A. Yet how will it not be a most manifest proof of a feeble understanding, to choose so to say and to think? for God the Father hath given for us, not a common man, taken aside to be in the rank of a mediator, and having a made-up glory of sonship and honoured with an accidental connection, but, made in likeness with us for our sakes, Him Who is above the whole creation, the Word Which beamed forth of His Essence, in order that He might be seen an equivalent for the life of all. It is (I deem) of all things most absurd, when the Only-Begotten has been made flesh according to the Scriptures (as I said) and disdained not the Economy, to find fault as it were with Him as though He had militated against His own glory and had chosen to suffer in the flesh apart from what was fit. Yet, good sir, the matter was salvation to the whole world: and since He for this cause willed to suffer Who is beyond the power of suffering because He is God by Nature, He put about Him flesh recipient of suffering and made it His own, that His too might the suffering be called, because it was no one's else's but His own Body which hath suffered. Hence, for that the mode of the Economy gives Him without blame, both to be pleased to suffer in the flesh, and in the Godhead not to suffer (for He was God alike and Man in the Same) the opponents speak idly, and most unwisely debasing the force of the mystery haply deem that they have made a contention replete with praise. For His being at all pleased to suffer in the flesh seemed to attach some blame to Him, yet it was glorious in another way: for the Resurrection has testified that He is superior to death and decay, being Life and Lifegiving as God, for He hath raised His own Temple. Therefore the Divine Paul says, For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to every one that believeth, and again, For the word of the cross is to them that perish folly, to us who are saved it is the Power of God, to them that are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ God's Power and God's wisdom: and indeed the Son too when about to ascend unto the saving Passion says, Now is the Son of man glorified and God is glorified in Him, and God will glorify Him in Himself and will straightway glorify Him. For He lived again, having spoiled Hades and this not after a long while but as it were straightway and on the very heels of the Passion.
B. Albeit the all-wise Paul says, Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, Who is not weak but is mighty in us: for verily He was crucified out of weakness yet lives out of the power of God. Then how will one say that the Word Himself is weak and moreover that He lives out of the power of God?
A. Do we not over and over again say that the Word of God was Incarnate and made man?
B. Yes, for how should it be otherwise?
A. Therefore He Who is weak in the flesh in that He appeared as man, This lived out of the power of God, a power not alien but inherent in Him, for He was God in flesh.
B. And verily the Father is said to raise Him, for it is written, According to the inworking of the mastery of His might which He hath inwrought in Christ, having raised Him from the dead and set Him on His Right Hand in the heavenly places above all rule and authority and lordship and every name that is named.
A. Yet we say that He is the life-giving Power of the Father and it is like that He rejoices in the Dignities of Him Who begat Him even though He have been made flesh. And Himself will come in, His own witness, saying, For as the Father quickeneth whom He will, so the Son too quickeneth whom He will. And able to accomplish this full well without toil, He hath addressed the people of the Jews saying, Undo this Temple and in three days I will rear it. But He Who rose hath sat on the Right Hand of the Father in the heavenly places above all rule and authority and throne and lordship and every name that is named. Is it therefore as being another son than the Word Which sprang from forth Him, honoured with mere connection, and receiving the Name of Godhead as a favour; or rather He Who is by Nature and truly Son, made in likeness of man and found in fashion as a man economically?
B. They would perhaps say that it was the man from forth the seed of David connected with Him by equality of honour, to whom the suffering death too would belong.
A. But that which is said to be of equal honour with ought, will be not one in number (as I already said) but one with one; this is I suppose two and they unequal in nature, if the honoured is in lower case than the honourer: but since one son hath sat down, let them instruct us who it is that hath been honoured with the seats on high and co-sitteth with the Father, if it be a thing most exceeding perilous to venture to bring up to equality of honour the bond with the Lord, the made with the Creator, with the King of all that which is under the yoke, with Him Who is above all that which is ranked among all.
