On the Unity of Christ

B. Unwise therefore and utterly incongruous to the holy Scriptures is it both to deem and to say that the man assumed used human expressions as forsaken by the Word which was connected with him.

A. Blasphemy, my friend, and a proof of the uttermost stupefaction, and that full clear, will this be, yet is it not incongruous to those who understand not to think aright. For since they sever and divide utterly both words and facts and have allotted the one to the Only-Begotten alone and by Himself, the other as it were to a son other than He and from a woman, therefore have they missed of the straight and most unerring way and of clearly knowing the mystery of Christ.

B. We must not then divide either words or facts, when the Gospel and Apostolic preachings are brought forward?

A. By no means, as far as pertains to two persons and hypostases severed from one another and diverging altogether apart and separately: for in that there is One Son, the Word made Man for our sakes, I would say that all are His, both words and facts, both the God-befitting and besides the human.

B. Hence even if He be said to be weary from the journey [50]. to be hungry and to share in sleep: will it be fit (tell me) to allot to God the Word things thus mean and abased?

A. The Word still bare and not yet Incarnate and ere He descended unto the emptying, it will by no means befit (for you deem aright), but to Him made man and emptied what hurt can this inflict on Him? for as we say that His flesh was made His own [51], so again His are the weaknesses of the flesh through the Economic appropriation of them and after the mode of the emptying, for He was made like in all things to His brethren, without sin alone. And marvel not that we say that He has made the weaknesses of the flesh His own along with the flesh: whence to Himself again hath He allotted the contumelies too from without, which were put upon Him by the frowardness of the Jews, saying through the voice of the Psalmist, They parted My garments among themselves and upon My vesture they cast the lot, and again, All that see Me sneered at Me, they spake with their lips, they wagged the head.

B. Hence though He say for example, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father, I and the Father are One, and to the Jews, Why are ye seeking to kill Me, a man Who have told you the truth which I heard of God, shall we allow that the words both one and other belong to One and the Same?

A. Most certainly, for Christ has never been divided, but is believed to be One and Only and Very Son by all who worship Him. For the Image of the Invisible God, the Brightness of the glory of the Person of the Father, the Impress of His Essence, took bondman's form, not as though connecting a man to Himself, as they say, but rather Himself made in that form, yet even so abiding in likeness to God the Father. And the all-wise Paul hath written, For it is God Who said that the light should shine forth of darkness, Who shone in our hearts unto the illumining of the knowledge of His glory in the Face of Christ Jesus. For view how it is in the Person of Christ that the illumining [52] of the Divine and Ineffable glory of God the Father shines forth: for the Only-Begotten albeit made man shews in Himself the glory of the Father, for This Alone and none other is conceived of and called Christ [53]. Else let our opponents teach us how one can behold in a mere man the illumining or the knowledge of the Divine glory? for not in the form of man shall we see God: yet in the Word Alone Which has been made as we and made Man and hath even thus remained by Nature and truly Son, might one in wondrous wise see this too, in that He is conceived of as God. And verily the steward of His Mysteries, having called Him Christ Jesus as having been made as we and Incarnate, knows that He is so together with being God by Nature and in truth: for he writes after this wise, More boldly in part I have written to you, as reminding you because of the grace given me by God that I should be a minister of Christ Jesus, ministering the Gospel of God [54], Zacharias too prophesieth to his own child, I mean the Baptist, And thou, little one, shalt be called the prophet of the Most High, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare a people for Him: and the Divine Baptist pointed out the Most High and Lord saying, See the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world: This is He of whom I said, After me cometh a Man who has been made before me because He was prior to me. Is it then lawful to doubt that One and Only and Truly Son is the Word forth of God the Father together with the flesh united to Him and that not without soul, as some say, but ensouled with reasonable soul and in all respects One Person with it?

B. I would not doubt it in the least, for One Lord, One faith, One Baptism. But if Jesus be said to advance in stature and wisdom and grace, who is it that has been made in these? for the Word Who is forth of God the Father being full and Perfect in Himself, what and whereunto will He take accession or advance? being Himself Wisdom, He will not be said to be recipient of wisdom [55]. We must enquire then, they say, to whom these things belong.

