Paul agrees with John in praises of the incarnate Word.
Listen now to both statements in that most well-known passage of the Apostle Paul: "Who, being in the form of God," he says, "did not consider it robbery to be equal with God." This is: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." How did the Apostle say: "Did not consider it robbery to be equal with God," if he was not equal with God? But if the Father is God, and He is not God, how is he equal? Therefore where it says: "The Word was God," here it states, "Did not consider it robbery to be equal with God." And where it says: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us," here it states: "But He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant." Take heed. Therefore, by becoming man, by the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us, by this He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant. For what did He empty? Not to lose divinity, but to take on humanity, appearing to men as He was not before He became man. By appearing thus He emptied Himself, that is, preserving the divinity of majesty and presenting the garment of human flesh. Therefore, by emptying Himself, taking the form of a servant, not taking the form of God—for when speaking of the form of God, He did not say: "He took," but: "being in the form of God"; but when it came to the form of a servant, He said: "Taking the form of a servant"—then, through this, He became the mediator and the head of the Church, through whom we are reconciled to God, through the sacrament of His humility and passion and resurrection and ascension and future judgment, so that the two statements may be heard when God has spoken once. Where are two statements heard? Where He renders to each according to his works.
Virginity of the mind should be preserved by all the faithful.
Therefore, holding onto this, do not marvel at the questions of men that spread like cancer, as the apostle said; but guard your ears and the virginity of your mind, as though betrothed by the friend of the bridegroom to be presented as a chaste virgin to Christ. The virginity of the body should be in a few in the Church, the virginity of the mind in all. This virginity the serpent wants to corrupt, about which the same Apostle says: "I have betrothed you to one man to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. And I fear that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, so your minds may be corrupted from the chastity that is in Christ." He said, "your minds," that is, your thoughts. For this is more proper. For senses are also understood to mean those of this body: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching. The Apostle feared that our minds would be corrupted, where there is the virginity of faith. Now, therefore, O soul, keep your virginity, to be fruitful later in the embrace of your bridegroom. Henceforth, guard your ears with thorns as it is written. The question of the Arians disturbed the weak brothers of the Church, but in the mercy of the Lord the Catholic faith prevailed. For he did not abandon his Church, even if disturbed for a time, so that it would always supplicate him, by whom it would be established on solid rock. And still the serpent murmurs and does not remain silent: he seeks by the promise of a certain knowledge to cast out from the paradise of the Church, whom he may not allow to return to that paradise, from where he was first cast out.
The doctrine of the Arians is refuted by the books of Scripture.
Listen, my brothers: what took place in that paradise, takes place in the Church. Let no one deceive you away from this paradise: it is enough that we have fallen from there; or let us be corrected by experience. He is the same serpent, who always suggests impiety; at times he promises impunity, just as he did there: "You will not surely die," he says, because God said: "You will surely die." He suggests such things now, so that Christians live badly: "Will he destroy all?" He says, "I will condemn, I will forgive those who change themselves: let them change their deeds, I will change my threats." Therefore, he is the one who murmurs and whispers and says, "Behold, it is written: The Father is greater than I, and you say he is equal to the Father?" I take what you say, and I take both, because I read both. Why do you take one and not wish for the other? For you have read both with me. Behold, I accept the Father is greater than I, not from you, but from the Gospel; and you accept him as equal to God from the Apostle. Unite both: let both agree, for he who spoke through John in the Gospel, the same spoke through Paul in the letter. He cannot be in discord with himself, but you do not wish to understand the harmony of the Scriptures, since you love to argue yourself. "But from the Gospel," you say, "I prove: The Father is greater than I." And I from the Gospel: I and the Father are one. "How are both true?" How does the Apostle teach us? Listen: I and the Father are one. Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. Listen: The Father is greater than I. But made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant. Behold, I have shown why greater; you show in what way equal. For we read both. He is lesser than the Father, in that he is the Son of man; equal to the Father, in that he is the Son of God, because the Word was God. Mediator and God and man: God equal to the Father, man lesser than the Father. Therefore, he is both equal and lesser: equal in the form of God, lesser in the form of a servant. So you tell me how he is equal. Is he equal in one part, and lesser in another part? Behold, except for the acceptance of flesh, show me an equal and lesser. From whence will you demonstrate, I want to see.
