{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/107/1070055.htm","path":"chr/ecf/107/1070055.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/107/1070055.htm","text":"1. After the Lord Jesus Christ, in the words of yesterday\u2019s lesson, had exhorted His servants to follow Him, and had predicted His own passion in this way, that unless a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit; and also had stirred up those who wished to follow Him to the kingdom of heaven, to hate their life in this world if their thought was to keep it unto life eternal,\u2014He again toned down His own feelings to our infirmity and says, where our lesson to-day commenced, \u201cNow is my soul 1050 troubled.\u201d Whence, Lord, was Thy soul troubled? He had, indeed, said a little before, \u201cHe that hateth his life [soul] in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.\u201d Dost thou then love thy life in this world, and is thy soul troubled as the hour approacheth when thou shalt leave this world? Who would dare affirm this of the soul [life] of the Lord? We rather it was whom He transferred unto Himself; He took us into His own person as our Head, and assumed the feelings of His members; and so it was not by any others He was troubled, but, as was said of Him when He raised Lazarus, \u201cHe was troubled in Himself.\u201d 1051 For it behoved the one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, just as He has lifted us up to the heights of heaven, to descend with us also into the lowest depths of suffering.\n2. I hear Him saying a little before, \u201cThe hour cometh that the Son of man should be glorified: if a corn of wheat die, it bringeth forth much fruit.\u201d I hear this also, \u201cHe that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.\u201d Nor am I permitted merely to admire, but commanded to imitate, and so, by the words that follow, \u201cIf any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be,\u201d I am all on fire to despise the world, and in my sight the whole of this life, however lengthened, becomes only a vapor; in comparison with my love for eternal things, all that is temporal has lost its value with me. And now, again, it is my Lord Himself, who by such words has suddenly transported me from the weakness that was mine to the strength that was His, that I hear saying, \u201cNow is my soul troubled.\u201d What does it mean? How biddest Thou my soul follow Thee if I behold Thine own troubled? How shall I endure what is felt to be heavy by strength so great? What is the kind of foundation I can seek if the Rock is giving way? But methinks I hear in my own thoughts the Lord giving me an answer, saying, Thou shalt follow me the better, because it is to aid thy power of endurance that I thus interpose. Thou hast heard, as addressed to thyself, the voice of my fortitude; hear in me the voice of thy infirmity: I supply strength for thy running, and I check not thy hastening, but I transfer to myself thy causes for trembling, and I pave the way for thy marching along. O Lord our Mediator, God above us, man for us, I own Thy mercy! For because Thou, who art so great, art troubled through the good will of Thy love, Thou preservest, by the richness of Thy comfort, the many in Thy body who are troubled by the continual experience of their own weakness, from perishing utterly in their despair.\np. 288\n3. In a word, let the man who would follow learn the road by which he must travel. Perhaps an hour of terrible trial has come, and the choice is set before thee either to do iniquity or endure suffering; the weak soul is troubled, on whose behalf the invincible soul [of Jesus] was voluntarily troubled; set then the will of God before thine own. For notice what is immediately subjoined by thy Creator and thy Master, by Him who made thee, and became Himself for thy teaching that which He made; for He who made man was made man, but He remained still the unchangeable God, and transplanted manhood into a better condition. Listen, then, to what He adds to the words, \u201cNow is my soul troubled.\u201d \u201cAnd what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name.\u201d He has taught thee here what to think of, what to say, on whom to call, in whom to hope, and whose will, as sure and divine, to prefer to thine own, which is human and weak. Imagine Him not, therefore, as losing aught of His own exalted position in wishing thee to rise up out of the depths of thy ruin. For He thought it meet also to be tempted by the devil, by whom otherwise He would never have been tempted, just as, had He not been willing, He would never have suffered; and the answers He gave to the devil are such as thou also oughtest to use in times of temptation. 1052 And He, indeed, was tempted, but not endangered, that He might show thee, when in danger through temptation, how to answer the tempter, so as not to be carried away by the temptation, but to escape its danger. But when He here said, \u201cNow is my soul troubled;\u201d and also when He says, \u201cMy soul is sorrowful, even unto death;\u201d and \u201cFather, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;\u201d He assumed the infirmity of man, to teach him, when thereby saddened and troubled, to say what follows: \u201cNevertheless, Father, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.