The Great Commentary (Mossman/Cobb English)

“I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ “For the grace,” in Greek, cVt T0 dpvriy that is, on account of the grace of God, which is given you in Christy i.e. y through Christ See Can. 25. “The source,” says S. Bernard (, Serm . 13 in Cant.) y “of all the springs and rivers 6 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE is the sea : but the source of all virtue and knowledge is the Lord Jesus Christ : the continence of the flesh, the energy of the heart, the rectitude of the will, all flow from that spring : let the heavenly stream be given back to its source ” (by thanksgiving), “ so that the farthest parts of the earth may be replenished ; * I will not give my glory to another/ saith God ” (Isa. xlviii. n)”

“Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you — i.e., by which, as by two testimonies, the Christian faith was founded and established in you. For the Greeks interpret the Greek k* 0 w, i.e., even as, by enallage, &*>’ through which, that is, the word and knowledge. Others interpret, Even as the testimony , thus : by which things, viz., by the preaching of the Gospel, and by the knowledge of it, as by a sure testimony, it is known that you are faithful and disciples of Christ”

“God is faithful by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Note, faithful with S. Paul is the same as constant, truthful, as I shall show on 1 Tim i. 15 ; not, according to Calvin, as though God saves those only who have been effectually called by Him, and all of them ; and as though He bids and makes each one of them believe with a firm faith that he will be saved. For if so, why, in the next verse, anxious about the salvation of the Corinthians, does he condemn their divisions ? Had not the Corinthians believed ? — and yet, having lapsed into schisms, they had incurred the danger of damnation, and, therefore, Paul endeavours to avert it from them. The faithful, therefore, can lapse into sin and be damned. God, then, is said to be faithful, because, not without cause, will He, O Corinthians, withdraw His help from you which He began to give, and afterwards promised that He would give, in order that you might persevere and be confirmed in the faith and fellowship of Jesus ; nor will He desert you unless He be first deserted by you ; as the Council of Trent teaches (following S. Augustine), Sess. vi. c. 1 1 and 1 3, where it lays down the same three things which the Apostle does here : (1.) That God gives the grace of Christ to all the justified : because, if they are willing, they are able to persevere in righteousness. (2.) That they by their own will can fall from it (3.) That no one knows whether he will persevere, and whether he is of the number of the elect, unless he has a special revelation of it from God. Note secondly. Paul here calls the communion of the faith, grace and glory of Christ which is enjoyed in the Church of Christ, the fellowship of His Son ; or that partaking of Christ in which we have a fellowship of sonship, inheritance, the Sacraments, and all the benefits of Christ In other words: Ye are called to be sons of God, fellows, members, brothers, and co-heirs of Christ : so Anselm, Ambrose, Theophylact and Chrysostom (whom see), and 1 S. John i. 3. And here notice : although, as the Apostle says, all faithful Christians are of the fellowship of Christ, yet some are more so than 8 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE others : that is to say, those who share more largely of the life and grace of Christ : as those who follow, not only the precepts, but also the counsels of Christ; even as the Apostles were more of the fellowship of Christ than other Christians. Ver. io. — I beseech you , brethren , by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ , into whose one and the same fellowship, family, house, and Church we are all called, as many as are faithful and Christians, that ye all speak the same thing — that is to say, that, like brothers, ye agree in words and in speech, and that ye all say at the same time “ I am of Christ ; ” but let not one say, “ I am of Paul,” another, “ I of Apollos.” And, again, that ye agree not only in speech, but also in mind: otherwise your verbal confession would be feigned and false. Whence he adds as the root of concord : — That ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment , that ye think the same thing and agree among yourselves in Christ, that ye be fitly united to each other in one mind and spirit in Christ For the Greek signifies, aptly and harmoniously to join and cement anything, so that the parts agree with each other and with the whole. And because a thing is then perfect and complete when it has in this way been neatly and harmoniously united, hence the word signifies also to perfect, as Ps. viiL 2 ; 2 Cor. xiii. 11. Be perfect , /.<?., mutually agree amongst yourselves and with your Head ; and Ps. xl. 6 (Sept.)”