B. You will then clear this up to us still more.
A. Albeit as I suppose a clear and sufficient discourse has already been worked out by me on these subjects, I will without any backwardness add to what I said other things also, and taking up a not ignoble advocacy of the Divine dogmas as a sort of full armour I will rear up the truth against them who think perverse things.
For that the Only-Begotten Word of God, no other son than He mediating the Economy and connected with Him accidentally, hath made void the mastery of death; but that He by His own Self hath done it, He will prove saying, God so loved the world that He gave His Son the Only-Begotten in order that every one who believeth on Him should not perish but have life everlasting. When God the Father exalteth highly His Love for the world and says that it is exceeding great and vast, why do our opponents disparage it, saying that not the truly Son has been given for us, but bring up one of those who are as we, who has the grace of sonship from adoption, into the place of the Son by Nature, whereas it was the Only-Begotten Who was given for us? and whereas John hath clearly written, The Only-Begotten God which is in the Bosom of the Father, how will not one marvel at them for their unlearning who thrust out the Only-Begotten God the Word from the Economy and bring in in His place (as I said) a certain one embellished with glories from without him and having the name of Godhead put upon him? and what great and worthy of admiration will there be any longer apparent in the Love of the Father if He hath given for it some piece of the world and that a small one? or perhaps it would be even unblameable to say that the world hath been redeemed, having nothing from God but, ministered to in this behalf by its own parts.
B. They say that the Only-Begotten has been given by the Father, that He should administer our affairs, not in order that He should suffer ought of what is human Himself in His own Nature, for it is impossible.
A. He will suffer in His own Nature nothing at all (for being unembodied as God He will full surely be external to suffering), but since according to His own voice, I mean that through the Psalmist's lyre, a body has been prepared for Him by the Father, He came, embodied, to do His Will. And this was the redemption through the Precious Cross and the summing up anew of all things, full well accomplished through Him and in Him. And the most excellent Paul will aid to what I said, having written on this wise, Be ye thus minded each one of you as was also Christ Jesus Who being in the Form of God deemed not the being equal with God a thing to seize, yet emptied Himself taking bondman's form, made in likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man abased Himself, made obedient to death, yea the death of the cross: wherefore God also highly exalted Him and gave Him a Name which is above every name, in order that at the Name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow of heavenly and earthly and neath the earth and every tongue confess Lord Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father. For whom dost thou say is He Who is in the Form of God the Father, and when He might have remained in Equality with Him deemed the so pre-eminent and God-befitting Dignity and the excellency above all to be not a thing to seize? is it not God the Word Who beamed forth from Him? how is this not obvious to all? But this He Who was in the Form and Equality of the Father, taking bondman's form, not by an accidental connection, made in likeness of men and found in fashion as a man (for He was together herewith God too) abased Himself and became obedient also unto death, yea the death of the cross.
B. But it is said (they say) of Him that God gave Him a Name which is above every name, in order that at the name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow. That which the Word was, i.e., God, how will He be conceived as taking? need therefore is it to say rather that to the assumed man has been given the Name which is above all, that we be not caught deeming ought incongruous respecting the Only-Begotten.
A. Then how were it not incomparably better to say that it has been given by the Father to the by Nature Son made man for our sakes, in order that He may be conceived of as God even in human nature and in supremest heights He Who endured abasement as we, in order that no new and late-appearing god may be introduced to both angels and men, having the glory of the Godhead not essentially inexisting but come in from without and as it were at the mere Will of God the Father.
B. To the Word Himself therefore which sprang from forth God the Father do we say that the Name which is above every name has been given.
