalonians 2:13 Of God, for the very reason that it was freely given by God; but called their word, because primarily and principally committed to them by God to be preached. In the same way also the thief mentioned above had in the matter of his own faith their word, which was called theirs precisely because the preaching of it primarily and principally pertained to the office they filled. And once more, when murmuring arose among the Grecian widows in reference to the serving of the tables, previous to the time when Paul was brought to the faith of Christ, the reply given by the apostles, who before then had adhered to the Lord, was: It is not good that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Acts 6:1-4 Then it was that they provided for the ordination of deacons, that they themselves might not be drawn aside from the duty of preaching the word. Hence that was properly enough called their word which is the word of faith, whereby all, from whatever quarter they had heard it, believed on Christ, or, as yet to hear it, should thereafter believe. In this prayer, therefore, all whom He redeemed, whether then alive or thereafter to live in the flesh, were prayed for by our Redeemer when, praying for the apostles who were then with Him, He also conjoined those who were yet to believe in Him through their word. But what, after such conjunction, He then proceeds to say, must be reserved for discussion in another discourse.

Tractate 110 (John 17:21-23)

1. After the Lord Jesus had prayed for His disciples whom He had with Him at the time, and had conjoined with them others who were also His own, by saying, Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe in me through their word, as if we were inquiring what or wherefore He prayed for them, He straightway subjoined, That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in You, that they also may be one in us. And a little above, while still praying for the disciples alone who were then with Him, He said, Holy Father, keep in Your own name those whom You have given me, that they may be one, as we are John 17:11. It is the same thing, therefore, that He now also prayed for in our behalf, as He did at that time in theirs, namely, that all — to wit, both we and they — may be one. And here we must take particular notice that the Lord did not say that we all may be one, but, that they all may be one; as Thou Father, in me, and I in You (where is to be understood are one, as is more clearly expressed afterwards); because He had also said before of the disciples who were with Him, That they may be one, as we are. The Father, therefore, is in the Son, and the Son in the Father, in such a way as to be one, because they are of one substance; but while we may indeed be in them, we cannot be one with them; for they and we are not of one substance, in as far as the Son is God along with the Father. But in as far as He is man, He is of the same substance as we are. But at present He wished rather to call attention to that other statement which He made use of in another place, I and the Father are one, where He intimated that His own nature was the same with that of the Father. And accordingly, though the Father and Son, or even the Holy Spirit, are in us, we must not suppose that they are of one nature with ourselves. And hence they are in us, or we are in them, in this sense, that they are one in their own nature, and we are one in ours. For they are in us, as God in His temple; but we are in them, as the creature in its Creator.

2. But then after saying, That they also may be one in us, He added, That the world may believe that You have sent me. What does He mean by this? Is it that the world will then be brought to the faith, when we shall all be one in the Father and Son? Is not such a state the everlasting peace, and the reward of faith, rather than faith itself? For we shall be one not in order to our believing, but because we have believed. But although in this life, because of the common faith itself, all who believe in one are one according to the words of the apostle, For you are all one in Christ Jesus; Galatians 3:28 even thus we are one, not in order to our believing, but because we do believe. What, then, is meant by the words, That they all may be one, that the world may believe? This, doubtless, that the all are themselves the believing world. For those who shall be one are not of one class, and the world that is thereafter to believe in this very ground that these shall be one, of another; since it is perfectly certain that He says, That they all may be one, of those of whom He had said before, Neither pray I for these alone, but for those also who shall believe in me through their word, immediately adding as He does, That they all may be one. And this all, what is it but the world; not certainly that which is hostile, but that which is believing? For you see here that He who had said, I pray not for the world, now prays for the world that it may believe. For there is a world whereof it is written, That we might not be condemned with this world. 1 Corinthians 11:32 For that world He prays not, for He is fully aware to what it is predestinated. And there is a world whereof it is written, For the Son of man came not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved; and hence the apostle also says, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. 2 Corinthians 5:19 For this world it is that He prays, in saying, That the world may believe that You have sent me. For through this faith the world is reconciled unto God when it believes in the Christ whom God has sent. How, then, are we to understand Him when He says, That they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that You have sent me, but just in this way, that He did not assign the cause of the world believing to the fact that those others are one, as if it believed on the ground that it saw them to be one; for the world itself here consists of all who by their own believing become one; but in His prayer He said, That the world may believe, just as in His prayer He also said, That they all may be one; and still further in the same prayer, That they also may be one in us. For the words, they all may be one, are equivalent to the world may believe, since it is by believing that they become one, perfectly one; that is, those who, although one by nature, had ceased to be so by their mutual dissensions. In fine, if the verb which He uses, I pray, be understood in the third clause, or rather, to make the whole fuller, be everywhere supplied, the explanation of this sentence will be all the clearer: I pray that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, in me, and I in You; I pray that they also may be one in us; I pray that the world may believe that You have sent me. And, mark, He added the words in us in order that we may know that our being made one in that love of unchanging faithfulness is to be attributed to the grace of God, and not to ourselves: just as the apostle, after saying, For you were at one time darkness, but now are you light, that none might attribute the doing of this to themselves, added, in the Lord. Ephesians 5:8