“For it hath been declared unto me by them of Chlol '. Some think that Chloe is the name of a place, but this place is nowhere else mentioned ; nor does the Greek well allow Chloe to be a place. Whence more truly Chrysostom and the Syriac suppose it to be the name of a family or of a woman, and then the meaning is, I have heard from the family of Chlol. By a similar Greek idiom it is said, Rom. xvi. 10, 11 : “Salute thetn which are of Aristobulus, of Narcissus,” viz., of the house and family”

“That every one of you; i.e., Whoever of you contend with one another, and foment any part of schism. (For there were among the Corinthians many others well-disposed and peaceful, unconnected with schism, and consequently with the following SCHISMS AT CORINTH 9 words) : says , in turn, alternately or respectively ; for not each one was saying, I am of Paul / of Apollos y I of Cephas , but in turn ; since one would say, I am of Paul another, I of Apollos , a third, I of Cephas . In the words “ every one,” therefore, there is a distributive and disjunctive force familiar to the Hebrews; for every one ambitiously and contentiously was saying, “ I am of Paul,” &c., I am of Paul, viz., a disciple, a catechumen ; I of Cephas, that is to say, taught or baptized by the Blessed Pontiff Peter at Antioch, at Rome, or elsewhere. For Peter bad not yet been at Corinth, as is deduced from ch. iv. 15. Whence Baronius thinks that these are the words of those who were avoiding divisions, which had properly arisen because of Paul and Apollos, as appears in ch. iii. 4, and that, to escape from them, while others were boasting of their teachers, they would declare they were the disciples neither of Paul, nor of Apollos but of Peter, the head of the Church ; as though they should say, “This man says and boasts that he is the disciple of Paul, that man of Apollos ; but I say that I am of Cephas, that is, that I am a disciple of Peter, who is the head of the Church, and the Vicar of Christ: for to him I cling, in him I glory; he converted and baptized me by Paul or Apollos or some other.” Whence another rising higher would say : “ I am of Christy who is the supreme Head of Apostles and of the Church, whose Vicar Peter is, whose ministers are Paul and Apollos.” For it is to be noted that he adds 1 am of Christ as the words of those who speak not amiss but rightly, if there is no contention and contempt of the Apostles and the Vicars of Christ, as the Anabaptists now despise Prelates; for it became all to say, “ We are of Christ,” viz., Christians ; whereas some called themselves disciples of Paul, or of Apollos, or of Cephas. So Ambrose, Theophykact, S. Thomas. The occasion of the schism seems to have been that Apollos, who was eloquent, acute, and learned in the Scriptures, was then teaching at Corinth (Acts xviil 27), and compared to him S. Paul seemed to some cold and bald, because he avoided in his preaching all display of knowledge or of rhetorical ornament, as he says himself (ch. ii. 4.) Lastly, S. Jerome (on Tit. i.) gathers from this passage that 10 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE Bishops were given jurisdiction over presbyters, so as to remove all scandals, and that the Church before this was governed by the Presbyters in common council. This opinion must be discussed when we come to the Epistle to Titus”

“For Christ sent me not to baptize , but to preach the Gospel. Preaching and the administration of the Sacraments are the two duties of Pastors, but especially the former. And therefore the chief work of Bishops, Archbishops, and Primates is to preach the Gospel: and this they are bound to do themselves, unless lawfully hindered (Council of Trent, Sess. v. c. 2, and Sess. iv. c. 4). But they may with Paul intrust the administration of Baptism and the other Sacraments to Parish Priests and their assistants. Not with wisdom of words. I.e., with eloquence and rhetorical adornment, not according to the Gospel. The Greek word for wisdom gives us Sophists, the Greek orators who particularly pleaded in the law courts. Of this kind are modern innovators in religion, who rightly style themselves “ministers of the word.” Not so did Paul, “ lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect? i.e., should become emptied of its force, by men supposing that they had obtained salvation, and their belief in the faith through human eloquence, instead of by the power of the Passion of Christ This was the origin of the schism of those who said, “ I am of Paul,” “I of Apollos,” because the eloquence of Apollos WISDOM AND FOLLY 13 was pleasing to some of the more fastidious Corinthians, and to those who loved eloquence ; while on the other, Paul pleased those who sought for the spirit rather than the words, inasmuch as he was unskilled indeed in rhetoric but not in knowledge. And thence it is that S. Paul here and in the next three chapters attacks and abases in different ways eloquence and worldly wisdom. The “wisdom of words” can be taken for natural philosophy, or the wisdom of human reason ; for it is opposed to the Cross in ver. 18 ; and again, in verses 19, 20-27, he explains it as philosophy and human reason and prudence. (Maidonatus.)”