A. Full surely; and our argument will not err from its course, if it is not false that He deemed the being Equal with God to be not a thing to seize, but hath descended unto the not being in glory in that He appeared as man. Therefore He also said, The Father is greater than I, although He had the right, in that He ever existeth in Him (as He is conceived of and is God) and hath been begotten from forth Him by Nature, to have exactness with Him in every thing and to rejoice in the glory of the Godhead. One must therefore not suppose that He Who for our sakes descended into the measure of the human nature, fell from His inherent Natural splendour and Excellence, but that in emptiness that belongs to us He has fullness Divinely and in abasement loftiness, and that which belongs to Him by Nature, to be worshipped by all, [He has] as a gift by reason of His human nature: for to Him boweth every knee of things both in Heaven and upon earth and every rank praiseth, for Christ Jesus is believed to be Lord unto the glory of God the Father. And verily He said to God the Father which is in Heaven, Father glorify Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. Was then (tell me) the man prior to the world, whom they say has been assumed by the Only-Begotten by a non-essential connection?
B. By no means.
A. Who then is it who is asking for glory which He says was inexistent in Himself oven before the very foundation of the world, He ever and continually being with God? is it not God the Word Co-eternal with the Father, Co-throned and Co-existent with Him, of Whom the all-wise Evangelist John saith, The Word was with God and the Word was God?
B. How should it not be so?
A. As therefore being Lord of glory and then letting Himself down to the ill-repute of bondman's form, He asks for a recovery of His ever inherent glory, doing this too as beseemeth man: thus being always God He goes up from the measures of our estate to the excellence and glory of His Proper Godhead, in order that as to One Son henceforth by Nature and Very, albeit made as we and Incarnate, every knee should bow, as I just said. For I think that so minded and thus believing, we shall rid heaven and earth from the charge of worshipping a man. For it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shall thou adore.
B. The argument hereon will need very much support: proceed therefore I pray and elucidate the Mystery to us by means of other conceptions also.
A. I will then proceed very gladly, but I would say that they have missed the truth in coupling, as though another son, him who is of the seed of David with Him Who is by Nature and truly, I mean the Only-Begotten, albeit holy Writ clearly cries aloud, The first man of earth earthy, the second out of Heaven, and moreover the Son Himself, I have come down from heaven not in order to do Mine Own Will but the Will of Him that sent Me, and this is the will of Him that sent Me that everything which He hath given Me I should not lose ought from it but should raise it at the last Day. Whom then do they say is He Who hath come down out of Heaven? for the body hath been born of a woman.
B. The Word that is begotten from forth God the Father, for I suppose that they will not please to think anything else than this.
A. Right my friend, and the all-wise John too hath somewhere written, He that cometh from above is above all. Then how, when it pleaseth the Father that all which is given Him should rise, and the thing is good and moreover God-befitting (for to save is like God), does He say that He came down not to do His own will but that of the Father? will then any man among us suppose that the Son Who is born of Him comes behind the Clemency of God the Father and is in no wise good, but that raising up that which is given and ridding it of decay is a thing uncongenial to Him?
B. There is risk of it.
A. Yet we should with reason deem that since He is the genuine Offspring of a Good Father, He will be conceived of as Himself also Good, or Goodness itself. For from the fruit the tree is known, according to His own voice, and He will be True, saying He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father, I and the Father are One.
B. You say well: clear up then yourself what seems to have been obscurely said.
A. We say that annulling death and driving away decay from men's bodies was a thing not unwilled by the Son, for He delighteth not in the destruction of the living, and the generations of the world were healthful, as it is written, but by envy of the devil death entered into the world. But in no other way was it possible to shake off the cheerless mastery of death save by only the Incarnation of the Only-Begotten. Therefore hath He appeared as we and He made His own a body subject to decay according to the inherent plan of its nature, in order that since Himself is Life (for He hath been begotten of the Father Which is Life) He might implant therein His Proper Good, life. And when He had once chosen out of His Clemency and Loving-kindness to undergo likeness with us, needs must the Passion too befall Him, when the impiety of the Jews was raging against Him. But the disrepute in His Passion was burdensome to Him. And in truth when the time was coming on, wherein He had to endure the cross for the life of all, in order that He might shew that the Passion was not willed, He made His approach as beseems man and in form of prayer, saying, Father if it be possible let this cup pass from Me, yet not as I will but as Thou. He says that He came down out of Heaven, to make that which was grievous, not unwilled, in order that He might achieve resurrection for then on the earth, which He Alone hath new-wrought for the race of man. For He has been made First-born from forth the dead according to the flesh and first-fruits of them that are fallen asleep.