3. Furthermore, our Saviour in thus praying to the Father showed Himself to be man; while He now also shows that He Himself, as being God along with the Father, does that which He prays for, when He says, And the glory which You gave me, I have given them. And what was that glory but immortality, which human nature was henceforth to receive in Him? For not even He Himself had as yet received it, but in His own customary way, on account of the absolute fixedness of predestination, He intimates what is future in verbs of the past tense, because being now on the point of being glorified, or in other words, raised up again by the Father, He Himself is going to raise us up to the same glory in the end. What we have here is similar to what He says elsewhere, As the Father raises up the dead, and quickens them, even so the Son quickens whom He will. And whom, but just the same as the Father? For whatever things the Father does, not other things, but these also does the Son, not in a different way, but in like manner. And in this way He also raised up even His own self. For to this effect he said, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again. Accordingly the glory of immortality, which He says had been given Him by the Father, He must be also understood as having bestowed upon Himself, although He does not say it. For on this very account He more frequently says that the Father alone does, what He Himself also does along with the Father, that everything whatever He may attribute to Him of whom He is. But sometimes also He is silent about the Father, and says that He Himself does what He only does along with the Father: that we may thereby understand that the Son is not to be separated from the working of the Father, when He is silent about Himself, and ascribes some work or other to the Father; as, on the other hand, the Father is not separated from the working of the Son, when the Son is said, without any mention being made of [the Father] Himself, to be doing some work in which nevertheless both are equally engaged. When, therefore, in some work of the Father, the Son says nothing of His own working, He commends humility, that He may become the source of sounder health to us; but when, in turn, in the case of some work of His own, He says nothing of the working of the Father, He commends His own equality, that we may not suppose Him to be inferior. In this way, then, and in this passage, He neither estranges Himself from the Father's working, although He has said, The glory which You gave me; for He also gave it to Himself: nor does He estrange the Father from His own working, although saying, I have given to them; for the Father also gave it to them. For the works not only of the Father and the Son, but also of the Holy Spirit, are inseparable. But just as, because of His praying the Father in behalf of all His people, it was His own pleasure that this should be done, that they all may be one; so also on the ground of His own beneficence, as expressed in the words, The glory which You gave me, I have given them, the doing of that was none the less His pleasure; for He immediately added, That they may be one, as we also are one.