The wisdom of heretics is carnal and foolish.
Observe the impiety of thinking according to the flesh, as it is written: To think according to the flesh is death. I put aside, without yet speaking of the incarnation of our Lord and only Son of God, but as if it has not yet happened what has already happened, I consider with you: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. I consider with you: Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Show me there anyone lesser. What will you say? Will you divide God through qualities, that is, through certain bodily or animal affections, by which we perceive one thing to be different from another? Naturally, I can indeed say it, but whether it is for you to understand, let God see. Therefore, as I began to say, before the assumption of flesh, before the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, show me one lesser, show me one equal. Is God something different so that the Son is lesser in one part, equal in another? As if we should say: “Certain are bodies,” would you say to me: “Equal in length, but lesser in strength.” For often two bodies occur such that they are equal in the stature of length, but in strength, one is lesser, the other greater. Shall we then consider such things as bodies: shall we consider God and His Son in such a way? May God turn away these thoughts from the hearts of Christians. He was entirely with the Father, entirely in the flesh, entirely above the angels. But perhaps you will think thus, saying: “Equal in both strength and length, but different in color”? Where is color, except in bodies? But there is the light of wisdom. Show me the color of wisdom. Show me the color of justice. If these have no color, would you speak those things of God, if you had the color of modesty?
"In God, everything that is said is the same thing."
What then will you say? In power they are equal, but is the Son lesser in wisdom? God is unjust if He gives equal power to one of lesser wisdom. If they are equal in wisdom, but the Son is lesser in power, God is envious, who gives lesser power to one of equal wisdom. But in God, everything that is said is the same. For in God there is not one thing as power and another as wisdom and another as strength and another as justice or another as chastity. Whatever of these things you say about God, neither is it understood as this and that, nor is anything worthily said, because these are qualities of souls, which that light in some way pervades and affects according to their qualities. Just as when this visible light rises upon bodies, if it is taken away, there is one color for all bodies, or rather, it is to be said that there is no color; but when it illuminates the bodies brought before it, although itself is of one kind, yet for the different qualities of bodies it sheds different splendors upon them. Therefore, these affections are of the souls, which are well affected by that light which is not affected, and shaped by that which is not shaped.
"Whoever begins to think about God will find that silence with the ineffable voice of the heart is to be praised."
Nevertheless, we speak these things about God, brothers, because we have found nothing better to say. I call God just, because in human words I find nothing better: for He is beyond justice. It is said in the Scriptures: The Lord is just and loves justice. But it is also said there that God repents, and it is also said there that God does not know. Who would not shudder? God does not know, God repents? Therefore, the Scripture has descended to these words healthily, which you shudder at, lest you think those things you consider great are spoken worthily. Just as if you wanted to believe that God repents something according to human emotion, and another who understands better would correct you, explaining to you, if you find anything like that in the Scriptures, that it is not said because God suffers such a thing as you do in the condemnation of your counsel or act with the pain of heart, but because He changes beyond what men think, since if men do such a thing, they do it repenting if they turn away from their purpose, although His certain and eternal counsel remains, but what He was expected to do and does otherwise is figuratively said that He repents. And so if you were to ask: "What is said worthily about God?" Perhaps someone might respond to you saying He is just. But another who understands better might also say that even this word is surpassed by His excellence, and it is unworthy to say this about Him, although it is said appropriately according to the capacity of men. Yet, when he wishes to prove from the Scriptures, because it is written: The Lord is just, it is rightly answered to him that it is stated in the same Scriptures that God repents. As you do not accept this according to the custom of speakers, as men usually repent, so you should understand that what is said just does not fit His supereminence, although the Scripture has well placed it, so that through whatever words, step by step, the mind may be led to that which cannot be spoken. Indeed, you call God just, but understand something beyond justice which you are accustomed to think even of man. But the Scriptures have called Him just, therefore they also called Him repenting and not knowing, which you no longer wish to say. Therefore, just as you understand those things you shudder at to be said because of your weakness, so also those things you highly value are said because of some weakness of the stronger ones. However, whoever transcends these things and begins to think worthily of God, as far as it is granted to man, will find silence praised by the ineffable voice of the heart.
