{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/107/1070089.htm","path":"chr/ecf/107/1070089.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/107/1070089.htm","text":"1. It is a worthy subject of inquiry how these words of the Lord are to be understood, \u201cBut I have called you friends: for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.\u201d For who is there that dare affirm or believe that any man knoweth all things that the only-begotten Son hath heard of the Father; when there is no one that can comprehend even how He heareth any word of the Father, being as He is Himself the only Word of the Father? Nay more, is it not the case that a little afterwards, in this same discourse, which He delivered to the disciples between the Supper and His passion, He said, \u201cI have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now\u201d? 1435 How, then, are we to understand that He made known unto the disciples all that He had heard of the Father, when there are many things that He saith not, just because He knows that they cannot bear them now? Doubtless what He is yet to do He says that He has done as the same Being who hath made those things which are yet to be. 1436 For as He says by the prophet, \u201cThey pierced my hands and my feet,\u201d 1437 and not, They will yet pierce; but p. 353 speaking as it were of the past, and yet predicting what was still in the future: so also in the passage before us He declares that He has made known to the disciples all, that He knows He will yet make known in that fullness of knowledge, whereof the apostle says, \u201cBut when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.\u201d For in the same place he adds: \u201cNow I know in part, but then shall I know, even as also I am known; and now through a glass in a riddle, but then face to face.\u201d 1438 For the same apostle also says that we have been saved by the washing of regeneration, 1439 and yet declares in another place, \u201cWe are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is no hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.\u201d 1440 To a similar purpose it is also said by his fellow-apostle Peter, \u201cIn whom, though now seeing Him not, ye believe; and in whom, when ye see Him, ye shall rejoice with a joy unspeakable and glorious: receiving the reward of faith, even the salvation of your souls.\u201d 1441 If, then, it is now the season of faith, and faith\u2019s reward is the salvation of our souls; who, in that faith which worketh by love, 1442 can doubt that the day must come to an end, and at its close the reward be received; not only the redemption of our body, whereof the Apostle Paul speaketh, 1443 but also the salvation of our souls, as we are told by the Apostle Peter? For the felicity springing from both is at this present time, and in the existing state of mortality, a matter rather of hope than of actual possession. But this it concerns us to remember, that our outward man, to wit the body, is still decaying; but the inward, that is, the soul, is being renewed day by day. 1444 Accordingly, while we are waiting for the immortality of the flesh and salvation of our souls in the future, yet with the pledge we have received, it may be said that we are saved already; so that knowledge of all things which the Only-begotten hath heard of the Father we are to regard as a matter of hope still lying in the future, although declared by Christ as something He had already imparted.\n2. \u201cYe have not chosen me,\u201d He says, \u201cbut I have chosen you.\u201d Grace such as that is ineffable. For what were we so long as Christ had not yet chosen us, and we were therefore still destitute of love? For he who hath chosen Him, how can he love Him? Were we, think you, in that condition which is sung of in the psalm: \u201cI had rather be an abject in the house of the Lord, than dwell in the tents of wickedness\u201d? 1445 Certainly not. What were we then, but sinful and lost? We had not yet come to believe on Him, in order to lead to His choosing us; for if it were those who already believed that He chose, then was He chosen Himself, prior to His choosing. But how could He say, \u201cYe have not chosen me,\u201d save only because His mercy anticipated us? 1446 Here surely is at fault the vain reasoning of those who defend the foreknowledge of God in opposition to His grace, and with this view declare that we were chosen before the foundation of the world, 1447 because God foreknew that we should be good, but not that He Himself would make us good. So says not He, who declares, \u201cYe have not chosen me.\u201d For had He chosen us on the ground that He foreknew that we should be good, then would He also have foreknown that we would not be the first to make choice of Him. For in no other way could we possibly be good: unless, forsooth, one could be called good who has never made good his choice. What was it then that He chose in those who were not good? For they were not chosen because of their goodness, inasmuch as they could not be good without being chosen. Otherwise grace is no more grace, if we maintain the priority of merit. Such, certainly, is the election of grace, whereof the apostle says: \u201cEven so then at this present time also there is a remnant saved according to the election of grace.\u201d To which he adds: \u201cAnd if by grace, then is it no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace.\u201d 1448 Listen, thou ungrateful one, listen: \u201cYe have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.\u201d Not that thou mayest say, I am chosen because I already believed. For if thou wert believing in Him, then hadst thou already chosen Him. But listen: \u201cYe have not chosen me.\u201d Not that thou mayest say, Before I believed I was already doing good works, and therefore was I chosen. For what good work can be prior to faith, when the apostle says, \u201cWhatsoever is not of faith is sin\u201d? 1449 What, then, are we to say on hearing such words, \u201cYe have not chosen me,\u201d but that we were evil, and were chosen in order that we might be good through the grace of Him who chose us? For it is not by grace, if merit preceded: but it is of grace: and therefore that grace did not find, but effected the merit.\n3. See then, beloved, how it is that He chooseth not the good, but maketh those whom He has chosen good. \u201cI have chosen p. 354 you,\u201d He saith, \u201cand appointed you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain.\u201d And is not that the fruit, whereof He had already said, \u201cWithout me ye can do nothing\u201d? 1450 He hath chosen therefore, and appointed that we should go and bring forth fruit; and no fruit, accordingly, had we to induce His choice of us. \u201cThat ye should go,\u201d He said, \u201cand bring forth fruit.\u201d We go to bring forth, and He Himself is the way wherein we go, and wherein He hath appointed us to go. And so His mercy hath anticipated us in all. \u201cAnd that your fruit,\u201d He saith, \u201cshould remain; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it you.\u201d Accordingly let love remain; for He Himself is our fruit. And this love lies at present in longing desire, not yet in fullness of enjoyment; and whatsoever with that longing desire we shall ask in the name of the only-begotten Son, the Father giveth us. But what is not expedient for our salvation to receive, let us not imagine that we ask that in the Saviour\u2019s name: but we ask in the name of the Saviour only that which really belongs to the way of salvation.\n1 Pet. 1:8, 9.\n353:1442 353:1443 353:1444 353:1445 353:1446 353:1447 353:1448 353:1449 354:1450","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VII: Lectures or Tra...","type":"page"}