own greater love to him than that this man, mercy of Him whose justice is hidden, set who was only a partner with the rest of his about the discussion, in order to the solution fellow-disciples in the great salvation, should of a question of such importance, in accordbe the only one that leaned on the breast of ance with the strength which He may grathe Saviour Himself? And further, that the ciously bestow: for hitherto it has only been Apostle Peter loved Christ more than the proposed, not expounded. Let this, then, others, may be adduced from many docu- be the commencement of its exposition, mentary evidences; but to go no further after namely, that we bear in mind that in this others, it is plainly enough apparent in the corruptible body, which burdens the soul,' we lesson almost immediately preceding the live a miserable life. But we who are now present, in connection with that third mani- redeemed by the Mediator, and have received festation of the Lord, when He put to him the earnest of the Holy Spirit, have a blessed the question, "Lovest thou me more than life in prospect, although we possess it not these?" He knew it, of course, and yet as yet in reality. But a hope that is seen is asked, in order that we also, who read the not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he Gospel, might know Peter's love to Christ, yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see both from the questions of the One and the not, then do we with patience wait for it." answers of the other. But when Peter only And it is in the evils that every one suffers, replied, "I love Thee," without adding, not in the good things that he enjoys, that he "more than these," his answer contained all has need of patience. The present life, that he knew of himself. For he could not therefore, whereof it is written, "Is not the know how much He was loved by any other, life of man a term of trial upon earth?" 3 in not being able to look into that other's heart. which we are daily crying to the Lord, But by saying in the earliest of his answers," Deliver us from evil," a man is compelled "Yea, Lord, Thou knowest," he stated in to endure, even when his sins are forgiven clear enough terms, that it was with perfect him, although it was the first sin that caused knowledge of all that the Lord asked what his falling into such misery. For the penalty He asked. The Lord therefore knew, not is more protracted than the fault; lest the only that Peter loved Him, but also that he fault should be accounted small, were the loved Him more than the others. And yet if penalty to end with itself. On this account we propose to ourselves, in the way of inquiry, it is also, either for the demonstration of our which of the two is the better, he that loveth debt of misery, or for the amendment of our Christ more or he that loveth Him less, who passing life, or for the exercise of the neceswill hesitate to answer, he is the better that sary patience, that man is kept through time loveth Him more? If, on the other hand, in the penalty, even when he is no longer we propose this question, which of the two is held by his sin as liable to everlasting damthe better, he that is loved less or he that is nation. This is the truly lamentable but loved more by Christ, without any doubt we unblameable condition of the present evil shall reply that he is the better who is loved days we pass in this mortal state, even while the more by Christ. In the comparison there-in it we look with loving eyes to the days that fore which I drew first, Peter is superior to are good. For it comes from the righteous John; but in the latter, John is preferred to anger of God, whereof the Scriptures say, Peter. Accordingly, we have a third to pro." Man, that is born of woman, is of few days pose in this form: Which of the two disciples is the better, he that loveth Christ less than his fellow-disciple [does], and is loved more than his fellow-disciple by Christ? or he who is loved less than his fellow-disciple by Christ, while he, more than his fellow-disciple, loveth Christ? Here it is that the answer plainly halts, and the question grows in magnitude. As far, however, as my own wisdom goes, I might easily reply, that he is the better who loveth Christ the more, but he the happier who is loved the more by Christ; if only I could thoroughly see how to defend the justice of our Deliverer in loving him the less by whom He is loved the more, and him the more by whom He is loved the less. 5. I shall therefore, in the manifested 6 and full of anger: "5 for the anger of God is not like that of man, the disturbance of an excited man, but the calm fixing of righteous punishment. In this anger of His, God restraineth not, as it is written, His tender mercies; but, besides other consolations to the miserable, which He ceaseth not to bestow on mankind, in the fullness of time, when He knew that such had to be done, He sent His only-begotten Son, by whom He created all things, that He might become man while remaining God, and so be the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus: that those who believe in Him, being absolved by 1 Wisd. ix. 15. 2 Rom. viii. 24, 25. 3 Job vii. 1. 66 the laver of regeneration from the guilt of all this representation Christ is to be understood their sins, to wit, both of the original sin as the Rock, Peter as the Church. This they have inherited by generation, and to Church, accordingly, which Peter represented, meet which, in particular, regeneration was so long as it lives amidst evil, by loving and instituted, and of all others contracted by evil | following Christ is delivered from evil. But conduct, might be delivered from perpetual its following is the closer in those who concondemnation, and live in faith and hope and tend even unto death for the truth. But to the love while sojourning in this world, and be universality 5 [of the Church] is it said, “Folwalking onward to His visible presence amid low me," even as it was for the same univerits toilsome and perilous temptations on the sality that Christ suffered: of whom this same one hand, but the consolations of God, both Peter saith, "Christ suffered for us, leaving bodily and spiritual, on the other, ever keep- us an example, that we should follow His ing to the way which Christ has become to footsteps." " This, then, you see is why it them. And because, even while walking in was said to him, "Follow me." But there Him, they