4. And then He added: I in them, and You in me, that they may be made perfect in one. Here He briefly intimated Himself as the Mediator between God and men. Nor was this said in any such way as if the Father were not in us, or we were not in the Father; since He had also said in another place, We will come unto him, and make our abode with him; and a little before in this present passage He had not said, I in them and You in me, as He said now; or, They in me, and I in You; but, Thou in me, and I in You, and they in us. Accordingly, when He now says, I in them, and You in me, the words take this form in reference to the person of the Mediator, like that other expression used by the apostle, You are Christ's, and Christ is God's. 1 Corinthians 3:23 But in adding, That they may be made perfect in one, He showed that the reconciliation, which is effected by the Mediator, is carried to the very length of bringing us to the enjoyment of that perfect blessedness, which is thenceforth incapable of further addition. Hence the words that follow, That the world may know that You have sent me, are not, I think, to be taken as if He had again said, That the world may believe; for sometimes, to know, is also used in the same sense as to believe, as it is in the words He uttered some time before: And they have known truly that I came out from You, and they have believed that You sent me. He expressed the same thing by the later words, they have believed, as He had done by the earlier, they have known. But inasmuch as He here speaks of the consummation, the knowledge must be taken for such, as it shall then be by sight, and not, as it now is, by faith. For an order seems to have been preserved in reference to what He said a little before, that the world may believe; while here it is, that the world may know. For although He said there, that they all may be one, and may be one in us, yet He did not say, they may be made perfect in one, and so subjoined the words, that the world may believe that You have sent me; but here He said, That they may be made perfect in one, and then added, not, that the world may believe, but, that the world may know that You have sent me. For so long as we believe what we do not see, we are not yet made perfect, as we shall be when we have merited the sight of that which we believe. Most correctly, therefore, did He say in that previous place, That the world may believe, and here That the world may know; yet both there and here, that You have sent me; that we may know, so far as belongs to the inseparable love of the Father and the Son, that at present we only believe what we are on the way, by believing, to know. And had He said, That they may know that You have sent me, it would be just of the same force as what He actually does say, that the world may know. For they are the world that abides not in enmity, as does the world that is foreordained to damnation; but one that out of an enemy has been transformed into a friend, and on whose account God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. Therefore said He, I in them, and You in me; as if He had said, I in those to whom You have sent me; and You in me, reconciling the world unto Yourself through me.

5. In close relation to these come also His further words: And You have loved them as you have loved me. That is to say, in the Son the Father loves us, because in Him He has chosen us before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1:4 For He who loves the Only-begotten, certainly loves also His members which, through His in strumentality, He engrafted into Him by adoption. But we are not on this account equal to the only-begotten Son, by whom we have been created and re-created, that it is said, You have loved them as [You have] also [loved] me. For one does not always intimate equality when he says, As this, so also that other; but sometimes only, Because this is, so also is the other; or, That the one is, in order that the other may be also. For who could say that the apostles were sent by Christ into the world in exactly the same way as He Himself was sent by the Father? For, to say nothing of other differences, which it would be tedious to mention, they at all events were sent when they were already men; but He was sent in order that He might be man; and yet He said above, As You have sent me into the world, even so have I sent them into the world; as if He had said, Because You have sent me, I have sent them. So also in the passage before us He says, You have loved them, as You have loved me; which is nothing else than this, You have loved them because that You have also loved me. For He could not but love the members of the Son, seeing that He loves the Son Himself; nor is there any other reason for loving His members, save that He loves Himself. But He loves the Son as regards His Godhead, because He begot Him equal with Himself; He loves Him also in regard to what He is as man, because the Only-begotten Word was Himself made flesh, and on account of the Word is the flesh of the Word dear to Him; but He loves us, inasmuch as we are the members of Him whom He loves; and in order that we might be so, He loved us on this account before we existed.