B. His therefore and not another's will be said to be the Passion in that He hath appeared as man, even though He hath remained Impassible as He is conceived of as God.
A. Thus I say: call to mind the God-inspired Scripture which says, The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam a quickening spirit.
B. Do we then say that the Word from forth God, has been called the last Adam?
A. Not bare (as I said), but made in likeness with us. We say therefore that He is, if to quicken be no work of man but God-befitting. He has too the name of the last Adam, as made out of Adam according to the flesh and a second beginning of those on earth, the nature of man being transelemented in Him unto newness of life, life in holiness and incorruption through the resurrection from the dead: for thus was death done to nought, in that the Life by Nature endureth not to submit its own body to decay, because it was not possible that Christ should be holden of it, according to the voice of the most wise Paul, and thus passed through unto us too the good from this achievement.
B. You say well.
A. Look now at this besides.
B. What do you mean?
A. Christ said somewhere to the holy Apostles, Go disciple all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. We have therefore been baptized into the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity, Father Son and Holy Ghost. Is it not true what I say?
B. How should it not?
A. Do we not conceive of Him Who hath begotten as Father, the Only-Begotten God the Word again begotten from forth Him as Son?
B. Surely.
A. How then have we been baptized into His Death as blessed Paul saith? for as many (he says) of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death. Yet One Lord, one faith, one baptism: and we will not say that we have been baptized into Him that is forth of the seed of David as into another and several son: but since being by Nature God He is conceived of as beyond suffering, and was pleased to suffer in order that He might save those who are subject to decay, He was made like in all things unto them who are on earth and underwent birth after the flesh from forth a woman and made (as I said) His own a body capable of tasting death and living again, in order that Himself abiding Impassible, He might be said to suffer in His own flesh. For He it is Who hath saved that which was lost. And verily He said in plain terms, I am the Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd layeth down His Life for His sheep, and again, No one taketh My life from Me but I lay it down of Myself, I have authority to lay it down and have authority to take it again. But it belongs not to one of us nor to a common man to have authority to lay down his life and to receive it back, but the Only-Begotten and truly Son hath laid it down, and He took it back, placing us outside of death's meshes.
And one may very easily see this outlined in the Mosaic books too in shadow unto them of old: for the sacrifice of the sheep rescued from death and decay them of Israel and abashed the destroyer, but it was a type of Christ, for Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us, in order that He might undo the cheerless mastery of death and might by His own Blood win all under heaven: for we were bought with a Price and arc not our own, for One died for all, He He Whose worth surpasses all, in order that they which live no longer live to themselves but to Him Who died for them and rose; Paul too will aid saying, For I through the Law died to the Law in order to live to God, I have been co-crucified with Christ: no longer live I, but Christ liveth in me: and what I now live in the flesh I live in faith of the Son of God Who loved me and gave Himself for me. Christ's therefore are we all and through Him have we been reconciled to the Father, Christ having suffered in the flesh for us, in order that He might manifest us cleansed. For it has been written, Wherefore Jesus too, in order that He might cleanse the people through His own blood suffered outside the gate, and again, And you who once were estranged and enemies in your understanding by wicked wories, He hath now reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and spotless before Him. Understand therefore how He says that it was His Proper Blood and His Proper Flesh which was given for us, in order that we should not say that it belonged to a son other than He, conceived of individually and honoured with a bare connection and having an adventitious glory and non-essential excellence and, as a cloak and sort of mask thrown over him, the name of sonship and of the Godhead that is over all things. For if he is by nature in such case as the opponents like to think, in no wise will it befit him to have to say, I am the truth: for how is that true which is not as it is said to be, but is something bastard and falsely-called? But verily CHRIST is truth and over all as God: for the Word hath remained what it was even though it have been made flesh, in order that He Which is over all and hath been made among all by reason of the human nature may have preserved to Him the being above every thing and beyond the measures of the creation.