are not exempt from sins, which is another, an immortal life, that is not creep in through the infirmities of this life, passed in the midst of evil: there we shall He has given them the salutary remedies of see face to face what is seen here through a alms whereby their prayers might be aided, glass and in a riddle,' even when much progwhen He taught them to say, Forgive us ress is made in the beholding of the truth. our debts, as we also forgive our debtors." There are two states of life, therefore, So does the Church act in blessed hope preached and commended to herself from through this troublous life; and this Church, heaven, that are known to the Church, wheresymbolized in its generality, was personified of the one is in faith, the other in sight; one in the Apostle Peter, on account of the pri- in the temporal sojourn in a foreign land, the macy of his apostleship. For, as regards other in the eternity of the [heavenly] abode; his proper personality, he was by nature one one in labor, the other in repose; one on the man, by grace one Christian, by still more way, the other in the fatherland; one in active abounding grace one, and yet also, the first work, the other in the wages of contemplaapostle; but when it was said to him, "I will tion; one declines from evil and makes for give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of good, the other has no evil to decline from, heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on and has great good to enjoy; the one fights earth, shall be bound in heaven; and what- with a foe, the other reigns without a foe; soever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be the one is brave in the midst of adversities, loosed in heaven," he represented the univer- the other has no experience of adversity; the sal Church, which in this world is shaken by one is bridling its carnal lusts, the other has divers temptations, that come upon it like tor- full scope for spiritual delights; the one is rents of rain, floods and tempests, and falleth anxious with the care of conquering, the not, because it is founded upon a rock (petra), other secure in the peace of victory; the one from which Peter received his name. For is helped in temptations, the other, free from petra (rock) is not derived from Peter, but all temptations, rejoices in the Helper HimPeter from petra; just as Christ is not called self; the one is occupied in relieving the inso from the Christian, but the Christian from digent, the other is there, where no indigence Christ. For on this very account the Lord is found; the one pardons the sins of others, said, "On this rock will I build my Church," that its own may be pardoned to itself, the because Peter had said, “Thou art the Christ, other neither has anything to pardon nor does the Son of the living God." On this rock, aught for which pardon has to be asked; the therefore, He said, which thou hast confessed. one is scourged with evils that it may not be I will build my Church. For the Rock | elated with good things, the other is free from (Petra) was Christ; and on this foundation all evil by such a fullness of grace that, withwas Peter himself also built. For other out any temptation to pride, it may cleave to foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Christ Jesus.4 The Church, therefore, which is founded in Christ received from Him the keys of the kingdom of heaven in the person of Peter, that is to say, the power of binding and loosing sins. For what the Church is essentially in Christ, such representatively is Peter in the rock (petra); and in that which is supremely good; the one discerneth both good and evil, the other has only that which is good presented to view: therefore the one is good, but miserable as yet; the other, better and blessed. This one was signified by the Apostle Peter, that other by John. The whole of the one is passed here to the end of this world, and there finds its ! 66 2 termination, the other is deferred for its less when better ourselves; since we can in completion till after the end of this world, but no possible way be better ourselves, save by has no end in the world to come. Hence it loving Him more. Why was it, then, that is said to the latter, "Follow me;" but of John loved Him less than Peter, if he signithe former, "Thus I will that he tarry till I fied that life, wherein He must be more come, what is that to thee? follow thou me." abundantly loved, but because on that very For what means this last? So far as my wis-account it was said, "I will that he tarry," dom goes, so far as I comprehend, what is it that is wait,"till I come;" for we have not but this, Follow thou me by imitating me in yet the love itself, which will then be greater the endurance of temporal evils; let him re- far, but are expecting that future, that we main till I come to restore everlasting good? may have it when He shall come? Just as And this may be expressed more clearly in in his own epistle the same apostle declares, this way: Let perfected action, informed by It has not yet appeared what we shall be: the example of my passion, follow me; but but we know that, when He shall appear, we let contemplation only begun remain [so] till shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as I come, to be perfected when I come. For He is." Then accordingly shall we love the the godly plenitude of patience, reaching more that which we shall see. But the Lord forward even unto death, followeth Christ; Himself, in His predestinating knowledge, but the fullness of knowledge tarrieth till Christ come, to be manifested then. For here the evils of this world are endured in the land of the dying, while there shall be seen the good things of the Lord in the land of the living. For in saying, "I wish him to tarry till I come," we are not to understand Him as meaning to remain on, or abide permanently, but to wait; seeing that what is signified by him shall certainly not be fulfilled now, but when Christ is come. But what is signified by him to whom it was said, "Follow thou me," unless it be done now, will never attain to the expected end. And in this life of activity, the more we love Christ the more easily are we delivered from evil. But He loveth us less as we now are, and therefore delivers from it, that we may not be always such as we are. There, however, He loveth us more; for we shall not have aught about us to displease Him, or aught that He will