\u201d 1053 For thus it is that man is turned from the human to the divine, when the will of God is preferred to his own. But to what do the words \u201cGlorify Thy name\u201d refer, but to His own passion and resurrection? For what else can it mean, but that the Father should thus glorify the Son, who in like manner glorifieth His own name in the similar sufferings of His servants? Hence it is recorded of Peter, that for this cause He said concerning him, \u201cAnother shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not,\u201d because He intended to signify \u201cby what death he should glorify God.\u201d 1054 Therefore in him, too, did God glorify His name, because thus also does He glorify Christ in His members.\n4. \u201cThen came there a voice from heaven, [saying], I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.\u201d \u201cI have both glorified it,\u201d before I created the world, \u201cand I will glorify it again,\u201d when He shall rise from the dead and ascend into heaven. It may also be otherwise understood. \u201cI have both glorified it,\u201d\u2014when He was born of the Virgin, when He exercised miraculous powers; when the Magi, guided by a star in the heavens, bowed in adoration before Him; when He was recognized by saints filled with the Holy Spirit; when He was openly proclaimed by the descent of the Spirit in the form of a dove, and pointed out by the voice that sounded from heaven; when He was transfigured on the mount; when He wrought many miracles, cured and cleansed multitudes, fed so vast a number with a very few loaves, commanded the winds and the waves, and raised the dead;\u2014\u201cand I will glorify it again;\u201d when He shall rise from the dead; when death shall have no longer dominion over Him; and when He shall be exalted over the heavens as God, and His glory over all the earth.\n5. \u201cThe people therefore that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to Him. Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes.\u201d He thereby showed that the voice made no intimation to Him of what He already knew, but to those who needed the information. And just as that voice was uttered by God, not on His account, but on that of others, so His soul was troubled, not on His own account, but voluntarily for the sake of others.\n6. Look at what follows: \u201cNow,\u201d He says, \u201cis the judgment of the world.\u201d What, then, are we to expect at the end of time? But the judgment that is looked for in the end will be the judging of the living and the dead, the awarding of eternal rewards and punishment. Of what sort, then, is the judgment now? I have already, in former lessons, as far as I could, put you in mind, beloved, that there is a judgment spoken of, not of condemnation, but of discrimination; 1055 as it is written, \u201cJudge me, O God, and plead [discern, discriminate] my cause against an unholy nation.\u201d 1056 And many are the judgments of God; as it is said in the psalm, \u201cThy judgments are a great deep.\u201d 1057 p. 289 And the apostle also says, \u201cO the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments!\u201d 1058 To such judgments does that spoken of here by the Lord also belong, \u201cNow is the judgment of this world;\u201d while that judgment in the end is reserved, when the living and the dead shall at last be judged. The devil, therefore, had possession of the human race, and held them by the written bond of their sins as criminals amenable to punishment; he ruled in the hearts of unbelievers, and, deceiving and enslaving them, seduced them to forsake the Creator and give worship to the creature; but by faith in Christ, which was confirmed by His death and resurrection, and, by His blood, which was shed for the remission of sins, thousands of believers are delivered from the dominion of the devil, are united to the body of Christ, and under this great head are made by His one Spirit to spring up into new life as His faithful members. This it was that He called the judgment, this righteous separation, this expulsion of the devil from His own redeemed.\n7. Attend, in short, to His own words. For just as if we had been inquiring what He meant by saying, \u201cNow is the judgment of the world,\u201d He proceeded to explain it when He says, \u201cNow shall the prince of this world be cast out.\u201d What we have thus heard was the kind of judgment He meant. Not that one, therefore, which is yet to come in the end, when the living and dead shall be judged, some of them set apart on His right hand, and the others on His left; but that judgment by which \u201cthe prince of this world shall be cast out.\u201d In what sense, then, was he within, and whither did He mean that he was to be cast out? Was it this: That he was in the world. and was cast forth beyond its boundaries? For had He been speaking of that judgment which is yet to come in the end, some one\u2019s thoughts might have turned to that eternal fire into which the devil is to be cast with his angels, and all who belong to him;\u2014that is, not naturally, but through moral delinquency; not because he created or begat them, but because he persuaded and kept hold of them: some one, therefore, might have thought that that eternal fire was outside the world, and that this was the meaning of the words, \u201che shall be cast out.\u201d But as He says, \u201cNow is the judgment of this world,\u201d and in explanation of His meaning, adds, \u201cNow shall the prince of this world be cast out,\u201d we are thereby to understand what is now being done, and not what is to be, so long afterwards, at the last day. The Lord, therefore, foretold what He knew, that after His own passion and glorification, many nations throughout the whole world, in whose hearts the devil was an inmate, would become believers, and the devil, when thus renounced by faith, is cast out.