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promise,’ which men might think strange, lay in the far-reaching Providence—Foresight—of God. It was His purpose that the final consummation should be for all together, as indeed it is of all, in Christ; so that no one part of the Body can, if we realise the meaning of the figure, gain its fulfilment independently. The consummation of all the Saints therefore followed upon the completion of Christ's work, the accomplishment by Him of the destiny of man, though fallen. So far then God foresaw in the order of His great counsel in our case ( peri; hJmw'n ) something better than the fathers experienced: for we have actually seen in part that towards which they strained: Matt. 13:17; 1 Pet. 1:12. The fathers with a true faith looked for a fulfilment of the promises which was not granted to them. To us the fulfilment has been granted, without the trial of deferred hope, if only we regard the essence of things. Christ has already opened the way to the Divine Presence on which we can enter, and He offers to us now a kingdom which cannot be shaken (Heb. 12:28). At the same time there is the thought that God has looked further, even beyond our age of trial, to the end.
krei'ttovn ti ] Hoc melius est, promissae salutis revelatio clarior, confirmatio testatior, expectatio propior, per Christum exhibitum, et tandem ipsa salus et gloria (Bengel). Chrysostom has some striking words on this prospect of the consummation: ejnnohvsate kai; uJmei'" tiv ejsti kai; o{son ejsti; to;n jAbraa;m kaqh'sqai kai; to;n ajpovstolon Pau'lon perimevnonta" povte su; teleiwqh'/" i{na dunhqw'si tovte labei'n to;n misqovn. ... eij sw'ma e}n oiJ pavnte"
ejsmevn, meivzwn givnetai tw'/ swvmati touvtw/ hJ hJdonh; o{tan koinh'/ stefanw'tai kai; mh; kata; mevro"
. kai; ga;r oiJ divkaioi kai; ejn touvtw/ eijsi; qaumastoi; o{ti caivrousin wJ" ejpi; oijkeivoi" ajgaqoi'" toi'" tw'n ajdelfw'n .

The perfection ( teleivwsi" ) of the individual Christian must in its fullest sense involve the perfection of the Christian society. The ‘perfection’ which Christ has gained for humanity in His Person (Heb. 2:10; 5:9; 7:28; 10:1, 14) must be appropriated by every member of Christ. In part this end has been reached by the old saints in some degree, in virtue of Christ's exaltation (Heb. 12:23), but in part it waits for the final triumph of the Saviour, when all that we sum up in confessing the truth of ‘the resurrection of the body’ is fulfilled.

Primasius interprets the gift of the ‘white robe’ in Apoc. 6:11 ( ad loc. ) of that endowment of love whereby the waiting souls gladly accept the postponement of their own consummation: acceperunt singuli stolas albas, id est, ut per caritatis perfectionem, quae per Spiritum Sanctum infunditur in corda credentium, hac consolatione contenti ipsi mallent pro ceterorum numero fratrum supplendo differri...And Herveius notes in remarkable words the unity of the resurrection-life: Propter hoc etiam mysterium illud in ultimum diem dilati judicii custoditur, quia unum corpus est quod justificari expectatur, unum corpus est quod resurgere in judicium dicitur.
i{na mh; c. hJ. ] that they apart from us should not be perfected ....The
words seem to depend directly on
oujk ejkom. th;n ejpagg. , though the parenthesis which comes between makes the connexion more intelligible.

For cwriv" see John 15:5 note.

Additional Note on the reading of Hebrews 11:4.

The division of authorities and the strange reading of the most ancient Greek MSS. suggest the existence of a primitive corruption in the clause


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