6. The love, therefore, wherewith God loves, is incomprehensible and immutable. For it was not from the time that we were reconciled unto Him by the blood of His Son that He began to love us; but He did so before the foundation of the world, that we also might be His sons along with His Only-begotten, before as yet we had any existence of our own. Let not the fact, then, of our having been reconciled unto God through the death of His Son be so listened to or so understood, as if the Son reconciled us to Him in this respect, that He now began to love those whom He formerly hated, in the same way as enemy is reconciled to enemy, so that thereafter they become friends, and mutual love takes the place of their mutual hatred; but we were reconciled unto Him who already loved us, but with whom we were at enmity because of our sin. Whether I say the truth on this, let the apostle testify, when he says: God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8-9 He, therefore, had love toward us even when we were practising enmity against Him and working iniquity; and yet to Him it is said with perfect truth, You hate, O Lord, all workers of iniquity. Accordingly, in a wonderful and divine manner, even when He hated us, He loved us; for He hated us, in so far as we were not what He Himself had made; and because our own iniquity had not in every part consumed His work, He knew at once both how, in each of us, to hate what we had done, and to love what He had done. And this, indeed, may be understood in the case of all regarding Him to whom it is truly said, You hate nothing that You have made. Wisdom 11:25 For He would never have wished anything that He hated to exist, nor would anything that the Omnipotent had not wished exist at all, were it not that in what He hated there was also something that He loved. For He justly hates and reprobates vice as utterly repugnant to the principle of His procedure, yet He loves even in the persons of the vitiated what is susceptible either of His own beneficence through healing, or of His judgment by condemnation. In this way God at the same time hates nothing of what He has made; for as the Creator of natures, and not of vices, it was not He who made the evil that He hates; and of these same evils, all is good that He really does, either by mercifully healing them, or by judicially regulating them. Seeing, then, that He hates nothing that He has made, who can worthily describe how much He loves the members of His Only-begotten, and how much more the Only-begotten Himself, in whom are hid all things visible and invisible, which were ordained in their various classes, and which He loves in fullest harmony with such ordination? For the members of His Only-begotten He is leading on by the liberality of His grace to an equality with the holy angels; while the Only-begotten Himself, being Lord of all, is doubtless Lord of angels, being by nature, as God, the equal not of angels, but rather of the Father Himself; while through grace, in respect of which He is man, how can He otherwise than surpass all angelic excellence, seeing that in Him human flesh and the Word constitute but one personality?

7. Nevertheless there are not wanting some who place us likewise before the angels; because, they say, Christ died for us and not for angels. But what else is such a notion than the desire to glory over our very impiety? For Christ, as the apostle says, in due time died for the ungodly. Romans 5:6 Where it is not any desert of ours, but the mercy of God, that is commended. For what can be the character of the man who wishes himself to be lauded, because he has become so abominably diseased through his own wickedness, that he can only be healed by the death of his physician? That surely is not the glory of our deserts, but the medicine of our diseases. Or do we prefer ourselves to the angels on this account, that, while there are angels also who have sinned, there has been no such labor expended on their healing? As if something that was at least small in amount had been undertaken for them, and what was greater for us. But had even such been the case, it might still be a subject of inquiry whether it was so because we had once stood in a position of superior excellence, or because we were now lying in a more desperate condition. But knowing as we do that the Creator of all good has imparted no grace for the reparation of angelic evils, why do we not rather draw the inference that their fault was judged all the more damnable, that the nature of those who committed it was of a loftier sublimity? For to the same extent as they less than we ought to have fallen into sin, were they superior in nature to us. But now in offending against the Creator they became all the more detestably ungrateful for His beneficence, that they were created capable of exercising the greater beneficence; nor was it enough for them to become deserters from Him, but they must also become our deceivers. This, therefore, is the great goodness of which we are to be made the subjects by Him, who has loved us even as He has loved Christ, that, for His sake, whose members He wished us to be, we may be equal to the holy angels, Luke 20:36 to whom we were created with an inferiority of nature, and have by our sin fallen into such greater depths of unworthiness, as to make it incumbent that we should be in some sort their associates.

Tractate 111 (John 17:24-26)

