講道與短論 第 6 章 第 8/11 段

But some heretics, because they deceive only when they promise a knowledge which they do not display, and being adversaries to the Law and the Prophets, accuse whatever the Apostle inserted from these into his discourse as being false and put in by corruptors, they preferred to number even this among those things which they say are interpolated, and to deny that Paul said, 'O man, who art thou that repliest against God?' Because if it be told them—who calumniate in order to deceive men—without doubt they will be silent, nor will they dare to promise any knowledge concerning the will of the omnipotent God to the unlearned whom they desire to deceive. But some, reading the Scriptures with a good and pious mind, ask what here can be answered to the evil-speakers or calumniators.

But let us, both wholesomely adhering to the apostolic authority, and by no means reckoning the books which catholic discipline guards to be falsified, perceive what is true: that they are unworthy and weak to understand the divine secrets by which these things are shut up; and to those who murmur and are indignant that they do not learn the counsels of God, when they shall have begun to say, 'Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. Why then does He still complain? for who resists His will?' (ibid. 18, 19): when therefore with these words they shall have begun either to calumniate the Scriptures, or to seek a hiding-place for their sins, that they may despise the precepts;

by which one arrives at a good life, let us answer most confidently, 'O man, who art thou that repliest against God?' Nor, out of deference to them, let us give what is holy to the dogs, or cast our pearls before swine (Matt. 7:6): if indeed we ourselves are not now dogs and swine, and, concerning the merits of souls, the Holy Spirit revealing, let us surmise something sublime and most far removed from vulgar conjecture, at least in part and in an enigma. 2. For the Apostle in this place did not forbid the saints from inquiring, but those who are not yet rooted and grounded in charity, that they may be able to comprehend with all the saints the breadth, length, height and depth, and the rest which he pursues in the same place (Eph. 3:18, 19).

He therefore did not forbid from inquiring, who says, 'But the spiritual man judges all things; but he himself is judged by no man'; and that especially, 'But we have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we may know the things that are given us by God' (1 Cor. 2:15, 12). Whom therefore did he forbid, except the muddy and earthly, who, not yet inwardly regenerated and nourished, bear the image of that man who was first made of the earth, earthy (1 Cor. 15:47, 49)? And because he would not obey Him by whom he was made, he lapsed into that from which he was made, and after sin merited to hear, 'Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou go' (Gen. 3:19). To such men therefore the Apostle says:

'O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him who formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?' As long therefore as thou art a thing formed, not yet a perfect son, because thou hast not yet drawn the fullest grace by which power is given us to become children of God (John 1:12), whereby thou couldst hear, 'Now I will not call you servants, but friends' (John 15:15); who art thou that repliest against God, and wishest to know the counsel of God? Who, if thou hadst wished to know that of a man thy equal, wouldst act impudently, unless thou wert first received into friendship. As therefore we have borne the image of the earthy, let us bear also the image of the heavenly (1 Cor. 15:49), putting off from us the old man and putting on the new (Col.

3:9, 10), so that it be not said to us as to muddy clay: 'Shall the thing formed say to Him who formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?' 3. But that it may be manifest that these things are said not to the sanctified spirit but to the carnal mud, see what follows: 'Or has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel indeed unto honor, and another unto contumely?' (Rom. 9:21). For since in paradise our nature sinned, by the same divine providence—not according to heaven, but according to earth, that is, not according to the spirit, but according to the flesh—we are formed by mortal generation, and we are all made one lump of clay, which is the lump of sin.

Since therefore we have lost merit by sinning, and, the mercy of God being removed, nothing else than eternal damnation is owed to sinners, what does man mean about this lump, that he should reply to God and say, 'Why hast thou made me thus?' If thou wilt know these things, be not clay, but become a child of God through the mercy of Him who gave power to become children of God to those believing in His name; not, however, to those desiring, as thou dost, to know divine things before they believe. For the reward of knowledge is rendered to merits; but by believing merit is acquired. But that very grace which is given through faith is given by no merits of ours preceding. For what is the merit of a sinner and an impious man?

