32. That the Only-Begotten is called God even when appearing as Man.
Solomon praying says, And now, O Lord God of Israel, let Thy word be credible which Thou spakest unto Thy servant David: shall God in very deed dwell with men on earth? Observe that he marvels at the Incarnation of the Word, for it seemed a thing incredible: for then did He dwell with men upon the earth when He was made Man. Else how is this anything special or how worthy of marvel, that God should not depart from these things which Himself had created, cherishing them that is, and holding together the things which had been already made, creating those which have not been yet made? But verily it is a special miracle that God made Man should have dwelt on earth with men, according to the promises long before given to the Divine David. For it is written, The Lord sware unto |222 David and will not reject him, Of the fruit of thy belly shall I set upon thy seat. But verily he, albeit he believed that the Almighty God would never deny His Promise, yet did more carefully search out the place itself of the Birth and say, If I go up upon my bed, if I give sleep to mine eyes or slumber to mine eyelids or rest to my temples, until I find a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. At length when he had found out this too through the Spirit, and knew the place of the Birth after the flesh of the Only-Begotten, then did he preach it and say, Lo we heard of it at Ephratah, that is, in Bethlehem, we found it in the fields of the wood. And that in saying Ephratah, he means Bethlehem, the Prophet hath proved, And thou, Bethlehem, house of Ephratah. But note that Him, Whom he believed to have been created as we in Ephratah, he names the God of Jacob, Whose dwelling was in the Tabernacle: for theredid the holy Virgin bear Jesus.
Elsewhere too does he call Him the God of Abraham, saying, The princes of the people are gathered together with the God of Abraham. For well-nigh, instructed in the knowledge of things to come, did he see with the eyes of his mind and the illumination of the Holy Ghost, the princes of the people, i. e., the holy Apostles, in the obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Seeing therefore that He is named God of Abraham and God of Jacob, Who is born of a woman, why is not the holy Virgin Mother of God?
33. Another.
The Prophet Habaccuc says, O Lord, I have heard Thy hearing and feared, I have thought on Thy works and shuddered. In the midst of the two living creatures shalt Thou be known, in the coming of the times shalt Thou be shewn, while my soul was troubled, shalt Thou in anger remember mercy. God shall come from Teman, the Holy One from mount Paran. How shall He be known in the midst of the two living creatures? for when He had been born of a woman and had |223 lived even unto the time of the Precious Cross, by the grace of God (as saith blessed Paul) did He by His Body taste death for every man. But since He was by Nature God, He rose again unto everlasting life. He therefore is known, Who for us endured the Precious Cross, in the midst of the two living creatures. And Himself says somewhere to the Jews, When ye have lifted up the son of man, then shall ye know that I am. But how, calling Him also God, does he fore-announce that He shall come from Teman and from mount Paran ? Teman is interpreted South: for Christ was manifested, not from northern regions, but from the southern Judaea, wherein Bethlehem is.
Since therefore He Who has been named Lord and God, cometh out of the southern Judea, for He was born in Bethlehem, how is not the holy Virgin Mother of God?
34. Another.
In Genesis it is written, And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled with him a Man until the morning: but he saw that he was not prevailing against him and he touched the flat of his thigh as he was wrestling with him and said to him, Let me go for the morning ascendeth. But he said, I do not let thee go, except thou bless me. And after more, And He blessed him there: and he called the name of that place, The Face of God: for I saw (he said) God face to face and my life is preserved. And the sun rose when he passed the face of God: and he hailed on his thigh. Mystic is the sense of that which is written, for it appears to hint at the wrestling of the Jews which they used in regard to Christ, well-nigh wrestling with Him, nevertheless they were overcome and will themselves implore His Blessing, if through faith they turn them to Him at the last times. But note this, it was a man who was wrestling, and Jacob called him The Face of God: nor that alone, for he knew that He is God in truth. For I have seen (he said) God face to face and my life is preserved. For |224 Emmanuel is by Nature God, yet is He called also The Face of God: for He is the Image of the Father's Substance: thus did He call Himself to the Jews, saying respecting God the Father, Nor have ye seen His Face and ye have not His Word abiding in you, for Whom He sent, Him ye believe not.
But that Very God is that Man Who was wrestling with Jacob, holy Writ will again give proof, for it says, And the Lord said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there, and make there an Altar to God that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. For returning from Mesopotamia and being then in fear of Esau, he sent over Jabok his children and all his stuff, and he was left alone and there wrestled a man with him.