1. The Lord Jesus raises up His people to a great hope, than which there could not possibly be a greater. Listen and rejoice in hope, that, since the present is not a life to be loved, but to be tolerated, you may have the power of patient endurance amid all its tribulation. Romans 12:12 Listen, I say, and weigh well to what it is that our hopes are exalted. Christ Jesus says, The Son of God, the Only-begotten, who is co-eternal and equal with the Father, says: He, who for our sakes became man, but became not, like every man besides, a liar, says: the Way, the Life, the Truth says: He who overcame the world, says of those for whom He overcame it: listen, believe, hope, desire what He says: Father, He says, I will that they also whom You have given me be with me where I am. Who are these who He says were given Him by the Father? Are they not those of whom He says in another place, No man comes unto me, unless the Father, who has sent me, draw him? We already know if we have made any beneficial progress in this Gospel, how it is that the things which He says the Father does, He Himself does likewise along with the Father. They are those, therefore, whom He has received from the Father, whom He Himself has also chosen out of the world, and chosen that they may be no more of the world, even as He also is not of the world; and yet that they also may be a world that believes and knows that Christ has been sent by God the Father that the world might be delivered from the world, and so, as a world that was to be reconciled unto God, might not be condemned with the world that lies in enmity. For so He says in the beginning of this prayer: You have given Him power over all flesh, that is, over every man, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. Here He makes it clear that He has indeed received power over all men, that, as the future Judge of quick and dead, He may deliver whom He pleases, and condemn whom He pleases; but that these were given Him that to all of them He should give eternal life. For so He says: That He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. Accordingly they were not given Him that from them He should withhold eternal life; although over them also the power has been given Him, inasmuch as He has received it over all flesh, in other words, over every man. In this way the world that has been reconciled will be delivered from the hostile world, when He puts into exercise His power over it, to send it away into death eternal; but the other He makes His own that He may give it everlasting life. Accordingly, to every one, without fail, of His own sheep the Good Shepherd, as to every one of His members the great Head, has promised this reward, that where He is, there also we shall be with Him; nor can that be otherwise which the omnipotent Son declared to be His will to the omnipotent Father. For there also is the Holy Spirit, equally eternal, equally God, the one Spirit of the two, the substance of the will of both. For the words that we read of Him as uttering on the eve of His passion, Yet not, Father, as I will, but as You will, Matthew 26:39 as if the Father has or had one will, and the Son another, are the echo of our infirmity, however faith-pervaded, which our Head transfigured in His own person, when He likewise bare our iniquities. But that the will of the Father and the Son is one, of both of whom also there is but one Spirit, by including whom we come to the knowledge of the Trinity, let piety believe, even though our infirmity meanwhile permits us not to understand.

2. But as we have already, in a way proportionate to the brevity of our discourse, spoken of the objects of the promise, and of its own stability; let us now look at this one point, as far as we are able, what it is that He was pleased to promise when He said, I will that they also whom You have given me be with me where I am. As far as pertains to the creaturehood wherein He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, Romans 1:3 not even He Himself was yet where He would afterwards be: but He could say in this way, where I am, to let us understand that He was soon to ascend into heaven, so that He spoke of Himself as being already there, where He was presently to be. He could do so also in the same way as He had said on a former occasion, when speaking to Nicodemus, No man ascends into heaven, save He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man who is in heaven. For there also He did not say, Will be, but is, because of the oneness of person, wherein God is at once man, and man God. He promised, therefore, that we should be in heaven; for there the servant-form, which He received of the Virgin, has been elevated, and set at the right hand of the Father. Because of the same blessed hope the apostle also says: But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ; by whose grace we are saved; and has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-6 And so accordingly we may understand the Lord to have said, That where I am, there they may be also. He, indeed, said of Himself that He was there already; but of us He merely declared that He wished us to be there with Him, without any indication that we were there already. But what the Lord said that He wished to be done, the apostle spoke of as already accomplished. For he said not, He will yet raise us up, and make us sit in heavenly places; but, has raised us up, and made us sit in heavenly places: for it is not without good grounds, but in believing assurance, that he reckons as already done what he is certain will yet be done. But if it is in respect of the form of God, wherein He is equal to the Father, that we would be inclined to understand His words, I will that they also be with me, where I am, let our mind get quit of every thought of material images: whatever the soul has had presented to it, that is endowed with length, or breadth, or thickness, tinted by the light with any sort of bodily hue, or diffused through local space of any kind, whether finite or infinite, let it, as far as possible, turn away from all such notions the glance of its contemplation on the inward bent of its thoughts. And let us not be making inquiries as to where the Son, the Father's co-equal, is, since no one has yet found out where He is not. But if any one would inquire, let him inquire rather how he may be with Him; not everywhere as He is, but wherever He may be. For when He said to the man that was expiating his crimes on the tree, and making confession unto salvation, Today shall you be with me in paradise, Luke 23:43 in respect to His human nature His own soul was on that very day to be in hell, His flesh in the sepulchre; but as respected His Godhead He was certainly also in paradise. And therefore the soul of the thief, absolved from his by-gone crimes, and already in the blessed enjoyment of His grace, although it could not be everywhere as He was, yet could on that very day be also with Him in paradise, from which He, who is always everywhere, had not withdrawn. On this account, doubtless, it was not enough for Him to say, I will that they also be where I am; but He added, with me. For to be with Him is the chief good. For even the miserable can be where He is, since wheresoever any are, there is He also; but the blessed only are with Him, because it is only of Him that they can be blessed. Was it not truly said to God, If I ascend into heaven, You are there; and if I go down into hell, You are present? or is not Christ after all that Wisdom of God which penetrates everywhere because of its purity? Wisdom 7:24 But the light shines in darkness and the darkness comprehends it not. And similarly, to take a kind of illustration from what is visible, although greatly unlike, as the blind man, even though he be where the light is, is yet not himself with the light, but is really absent from that which is present; so the unbeliever and profane, or even the believer and pious, because not yet competent to gaze on the light of wisdom, although he cannot be anywhere that Christ is not there likewise, yet is not himself with Christ, I mean in actual sight. For we cannot doubt that the true believer is with Christ by faith; because in reference to this He says, He that is not with me is against me. Matthew 12:30 But when He said to God the Father, I will that they also whom You have given me be with me where I am, He spoke exclusively of that sight wherein we shall see Him as He is. 1 John 3:2

