"** Before all the hills He begat me,''* that is, says in another place, '' These things have I
Cuap. XII.] ON THE TRINITY. 31 not to know what he hides, after that kind of speech, after which a ditch is called blind which is hidden. For the Scriptures do not use any other kind of speech than may be found in use among men, because they speak to men.
what is said of each is also said of all, on account of the indivisible working of the one and same substance. As He also says of the Holy Spirit, ''If I depart, I will send Him unto you." He did not say, We will send; but in such way as if the Son only should send Him, and not the Father; while yet He says in another place, '' These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you; but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things.''" Here again it is so said as if the Son also would not send Him, but the Father only. As therefore in these texts, so also where He says, '' But for them for whom it is prepared by my Father," He meant it to be understood that He Himself, with the Father, prepares seats of glory for those for whom He will. But some one may say: There, when He spoke of the Holy Spirit, He so says that He Himself will send Him, as not to deny that the Father will send Him; and in the other place, He so says that the Father will send Him, as not to deny that He will do so Himself; but here He expressly says, 'It is not mine to give," and so goes on to say that these things are prepared by the Father. But this is the very thing which we have already laid down to be said according to the form of a servant: zz., that we are so to understand '' It is not mine to give,'' as if it were said, This is not in the power of man to give; that so He may be understood to give it through that wherein He is God equal to the Father. '"'It is not mine," He says, ''to give;"' that is, I do not give these things by human power, but '' to those for whom it is prepared by my Father; '' but then take care you understand also, that if 'fall things which the Father hath are mine," *® then this certainly is mine also, and I with the Father have prepared these things.
24. According to the form of God, it is said,
Before all the hills He begat me,''* that is, before all the loftinesses of things created; and, '' Before the dawn I begat Thee,'' ? that is, before all times and temporal things: but according to the form of a servant, it is said, **The Lord created me in the beginning of His ways.''?3 Because, according to the form of God, He said, ''J am the truth;"' and according to the form of a servant, "'I am the way.''+ For, because He Himself, being the first-begotten of the dead, 5made a passage to the kingdom of God to life eternal for His Church, to which He is so the Head as to make the body also immortal, therefore He was '' created in the beginning of the ways '"' of God in His work. For, according to the form of God, He is the beginning,® that also speaketh unto us, in which '' beginning " God created the heaven and the earth;" but according to che form of a servant, *' He is a bridegroom coming out of His chamber." ® According to the form of God, '* He is the first-born of every creature, and He is before all things and by him all things consist;"' according to the form of a servant, ** He is the head of the body, the Church.' According to the form of -God, "'He is the Lord of glory." From which it is evident that He Himself glorifies His saints: for, ''Whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified."" Of Him accordingly it is said, that He justifieth the ungodly; of Him it is said, that He is just and a justifier.*3 If, therefore, He has also glorified those whom He has justified, He who justifies, Himself also glorifies; who is, as I have said, the Lord of glory. Yet, according to the form of a servant, He replied to His disciples, when inquiring about their own glorification: '* To sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but [it shall be given to them] for whom it is prepared by my Father.'"' ™
26, For I ask again, in what manner this is said, "' If any man hear not my words, I will not judge him?'''? For perhaps He has said here, ''I will not judge him,'' in the same sense as there, *'It is not mine to give." But what follows here? ''I came not," He says, "'to judge the world, but to save the world; ""? and then He adds, '' He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him." Now here we should understand the Father, unless He had added, ''The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him inthe last day." Well, then, will neither the Son judge, because He says,
25. But that which is prepared by His Father is prepared also by the Son Himself, because He and the Father are one.® For we have already shown, by many modes of speech in the divine Scriptures, that, in this Trinity,
''T will not judge him, "' nor the Father, but the word which the Son hath spoken? Nay,
I Prov. viii. 25. 3 Prov. viii. 22. 6 John viii. 25. 9Col. i. 15,17, 18. , 12 Rom. iv. 5s. 15 John x. 30.
2 Ps. cx. 3, Vulgate. 4 John xiv. 6. 5 Apoc. i. 5. 7 Gen. i. 1. ePe xx. 6; 10 x Cor. ii. 8. 11 Rom. viii. 30. 13 Rom. iii. 26. 14 Matt. xx. 23.
17 John xiv. 25, 26. 16 John xvi. 7. 19 John xii. 47-50. 18 John xvi 15.