35. Another.
Blessed Daniel setting forth to us a dread vision says, I was seeing in a night vision, and lo with the clouds of Heaven came as it were the Son of Man and came even unto the Ancient of Days and they brought Him, into His Presence and there was given Him dominion and honour and a kingdom, and all peoples nations and languages shall serve Him: His Power a Power for ever which shall not pass, and His Kingdom shall not be destroyed. Hearest thou how he does not mention that he had seen simply a man, lest Emmanuel should be believed to be one of us and like as we, but as it were the Son of Man? For the Word being by Nature God was made in the likeness of men and was found in fashion as a Man, in order that in the Same might Both be conceived of, neither bare man nor yet the Word apart from manhood and flesh. Yet does he tell that to Him was given the princedom and honour which He ever had; for he says that all peoples nations and languages shall serve Him. Since therefore even when in the human nature the Only-Begotten Word of God hath the creature serving Him and the Princedom of His Father and Himself, and the holy Virgin bare Him after the flesh: how is not the holy Virgin conceived of as Mother of God? |225
36. Of the Passion of Christ, and that it is profitable that we speak in one manner and another of One and the Same, nor do we divide Him into twain.
Saint Paul sets forth to us the Saving Passion, for he saith at one time, By the Grace of God for all tasted He death and also, For I delivered to you in the first place that which I too received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and that He was buried and that He rose again the third day: moreover the most wise Peter also saith, Forasmuch as Christ suffered for us in the Flesh. Seeing therefore we believe that One is our Lord Jesus Christ, i. e. God the Word beheld in human form or made man as we, in what manner can we attribute Passion to Him and still hold Him impassible, as God?
The Passion therefore will belong to the Economy, God the Word esteeming as His own the things which pertain to His own Flesh, by reason of the Ineffable Union, and remaining external to suffering as far as pertains to His own Nature, for God is Impassible. And no wonder, since we see that the soul itself of a man, if its body suffer somewhat, remains external to the suffering as far as belongs to its own nature, yet is it not conceived of as external to suffering, in that the body which suffers is its very own: and albeit it be impalpable and simple, yet is that which suffers not foreign to it. Thus will you understand of Christ too the Saviour of all.
But I will make use of examples which may shew us by way of shadow, that the Only-Begotten shared in the suffering as far as belongs to the ownness of His Body, yet remained free from suffering, as God. Almighty God then was bidding the most wise Moses to work miracles, that Israel might believe him that he was sent from God, and that they should be set free from violence: He says, And thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the earth, and the water which thou shalt take from the river, shall he blood upon the earth. But we say that the water is an image of life, and that the Son proceeding out of the Father as out of a river, by reason of being of the |226 Same Essence, is by Nature Life, and therefore quickens all things. But when (He says) thou shalt have poured forth the water, it shall be blood upon the earth. Hence, when He was made flesh of the earth, i. e., when He girt Himself with flesh from the earth, then is He said to have suffered death in it like to our death, albeit He is by Nature Life.
In Leviticus God intimates that the leper is polluted and impure and therefore bids that he should be put forth of the camp, and that if the disease be healed, he should thus be cleansed. And they shall take for him that is cleansed two clean birds and cedar wood and scarlet wool and hyssop, and the priest shall command and they shall hill one of the birds in an earthen vessel in living water, and the living bird shall he take and shall bathe it in the blood of the bird that was killed in the living water and he shall sprinkle upon him who is cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and he shall be clean. Us there rendereth clean and washeth away the soils of our uncleanness and driveth off the mortality of fleshly desire the Most Precious Blood of Christ and the purification of all-holy Baptism. But note this (for letting alone subtil search into the force of the Scriptures, we will for the present make mention of what helps to the mystery): he compares Christ to two birds , not as though there were two sons, but rather one out of two, the Godhead and the manhood, gathered together into union. The birds are clean, for our Lord Jesus Christ did no sin, but the Word was holy, in Godhead and in Manhood: He is likened again to flying things, by reason of His being high above the earth and from above, for Christ is the Man out of Heaven, albeit the holy Virgin bare His Flesh . |227 How then is He from above and out of Heaven? God the Word from above and out of the Father, taking flesh from the holy Virgin and manifesting it as His own, as though He had brought it down from above and out of Heaven, said, No man hath ascended up into Heaven, save He That came down from Heaven, the Son of Man: for He ever allotteth to His own Flesh that which is His own, and once united to it is accounted one with it.