have to separate us from: nor is it for aught else that He loveth us here but that He may heal and translate us from everything He 7. Let no one, however, separate these disloveth not. Here, therefore, [He loveth us] tinguished apostles. In that which was sigless, where He would not have us remain; nified by Peter, they were both alike; and in there in larger measure, whither He would that which was signified by John, they will both have us to be passing, and out of that where- be alike hereafter. In their representative in He would not that we should perish. Let Peter therefore love Him, that we may obtain deliverance from our present mortality; let John be loved by Him, that we may be preserved in the immortality to come. 6. But by this line of argument we have shown why Christ loved John more than Peter, not why Peter loved Christ more than John. For if Christ loveth us more in the world to come, where we shall live unendingly with Him, than in the present, from which we are in the course of being rescued, that we may be always in the other, it does not follow on that account that we shall love Him loveth more that future life of ours that is yet to come, such as He knows it will be hereafter in us, in order that by so loving us He may draw us onward to its possession. Wherefore, as all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth, we know our present misery, because we feel it; and therefore we love more the mercy of the Lord, which we wish to be exhibited in our deliverance from misery, and we ask and experience it daily, especially in the remission of sins: this it is that was signified by Peter, as loving more, but less beloved; because Christ loveth us less in our misery than in our blessedness. But the contemplation of the truth, such as it then shall be, we love less, because as yet we neither know nor possess it: this was signified by John as loving less, and therefore waiting both for that state itself, and for the perfecting in us of that love to Him, to which He is entitled, till the Lord come; but loved the more, because that it is, which is symbolized by him, that maketh him blessed. character, the one was following, the other tarrying; but in their personal faith they were both of them enduring the present evils of the misery here, both of them expecting the future good things of the blessedness to come. And such is the case, not with them alone, but with the holy universal Church, the spouse of Christ, who has still to be rescued from the present trials, and to be preserved in the future happiness. And these two states of life were symbolized by Peter and John, the one by the one, the other by the other; but in this life they both of them are also," he adds, "many other things which walked for a time by faith, and the other Jesus did, the which, if they should be writthey shall both of them enjoy eternally by ten every one, I suppose that even the world sight. For the whole body of the saints, itself could not contain the books that should therefore, inseparably belonging to the body be written." We are not to suppose that in of Christ, and for their safe pilotage through regard to local space the world would be unthe present tempestuous life, did Peter, the able to contain them; for how could they be first of the apostles, receive the keys of the written in it if it could not bear them when kingdom of heaven for the binding and loos- written? but perhaps it is that they could not ing of sins; and for the same congregation of be comprehended by the capacity of the saints, in reference to the perfect repose in readers: although, while our faith in certain the bosom of that mysterious life to come, things themselves remains unharmed, the did the evangelist John recline on the breast words we use about them may not unfreof Christ. For it is not the former alone, quently appear to exceed belief. This will but the whole Church, that bindeth and loos- not take place when anything that was obeth sins; nor did the latter alone drink at the scure or dubious is in course of exposition by fountain of the Lord's breast, to emit again the setting forth of its ground and reason, in preaching, of the Word in the beginning, but only when that which is clear of itself is God with God, and those other sublime truths either magnified or extenuated, without any regarding the divinity of Christ, and the real departure from the pathway of the truth Trinity and Unity of the whole Godhead, to be intimated; for the words may outrun which are to be yet beheld in that kingdom the thing itself that is indicated only in such face to face, but meanwhile till the Lord's a way, that the will of him that speaketh, but coming are only to be seen in a mirror and without any intention to deceive, may be apin a riddle; but the Lord has Himself diffused parent, so that, knowing how far he will be this very gospel through the whole world, believed, he, orally, either diminishes or that every one of His own may drink thereat magnifies his subject beyond the limit to according to his own individual capacity. which credit will be given. This mode of There are some who have entertained the speaking is called by the Greek name hyperidea-and those, too, who are no contempti- bole, by the masters not only of Greek, but ble handlers of sacred eloquence-that the also of Latin literature. And this mode is Apostle John was more loved by Christ on the found not only here, but in several other ground that he never married a wife, and parts also of the divine literature: as, "They lived in perfect chastity from early boyhood.' set their mouths against the heavens; "2 and, There is, indeed, no distinct evidence of this "The top of the hair of such as go on in their in the canonical Scriptures: nevertheless it is trespasses; "3 and many others of the same an idea that contributes not a little to the kind, which are no more wanting in the sacred suitableness of the opinion expressed above, Scriptures than other tropes or modes of namely, that that life was signified by him, speaking. Of these I might give a more where there will be no marriage. elaborate discussion, were it not that, as the evangelist here terminates his Gospel, I am also compelled to bring my discourse to a close. 66 8. This is the disciple who testifieth of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony is true. And there I 1 Jerome, Book I., Against Jovinian. 2 Ps. lxxiii. 9. 3 Ps. lxviii. 21. |