Let us hold to the Word of God which is in His nature and which is in His mercy.
Therefore, brothers, since this is the power in God which is justice—and whatever you may say of Him, you say the same, though nothing said is worthy—you cannot say the Son is equal to the Father through justice and not equal through power, or equal through power and not equal through knowledge, because if He is equal in one aspect, He is equal in all aspects, since whatever you say of Him is the same and of the same value. Therefore, it is sufficient that you cannot say how the Son is equal to the Father unless you attribute certain diversities in the substance of God. When you do this, the truth will cast you out, and you will not reach that sanctuary where the purest vision is held. However, since you cannot say He is equal in one part and unequal in another, because there are no parts in God, you cannot say He is equal in one quality and lesser in another, because there are no qualities in God; according to God, you cannot say He is equal except in every way equally: hence where can you say He is lesser, except because He took the form of a servant? Thus, brothers, always bear this in mind. If you receive a rule in the Scriptures, the light itself will show you all things. Wherever you find the Son named as equal to the Father, accept it according to a certain divine essence; wherever you find Him named as lesser, accept it according to the form of the servant taken: as it is said: "I am who I am," and as it is said: "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob"; thus you will hold to what is in His nature, and what is in His mercy.
The Divine Scripture shows the Lord Jesus as the Son of God and man.
But let it not trouble you, because this, too, is said according to this distinction which the Lord spoke in the Gospel and in the psalm which we have just sung. But to explain and make it clearer with a more manifest testimony, it is said in the Gospel: To my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. To my Father and your Father, do not be disturbed. For the Father is always to the Son: the Son is never not begotten, and He is never not the Father. But He is our Father in a different way, through the mercy of adoption. He begot Him, He adopted us. He begot Him before the morning star, which you should not take as a single star, but mystically the morning star is what carries the light, not that it is the light, but that it is illuminated by the light to carry the light. For it is also said of that archangel who did not stand in the truth because as the morning star he arose, but he did not stay in that very light. Therefore, every soul that is illuminated to shine is called morning star; if it turns away from the illuminating light, it is darkened. Therefore, John the evangelist says of the Lord Himself: He was the true light. And as if it were asked, "What is the true light?" he says, it enlightens every man—therefore it is not one that is enlightened, but the one that enlightens. But of John the Baptist, he says: He was not that light. But what kind of light was he not? The kind that enlightens and is not enlightened. For John was a light that was enlightened because he received from His fullness. Whence the Lord Himself says: And you were willing to rejoice for a season in his light. And to His disciples, He says: You are the light of the world. For they were illuminated to be a light, but He was the true light which enlightens every man, another kind of light made that is enlightened. Therefore, the true light that enlightens is our Lord Jesus Christ; the made light that is enlightened is John, the apostles, all holy souls and the most blessed intellectual spirits, who by receiving the light become morning stars. Therefore, before the morning star, I begot you, before every creature plainly. It is to be understood as before every creature, in which the spiritual and rational creation, which is illuminated, holds principal rank. Therefore, brothers, let us hold on to both in our Lord Jesus Christ: that according to His divinity, He is equal to the Father, and according to His humanity, He is less than the Father. But what I began to say, let no one be offended, that He said: my Father and your Father. For always the Father of the only-begotten Son, always He born and born before the morning star, that is, before every creature which becomes light by illuminating. Rightly therefore, my Father and your Father, because we have received from Him to be sons of God: who gave us the power to become sons of God. And our adoption, which the Apostle speaks of, is well known to your charity, of which he says: Waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body, and again: God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive the adoption of sons. Deservingly therefore, He first singularly says my Father, then your Father. But how my God and your God? Now, if the rule is known, what are you expecting from me? My Father always, my God since He became man. Hear the psalm that was read: I was cast upon You from the womb, from my mother’s belly You are my God. I believe it is said enough about that modality also, by which our Lord Jesus Christ our Savior, the head of the Church, made a mediator, through whom we are reconciled to God, is signified in the Scriptures as God and man.