3. Let no one disturb the clearness of the meaning by any cloudy contradiction; but let what follows furnish its testimony to the words that precede. For after saying, I will that they also be with me where I am, He went on immediately to add, That they may behold my glory, which You gave me: for You loved me before the foundation of the world. That they may behold, He said; not, that they may believe. This is faith's wages, not faith itself. For if faith has been correctly defined in the Epistle to the Hebrews as the assurance [conviction] of things that are not seen, Hebrews 11:1 why may not the wages of faith be defined, the beholding of things which were hoped for in faith? For when we shall see the glory which the Father has given the Son, even though we may understand what is spoken of in this passage, not as that [glory] which the Father gave His co-equal Son in begetting Him, but as that which He gave Him, when become the Son of man, after the death of the cross;— when, I say, we shall see that glory of the Son, then of a certainty shall take place the judgment of the quick and the dead, and then shall the wicked be taken away that he may not behold the glory of the Lord; Isaiah 26:10 and what [glory], save that of His Godhead? For blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God: Matthew 5:8 and because the wicked are not pure in heart, therefore they shall not see. Then shall they go away into everlasting punishment; for so shall the wicked be taken away, that he may not behold the glory of the Lord: but the righteous shall go into life eternal. Matthew 25:46 And what is life eternal? That they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent John 17:3: not, indeed, as those knew Him, who although impure in heart, yet were able to see Him as He sat in judgment in His glorified servant-form; but as He is yet to be known by the pure in heart, as the only true God, the Son along with the Father and Holy Spirit, because the Trinity itself is the only true God. If, then, it is in reference to His Godhead as the Son of God, equal and co-eternal with the Father, that we take the words, I will that they also be with me where I am, we shall be with Christ in the Father; but He in His own way, we in ours, wherever we may be in body. For if localities are to be understood, and such as contain incorporeal beings, and everything has a place where it is, the eternal place of Christ where He always is, is the Father Himself, and the place of the Father is the Son; for I, He said, am in the Father, and the Father in me; and in this prayer, As Thou, Father, art in me, and I in You: and they are our place, because there follows, That they also may be one in us: and we are God's place, inasmuch as we are His temple; even as He, who died for us and lives for us, also prays for us, that we may be one in them; because His [dwelling] place was made in peace, and His habitation in Zion, which we are. But who is qualified to think on such places or what is in them, apart from the idea of space-defined capacities and material masses? Yet no little progress is made, if at least, when any such idea presents itself to the eye of the mind, it is denied, rejected, and reprobated: and a certain kind of light is, as far as possible, thought of, in which such things are perceived as deserving only to be denied, rejected, and reprobated; and the certainty of that light is known and loved, so that from thence an upward movement is begun in us, and an effort made to reach into places farther within: and when the mind through its own infirmity and still inferior purity has failed to penetrate them it is driven back again, not without the sighings of love and the tears of ardent longing, and continues to bear in patience until it is purified by faith, and prepared by the holiness of the inward life to be able to take up its abode therein.