B. But (he says) the being said to suffer will impress on God the Word much ill-repute and will besides perchance bring accusation upon our august mystery.
A. Yet despising the shame He chose to suffer in the flesh for our sakes according to the Scriptures: and I would account it a frailty of Jewish mind and a dread charge of Gentile infatuation, to think it right to be ashamed of the suffering on the cross. The Divine Paul writes, Seeing that both Jews ask for signs and Greeks seek for wisdom, but WE preach Christ Crucified, to the Jews an offence, to the Gentiles foolishness, but to them which are called, Jews and Greeks, Christ God's Power and God's wisdom, because the folly of God, is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
B. How? for I do not at all understand.
A. Does he not say that the Suffering on the cross was an offence to the Jews, foolishness to the Greeks? for the one said, when they saw Him hanging from the wood, wagging their blood-thirsty heads at Him, If Thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross and we will believe Thee (for they supposed that worsted by their might He was taken and suffered, for they were in error, supposing that He was not truly Son of God but looking to the flesh alone): and the Greeks able in no wise to understand the depth of the Mystery deem it folly that it should be said by us, that Christ died for the life of the world. Yet is this very thing that seemeth to he folly, wiser than men. For deep is the word and verily replete with the highest wisdom, that I mean in regard to Christ the Saviour of us all, and that which is thought to be weakness by the people of the Jews, is stronger than men. For the Only-Begotten Word of God hath saved us, putting on likeness to us in order that having suffered in the flesh and risen from the dead He might set forth our nature superior to death and decay. And that which has been achieved is beyond the reach of our estate. Hence stronger than men is that which seemeth to have been wrought in infirmity as ours and as it were in suffering, and it affords proof of God-befitting power.
B. Then how will the Same (they say) suffer and not suffer?
A. By suffering in His own flesh and not in the Nature of Godhead. And wholly ineffable is the plan of these things and no mind can attain ideas so subtil and exalted: yet following reasonings which tend to right belief and viewing the plan of what is fit, we neither alienate Him from being said to suffer, lest we first say that the Birth too after the flesh is not His but another's, nor do we define that the things pertaining to the flesh have been wrought upon His Divine and Supremest Nature: but He will be conceived of (as I said) as suffering in His own flesh, albeit not suffering in His Godhead after some such mode as this. And every force of illustration is feeble and comes behind the truth, yet it sends into the mind a subtil imagination of the reality and as it were from what is before it, brings it up unto the height which is beyond the reach of words. For as iron or other such matter in contact with the onset of fire gives it admission and travails with the flame: and if now it chance to be struck by ought, the matter [struck] admits of injury, but the nature of the fire is in nought damaged by that which strikes; thus will you conceive in regard of the Son being said to suffer in the flesh, not to suffer in His Godhead. And petty (as I said) is the force of the illustration, but it bears nigh to the truth them who choose not to disbelieve the holy Scriptures.
B. You say well.
A. For if the flesh ineffably and above mind and reason united to Him were not made absolutely the Word's own, how will it be conceived of as life-giving? For I am (He says) the Living Bread Which came down from Heaven and giveth life to the world, if any one eat of this bread he shall live for ever, and the bread which I shall give is My flesh for the life of the world. But if so be the flesh, belong to a son other than He, appropriated to Him by a non-essential connection, and called by favour to equality of honour, how doth He name it His own, though He cannot lie? and how will another person's flesh too quicken the world, if it have not been made the own flesh of Life, i. e. of the Word which is forth of God the Father, of Whom the Divine John says, And we know that the Son of God is come and He gave us understanding in order that we might know Him and we are in His Very Son Jesus Christ: this is the true God and Everlasting Life?