"The third way: The whole Christ according to the Church, that is, the head and the body."
The third way is how the whole Christ according to the Church, that is the head and the body, is preached. For both the head and the body are one Christ, not because he is not whole without the body, but because he has deigned to be whole with us, who is always whole without us, not only in that he is the Word, the only-begotten Son equal to the Father, but also in the very man he assumed and with whom he is both God and man. However, brothers, how are we his body, if not also one Christ with us? Where will we find this, that Christ is one head and body, that is body with his head, bride with her bridegroom? He speaks as if individually in Isaiah, and the same one speaks, and see what he says: “He has bound a turban on me like a bridegroom and adorned me with ornaments like a bride.” He calls the same one bridegroom and bride: bridegroom according to the head, bride according to the body. Two seem to be, and one is. Otherwise how are we members of Christ, with the Apostle saying most openly: “You are the body of Christ and members.” If we are members of Christ, and all together we are the body: not only those who are here, but throughout the whole earth; nor only for this time, but—what shall I say?—from just Abel to the end of the age, where men no longer generate or are generated, whatever just ones have passed through this life, whatever is here now—not in place, but in this life—whatever is to come thereafter, all this is one body of Christ, and individuals members. So, if all are the body, and individuals are members, there must be a head of which this is the body. And he is, he says, the head of the body, the Church, the firstborn, holding the preeminence. And because of him, he says also that he is the head of all principality and power, this church which is now on a pilgrimage is joined to that celestial church, where we have angels as citizens, because we would arrogantly claim we will be equal to them after the resurrection of our bodies, unless the truth had promised, saying: “They will be equal to the angels of God”; and thus the one church is made the city of the great king, whose son even he wanted to be, from whose pilgrim part he assumed flesh, its king and begetter, to recall what had strayed from there. For this is Zion in the mystery's figure, of which it is written: “A man will say, Mother Zion, and a man was born in her, and the Most High himself founded her,” that is, the very one who was made man in her, while being most humble, the Most High himself founded her, because all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made. A body truncated cannot be said whole without its head, but the head wishes to be united with its body. And one Christ with his body by consent, not by necessity. For we need the good of God, God does not need our good. Listen to the prophet: “I said to the Lord: You are my God, because you do not need my goods.”
Of Christ the head and His mystical body.
Thus, Christ is sometimes hinted at in the Scriptures so that you may understand the Word as equal to the Father. Sometimes, so that you may understand Him as the mediator who became man when the Word was made flesh to dwell among us, when the Only Begotten, through whom all things were made, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Likewise, sometimes you understand the head and the body, as the Apostle himself most plainly explains what was said about man and woman in Genesis: "And the two shall become one flesh." Observe the one explaining, so that we do not seem to say anything based on our conjectures. And he said, "The two shall become one flesh," and added: "This is a great mystery." And lest anyone thought this was concerning man and woman according to the natural joining of both sexes and their bodily mixture: "But I speak," he said, "concerning Christ and the Church." According to this, therefore, in reference to Christ and the Church, it is taken what was said: "The two shall become one flesh: they are no longer two, but one flesh." Just as the bridegroom and the bride, so the head and the body, because the head of the woman is man. Therefore, whether I say the head and the body, or I say the bridegroom and the bride, understand one thing. And hence the same Apostle, even when he was still Saul, heard: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" because the body is joined to the head, and when already the preacher of Christ suffered from others, the things which he himself had done as a persecutor: "To make up," he said, "what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ in my flesh," showing that what he suffered pertained to the afflictions of Christ. This cannot be understood concerning the head, which now in heaven suffers nothing of the sort, but concerning the body, that is, the Church, which body with its head is one Christ.
Christ demands a fitting body as the head.