\n8. But some one says, Was he then not cast out of the hearts of the patriarchs and prophets, and the righteous of olden time? Certainly he was. How, then, is it said, \u201cNow he shall be cast out\u201d? How else can we think of it, but that what was then done in the case of a very few individuals, was now foretold as speedily to take place in many and mighty nations? Just as also that other saying, \u201cFor the Spirit was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified,\u201d 1059 may suggest a similar inquiry, and find a similar solution. For it was not without the Holy Spirit that the prophets predicted the events of the future; nor was it so that the aged Simeon and the widowed Anna knew by the Holy Spirit the infant Lord; 1060 and that Zacharias and Elisabeth uttered by the Holy Spirit so many predictions concerning Him, when He was not yet born, but only conceived. 1061 But \u201cthe Spirit was not yet given;\u201d that is, with that abundance of spiritual grace which enabled those assembled together to speak in every language, 1062 and thus announce beforehand in the language of every nation the Church of the future: and so by this spiritual grace it was that nations were gathered into congregations, sins were pardoned far and wide, and thousands of thousands were reconciled unto God.\n9. But then, says some one, since the devil is thus cast out of the hearts of believers, does he now tempt none of the faithful? Nay, verily, he does not cease to tempt. But it is one thing to reign within, another to assail from without; for in like manner the best fortified city is sometimes attacked by an enemy without being taken. And if some of his arrows are discharged, and reach us, the apostle reminds us how to render them harmless, when he speaks of the breastplate and the shield of faith. 1063 And if he sometimes wounds us, we have the remedy at hand. For as the combatants are told, \u201cThese things I write unto you, that ye sin not:\u201d so those who are wounded have the sequel to listen to, \u201cAnd if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins.\u201d 1064 And what do we pray for when we p. 290 say, \u201cForgive us our debts,\u201d but for the healing of our wounds? And what else do we ask, when we say, \u201cLead us not into temptation,\u201d 1065 but that he who thus lies in wait for us, or assails us from without, may fail on every side to effect an entrance, and be unable to overcome us either by fraud or force? Nevertheless, whatever engines of war he may erect against us, so long as he has no more a place in the heart that faith inhabits, he is cast out. But \u201cexcept the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.\u201d 1066 Presume not, therefore, about yourselves, if you would not have the devil, who has once been cast out, to be recalled within.\n10. On the other hand, let us be far from supposing that the devil is called in any such way the prince of the world, as that we should believe him possessed of power to rule over the heaven and the earth. The world is so spoken of in respect of wicked men, who have overspread the whole earth; just as a house is spoken of in respect to its inhabitants, and we accordingly say, It is a good house, or a bad house; not as finding fault with, or approving of, the erection of walls and roofs, but the morals either of the good or the bad within it. In a similar way, therefore, it is said, \u201cThe prince of this world;\u201d that is, the prince of all the wicked who inhabit this world. The world is also spoken of in respect to the good, who in like manner have overspread the whole earth; and hence the apostle says, \u201cGod was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.\u201d 1067 These are they out of whose hearts the prince of this world is ejected.\n11. Accordingly, after saying, \u201cNow shall the prince of this world be cast out,\u201d He added, \u201cAnd I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things 1068 after me.\u201d And what \u201call\u201d is that, but those out of which the other is ejected? But He did not say, All men, but \u201call things;\u201d for all men have not faith. 1069 And, therefore, He did not allude to the totality of men, but to the creature in its personal integrity, that is, to spirit, and soul, and body; or all that which makes us the intelligent, living, visible, and palpable beings we are. For He who said, \u201cNot a hair of your head shall perish,\u201d 1070 is He who draweth all things after Him. Or if by \u201call things\u201d it is men that are to be understood, we can speak of all things that are foreordained to salvation: of all which He declared, when previously speaking of His sheep, that not one of them would be lost. 1071 And of a certainty all classes of men, both of every language and every age, and all grades of rank, and all diversities of talents, and all the professions of lawful and useful arts, and all else that can be named in accordance with the innumerable differences by which men, save in sin alone, are mutually separated, from the highest to the lowest, and from the king to the beggar, \u201call,\u201d He says, \u201cwill I draw after me;\u201d that He may be their head, and they His members. But this will be, He adds, \u201cif I be lifted up from the earth,\u201d that is, when I am lifted up; for He has no doubt of the future accomplishment of that which He came to fulfill. He here alludes to what He said before: \u201cBut if the corn of wheat die, it bringeth forth much fruit.