But Christ died for the impious and sinners (Rom. 5:6), that we might be called to believing not by merit but by grace, and by believing might also lay up merit. Sinners therefore are commanded to believe, that by believing they may be purged from their sins. For they know not what they shall see by living rightly. Wherefore, since they cannot see unless they live rightly, nor can they live rightly unless they believe, it is manifest that a beginning must be made from faith, that the precepts by which believers are turned away from this world may make the heart clean, where God can be seen. 'For blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God' (Matt. 5:8); and through prophecy it is sung, 'In simplicity of heart seek Him' (Wis. 1:1).

Wherefore it is rightly said to men remaining in the oldness of life, and on that account bearing a darkened eye of the soul: 'O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him who formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Or has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, another unto contumely?' 'Purge out the old leaven, that thou mayest be a new lump' (1 Cor. 5:7), and in that very thing be not still a little one in Christ, to be given milk to drink (1 Cor. 3:2); but attain to the perfect man, that thou mayest be among those of whom it is said, 'We speak wisdom among the perfect' (1 Cor. 2:6).

Only then will you hear rightly and not in a distorted way, if there is anything to be said concerning the most hidden merits of souls, and concerning the secrets of Almighty God, whether of grace or of justice. 4. For concerning Pharaoh the answer is easy: by his former merits, whereby he afflicted the strangers in his kingdom, he was rendered worthy that his heart should be hardened, so that he would not believe God's commands even at the most manifest signs. Therefore out of the same lump, that is, out of sinners, God also brought forth vessels of mercy, whom he would succor when the children of Israel entreated him; and vessels of wrath, by whose punishment he would instruct the others, that is, Pharaoh and his people. For although both were sinners, and on that account belonged to one lump, yet those were to be treated differently who had shown themselves ungrateful to the one God.

He therefore endured with much patience the vessels of wrath, which were fitted for destruction. And by the very fact that he says 'with much patience,' he sufficiently signified their prior sins, in which he bore with them, so that he might fittingly take vengeance at the time when, by the vengeance upon those, help was to be given to those who were being delivered. And that he might make known the riches of his glory upon the vessels of mercy, which he prepared unto glory. Here perhaps, troubled, you return to that question: 'He has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens. Why then does he yet complain? For who resists his will?' (Rom. 9:18-23). Assuredly he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens; but this will of God cannot be unjust. For it comes from the most hidden merits;

since even sinners themselves, though on account of the general sin they constitute one lump, yet there is not no diversity among them. Something therefore precedes in some sinners whereby, although they are not yet justified, they are made worthy of justification; and likewise something precedes in other sinners whereby they are worthy of being blinded. You have the same Apostle saying elsewhere, 'Since they did not approve to have God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind' (Rom. 1:28). That he gave them over to a reprobate mind, this is what hardened the heart of Pharaoh (Exod. 4:21); but that they did not approve to have God in their knowledge, this is that they showed themselves worthy to be given over to a reprobate mind.

Yet it is true that it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that has mercy (Rom. 9:16). For even if someone, whether by lighter sins, or certainly though by graver and many sins, yet with great groaning and grief of repentance, has become worthy of the mercy of God, it is not of himself—who, if he were left to himself, would perish—but of God who has mercy, who comes to the aid of his prayers and griefs. For it is too little to will, unless God have mercy; but God does not have mercy, who calls to peace, unless the will has gone before; for on earth peace to men of good will (Luke 2:14).

And since no one can even will, unless he be admonished and called, whether inwardly, where no man sees, or outwardly through a resounding word, or through certain visible signs, it comes about that God works in us even the very willing (Phil. 2:13). For to that supper which the Lord says in the Gospel was prepared, not all who were called were willing to come; nor could those who came, come, unless they were called (Luke 14:16-24). And so neither ought those to ascribe it to themselves who came, because being called they came; nor ought those who refused to come ascribe it to another, but only to themselves, since, that they might come, they had been called in free will.

The calling therefore works upon the will before merit. Wherefore, even if anyone ascribes to himself that he came when called, he cannot ascribe to himself that he was called. But he who, being called, did not come, just as he had no merit of reward that he should be called, so he begins the merit of punishment when, being called, he neglected to come. Thus there will be those two things: 'Mercy and judgment will I sing to you, O Lord' (Ps. 101:1). To mercy pertains the calling; to judgment pertains the blessedness of those who came when called, and the punishment of those who refused to come. Did it then lie hidden from Pharaoh how much good those lands had obtained through the coming of Joseph (Gen. 41)?