“For the preaching of the Cross is to them that perish foolishness . Any declaration about the salvation bestowed by the Cross, or about our redemption by the Cross and Passion of Christ, seems foolishness to men who are sceptical and perverse, and therefore ready to perish. Isaiah, too, says this in the person of Christ: “Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel ” (Isa. viii. 18). See also Heb. ii. 13”

“For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Mark the phrase, “ in the wisdom of God.” God shows His wisdom in the marvellous structure and government of the world, as S. Thomas says. In other words, the world in its foolishness knew not God practically in His wisdom stamped on His Creation, as the Author of its salvation, and Leader to a life of bliss ; nor yet speculatively , because philosophers regarded God as powerless to create; they thought Him to act under necessity, and to be void of providence, &c. Hence it is that God has revealed Himself and His salvation to the world in a way which seems to the world foolishness, viz., by the Cross. He has thus stooped to men, and become as it were foolish among them ; just as a teacher will sometimes act as a boy, and talk as a boy, amongst boys. So Christ, because He was not understood as God, revealed Himself to men, as a man, and one liable to suffering. This is wisdom unspeakable. See S. Thomas, Anselm, and others”

“Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. That is, say Ambrose and Anselm, the foolishness and weakness of God, or what men think is foolishness and weakness in God and in Christ incarnate and suffering, as eg.. His humanity, mortality, Passion and Cross, was just that by which Christ, when seemingly conquered, yet most wisely and most powerfully conquered men, Satan, and the whole world. In other words, God’s wisdom and power were most plainly seen in His overcoming all wisdom and strength by what was foolish and weak, viz., the Cross. And therefore Jerome and S. Augustine vol. 1. B l8 FIRST EPISTLE TO TIIE explain the passage of Habakkuk (iii. 4) was it not to us the way of prudence , the form of righteousness , the example of holiness t Therefore the Apostle also adds , i The foolishness of God is wiser than men . 9 Death then set us free from deaths life from error , grace from sin. And truly His death won the victory through His righteousness ; because the Just One , by paying what he never took 9 rightly recovered all that He had lost : 9 Hence it is that Francis and the greatest Saints have sought to be considered foolish by the world, in order that they might the rather please God. Some religious Orders, indeed, so regard this as the height of perfection and Christian wisdom that they enjoin their members to love, desire, and embrace contempt, ridicule, insults, and injuries, and to long to be considered fools, just as eagerly as worldly men seek for a reputation for wisdom, for honour, and renown. They do this to teach them in this way (1.) to utterly despise the world ; (2.) to humiliate themselves and uproot their innate desire of honour, praise, glory, and high position ; (3.) to be more like Christ, and to clothe themselves with His garments and His marks, who for our sakes, and to give us an example of virtue and perfection, chose these things Himself, willed to be considered foolish, and became a scorn of men, and the outcast of the people. They say, therefore, with S. Paul, “ God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world.” All this does the Cross of Christ teach if you often meditate on it ; nay, the Cross is the fount of wisdom. S. Bonaventura, when asked where he had drunk in so much wisdom, showed a crucifix almost worn away by kisses. S. Jacoponus, a man of good birth and of great learning, after having learned from the Cross of Christ to become foolish to the world, was asked by Christ, who appeared to him in a friendly and familiar way, why he was so enamoured of 20 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE this foolishness, and he answered with his customary pious pleasantry, “Because Thou, Lord, hast been more foolish than I.” In short, S. Chrysostom (. Horn , 4 on the Cross and the Robber ) sums up the power and praise of the Cross as follows : “ If you wish to know the power of the Cross , and what I have to say in its praise , listen .* The Cross is the hope of Christians , the resurrection of the dead the way of them that despair ; the staff of the lame, the consolation of the poor, the curb of the rich, the destruction of the proud, the punishment of them that live badly, victory over the demons, subjugation of the devil, the instructor of the young, nourishment of the needy, hope of the hopeless, the rudder of seafarers, haven to the storm-tost, wall to the besieged, father of the fatherless, defender of widows, counsellor of the just, rest to the weary, guardian of little ones, head of men, end of the aged, light to them that sit in darkness, the magnificence of kings, an everlasting shield, wisdom of the foolish, liberty to the slaves, a philosophy for kings, law to the lawless, the boast of martyrs, the self-denial of monks, the chastity of virgins, the joy of priests , the foundation of the Church, the destruction of temples, the rejection of idols, a stumblingblock to the Jews, perdition to the ungodly, strength to the weak, physician to the sick, bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothing to the naked, 1 *”

