whence he added: That your Son may glorify you: and this is not to seek one's own glory. For he seeks his own glory who seeks praise for himself without referring it to God.
Or it must be said that he did not seek glory from men, because it is vain, but from God.
2. To what is asked: according to which nature does he ask this? The heretic said from this that, since the Son existed before the world, he also prays according to that nature, because he was less than the Father. This Arius said.
But Augustine says that this is understood according to the human nature, and is to be explained thus: with the brightness which I had with you, namely by predestination, because Romans 1: He was predestined as the Son of God in power.
Otherwise it must be said that there is a difference between the one who asks and the one for whom or on whose behalf the request is made, in this: that the one who asks or prays, insofar as he does so, is inferior and powerless: but he for whom something is asked — this is twofold: either something is asked for him in himself, so that his need may be supplied, as when I ask for myself a sinner: or something is asked for him in others, so that his glory may be manifested: and thus I can ask something of God: God, manifest yourself, honor yourself.
I say therefore that when it is asked: according to which nature was he asking? — if you ask about the one who asks, insofar as he asks, I say according to the human. If you ask: for whom was he asking? I say according to the divine. Whence me there indicates the divine hypostasis equal to the Father from eternity, whose equality he was asking to be manifested.
10. Question III. It is asked concerning what he says: As you have given him power over all flesh.
TO THE CONTRARY: 1. In the last chapter of Matthew it is said that it was given after the resurrection.
2. Again, if he gave him power over all flesh, and he himself gives to all what the Father gave him, namely eternal life: therefore all are saved.
Augustine responds that you have given is understood here according to foreknowledge, that is, you foresaw that they would be given. Chrysostom, however, says that this is understood according to the divine nature: you have given from eternity; in Matthew it is said given, not then first bestowed, but manifested.
2. As to the objection regarding of all flesh: the distribution is for the kinds of individuals, that is, concerning all flesh. Or if the distribution is made for the individuals of the kinds, then emphasis must be placed on the word you have given: because he did not give him all flesh, but gave him power over all flesh; but he gave him the predestined, that he might save them; but he gave him power over the wicked, that he might judge them.
11. Question IV. Likewise, there is a question about what he says: This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God.
1. It is not only knowledge, but also love: or if you say that love is included in knowledge, why did he not place love there?
2. Likewise, God is taken either essentially or personally. If personally, then the Holy Spirit is excluded. If essentially, then he added in vain: Whom you have sent, Jesus Christ, because knowledge of Christ-as-man does not pertain to the substantial reward, but knowledge of Christ-as-God does.
To the first, it must be said that in knowledge which is face to face, love is necessarily understood; hence when it is said that "vision is the whole reward," love is not excluded. But it is spoken of more in terms of vision than love, because vision distinguishes what belongs to the homeland from what belongs to the way; but love does not. For now we do not see, yet nevertheless we love.
2. As to the question of how God is taken: it must be said that if it stands there essentially, then what is added, and whom you have sent, is understood according to the human nature, according to which, even if the essence of the reward is not considered, nevertheless there will be a most intense delight in Christ-as-man, and so it is added: and whom you have sent, Jesus Christ. Or if it is taken personally, then Jesus Christ stands for the Son according to the divine nature, and the Holy Spirit is not excluded, because he is the union of the Father and the Son. Hence the word only is not added for the exclusion of the persons, because he who sees one person sees the other, but for the exclusion of false gods.
In the second part, Christ asks for the preservation of holiness for the Apostles.
12. I have manifested your name to men. This is the second part of the chapter, in which he asks for the preservation of holiness for the Apostles; and first he asks for them steadfastness in good; second, deliverance from evil, at the passage: While I was with them, etc.
Therefore, first, preservation in the good is sought for the Apostles; and because petitions that are to be heard ought to be reasonable, a manifold reason is set forth beforehand. The procedure therefore follows this order. First, the diligent preservation of Christ's words is shown in the Apostles; second, the divine election; third, the desolation of the disciples; fourth, the petition itself is drawn forth.
13. (Verse 6). Therefore, first there is set forth or intimated the diligent preservation of Christ's words, which they had in the doctrine of Christ that was manifested to them; therefore he says: I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world, that is, whom you called out of the world to me through present justice: above in the sixth chapter: "No one comes to me unless the Father draws him." And the reason why he drew them out of the world is added: They were yours, by eternal election, and you gave them to me, to be instructed through doctrine; Isaiah 8: "Behold, I and my children, whom the Lord has given me"; the Apostle expounds this of Christ. And they fittingly received it; whence he says: And they have kept your word: concerning which keeping, above in the fourteenth chapter: "He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me." And he shows how they kept the word or discourse of the Father. For since they had neither heard nor seen the Father, someone might doubt how they could have kept his word: therefore he says that they kept it by believing in the Son.
14. (Verse 7). And now they have known that all things which you have given me are from you, and therefore they have known you by knowing me: whence above in the fifth chapter: "The Son cannot do anything of himself"; above in the fourteenth chapter: "The Father abiding in me, he does the works," and therefore "he who sees me sees also my Father." And they had also heard the word of the Father: therefore he says:
15. (Verse 8). Because the words which you gave me, I have given to them: above in the fifteenth chapter: "All things that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you." And they kept my words, which I gave to them, and therefore your word: on this account he says: And they have received them, by subjecting their understanding, and have known truly that I came forth from you, according to the divine nature; and they have believed that you sent me, namely, into the flesh. And thus they believed and knew the Divinity in Christ and the humanity. And it should be noted that he says: And they believed that you sent me: and afterward: And they knew that I came forth from you. They themselves said above in the sixteenth chapter: "In this we have known that you came forth from God"; because through faith in the assumed humanity one arrives at the understanding of the eternal generation. Whence Augustine says that those who despised the humble Christ did not merit to know the exalted Christ. This therefore is the first reason for hearing their petition, namely, the preservation of Christ's words: whence above in the fifteenth chapter: "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, whatever you will, you shall ask, and it shall be done for you."
16. (Vers. 9.). And I pray for them. Here is touched upon the second reason for being heard on behalf of the Apostles, namely the divine election itself: because our Lord himself was praying for the elect, not for the reprobate. Therefore he says: I pray for them, because, namely, they are elect: therefore he says: I do not pray for the world, "that is, for those devoted to the world," whom you have blinded; but for those whom you have given me, that is, whom you have saved through me; in Acts twenty-seven it was pointedly said to Paul: "Behold, God has given you all the souls of those who sail with you." Nor, because you have given them to me, have you taken them from yourself: Because they are yours.
17. (Vers. 10.). And all my things are yours, and yours are mine: above in the sixteenth chapter: "All things that the Father has are mine," and conversely. Therefore he said above in the seventh chapter: "My doctrine is not mine"; therefore my servants and my elect are your elect. And this is the second reason for being heard on behalf of the Apostles, namely their election: therefore above in the fifteenth chapter: "You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and your fruit should remain: that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give you."
18. And I am glorified. Here is touched upon the third reason, namely the desolation of the disciples at the departure of Christ, which was approaching: on account of which approaching he says he has been glorified and has departed, because it was about to happen imminently: therefore he says: And I am glorified in them: because they had known him and were soon to know him more fully.