4. How, then, shall we not be with Christ where He is, when we shall be with Him in the Father in whom He is? On this, also, the apostle is not without something to say to us, although we are not yet in possession of the reality, but only cherishing the hope. For he says, If you be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God: set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. For you have died, he adds, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Here, you see, our life is meanwhile in faith and hope with Christ, where He is; because it is with Christ in God. That, you see, is as if already accomplished for which He prayed, when He said, I will that they also be with me where I am; but now only by faith. And when will it be accomplished by actual sight? When Christ, he says, [who is] your life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4 Then shall we appear as that which we then shall be; for it shall then be apparent that it was not without good grounds that we believed and hoped we should become so, before it actually took place. He will do this, to whom the Son, after saying, That they may behold my glory, which You gave me, immediately added, For You loved me before the foundation of the world. For in Him He loved us also before the foundation of the world, and then foreordained what He was to do in the end of the world.

5. O righteous Father, He says, the world has not known You. Just because You are righteous it has not known You. It is as that world which has been predestined to condemnation really deserved, that it has not known Him; while the world which He has reconciled unto Himself through Christ has known Him not of merit, but by grace. For what else is the knowing of Him, but eternal life which, while He undoubtedly withheld it from the condemned world, He bestowed on the reconciled. On that very account, therefore, the world has not known You, because You are righteous, and hast rendered unto it according to its deserts, that it should not know You: while on the same account the reconciled world has known You, because You are merciful, and, not for any merit of its own, but by grace, hast supplied it with the needed help to know You. And then there follows, But I have known You. He is the Fountain of grace, who is by nature God, and, by grace ineffable, man also of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin: and then on His own behalf, because the grace of God is through Jesus Christ our Lord, He adds, And these have known that You have sent me. Such is the reconciled world. But it is because You have sent me that they have known: by grace, therefore, have they known.

6. And I have made known to them, He says, Your name, and will make it known. I have made it known by faith, I will make it known by sight: I have made it known to those whose present sojourn in a strange land has its appointed end, I will make it known to those whose reign as kings shall be endless. That the love, He adds, wherewith [literally, which] You have loved me, may be in them, and I in them. (The form of speech is unusual, the love, which You have loved me, may be in them, and I in them; for the common way of speaking is, the love wherewith you have loved me. Here, of course, it is a translation from the Greek: but there are similar forms also in Latin; as we say, He served a faithful service, He served as a soldier a strenuous soldier-service; when apparently we ought to have said, He served with a faithful service, he served as a soldier with a strenuous soldier-service. But such as the form of expression is, the love which You have loved me; one similar to it is also used by the apostle, I have fought a good fight; 2 Timothy 4:7 he does not say, in a good fight, which would be the more usual and perhaps correcter form of expression.) But how else is the love wherewith the Father loved the Son in us also, but because we are His members and are loved in Him, since He is loved in the totality of His person, as both Head and members? Therefore He added, and I in them; as if saying, Since I am also in them. For in one sense He is in us as in His temple; but in another, because we are also Himself, seeing that, in accordance with His becoming man, that He might be our Head, we are His body. The Saviour's prayer is finished, His passion begins; let us, therefore, also finish the present discourse, that we may treat of His passion, as He grants us grace, in others to follow.