A. We must then (it is like) bring in another son and lord, because some cannot reach the depth of the holy Scriptures. The wise Evangelist therefore, having first brought in that The Word has been made fleshy sets Him forth Economically charging His own flesh to proceed by the paths of its own nature; and it belongs to human nature to advance in stature and wisdom, I may say in grace also, in that the understanding too that is in each springs upward conjointly with the measures of the body: for it is one in babes, other again in those that are now children and upwards. For it were not impossible or impracticable to the Word from forth of the Father as God, to rear on high even from the very swaddling-clothes the body which was united to Him and to bring it up to the measure of perfect stature; I will say too that to shew forth admirable wisdom even in His baby-state would have been both easy and without obstacle to Him, yet would it have savoured of wonderworking and been incongruous to the plan of the Economy; for the Mystery was performed noiselessly. He permitted therefore economically the measures of human nature to prevail in His own case, for this too will have been arranged in the meet order of the likeness to usward, whose advance is by little and little to what is greater, as the season calls us to accession of stature and of understanding not out of harmony therewith.

All-Perfect therefore, and un-lacking of ought whatever, and too of increase, is the "Word from forth the Father, as God: yet makes He His own what is ours seeing He has been made as we: yet we know that He is even so above us as God. And verily Paul dares, albeit knowing that He has been made flesh, looking at the Excellences of the Godhead, in places to say that He is not even man: he writes to them of Galatia, Paul an apostle not from men nor through man but through Jesus Christ, and elsewhere too, I declare to you the Gospel which was gospelled by me that it is not after man, for neither did I receive it from man nor was I taught it, but through revelation of Jesus Christ.

[50] ^s "We know, brethren, that One and the Same is He Who through the holy Virgin, Mary Mother of God, was born, Perfect God and Perfect Man, ensouled, rational. Therefore do we both say that the holy Virgin is Mother of God and that God the Word indwelt her, not in semblance but in operation; the Same when two-months old and three-months old, [do we confess] Son of God alike and Son of man. Yea and the words both of the human nature and those uttered in God-befitting authority which theDivine Scriptures recount to us of Him, we say are gathered into One Person. For we know that the Same is He Who sleeps on the pillow, the Same He Who with authority rebukes the sea and the winds: the Same Who was wearied with the journey, the Same Who walked on the sea as on solid ground by His own Power; the Same therefore God, the Same man undoubtedly." From a short sermon printed after the Scholia, t. v. i. pp. 801, 802 Aub. See too from S. Gregory Nyssa, " Human poverty doth not feed the thousands nor doth Almighty power run to the fig tree," in Dr. Newman's translation of S. Athanasius against Arians, p. 479 O.T. note b.

[51] ^t See above pp. 8, 142, 194, 249, 251, 261, and 3 Ecumenical Epistles, pp. 57, 64 and note d.

[52] ^v "Lo clearly and evidently the illumining of the knowledge of God the Father shone forth in the Face [or Person] of Christ. Wherefore He also said, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father, I and the Father are One." De recta fide to the Emperor Theodosius 30 a, and (in its later form) Dial. ad Herm. Book 7, p. 702 d.

[53] ^x "Christ is no single term, but in that name which is one, is the signification of both, of Godhead and of manhood. Wherefore Christ is called man and Christ is called God and Christ is both God and man and Christ is One." S.Athanasius against Apollinarius, i. 13, t. i. 932 f.

[54] ^y "They who are entrusted with the priesthood minister to God alone, for priests stand not before men. See therefore the Divine Paul says that grace has been given him of God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus, and to minister among the Gentiles the Gospel of Christ. Christ therefore is God, if preaching Christ to the Gentiles, he says that he ministers to them God's Gospel, that they may be accepted as sanctified in the Spirit." De recta fide to the princesses Arcadia and Marina, p. 60 a.

[55] ^z The syriac translation adds, "Who is the Giver of wisdom to them who are recipient of wisdom."