me, but I lay it down of myself; I have Power to lay it down, and I have Power to take it again; This Commandment have I received of my Father. 594. Joh. X; 28, 29, 30. I give unto them eternal Life, and they fhall never perish, neither fhall Any pluck them out of my Hand. My Father which gave them me, is greater than All; and None is able to pluck them out of my Fathers han!. I and my Father are * One. * Not [&is, Unus,] One and the fame Person; but [ev, Unum,] One and the fame Thing. The Meaning is; Since None can pluck them out of the Fathers hands, and the Father has communicated His Power to the Son; therefore None can pluck them out of the Sons hands: So that, being in the Fathers hands, or being in the Sons hands, is One and the fame Thing. When our Lord Jays, I and my Father are One Thing, he means, (fays Chryfoftomy) One in Power; For concerning That [viz. concerning Power, was his whole Difcourfe. And Bafil: For when Ειπών δ περὶ τ πιςευ our Lord (fays he ) bad declared concerning Belie- σάντων, ὅτι 3 μή τις αρπά vers, No man can take ση En & yong's ME, HOT! them out of my Hand; ὁ πατὴς ὅς δέδωκέ μοι μείο and, My Father which v avtov 1, 2 &deis ζων πάντων βαὶ, ἐδεὶς gave me them is grea- δύναται ἁρπάσαι ἐκ τ Ἐγὼ γδ καὶ ὁ πατὴς ἓν ἐστ The Aéraμi, &sΤὰ τὴν Δύναμιν, ταῦθα λέγων και η περί ταυτης ἦν ὁ λόγω ἅπας αυ Ta. Homil. 61. in Joh. 3 ter than All; and, No I ช and thereupon adds, ἡ ἐσμό, σαφῶς τὸ Ἕν ἀντὶ nom. lib. 1. 7 Divines have generally fuppofed; (and, as it cannot certainly be proved, fo neither can it with any Certainty be contradicted;) that these Words I and my Father are One and the Same Thing,] have a fecret Reference to fome other more myfterious and incomprehenfible Inftances of Union and Communion between the Father and the Son, than That which the Connexion of the Words naturally leads to. And indeed, that the Words are capable of being extended to many Significations, appears from the Ufe of the like phrafe in other paffages: Ch. xvii, ver. 11, That They may be One, as We are: Ver. 21, That They all may One, as Thon, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee; that They also may be One in Us: Ver, 22, 23, That They may be One, even as We are One; I in Th.m, and Thon in Me, that They may be made perfect in One: And 1 Cor. iii, 8, He that planteth, and he that watereth, are [v] One: And Gal. iii, 28, 7here is neither Few nor Greek, there is neither Bond nor Free, there is neither Male nor Female; for ye are all One [es, as it were One and the fame Perfon,] in Christ Jesus. See N° 6.0 & 609. be that Thou, being a Man, that the Father is in Me, 596. and I in Him. See N° 600. 597. Job. xii, 41. These things faid Efaias, when he* faw his Glory, and spake of him. *The Glory which Efaias faw, Efai. vi, 1, is plainly the Glory of God the Father: From whence the Followers of Sabellius conclude, because St John here calls it the Glory of Christ, that therefore the Father and the Son are One and the Same Individual Being or Perfon. But the True Meaning is, that when Efaias faw the Glory of God the Father revealing to him the Coming of Christ, he then faw the Glory of Him, who was to come in the Glory of his Father, Mat. xvi, 27. Further, it is the conftant Doctrine of all the Primitive Writers of the Church, that every Appearance of God the Father, in the old Teftament, was Chrift appearing in the Perfon of the Father, [ev μoggy Oe8,] in the Form of God, as being the Image of the invisible God, Col. i, 15; of Him, whom no man bath feen at any time, Joh. i, 18; of Him whom no man hath seen nor can see, 1 Tim. vi, 16. This Word of God, εἰς Αναλαμβάνων τὸ πρό (faith Theophilus An- σωπον * πατρὸς καὶ κυρίω tiochenus,) taking upon - ὅλων, τα παρεγίνετο himself the Perfon of the οὐράδεισον ἐν ποςFather and Lord of all eis, & ag'deroor things, came into Para- σώπῳ ἢ θεῖ, καὶ ὡμίλει dife, and talked with A- Ta Adaμ. Ad Autol. lib. 2. dam, in the Perfon of God. And Irenæus: The Word of God (faith he) And again: The Scri Καὶ ἀυτὸς ἢ ὁ λόγα το De Tois si ago Mavows waslapais, To Deïndr καὶ ἔνδοξον, ὡμίλει: τοῖς ἢ es tal vóμece &c. Lib. III, cap. II. Infeminatus eft ubique in pture (faith he) is full of Scripturis Filius Dei, ali- And Justin Martyr. See No 616. Filius eft, qui ab initio judicavit,turrim fuperbiffimam elidens, linguafque difperdens, orbem totum aquarum violentiâ puniens, pluens fuperSodomam & Gomorrham ignem & fulphurem, Dominus a Domino; Deus in terris cum hominibus converfari alius non potuit, quàm Sermo, qui Caro erat futurus. Adv. Prax. cap. 16. & Earth, could be any other than that Word, which was to 1130) be made Flesh. H 4 And And again: We profefs (fays he) that Chrift always acted in the Name of God his Father; that it was He, who converfed upon Earth from the Be ginning; that it was He, who appeared to the Patriarchs and Prophets: that the Father himself was never seen by Any; but that Nam & profitemur Chriftum femper egiffe in Dei Patris nomine; ipfum ab initio converfatum; ipfum congreffum cum Patriarchis & Prophetis; —cæterùm Patrem nemini vifum,—cujus auctoritate & nomine ipfe erat Deus, qui videbatur Dei filius. Adv. Marc. lib. 2, c. 27. in His Name and by His Authority, the Son of God, which appeared, was God. And Cyprian, in his fecond Book of Teftimonies against the fews, ch. 5 & 6; Which fee at large. And Athanafius: In Καὶ ἐν τῷ Ἰωὴλ και προ σώπς παζός λέγει, Εκχεῶ ἀπὸ τὸ πνεύματός με. De humanâ nat. fufcept. Hoel (fays he) He fpeaks The learned Bp. Bull in like manner: Whereever (fays he) it was not a mere Angel, but God himself, that appeared; there, according to the unanimous opinion of all fpeaking of this very paffaw God fitting upon the Τον πατέρα μὲ τὸ ἐδεὶς one wwwOTE. 8) TW προφήτη τότε φανεὶς, τὸς ἦν. Catech. 14. Ubicunque non merum Angelum, fed ipfum Deum apparuiffe liquet ; ibi non Patrem, fed Filium intelligendum effe, primævæ Antiquitatis confentiens judicium religiosè fequentes, conftanter |