The knowledge, therefore, of that deed done was his calling, that, treating the people of Israel mercifully, he should not be ungrateful. But because he was unwilling to obey this calling, and instead exercised cruelty upon those to whom kindness and mercy were due, he deserved the penalty that his heart should be hardened, and that he should suffer so great a blindness of mind as not to believe at so many and so great and so manifest signs of God; so that by his punishment—whether of hardening, or of the final visible drowning—the people might be instructed, by whose affliction he acquired for himself the merit both of hidden blinding and of manifest drowning (Exod. 5-14).

Now this calling, which works whether in individual men, or in peoples, and in the human race itself, through the opportune moments of the times, belongs to a high and deep ordering. To this pertains also that saying, 'In the womb I sanctified you' (Jer. 1:5); and, 'When you were in the loins of your father, I saw you'; and, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated' (Mal. 1:2-3): since it was said before they were born. Nor can it be comprehended, except perhaps by those who love God with their whole heart and with their whole soul and with their whole mind, and love their neighbors as themselves (Matt. 22:37-39).

For grounded in so great a charity, they can perhaps now with the saints comprehend the length, the breadth, the height, and the depth (Eph. 3:18). Yet this is to be held with most steadfast faith: that God does nothing unjustly, and that there is no nature that does not owe to God that which it is; because to God is owed all comeliness and beauty and fitting proportion of parts; which, if you pursue it thoroughly, and take away from things even down to their last remains, nothing remains. LXIX. On that which is written: 'Then shall the Son himself also be subject to him who subjected all things to him' (1 Cor. 15:28). 1.

Those who contend that the Son of God is not equal to the Father are wont to make rather familiar use of this testimony, where the Apostle says, 'But when all things shall be subjected to him, then shall the Son himself also be subject to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.' For an error cloaked under the Christian name could not arise for them, except from Scriptures not understood. For they say, 'If he is equal, how shall he be subject to him?' Which is altogether similar to that evangelical question, 'If he is equal, how is the Father greater?' For the Lord himself says, 'Because the Father is greater than I' (John 14:28).

But the rule of the Catholic faith holds thus: that when some things are said in the Scriptures concerning the Son, that he is less than the Father, they are to be understood according to the assumption of manhood; but when those things are said whereby he is shown to be equal, they are to be taken according to that which he is. It appears therefore in what manner it was said, 'The Father is greater than I'; and, 'I and the Father are one' (John 10:30); and, 'The Word was God'; and, 'The Word was made flesh' (John 1:1,14); and, 'He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant' (Phil. 2:6-7).

But since many things also, according to the property of the person, apart from what pertains to the assumption of manhood, are said of him in such a way that the Father must be understood as none other than the Father, and the Son as none other than the Son, the heretics think that in those things which are thus said and understood there cannot be equality. For it is written, 'All things were made through him' (John 1:3), namely through the Son, that is, through the Word of God: by whom, if not by the Father? Nowhere, however, is it written that the Son wrought any creature through the Father. Likewise it is written that the Son is the image of the Father (Col. 1:15); nowhere, however, is it written that the Father is the image of the Son. Then, that the one is the begetter, the other the begotten;

and other things of this kind, which pertain not to the equality of substance, but to the property of the persons: in which the heretics say that there cannot be equality of him. Since, in order to penetrate these things, they bring to bear rather coarse minds, they are to be pressed with the weight of authority. For if in these matters the equality could not be understood—of him through whom all things were made and of him from whom they were made, of the image and of him whose image it is, of the begotten and of the begetter—the Apostle, shutting the mouths of contentious men, would in no way have placed even the word itself, saying, 'He thought it not robbery to be equal with God.' 2.

Since therefore those things which are written for the distinction of the Father and the Son are so written, partly on account of the properties of the persons, partly on account of the assumption of manhood, while yet the deity and unity and equality of the divine substance of the Father and the Son remains, it is rightly asked in this place whether the Apostle said, 'Then shall the Son himself also be subject to him who subjected all things to him,' according to the properties of the persons, or according to the assumption of manhood. The context of Scripture is wont to illumine the meaning, when those things which are written round about the present question, and touch upon it, are treated by diligent examination.

