man, in order that His eternal power and Godhead might be united with 1674 our weakness
and mortality, and, on the basis of what is ours, make a way for us in Himself and to Himself.
That a man may be kept from sinning, he should be ruled by Christ the King. If he happens
to sin, he may obtain remission from Christ, who is also priest. And thus, nurtured in the
exercise of a good conversation and life, and borne out of the atmosphere of earth on the
wings of a twofold love, as on a pair of strong pinions, so may he be enlightened by the same
Christ, who is also the Word, the Word who was in the beginning, the Word who was with
God, and the Word who was God; and although that will still be through a glass darkly, it
will be a sublime kind of illumination far superior to every corporeal similitude. Wherefore,
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although it is the gifts of the active virtue that shine pre-eminent in the first three evangelists,
while it is the gift of the contemplative virtue that discerns such subjects, nevertheless, this
Gospel of John, in so far as it also is in part, will so tarry until that which is perfect comes.1675
And to one, indeed, is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of
knowledge by the same Spirit.1676 One man regardeth the day to the Lord;1677 another re-
ceives a clearer draught from the breast of the Lord; another is caught up even to the third
heaven, and hears unspeakable words.1678 But all, as long as they are in the body, are absent
from the Lord.1679 And for all believers living in the good hope, whose names are written
in the book of life, there is still in reserve that which is referred to in the words, “And I will
love him, and will manifest myself unto him.”1680 Nevertheless, the greater the advance
which a man may make in the apprehension and knowledge of this theme during the time
of this absence from the Lord, all the more carefully should he guard against those devilish
vices, pride and envy. Let him remember that this very Gospel of John, which urges us so
pre-eminently to the contemplation of truth, gives a no less remarkable prominence to the
inculcation of the sweet grace of charity. Let him also consider that most true and wholesome
precept which is couched in the words, “The greater thou art, the more humble thyself in
all.”1681 For the evangelist who presents Christ to us in a far loftier strain of teaching than
all the others, is also the one in whose narrative the Lord washes the disciples’ feet.1682
1674 Contemperata = attempered to.
1675 1 Cor. xiii. 12, 9, 10.
1676 1 Cor. xii. 8.
1677 Rom. xiv. 6.
1678 2 Cor. xii. 2–4.
1679 2 Cor. v. 6.
1680 John xiv. 21.
1681 Ecclus. iii. 18.
1682 John xiii. 5.
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Of the Evangelist John, and the Distinction Between Him and the Other T…