Cornelius a Lapide

Say ye of Him, &c. This is an argument from the less to the greater. “ If judges, who only participate in the power of God, are rightly called gods, much more can I be called God, who am the Very Word of God.” S. Augustine and Bede more acutely, but less to the point, mainDigitized by V^rOOQie HOW CHRIST WAS SANCTIFIED. 3«I tain that the force of the argument is this, if they who are merely partakers of the word of God are called gods, much more am I, who am not merely a partaker of the word of God, but the Word of God Itselfi Note here that the words, M He whom the Father hath sanctified,” have several meanings. (1.) He to whom the Father hath communicated the sanctity wherewith He is holy, whom the Father, when He begat Him, made to be holy, says S. Augustine. For God the Father who is holy begat the Son who is holy. So Bede, Toletus, and others. The Son is therefore holy in His generation and essence. (2.) The Father sanctified Christ as man, by means of the Hypostatical Union; for by this (speaking accurately) is the manhood of Christ sanctified in the highest degree. For by the very act wherewith the Person of the Word (Itself uncreated and infinite Sanctity) assumed the humanity, and united it hypostatically to Itself) It clearly sanctified it, and thus infused into its soul the pre-eminent sanctity of charity, grace, and all other virtues. And so S. Hilary says, “ Jesus was sanctified to be His Son, since S. Paul says, ‘ He was predestinated to be the Son of God with power, by the Spirit of sanctification.*” And so too S. Chrysostom, and S. Athanasius (de Incam. Verb. sub. init.) " Sanctified ” is therefore the same as “ sealed,” as I said chap, vl 27. (3.) Theophylact says, “ He sanctified, that is He sanctioned His sacrifice for the world, showing that He was not such a god as the others were ; for to save the world is the work of God, not of a man deified by grace. As Christ says (xvil 19), I sanctify Myself i.e., I sacrifice Myself, I offer Myself as a holy Victim.” (4.) Maldonatus says : “ He sanctified Me, t.e., He designated and destined Me to the office of Saviour,” referring to Jer. i. 5, though the truer meaning of the passage is different, as I have there stated