We find therefore that it was come to this place in such a way that above he said, 'But now Christ is risen from the dead, the firstfruits of them that sleep.' For he was treating of the resurrection of the dead, which in the Lord was accomplished according to the assumption of manhood; although he most openly goes on and says: 'For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But every one in his own order: the beginning, Christ; then they that are Christ's, at his coming (parousia); then the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father, when he shall have brought to nought all principality and all power and virtue.'

'For he must reign, until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he has put all things in subjection under his feet. But when he says that all things are subjected, it is manifest that he is excepted who subjected all things to him. And when all things shall be subjected to him, then shall the Son himself also be subject to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all' (1 Cor. 15:20-28). It is manifest, therefore, that this was said according to the assumption of manhood. 3. But other things in this chapter, whose whole text I have recalled, are wont to have a question: first, that it was said, 'When he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father,' as though the Father did not now hold the kingdom.

Then that it was said, 'For he must reign, until he has put all his enemies under his feet'; as though afterward he would not reign, and to this end avails what was said above, 'Then the end.' Which by a sacrilegious opinion they take in such a way as if by 'the end' he meant the consummation of his kingdom; although it is written in the Gospel, 'And of his kingdom there shall be no end' (Luke 1:33). Lastly, that it was said, 'But when all things shall be subjected to him, then shall the Son himself also be subject to him who subjected all things to him'; thus they wish it to be understood as though now either something is not subject to the Son, or he himself is not subject to the Father. 4. By the manner of speech, therefore, the question is resolved. For Scripture generally speaks in such a way that what always is,

is then said to come to be in something, when in it it comes to be known. For thus we say in prayer, 'Hallowed be your name' (Matt. 6:9); as though it were sometimes not holy. Therefore, just as 'Hallowed be' is that it become known to be holy; so also, 'When he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father,' that is, when he shall have shown the Father to reign, that it may shine forth through appearance and manifestation, what is now believed by the faithful and not reckoned by the unfaithful.

And he will bring to nought all principality and power, by manifesting indeed the kingdom of the Father, so that it may be known to all that none of the principalities and powers, whether heavenly or earthly, had of itself anything of principality and power, but from him from whom are all things, not only that they should be, but also that they should be ordered. For in that manifestation no hope will remain in anyone for any prince, or for any man. Which even now is prophetically sung: 'It is good to hope in the Lord, rather than to hope in man; it is good to hope in the Lord, rather than to hope in princes' (Ps. 118:8-9):

so that by this meditation the soul may now rise up into the kingdom of the Father, neither making much of anyone's power except his, nor most perniciously flattering itself with its own power. He will therefore deliver up the kingdom to God and the Father, when through him the Father shall be known through appearance. For his kingdom are those in whom he now reigns through faith. For in one way the kingdom of Christ is spoken of according to the power of divinity, according to which every creature is subject to him; and in another way his kingdom is called the Church, according to the property of the faith which is in him, according to which he prays who says, 'Possess us' (Isa. 26:13, LXX). For it is not that he himself does not possess all things. According to which is said also that other saying: 'When you were servants of sin, you were free from righteousness' (Rom. 6:20).

He will therefore bring to nought all principality and all power and virtue, so that for no one beholding the Father through the Son there may be need, or desire, to rest in the power of any creature or in his own. 5. 'For he must reign, until he has put all his enemies under his feet': that is, his kingdom must be manifested to such a degree, until all his enemies confess that he reigns. For this is understood: that his enemies shall be under his feet. But if we take it of the just, therefore they are called 'enemies,' because from being unjust they are justified, and by believing are subjected to him.