B. But I suppose that they would say to this, that it had been clearly said by Him, Verily verily I say to you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, ye have not life in you. WE therefore understand (they say) that the honoured body and blood are not those of God the Word but of the son of man which has been connected with Him.
A. Then wherever will they put the mighty Mystery of piety? for destroyed is the emptying of God the Word, Who was in the Form and Equality of the Father and chose for our sakes to take bondman's form and be made in likeness of us, and to partake blood and flesh, and to make the economy of the Incarnation His largess to all under Heaven. For through it have been saved, the Father summing up all things in Him, both the things in Heaven and the things on earth, as it is written. If therefore they say that not He is the Only-Begotten, Who says in God-befitting way and human wise alike, And the bread which I will give is My flesh for the life of the world, but that some son of man other than He conceived of apart by himself hath saved us, it is not the Lord Himself, as it is written, but one from among ourselves: and the things which are subject to decay are quickened henceforth, not through God Who is mighty to quicken, but by one of them who are subject to decay, who received along with us life of favour: but if it is true that the Word has been made flesh according to the Scriptures and appeared on earth and conversed with men, having bondman's form as His own, He will be called also son of man; and if some feel ashamed at this, they will be caught placing themselves under charge of unlearning. For in no other way was it possible that flesh should become life-giving, albeit of its own nature subjected to the need of decaying, except it have become the Proper flesh of the Word Which quickeneth all things; for thus it inworks what is His, replete with His Life-giving Power. And no marvel. For if it is true that fire having intercourse with matter, renders it warm, though not warm of its own nature (for it puts into it full richly the operation of its inherent power): how does not rather the Word being God put His own Life-giving Power and Operation into His Proper flesh, united to it and making it His own, without confusion, without turning and in mode as Himself knoweth?
B. It is therefore necessary to confess that it hath entirely become (none other intervening) the Proper Body of the Word that is forth of the Father, though ensouled with reasonable soul.
A. Most certainly, if we define aright the unerring word of the faith and are lovers of the doctrines of the truth and track the faith of the holy Fathers, not borne aside from the right way nor letting go the King's path-way, carried off by the vain-speakings of some unto a debased mind, but rather built up on the very Foundation, i. e. Christ: for other foundation can no man lay than is laid, as the in truth wise master-builder and Priest of His Mysteries has written.
We believe therefore that One is the Son of God the Father and conceived of in One Person, our LORD JESUS CHRIST, begotten forth of God the Father Divinely as Word before every age and time: in the last times of the age the Same made according to the flesh from forth a woman: and to Him we allot both the God-befitting and the human, and His we say was the birth after the flesh and the suffering upon the cross, for that He made His own the whole that belonged to His Proper flesh, yet hath remained Impassible in the Nature of the Godhead. For thus to Him boweth every knee and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord unto the glory of God the Father, Amen.