“For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty , not many noble are called. The for gives the reason of what had gone before. This verse contains another proof of what was said in ver. 21, “// pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe n for this is proved in two ways: (1.) in ver. 23, from the object of preaching, viz., the Cross, by which God was pleased to save the world, but which to the world seems foolishness; (2.) from the ministers of preaching, viz., the Apostles, whose duty it was to preach salvation through the Cross, and who were men of no account, unpolished, despised, and foolish in the eyes of the world. Again, the particle for fitly joins this verse to the preceding ; ver. 25 gives an indefinite and general statement which is true, not only THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 21 of the Cross, but also of the preachers of the Cross, as Athanasius points out (Ad Antiockum , qu. 129). This particle, then, declares the likeness of the Apostles to the Cross that they preached. It is as if S. Paul had said : God willed to use the foolishness and weakness of the Cross, and with it to overcome and subdue to Himself the wisdom and power of all men ; and we see -this, not only in the Cross itself, and its victory, but also in the Apostles who preach the Cross : for God has not chosen the wise and powerful of this world, but the Apostles, who are poor, simple, and foolish in the eyes of the world, that they might carry the banner of the Cross on high throughout the whole world, and bring all men into obedience to the faith of the Cross, and that they all might believe and hope for their righteousness and salvation through the Cross of Christ It is a reason drawn from likeness or analogy. For such as the Cross was — worthless, despicable, and foolish before the world — such should be all preachers of the Cross. For God in His wonderful wisdom has so well adapted everything to the Cross, which is the burden of all preaching, that not only the preachers but believers too should be like the Cross; for the first who were called to the faith were men of low birth, of no reputation, unknown, sinners, publicans, and harlots. Ye see your calling. The reason and mode of your calling. Because the Apostles who called you are not wise, according to this worlds wisdom, which knows not that which is spiritual and Divine. So S. Thomas applies the words to the Apostles, who called others. S. Chrysostom, however, applies them and rightly (from ver. 2) to those who had been called and converted; for many unlearned had been converted to Christ, and but few who were learned and nobly born. The words, then, mean : Ye see of what kind are both callers and called. Some wise and powerful, of course, were called, as, e.g., Dionysius the Areopagite, Paulus the Proconsul, Nicodemus, S. Paul himself, but they were few. Moreover, the Apostle is speaking mainly of the Apostles, who were the first called, though they were poor and 22 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE of no reputation. And therefore S. Ambrose (on ), says : “ See the counsel of God He chose not the wise , the rich the noble, hut fishermen and publicans to train , that He might not be thought to have drawn any to His grace by His wisdom , to have redeemed us by His riches , to have won us to Him by the influence of poiver or birth; and that so, not love of disputation , but truth by its reasonableness might prevail I” S. Augustine (vol. x. Serm . 59) says, u Great is the mercy of our Maker. He knew that if the Senator were chosen, he would say, * I was chosen because of my rank/ If the rich man were chosen, he would say, * I was chosen for my wealth/ If a king, he would put it down to his power; if an orator, to his eloquence ; if a philosopher, to his wisdom. * For the present,* says the Lord, * those proud men must be rejected : they are too haughty. Give Me first that fisherman. Come, poor man. You have nothing, you know nothing; follow Me. The empty vessel must be brought to the plentiful stream/ The fisherman let down his nets ; he received grace, and became a Divine orator. Now while the words of the fishermen are read, orators bow their heads in reverence.” It seems, therefore, that what some fable about the royal birth and renown of the Apostle Bartholomew is groundless”

“And I, brethren , when I came to you , came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom. The Apostle here descends from the general to the particular. In other words : I said in the preceding chapter that God in preaching the Gospel willed not to use the wisdom of the wise in this world, but rejected it and scorned it, but willed by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe ; and therefore He chose not many noble or wise to spread the Gospel, but the low-born and untaught Apostles. From this I infer and say “ And t.e., and so I as one of the number of the Apostles, who, according to the election and will of God, did not use eloquence and worldly wisdom, was unwilling to use those means, and I came to you not in excellency but in simplicity of speech and wisdom”

