{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/003/0030669.htm","path":"chr/ecf/003/0030669.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/003/0030669.htm","text":"Chapter XXII.\u2014Sundry Passages of St. John Quoted, to Show the Distinction Between the Father and the Son. Even Praxeas\u2019 Classic Text\u2014I and My Father are One\u2014Shown to Be Against Him.\nAgain, whose doctrine does He announce, at which all were astonished? 8040 Was it His own or the Father\u2019s? So, when they were in doubt among themselves whether He were the Christ (not as being the Father, of course but as the Son), He says to them \u201cYou are not ignorant whence I am; and I am not come of myself, but He that sent me is true, whom ye know not; but I know Him, because I am from Him.\u201d 8041 He did not say, Because I myself am He; and, I have sent mine own self: but His words are, \u201cHe hath sent me.\u201d When, likewise, the Pharisees sent men to apprehend Him, He says: \u201cYet a little while am I with you, and (then) I go unto Him that sent me.\u201d 8042 When, however, He declares that He is not alone, and uses these words, \u201cbut I and the Father that sent me,\u201d 8043 does He not show that there are Two\u2014Two, and yet inseparable? Indeed, this was the sum and substance of what He was teaching them, that they were inseparably Two; since, after citing the law when it affirms the truth of two men\u2019s testimony, 8044 He adds at once: \u201cI am one who am bearing witness of myself; and the Father (is another,) who hath sent me, and beareth witness of me.\u201d 8045 Now, if He were one\u2014being at once both the Son and the Father\u2014He certainly would not have quoted the sanction of the law, which requires not the testimony of one, but of two. Likewise, when they asked Him where His Father was, 8046 He answered them, that they had known neither Himself nor the Father; and in this answer He plainly told them of Two, whom they were ignorant of. Granted that \u201cif they had known Him, they would have known the Father also,\u201d 8047 this certainly does not imply that He was Himself both Father and Son; but that, by reason of the inseparability of the Two, it was impossible for one of them to be either acknowledged or unknown without the other. \u201cHe that sent me,\u201d says He, \u201cis true; and I am telling the world those things which I have heard of Him.\u201d 8048 And the Scripture narrative goes on to explain in an exoteric manner, that \u201cthey understood not that He spake to them concerning the Father,\u201d 8049 although they ought certainly to have known that the Father\u2019s words were uttered in the Son, because they read in Jeremiah, \u201cAnd the Lord said to me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth;\u201d 8050 and again in Isaiah, \u201cThe Lord hath given to me the tongue of learning that I should understand when to speak a word in season.\u201d 8051 In accordance with which, Christ Himself says: \u201cThen shall ye know that I am He and that I am saying nothing of my own self; but that, as my Father hath taught me, so I speak, because He that sent me is with me.\u201d 8052 This also amounts to a proof that they were Two, (although) undivided. Likewise, when upbraiding the Jews in His discussion with them, because they wished to kill Him, He said, \u201cI speak that which I have seen with my Father, and ye do that which ye have seen with your father;\u201d 8053 \u201cbut now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth which I have heard of God;\u201d 8054 and again, \u201cIf God were your Father, ye would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God,\u201d 8055 (still they are not hereby separated, although He declares that He proceeded forth from the Father. Some persons indeed seize the opportunity afforded them in these words to propound their heresy of His separation; but His coming out from God is like the ray\u2019s procession from the sun, and the river\u2019s from the fountain, and the tree\u2019s from the seed); \u201cI have not a devil, but I honour my Father;\u201d 8056 again, \u201cIf I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me, of whom ye say, that He is your God: yet ye have not known Him, but I know Him; and if I should say, I know Him not, I shall be a liar like unto you; but I know Him, and keep His saying.\u201d 8057 But when He goes on to say, \u201cYour father Abraham rejoiced to see my p. 618 day; and he saw it, and was glad,\u201d 8058 He certainly proves that it was not the Father that appeared to Abraham, but the Son. In like manner He declares, in the case of the man born blind, \u201cthat He must do the works of the Father which had sent Him;\u201d 8059 and after He had given the man sight, He said to him, \u201cDost thou believe in the Son of God?\u201d Then, upon the man\u2019s inquiring who He was, He proceeded to reveal Himself to him, as that Son of God whom He had announced to him as the right object of his faith. 8060 In a later passage He declares that He is known by the Father, and the Father by Him; 8061 adding that He was so wholly loved by the Father, that He was laying down His life, because He had received this commandment from the Father. 8062 When He was asked by the Jews if He were the very Christ 8063 (meaning, of course, the Christ of God; for to this day the Jews expect not the Father Himself, but the Christ of God, it being nowhere said that the Father will come as the Christ), He said to them, \u201cI am telling you, and yet ye do not believe: the works which I am doing, in my Father\u2019s name, they actually bear witness of me.\u201d 8064 Witness of what? Of that very thing, to be sure, of which they were making inquiry\u2014whether He were the Christ of God. Then, again, concerning His sheep, and (the assurance) that no man should pluck them out of His hand, 8065 He says, \u201cMy Father, which gave them to me, is greater than all;\u201d 8066 adding immediately, \u201cI am and my Father are one.\u201d 8067 Here, then, they take their stand, too infatuated, nay, too blind, to see in the first place that there is in this passage an intimation of Two Beings\u2014\u201cI and my Father;\u201d then that there is a plural predicate, \u201care,\u201d inapplicable to one person only; and lastly, that (the predicate terminates in an abstract, not a personal noun)\u2014\u201cwe are one thing\u201d Unum, not \u201cone person\u201d Unus. For if He had said \u201cone Person,\u201d He might have rendered some assistance to their opinion. Unus, no doubt, indicates the singular number; but (here we have a case where) \u201cTwo\u201d are still the subject in the masculine gender. He accordingly says Unum, a neuter term, which does not imply singularity of number, but unity of essence, likeness, conjunction, affection on the Father\u2019s part, who loves the Son, and submission on the Son\u2019s, who obeys the Father\u2019s will. When He says, \u201cI and my Father are one\u201d in essence\u2014Unum\u2014He shows that there are Two, whom He puts on an equality and unites in one. He therefore adds to this very statement, that He \u201chad showed them many works from the Father,\u201d for none of which did He deserve to be stoned. 8068 And to prevent their thinking Him deserving of this fate, as if He had claimed to be considered as God Himself, that is, the Father, by having said, \u201cI and my Father are One,\u201d representing Himself as the Father\u2019s divine Son, and not as God Himself, He says, \u201cIf it is written in your law, I said, Ye are gods; and if the Scripture cannot be broken, say ye of Him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, that He blasphemeth, because He said, I am the Son of God? If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not; but if I do, even if ye will not believe me, still believe the works; and know that I am in the Father, and the Father in me.\u201d 8069 It must therefore be by the works that the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father; and so it is by the works that we understand that the Father is one with the Son. All along did He therefore strenuously aim at this conclusion, that while they were of one power and essence, they should still be believed to be Two; for otherwise, unless they were believed to be Two, the Son could not possibly be believed to have any existence at all.\nSee John vii. passim.\n617:8041 617:8042 617:8043 617:8044 617:8045 617:8046 617:8047 617:8048 617:8049 617:8050 617:8051 617:8052 617:8053 617:8054 617:8055 617:8056 617:8057 618:8058 618:8059 618:8060 618:8061 618:8062\nJohn 10:15, 17, 18.\n618:8063 618:8064 618:8065 618:8066 618:8067 618:8068 618:8069","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol III: Tertullian: Part II: Sundry...","type":"page"}