Yet see, when the one bird is slain, the other is dipped in his blood, yet died not. And what is this? The Word lived, even though His Flesh died, and He was participant in the Passion, through ownness and union with it. Therefore the Same was living, as God, but like as He made His Body His own, so did He receive into Himself in all ownness the sufferings too of His Body, Himself suffering nought in His own Nature. It is therefore helpful and necessary unto profit that in regard to Christ we should admit the after one manner and another, as belonging to one and the same person, yet should not permit Him to be severed into two sons, albeit the things done be said to be of diverse kind and in no ways harmonizing with one another.
This is what I mean: we say that God the Word is born out of a woman after the flesh, albeit Himself give to all to be born, and call to the birth the things which are not yet |228 born. How then doth the Same both undergo birth and call to being? After one manner and another. For He was born, in that He is conceived of as Man like us, He calleth into being the things that are not, in that He is God by Nature; for it is written of Him, The Little one waxed and grew strong, filled with wisdom and grace, albeit He is by Nature all-Perfect as God, and out of His own Fulness imparteth spiritual gifts to the saints, and is Himself Wisdom and the Giver of grace. How then waxeth the Little one and is filled with wisdom and grace? After one manner and another. For the Same, Man alike and God, makes His own the human, by reason of the union, and is all-Perfect and Giver of wisdom and grace as God.
He is called First-born and Only-Begotten, but if one should examine the force of the words, the First-born will be He Who is First-born among many brethren, the Only-Begotten as Sole, no longer First-born among many brethren. Yet is the Same one and other; how then? After one manner and another. First-born among many brethren by reason of the human nature, the Same again Only-Begotten, as Alone Begotten of the Alone God the Father. He is said to have been sanctified through the Spirit and moreover to sanctify those who come to Him; He was baptized according to the Flesh and was baptizing in the Holy Ghost; how then doth the Same both sanctify and is sanctified, baptizeth and is baptized? After one manner and another; for He is sanctified humanly, and thus is He baptized: He sanctifies Divinely and baptizeth in the Holy Ghost.
Himself raising the dead was raised from the dead, and being Life by Nature is said to quicken. And how again? After one manner and another. For the Same was raised from the dead and is said to be quickened after the Flesh, yet quickens and raises the dead as God. He suffers and does not suffer , after one manner and another: for He |229 suffers humanly in the Flesh as Man, He is impassible Divinely as God.
Himself hath adored with us, for Ye worship (He says) what ye know not, we worship what we know: yet is He to be adored also, for to Him every knee boweth: and this again after one manner and another. For He worshippeth as having assumed the nature that payeth worship, He again the Same is worshipped as surpassing the nature that worshippeth in that He is conceived of as God. Yet must we not sever the worship unto man by himself and God by Himself, nor yet as connected with God by equality of dignity, while the Persons are dissevered, do we say that the man is worshipped with Him (for it were replete with the uttermost impiety): but we must worship One Word of God Incarnate and made man, and at the same time believe that the Body united to Him was ensouled with a reasonable soul like ours. For neither did God Almighty bid two first-borns to be worshipped as well by us as by the holy Angels (for One is He Who was brought into the world ): and if we look more carefully into the mode of this bringing in, we find it to be the mystery of the Economy with flesh. But He was brought into the world then when He was made Man, albeit He be seen to be in His own Nature most far removed from the earth and be believed to be truly in the Excellence of Godhead: for Other than the elements is their Maker. Therefore above the things which Himself made is He by Nature in that He is God by Nature. Yet is One (as I said before) to be worshipped then too when He is among many brethren: for then is He for that reason called First-born.
One did the blind from the birth when wondrously healed worship: for Jesus (it says) finding him in the temple said, Dost thou believe on the Son of God, and he said, Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him? Christ |230 manifesting Himself embodied to him says, Thou had both seen Him and He That speaketh with thee is He. Seest thou how He used the singular number, not permitting God and man to be conceived of separately? yea rather if one were to call Emmanuel man, it signifies not bare man (far from it) but the Word of God united to our nature. As One did the Divine disciples worship Him, when beholding Him wondrously borne on the waters they worshipped saying, Truly Thou art the Son of God.
When therefore Ave say that man is co-worshipped with God, we have brought in a gross severance. For the word, With, except it be said of one by composition, will always full surely persuade us to conceive of two. For like as no one will be said to live with himself nor again to eat with to pray with and to walk with himself (for the with prefixed to the word introduces a declaration of two persons): so if one say that the man is co-worshipped with God, he will without question say two sons and severed one from another: for the plan of union, if it be |231 conceived of in regard to mere equality of dignity or authority, is convicted of being untrue. And this has been shewn by us in many words.
37. Against those who say the human befit God the Word by reference only.