“For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Mark the word determined : it is as if he said, I did not think of, I did not value any knowledge save that which is of Jesus crucified, our Saviour, and, therefore, I so bore myself among you, as if I knew nothing of human wisdom, although I have much acquaintance with it, for on other occasions I can quote the Greek poets ; but with you I kept it back, that like the others I might merely preach with all simplicity Christ crucified. Not that I did not preach the other mysteries of the faith, but I especially taught you and impressed on you that we must glory in the Cross of Christ only, and hope from it for our righteousness and salvation, and, as Anselm says, must imitate the cross and crucify 30 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE our vices. For in Christ crucified it is easy to see, besides other things, that Christ chose and embraced these three, viz., utmost pain, the greatest poverty or nakedness, and the lowest depths of shame. Christ by His pains crucified and taught us to crucify the lust of the flesh; by His poverty He crucified the lust of the eyes or avarice ; and by His shame He crucified the pride of life. These are the three heads of the world's sin, and the sources of all sins. (See i S. John ii. 16, and what was said about the Cross in c i. 23)”

“And I was with you in weakness: that is, in anxieties, tribulation, and persecution ; and in fear and much trembling, because of the hostility of the persecuting Jews and Gentiles. S. Chrysostom and Anselm remark that the Apostle in his Second Epistle (xi. 30 and xii. 5, 9, 10), and elsewhere, gives the name of weakness to the anxiety he suffered from dangers, plots, exile, daily terrors, calumnies, and hatreds. And also, that Paul suffered great anxieties and persecutions at Corinth, is evident in that he needed to be strengthened against them by Christ in a vision (Acts xviii. 9). Moreover, shortly afterwards the Jews there stirred up a tumult against Paul, and dragged him to the judgment-seat of Gallio, the deputy of Achaia, and publicly beat Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, before him”

“That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God . Our preaching is to be of the kind just mentioned, so that your faith, i.e., your conversion to the faith of Christ, may not be attributed to human wisdom and eloquence but to the power and working of God. Your faith must be based on God’s wisdom not on man’s. (Anselm and others.)”

“Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect. This wisdom that he speaks among the perfect, that is, the faithful, is Christian wisdom, and is concerned with the Cross of Christ, with grace, salvation, and the eternal glory won for us by Christ. And although the * faithful ” are simple, yet in the things which belong to salvation they are wiser than Aristotle or any other philosopher. So SL Chrysostom and Anselm. Moreover, those who have not only been born again by baptism, but also confirmed by the Sacrament of Confirmation, have obtained the Christian perfection, and are perfectly made Christians. For this reason S. Dionysius and others call the Sacrament of Confirmation “the perfecting,” and they call those confirmed “the perfected.” Irenaeus implies the same (lib. v. c. 6), when he says : “ We speak wisdom among them that are perfect that is, those who have received the Holy Spirit, and by that Spirit speak all tongues just as S. Paul did.** Secondly and more simply, wisdom here denotes the more hidden and deeper mysteries of the faith, such as the Resurrection, AntiChrist, Reprobation, Predestination; or a more profound and thorough explanation of the things of faith, such as the mode, counsel, and end of the Incarnation, Passion, and Redemption of Christ; for so S. Paul explains wisdom in the verses immediately following. He does not speak and discourse of this wisdom to beginners, WISDOM TRUE AND FALSE 33 but to those who have advanced and are perfected. Hence in ver. 15, he calls the perfect “ spiritual,” and contrasts them with the natural man, with children and carnal men. He is here impressing on them that, though he may seem to have no human wisdom, yet he has Divine ; that although he has given to them, as to children, milk, that is, simple and easy teaching (iii. a), yet amongst the perfect he speaks of hidden and Divine wisdom. The Apostle by these words defends his authority over the Corinthians, who, after hearing Apollos, an eloquent and learned speaker, seemed to hold S. Paul in little esteem, as a speaker without eloquence or skill. Yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world. Anselm, Ambrose, Cajetan, and others understand the devils by the princes of this world, inasmuch as they have their power over the air, the ungodly, and the children of this world And they prove from here that the devil, before the Passion of Christ, although he knew that Christ was God, yet did not know that by His death his own empire was to be destroyed, and men redeemed (vex. 8). This is true, but it is truer still when understood of men. Secondly, S. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Anselm, Tertullian (contra Marcion , lib. iii. c. 6), Origen (Cant. Nom. 2) understand by the princes of this world the leaders who excel their fellows in wisdom, wealth, or power. And therefore S. Paul adds, that come to nought , , *>., are done away with, pass by, disappear. These, too, crucified Christ (ver. 8). Such were Pilate, Herod, Annas, Caiaphas,, and the other princes of the Jews and Gentiles”