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[Running headers from the pages]
The Bible our Food. Heathen errors. 237 238 Errors of heretics worse. Arians, and they who blame Incarnation and miscall B. Virgin. 239 240 The Virgin's Son God made man. Was made, said of God, means not change. 241 242 God born man to enrich man. Made flesh, man: sin and curse to undo them. 243 244 His the Body, His too all that is its. Made flesh = born: else all is lost. 245 246 Like to His brethren "begins with Birth. Word made flesh gives us all, our One Hope. 247 248 Body quickens not except it be Life's own. Incarnation, what. The Virgin-Birth. 249 250 Conceived of the HOLY GHOST that we might be born of the Spirit. Made like = GOD Incarnate. 251 252 Mary mother of GOD. Christ a title. He took soul too. The Son Incarnate has distinct Names, before, common. 253 254 God the Son, Perfect Man anointed imparts. Fantasy that the Son took a man. 255 256 God, Holy, Lord, Life, man, hallowed, worships, quickened. If God not made man, it is man who co-sitteth. 257 258 We worship Jesus, a man if God be not made man. ἀναφορὰ not union. 259 260 Union unites, connection does not. Modes of connection. Taking bondman's form is True Union. 261 262 The FREE made as we, made us as He: One: though Godhead he one thing, manhood another. 263 264 ONE in mode wholly passing understanding: Man, i. e. God Incarnate, yet no mixture. 265 266 nor consumption of the manhood. Bush type of this. Fallacy that son of David was assumed. 267 268 The gained can be lost, the Free alone give adoption: He God of God and David's Son. 269 270 David's Son God Incarnate: else a man over all, God blessed for ever, 271 272 and a man the Form of God. The emptying, what. Δόξα προκόσμιος. One Lord Jesus Christ. 273 274 One, God made man, anointed, seen, come in flesh, saved His own people, God in our likeness. 275 276 If Christ not GOD, a redeemed redeemer, a yes and no, a filled full, not emptied, two not one. 277 278 Jesus Christ before time. Yesterday to-day and for ever. Thus Himself says. The WORD GOD and man. 279 280 The B. Baptist, S. Peter, Apostles preach Christ GOD, S. Paul too. A man has not angels of his own. 281 282 If indwelling makes man, Father and Spirit are men. The Son Prophet Apostle Priest when emptied. 283 284 No dishonour to the Son in confessing these titles. Holy Scripture our Rule. Sanctifier and Sanctified. 285 286 Difficulties: sanctifies and sanctified, Giver and receives, set King, wept, feared, learned obedience. 287 288 Supplication and weeping to teach us. Intensest prayers, manly striving. 289 290 Strange misapprehension of those who sever. The Forsaking makes us unforsaken. 291 292 Christ calls back on us the Pity of the Father. To God the Son belong both Divine and human. 293 294 Christ God the Son Incarnate yet still God. Increased in stature and wisdom and grace. 295 296 The Incarnate Son makes His even the daily growth; He redeemed us, His the flesh and blood. 297 298 If God the Son Incarnate suffered not, we are redeemed by the blood of a man. 299 300 Heb. ii. 9-17 explained. His own Son. The Word lived, overcame death in the death of His Body. 301 302 Salvation from the Jews. Blood not common. The Son suffers and does not suffer. 303 304 His Suffering and Resurrection.
God the WORD abased weak as to the flesh. 305 306 Equal honour means Two: which of them is enthroned? The Father gave His Son, some deny it. Impassible. 307 308 The Word emptied Himself, receives, made man, the Name, lost not His Eternal glory. 309 310 The Incarnate SON out of Heaven, and worshipped. The Passion willed and nilled. 311 312 His the Passion, He willed it all. The last Adam. Impassible He suffered, into His Death we baptized. 313 314 Christ's own Blood and flesh given, won, reconciled all. The shame of the Cross folly wiser than men. 315 316 He suffered unsuffering; His flesh life-giving, because Life's own flesh: not man quickens us. 317 318 The proper flesh of Him Who quickens all things. The Birth, Suffering and all, belong to the Impassible Son. 319
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[A selection of the footnotes. All the marginal notes, which were either biblical references or words in Greek, have been omitted. Note that OT = Oxford Translation].
S. Cyril replies, "Seeing that, on the Evangelist saying, The Word was made flesh, they say that they are afraid lest, the word was made retaining its proper meaning, some change be conceived of as taking place regarding the Divine Nature of the Word; I applaud their fear, but marvel that drawing aside the word and its true and necessary meaning, they say that the Word was so made flesh, as He may be said to be made curse and sin. How ought they not, being men of sense, to have seen, that the blessed Evangelist having put, Was made, removes all suspicion of any change, by subjoining immediately, And tabernacled in us?