\u201d For what else did He signify by His lifting up, than His suffering on the cross, an explanation which the evangelist himself has not omitted; for he has appended the words, \u201cAnd this He said signifying what death He should die.\u201d\n12. \u201cThe people answered Him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest Thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? And who is this Son of man?\u201d It had stuck to their memory that the Lord was constantly calling Himself the Son of man. For, in the passage before us, He does not say, If the Son of man be lifted up from the earth; but had called Himself so before, in the lesson which was read and expounded yesterday, when those Gentiles were announced who desired to see Him: \u201cThe hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified\u201d (John 12.23). Retaining this, therefore, in their minds, and understanding what He now said, \u201cWhen I am lifted up from the earth,\u201d of the death of the cross, they inquired of Him, and said, \u201cWe have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever; and how sayest Thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man?\u201d For if it is Christ, He, they say, abideth for ever; and if He abideth for ever, how shall He be lifted up from the earth, that is, how shall He die through the suffering of the cross? For they understood Him to have spoken of what they themselves were meditating to do. And so He did not dissipate for them the obscurity of such words by imparting wisdom, but by stimulating their conscience.\n13. \u201cThen said Jesus unto them, Yet a little 1072 light is in you.\u201d And by this it is you understand that Christ abideth for ever. p. 291 \u201cWalk, then, while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you.\u201d Walk, draw near, come to the full understanding that Christ shall both die and shall live for ever; that He shall shed His blood to redeem us, and ascend on high to carry His redeemed along with Him. But darkness will come upon you, if your belief in Christ\u2019s eternity is of such a kind as to refuse to admit in His case the humiliation of death. \u201cAnd he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.\u201d So may he stumble on that stone of stumbling and rock of offence which the Lord Himself became to the blinded Jews: just as to those who believed, the stone which the builders despised was made the head of the corner. 1073 Hence, they thought Christ unworthy of their belief; because in their impiety they treated His dying with contempt, they ridiculed the idea of His being slain: and yet it was the very death of the grain of corn that was to lead to its own multiplication, and the lifting up of one who was drawing all things after Him. \u201cWhile ye have the light,\u201d He adds, \u201cbelieve in the light, that ye may be the children of light.\u201d While you have possession of some truth that you have heard, believe in the truth, that you may be born again in the truth.\n14. \u201cThese things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide Himself from them.\u201d Not from those who had begun to believe and to love Him, nor from those who had come to meet Him with branches of palm trees and songs of praise; but from those who saw and hated Him, for they saw Him not, but only stumbled on that stone in their blindness. But when Jesus hid Himself from those who desired to slay Him (as you need from forgetfulness to be often reminded), He had regard to our human weakness, but derogated not in aught from His own authority.\nThe word anima used here, and frequently elsewhere, and corresponding to the Greek \u03c8\u03c5\u03c7\u03ae, denotes \u201chuman life,\u201d in reference to its internal principle or substance; and differs from \u201cvita\u201d (Gr. \u03b6\u03c9\u03ae), as in the words following above, \u201cunto eternal life\u201d (vitam), which expresses rather the general idea of life in its existence, aggregate qualities, and duration. Our English word \u201csoul,\u201d which best corresponds with anima, is, however, more restricted in the idea which it popularly suggests; and hence, as in our English version of the Scriptures, the apparent confusion, which is unavoidable, in translating anima sometimes by \u201csoul\u201d and sometimes by \u201clife.\u201d\u2014Tr.\n287:1051\nJohn 11.33: literally, as in margin of English Bible, \u201cHe troubled Himself.\u201d\n288:1052 288:1053 288:1054\nJohn 21:18, 19.\n288:1055\nOr, discernment, discretio; see Tract. XLIII. sec. 9.\n288:1056 288:1057 289:1058 289:1059 289:1060 289:1061 289:1062 289:1063 289:1064\n1 John 2:1, 2.\n290:1065\nMatt. 6:12, 13.\n290:1066 290:1067 290:1068\nThere are here two readings in the Greek mss., \u03c0\u03ac\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1\u03c2 (all men), and \u03c0\u03ac\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1 (all things), of which the former seems now the better approved; but the latter is that adopted by Augustin and the Vulgate.\u2014Tr.\n290:1069 290:1070 290:1071 290:1072 291:1073","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VII: Lectures or Tra...","type":"page"}