7. But lest any one from simplicity or
perverse ingenuity should suppose that Christ is but equal in honour to
righteous men, from His saying, I ascend to My Father, and
your John xx. 17. On this text, quoted again
in Cat. xi. 19, see the three Sermons of Bishop Andrewes On the
Resurrection. Father, it is
well to make this distinction beforehand, that the name of the Father
is one, but the power of His operation ἐνεργεία, meaning here,
the operation of God, by nature in begetting His Son, by adoption in
making many sons.
manifold. And Christ Himself knowing this has spoken unerringly,
I go to My Father, and your Father: not saying ‘to
our Father,’ but distinguishing, and saying first what was proper
to Himself, to My Father, which was by nature; then adding,
and your Father, which was by adoption. For however high
the privilege we have received of saying in our prayers, Our
Father, which art in
heaven, yet the gift is of loving-kindness. For we call Him
Father, not as having been by nature begotten of Our Father which is in
heaven; but having been transferred from servitude to sonship by the
grace of the Father, through the Son and Holy Spirit, we are permitted
so to speak by ineffable loving-kindness.