Therefore, present yourselves as a body worthy of such a head, a bride worthy of such a bridegroom. That head cannot possess anything other than a worthy body; nor does that man wed a wife unless she is worthy. "That he might present to himself," it is said, "a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing." This is the bride of Christ, having neither spot nor wrinkle. Do you not want to have a spot? Do what is written: "Wash yourselves, be clean, remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes." Do you not want to have wrinkles? Be stretched out upon the cross. For it is not enough to be washed, but also to be stretched out, so that you may be without spot or wrinkle. For sins are removed by washing, but a desire for the future world is created by being stretched out, for which reason Christ was crucified. Hear Paul himself, who was washed: "Not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration." Hear the same one stretched out: "Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Therefore, deservedly, he, without spot of iniquity and without wrinkle of a double heart, as a good and faithful friend of the bridegroom, promises to present a chaste virgin to one man without spot or wrinkle. For it is not without reason that the prophecy of Isaiah near the fuller's field is mentioned.
God seeks those who knock to open that which is closed.
All these things, brothers, are like mysteries: whatever in the Scriptures sounds absurd or unnecessary, they are closed. However, they are not closed and empty: God encloses something full, but seeks those who knock to open. Certainly weigh it. For, to say something cheerfully, when children buy nuts for themselves, to avoid being deceived, they weigh them with their hand, and when they find them heavy, they hold what is still closed more securely. Weigh, therefore, when you hear some closed sentences in such holy Scriptures, so illustrious, known to the entire world, spread over the whole earth; from the time they were preached until now, nothing else has happened in human affairs than what was predicted there. Therefore, great is the weight of authority. According to this weight, weigh the sentences, and let your soul - which perhaps wanted to despise - say what was said: And the two shall be in one flesh. Already it was saying to itself: "What is this? Truly, would God cure how a man and woman mix, to say: They shall be two in one flesh?" Do not discard it; you are a child: weigh it. "And how," it says, "do I weigh it?" Say to yourself: "Indeed, any foolish person would say this, let alone some who is called a man of God. Moses, who wrote these things, at least had a moderate heart." Add, because these things were not made known to the whole world and are honored throughout the whole world by the religion of believers without cause: "He would not say: They shall be two in one flesh, unless there is something unknown, which human thought shudders at, but it is enclosed in some way. It is not empty." When you have said these things to yourself, you weigh it; if you have weighed it, you have found that it is heavy; you hold securely. But perhaps you are so weak a child that you cannot break it: just hold it and rejoice, know that you are holding something full; there will be no lack of someone who breaks and feeds you. "And who," it says, "will break it?" There is someone who will break it thoroughly - let us deal with you as with a little child -, give it to a kind father who said: I do not say these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. Behold the apostle - certainly in some respect he is a father -, he breaks for you what you carry enclosed, which you have already weighed and felt heavy. Do not fear - he who has paternal love for you will break it, when he says: Even though you have numerous tutors in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I have begotten you in Christ Jesus through the Gospel, and as a mother, when he says: I became a child among you, as a nurse tenderly cares for her own children. {Therefore he did not say "mother," because sometimes mothers, either more delicate or not loving their children, when they have given birth, hand them over to others to be nursed. Again, if he had only said: As a nurse tenderly cares, and did not add: her own children, it would seem that he received them to be nursed by another who gave birth. Therefore, he called himself both a nurse, since he nourished, and his own children, as he himself gave birth to them saying: My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you. But he labors as the Church gives birth, in its womb, not with its seed.} Therefore, give this father or mother - call it what you will: he does not get angry, as he wished to be both in affection, while being neither in sex -, give what you carry enclosed, so heavy from such great authority, to break. It is written in the book of Genesis: it is not a light matter, something is hidden there enclosed. Did it not seem that someone who said it spoke of a sacrament? "For I feel it: it is heavy, but still enclosed." But I say, he said, in Christ and in the Church. Behold the food: eat, who did not despise what was enclosed. But he who despised and discarded what was enclosed will not reach the food.
Of the three rods which the patriarch Jacob placed in the water.