But concerning the unjust who do not pertain to the future blessedness of the just, it is to be taken thus: that they too, being confounded by that very manifestation of his kingdom, shall confess him to reign. Therefore, 'He must reign, until he has put all his enemies under his feet,' was not said as though, when he shall have put his enemies under his feet, he would not afterward reign; but, 'He must reign, until he has put all his enemies under his feet'; he must, he says, bring his kingdom to so great an evidence, until his enemies in no way dare to deny that he reigns. For it is written, 'So our eyes are toward the Lord our God, until he has mercy upon us' (Ps. 123:2):

nor yet on that account, when he shall have had mercy upon us, ought we to turn our eyes away from him. For our blessedness is to the very degree that we fully enjoy his contemplation. So therefore this too was said: the intention of our eyes is not extended toward the Lord, except as far as the obtaining of his mercy, not that afterward it be turned away from him, but that it require nothing further therefrom. 'Until,' therefore, was put for 'so that no further,' that you may understand. For to what further—that is, up to what greater manifestation—shall the kingdom of Christ be manifested, except until all his enemies confess him to reign? It is one thing therefore to be manifested no further, another to abide no further. To be manifested no further is not to be made more manifest;

'to abide no further' is not to become more enduring. But when will the kingdom of Christ be more manifest than when it shall have shone clear to all his enemies? 6. 'The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.' For there will be nothing else to be destroyed, after this mortal has put on immortality. 'For he has put all things in subjection under his feet': that is, so that he may destroy even death. 'But when he shall have said that all things are subjected'—the prophet indeed said it in the Psalms (Ps. 8:8)—'it is manifest that he is excepted who subjected all things to him': he wishes it to be understood that the Father subjected all things to the Son, as in many places the same Lord commends and proclaims it in the Gospel, not only on account of the form of a servant, but also on account of the principle from which he is,

and whereby he is equal to him from whom he is. For he loves to refer all things to one principle, as the image of him, but in whom dwells all the fullness of divinity (Col. 2:9). 7. 'But when all things shall be subjected to him, then shall the Son himself also be subject to him who subjected all things to him.' Not as though it were now not so, but then it will be manifest, according to the manner of speech treated above. 'That God may be all in all.' This is the end which he mentioned above, when he first wished briefly to conclude the whole, and then, as it were limb by limb, to explain and set it forth. For he was speaking of the resurrection, where he says, 'The beginning, Christ; then they that are Christ's, at his coming; then the end.'

He himself, namely, is the end, as he says, 'God all in all.' For in one way is that 'end' spoken of which pertains to consummation, in another that which pertains to consumption. For a tunic is finished in one way by weaving, food in another by eating. But God is said to be 'all in all,' so that none of those who cleave to him may love his own will against him, and it may be manifest to all what the same Apostle says in another place, 'But what have you that you did not receive?' (1 Cor. 4:7). 8. There are likewise those who understand this place, 'He must reign, until he has put all his enemies under his feet,' in such a way that they say 'reign' is here put under another signification;

not under that whereby 'kingdom' was put, concerning which he says, 'When he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father'; so that he called that 'kingdom' by which God rules the whole creation, but he called this 'to reign' in the sense understood as leading an army against an enemy, or defending a city: so that for this reason he said, 'He must reign, until he has put all his enemies under his feet'; because of such a kingdom as the commanders of armed men have, there will be no cause, the enemy being so subjected that he cannot rebel. For it is indeed said in the Gospel, 'And of his kingdom there shall be no end,' according to which he reigns forever; but according to that whereby warfare is waged under him against the devil,

this warfare will indeed last until he has put all his enemies under his feet; but afterward it will not be, when we shall enjoy perpetual peace. 9. But let these things be so said that we may know it behooves us to consider yet more diligently in what respect the Lord now reigns by the dispensation of his sacrament through the incarnation and passion. For according to that which he is the Word of God, his kingdom is as without end as without beginning and without intermission. But according to that whereby the Word was made flesh (John 1:14), he began to reign in believers through faith in his incarnation. Whence also is that saying: 'The Lord has reigned from the wood' (Ps. 96:10).

Hence, moreover, he brought to nought all principality and all power and virtue, in that not through his brightness, but through his humility, believers in him are saved. This is hidden from the wise and prudent, and revealed to babes (Matt. 11:25); because it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe (1 Cor. 1:21). Nor does the Apostle say that he knows anything among the babes, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2). And of this preaching there is need for so long, until all enemies be put under his feet: that is, that to that very humility of his—which I judge to be signified by the name of 'feet'—all worldly pride may yield and be subjected;