On the Unity of Christ

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 [69] 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 [70], 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 [71], 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 [72], 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, hut 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.

[69] ^q In this place both the Syriac translation and the Greek ms. omit ὁ Κύριος but there is considerable variation in other places of S. Cyril: see Schol. § 4, above p. 189 and note there.

[70] ^r See the verse explained in the same way of the SON's Generation from the FATHER, in S. Cyril's commentary on S. John, pp. 643, 644, 676 O.T.: and on xvii. 4, 5 p. 958 d, Greek.

[71] ^s On the Passion being willed and not willed by the Incarnate Son, see above pp. 170 sqq: see especially that very famous chapter of S. Cyril's commentary on S.John, (pp.383 sqq. O.T.) which was so largely quoted in Act. 10 of the sixth General Council holden at Constantinople A. D. 680: also in S. Joan. lib. x. 1 (xiv. 30, 31) pp. 853 e 854 a b c, S. Cyril speaks of its being willed "out of reverence to the Father and love to Him."

[72] ^t The Greek manuscript has Paul, the Syriac translation Peter.