“But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. ( 1 . ) This is a Hebraism for “the wisdom of the mystery,” that great secret of the Divine counsel, about the Incarnation of the Word, and the redemption of man by Christ, which cannot be attained to by man by any effort of reason — no, nor yet by the angels, as is clear from Eph. v. 4, 5. Hence, in 1 Tim. iii. 16, this wisdom of the mystery is called the great mystery of godliness. So Theophylact, Ambrose, (Ecumenius, commenting on this verse, and Jerome and Leo Castrius on Isa. Ixiv; also S. Leo. (2.) We may understand this wisdom to be conVOL. L C 34 * FIRST EPISTLE TO THE cerned with the greatness of the glory of the Blessed, for this was the end of the Incarnation and suffering of the Word. Secondly, it is simpler to connect the words “ in a mystery ” with “we speak” rather than with “wisdom.” Then the meaning is, we speak secretly and to a few, viz., those who are perfect, the spiritual, of this deeper and more hidden wisdom. Hence Ephrem and Tertullian render the passage : “ We speak of the wisdom of God in secret.” Hence also S. Dionysius and others have written books on mystic theology”

“Which none of the princes of this world knew. The pronoun is better referred to glory than to wisdom, and the sense is : if this wisdom, or rather this glory and its being predestined in Christ, had been known by Pilate, Annas, Caiaphas, and the other princes of the world, they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory, viz., Christ, by whose merits this eternal glory was predestined and prepared for us from eternity. Gabriel Vasquez comments well on this passage {lib. i. disp. 2, c. 3). The Apostle tacitly implies that none other of the princes of this world knew this glory and wisdom of Christ. For, d fortiori the Jews were wiser than the Gentiles, especially in Divine things ; if, therefore, they did not know it, much more were the others ignorant of it”