"In another way too it is absurd to venture to say, that the Word was so made flesh, as He is said to have been made curse and sin (for He has not been made curse's very self, nor yet sin), but being Righteous He was reckoned among the transgressors, in order to bring sin to nought: and He Who blesseth the creation has been called a curse, in order to undo our curse and rid from sentence them that believe on Him. Hence He has not been made of a truth curse and sin but has been called so, to bring to nought curse and sin.
"Hence if He have thus been made flesh, He hath brought to nought the flesh, just as He hath curse and sin, and hath neither been made man nor been in truth incarnate: but in mere semblance is the mystery and in bare names is the plan of the Incarnation seen." p. 159 c d and 161 d e 162 a.
S. Athanasius says, "For as by receiving our infirmities, He is said to be infirm Himself, though not Himself infirm, for He is the Power of God: and He became sin for us and a curse, though not having sinned Himself but because He Himself bare our sins and our curse, so &c." Agst Arians. ii. 55 fin. p. 359 O.T. Similarly S. Cyril, " As therefore He is said to have been infirm though not infirm (for He is the Power of God), because He bare our infirmities, and the Divine Scripture says that He has been made a curse, not meaning that He has been actually transmade into a curse, but that He bare the curse for us, and again He is said to have been made sin, not as forgetful of His own Nature nor passing into sin Who knew it not, but because He took on Him our sins, as it is written, in His body on the Tree, so" &c. Thes. cap. 15 p. 162 e, see also cap. 32 p. 276 e.
Thus, we are men by nature, He hastening down for His love's sake into what is beside Nature was made man: God's bondmen by nature we as things made, He too is called bondman, borne unto whatis beside Nature when He was made man. Yea and on the other hand, He GOD by Essence, we too gods mounting up unto what is beside nature for grace's sake (for we are men): He SON by Nature, we too sons by adoption called unto brotherhood with Him." Thes cap. 32 p. 330 fin.
" Hence it is He Who suffered and did not suffer; in His Divine Nature Unsuffering, without change or turning, in His flesh suffering, as Peter says." S. Ath. against Apollinarius, lib. i. 11, t. i.931b. "For it was God Who was set at nought, of God's flesh and soul was the suffering and the death and the resurrection." lib. ii. 16, t. i. 953 a. See too next note and below p. 316.
In his 7th Paschal homily (A.D. 420), after saying, " Hence as also our all-famous Father and Bishop Athanasius, the unswerving rule of the orthodox Faith, said in his own writings, 'Of two things unlike in nature hath a concurrence taken place, to wit of Godhead and Manhood: for Christ is one out of Both,'" S. Cyril proceeds, "And unspeakable and utterly incomprehensible was the mode of the mingling." Pasch. Hom. pp 302 fin., 103. And further on, " They worship, not parting off Him Alone That indwelt from the screen of His flesh, but One Ineffably mingled out of Both" etc. p. 104 d.
S. Cyril speaks of " as it were mingling the properties of the natures," in his Treatise de Inc. Unigeniti, p. 708 a (as above p. 144 note s), where he means that on account of the entirety of the Union, what belongs to the Godhead may be said of the manhood; e. g. he is speaking there on the words, For the bread of God is He which comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world, and says, " albeit how is it not true that the flesh hath not come down out of heaven, but was of a Virgin according to the Scriptures? And the Word is not eaten; but in countless expressions He is seen gathering both into One and mingling as it were one with another the properties of the natures;" he goes on to quote the words, He that came down from heaven (S. John iii.. 13), and, If ye shall see the son of man ascending up where He was before (ib. vi. 62), although the human nature came not down from Heaven, nor was it there before. Towards the end of the treatise (p. 712 init.), S. Cyril speaks of S. John, "all-but gathering the natures and bringing into a concurrence [μισγάγκειαν, properly, the meeting of mountain-glens, henceforth to become one glen] the force of the properties befitting each." Of the mingling to express His intimate union with us, see above p. 250 note i.
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