“But, as it is written , eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him . After “ but ” there is an ecthlipsis, and we must supply, “this wisdom and the glory which was its end were hidden from them,” as it is written, &c. He then quotes Isaiah Ixiv. 4. 1. Isaiah, in the passage quoted, is speaking of the Incarnation of Christ and of this present life. And hence Chrysostom, Ambrose, Theophylact, CEcumenius take this verse of the miracles of Christ, and of the wisdom, virtues, and grace which Christ by living here on earth has imparted to us. 2. It is more agreeable to the context to say that Isaiah seems to fly away in admiration from the Incarnation and manhood of Christ to the celestial glory, which is the fruit and end of the Incarnation THE BLISS OF HEAVEN 35 of Christ; for such flights and sudden changes are common with the Prophets, because of the sublime and ample light of prophecy which they enjoyed. This appears from the words used ; as, e.g., “ Him that waiteth for him,” and “ Thou meetest him that worketh righteousness .” He is speaking then of the fruit of the works of the just, viz., the eternal life which we wait for; for the fruit of the Incarnation and faith does not meet them that work righteousness, but those that are sitting in darkness and sin. So says S. Jerome (in Isa. lxiv.), S. Dionysius (He Ccelest Hierarch. 12), and Vasquez, in the passage above quoted. Hence S. Bernard ( Serm . 4 on the Vigil of the Nativity) says : “ Eye hath not seen that unapproachable light ear hath not heard that incomprehensible peace . ... And why is it that it Teas not ascended into the heart of man f Surely because it is a spring and cannot ascend. For we know that the nature of springs is to seek the rivers in the valleys , and to shun the tops of the mountains ; for God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble .” S. Augustine, inhis “Meditations,” ch. 22 etseqq., and “Soliloquies,” ch. 35 and 36, discourses most beautifully about the greatness of this bliss. The author too of the book on “The Spirit and the Soul” (which is found in vol. iii. ch. 36 of S. Augustine’s works), very appropriately says on this passage of the Apostle: “As the outward man is affected by temporal things through his five senses , so the inward man , in the life of bliss , is affected by the five ineffable attributes of God through his ineffable love for Him. For when he shall love his God He will know him as a certain light a voice , a sweet odour , a food and an inward embrace. For there shines the light which no place can contain ; there sounds the music which no time steals away ; there is the sweet odour which no wind can scatter; there is the food which is eaten and yet undiminished ; there clings to us the good which knows no satiety ; there is God seen without intermission^ known without error , loved without disgust , and praised without wearying .” These words of the Apostle were once the occasion of the conversion of S. Adrian, and made him a martyr. He was a soldier 36 iFIRST EPISTLE TO THE and in the flower of his age, viz., twenty eight years old, and when he beheld the constancy of the Christian martyrs in the tortures that they had to endure for the faith of Christ, he asked them what they expected in return for such sufferings, what enabled them to overcome such tortures. They replied, “ We hope for those good things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, which God hath prepared for them that love Him. 1 By these words Adrian was touched and converted, and he hastened to get himself enrolled in the list of martyrs, and eagerly bore a cruel death at Nicomedia, with his wife Natalia looking on and encouraging him. This was a.d. 306, under Diocletian. 3. The meaning of this passage will be complete if you combine the two interpretations given above thus : Those good things which Thou, God, through Christ, hast prepared for them that wait for Thee, surpass all our senses, experience, natural understanding, and all human desire, not only in this life in the case of those who have already caught some sounds of Thee, but also chiefly and most properly in future glory. There will God, who is Himself all that good is, give Himself to the blessed, and will be as all in all, a a Anselm says. For by these words of Isaiah, the Apostle proves what he had said, viz., that the wisdom as well as the glory of Christ was secret and hidden, as we saw above. Neither have entered into the heart qf masK Has not come into the mind of man : no man can by nature think of or understand them. The heart with the Hebrews stands for the mind For what the heart fa to the body — its chief and noblest part, the source and principle of life — that fa the mind to the souL Moreover, the heart supplies the brain with its vigour, and so fa a kind of handmaid to the imagination and consequently the understanding. Hence Aristotle, though against Galen and all other physicians* placed the apprehension of external objects not in the brain but in the heart He distinguished the vital organs of man by their functions in these verses : “ The heart gives wisdom, the lung speech, and anger comes from the bile. The spleen is the cause of laughter, and love comes from the liver.' 9 THE DEEP THINGS OF COD 37 Where Isaiah has “them that wait for Thee,” S Paul has "them that love thee* The sense is the same, for love is one cause of expectation. Ver. ia — But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. S. Paul here anticipates an objection. It might be said," If eye hath not seen, neither have entered into the heart of man, the wisdom and the glory that Christ has prepared for His friends, how is it that yon boast yourself of its possession ? 99 Paul replies that he knows them not by sight, sensation, or by the understanding, but by the inspiration and revelation of God. Hence, Clement of Alexandria ( Peedag . lib. Lc.6) interprets the phrase, " ear hath not heard, * by adding, “except that ear which was taken up into the third heaven,* vis., Paul’s, who heard with the ear in Paradise mystic words which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Paul means, then, that God has revealed these things to us His Apostles and Prophets filled with His Spirit, in order that we may teach you and others. It appears from this that not only is our longing for bliss and glory supernatural, but that our knowledge of them is also, whether that knowledge be of them in their essence, or merely the obscure and fragmentary knowledge of the Apostles and of all others who are still "in the way.* Consequently there is not naturally in man any perfect and effectual desire, or appetite, for this bliss. The Spirit searcheth all things , yea, the deep things of God. That is, penetrates into and perceives everything. For when men want to learn something of which they are ignorant, they are wont to search and inquire about it But God, without any such searching, knows everything at a glance, and as it were by a single application of Hit mind. (S. Thomas, Theodoret, Theophylact.) The deep things of God are all the most secret and inward counsels of God. Amongst them the chiefest is this mystery of man’s glory and redemption by Christ. All these the Holy Spirit penetrates into and clearly views, because He is of one essence and knowledge with God, and therefore He so "searches the deep things of God,* that nothing in God remains unknown to Him. His knowledge and sight equal their object, and He knows God as He 38 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE can be known ; the Holy Spirit, because He is God, comprehends God and His Divinity as completely as He comprehends Himself. (Molina part i. qu. 14, a. 3, Theodoret, S. Thomas.) From this passage Ambrose and other Fathers prove the Godhead of the Holy Ghost against the Macedonians. To sura up S. Paul’s meaning : The Holy Spirit has revealed to us these mysteries and secrets of God : He knows all the secrets of God, and therefore He searches and clearly views the deep things of God”

“What man knoweth the things of a man t Those in the inner recesses of his being, which are buried in his heart and mind, as, e.g, his thoughts, resolutions, and intentions, and the foundation of the character itself. Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God , . The Holy Spirit knows them as well as Himself. For the Holy Spirit is internal to God, just as the spirit of a man is internal to him ; and as the spirit of a man is a sharer of his humanity, so the Spirit of God is a partaker of Godhead, and of the Divine omniscience and power. “The things of God* are those which are hidden in the mind of God — the thoughts, counsels and determinations of the Divine WilL After “knoweth no man, but the Spirit” must be understood, “and He to whom the Spirit has willed to reveal them, as to me and the other Apostles,” as was said in ver. 10. “No man, but the Spirit” does not exclude the Son. For since He is the Word, He knows the deep things of God. For in Divine things, when an exclusive or exceptive word is applied to one Person in respect of the Divine attributes, it does not exclude the other Divine Persons, but only all other essences from the Divine, i.e., it only excludes those whose nature differs from that of God. The meaning then is : No one knows the secret things of God, save the Spirit of God, and they who have the same nature with the Spirit, the same intellectual and cognitive powers, viz., the Father and the Son. These alone know the deep things of God”

“Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God, He contrasts the spirit of the world with Digitized by v^,ooQle DIVINE WISDOM 39 the Spirit which is of God, claims the latter for himself and the Apostles, and assigns the other to the wise men of this world. The spirit of the world, therefore, is that which is infused by the world, by worldly and carnal wisdom, which aspires after worldly, earthly, and carnal goods, and makes men worldly and carnal. On the other hand the Spirit of God is that which is infused by God and Divine Wisdom, which makes us pursue heavenly and Divine goods, and makes men spiritual and heavenly. Therefore the Apostle adds — That we might know the things that are freely given to us by God. On this passage the heretics found their peculiar belief that each Christian knows for a certainty that he ought by heavenly faith to believe that he has through Christ had given to him by God the forgiveness of his sins, with grace and righteousness, and as Calvin says, that he has been chosen to eternal glory. But this is not faith, but a foolish and false presumption, not to say blindness ; because we do not certainly know that we have been duly disposed for righteousness, and whether we surely believe, and as we ought; nor is it anywhere said or revealed in Holy Scripture that I believe as I ought to do, or that I am righteous or one of the elect The best answer to them is the sense of the passage, which is this: The Holy Spirit shows and reveals to us what and how great are the gifts given to us, the Apostles, by God, and to others who love God — so great indeed that eye has not seen them, nor have they entered into the heart of man ; for the Apostle looks back to ver. 9. I say, then, that the Apostle is speaking in general terms of the gifts which were given to the Apostles and the Church, and of those gifts alone. He says in effect: “We received this Spirit that we, i.e. y the Apostles, might know with what gifts and good things in general Christ has enriched us, i.e., His Church, viz., with what grace of the Spirit, what redemption, what virtues, and especially with how great glory;” for these were the things alluded to in ver. 9 ; and these things are, as he says in ver. n, in God, i.e. t by the free-will and predestination of God. “ We know, too, through the Holy Spirit and Revelation, that these things have been given by God to the Church ; for we speak of and teach these things as Digitized by v^,ooQle 40 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE part of the faith. But that I am possessed of them, or a sharer in them, is not a matter of faith, but of conjecture : it is not to be publicly preached, but secretly hoped for.” Again, the word know may be taken in a twofold sense : (i.) Objectively ; (2.) Subjectively. 1. Objectively, the Apostle knew, and all the faithful knew, from the prophecies, miracles, and from other signs from God, that He had promised to His congregation (/.*., His Church, which had been called together by the Apostles, and was afterwards to be called together), and that, according »to His promises, He had given His grace, forgiveness of sins, righteousness, and other gifts of free grace, and lastly a sure hope of eternal life. But all this was to His Church in common, not to this or that individual in it; for we cannot know in a particular case whether this one or that is faithful. In this sense the word know is the same as believe. For we believe that the Catholic Church is holy, and that in her there is forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. God, therefore, has only revealed that His Church is holy, but not that I am holy. For although He has revealed and has promised to all in the Church, who rightly believe and repent, forgiveness of sins and righteousness, yet He has not revealed that I believe truly and repent; and therefore He has not revealed that my sins are forgiven, and that I am justified. 2. The word know may be taken subjectively : we Apostles know by experience what wisdom and grace God has given us; and in this way the word know is the same as experience. For no one of the Apostles believed by faith from above that he had wisdom and grace ; but he experienced the acts and effects of grace in himself so vehemently, frequently, clearly, and surely, that he felt morally certain that he had true wisdom and grace from God. For the Apostles were filled with grace and wisdom, and it behoved them to teach others the same, and wholly to long to bring the world to Christ Although, then, the Apostles knew by experience that they had been justified and sanctified, still the rest of the faithful did not know it, nor do they know it now. They can only hope so, and conDigitized by v^,ooQle KNOWLEDGE OF SALVATION . 41 jecture it from the signs of an upright and good life. Yet neither the Apostles, nor they, believe it on the testimony of infused faith ; for experience of every kind merely generates human faith, not Divine : that springs from and depends on the revelation of God alone”