B. But even though they grant that He was a Prophet, they say that He was not so as one of the Prophets, but that He was placed far above their measure . For they had the grace meted to them and accruing to them in time, He was full of the Godhead even straightway from His very Birth, for the Word being God was with Him.
A. It was then in the amount of grace and in length of time that Christ has surpassed the holy Prophets which were before Him, and it is this which is His special privilege. The point for investigation is whether He was a Prophet at all, and not His having more or less or even excelling, seeing that in His being a Prophet and in His not passing beyond our measure does His low estate consist, even though He be conceived of as this from the beginning, just as was the holy Baptist too, of whom the blessed angel says, And he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb. How then was the one a servant, the Other All-glorious in the dignity of Lord? And of himself blessed John says, He that is of the earth of the earth he speaketh, but of Emmanuel, He that cometh from above is superior to all.
B. Yet (will they perchance say) the Word which hath beamed forth of God the Father is above, yea and superior to all; and they are afraid to allot to Him what belong to man, lest haply He be wronged thereby and brought down to dishonour. Therefore they affirm that He took a man and connected with Himself this person in regard to whom what belong to man might have place and be spoken of, and no damage should accrue to the Nature of the Word Himself.
A. Hence he who is assumed will confessedly be conceived of and said to be other than He. But we will not follow their fatuity nor make them definers and innovators of our Faith, neglecting the sacred Scripture and |285 dishonouring the Tradition from forth the holy Apostles and Evangelists: nor, for that a mind weak and most empty of learning has taken up its abode in them, and one that cannot look into the depth of the mystery, let us also go astray, sharing their unlearning and refusing to go the straight way of the truth. But we know that the most holy Paul hath written that we ought to throw down reasonings and every height which reareth itself against the knowledge of God and to reduce captive every thought unto the obedience of Christ.
But now, can you tell whereat they are offended and in Jewish wise stumble at the stone of offence?
B. I can, for how should I not? they are very many, but they shall be told one by one.
They say therefore that Christ has been sanctified by the Father: for it has been written, And John witnessed saying, I have seen the Spirit descending out of heaven and It abode on Him and I did not know Him but He who sent me to baptize in water, He said to me, Upon Whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and abiding upon Him, This is He Who baptizes with the Holy Ghost; and I have seen and have witnessed that this is the Son of God: Paul too hath written of Him, For He Who sanctifieth and the sanctified are all out of One. For the Word being God and Holy by Nature will by no means be sanctified; it remains therefore to say that the man assumed by Him in the way of connection has been sanctified.
A. How then does He Who has been baptized and Who received the open Descent of the Spirit, baptize with the Holy Ghost and perform what belong to and beseem the Divine Nature alone? for He is the Bestower of holiness. And in proof of this the Incarnate Word breathed, as a bodily act, His own proper good, upon the holy Apostles saying, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, whosesoever sins ye remit they have been remitted, whosesoever ye retain they have been retained. And how has the divine Baptist, most clearly indicating Him Who has been sanctified, borne witness |286 that This is the Son of God, alone and with the article? For the initiator of the world should, if he knew that it was another son beside Him Who is truly Son, have signified the Truth, saying clearly, This is he who by connection with the Son Who is by Nature and in truth has been made son by gift and grace: but he said nothing of the kind but, knowing that He is One and the Same, both Word from forth of God the Father, and from forth the seed of David according to the flesh, says that He was sanctified, as man, and again sanctifies, in that He is conceived of as God: for He was (as I said) this and that in the Same. If therefore He have not been made man, if He have not been born after the flesh, from a woman, let us drive away from Him what belong to man: but if it is true that lowering Himself unto emptiness He hath been made as we, why do they part from Him the things through, which He will be conceived of as emptied, with utter ill-counsel undoing the fair scheme of the Economy with flesh?
B. If therefore He be said both, to have received glory and been made Lord and to be exalted by the Father, to be set King also, shall you attribute these too to God the Word and will you not full surely be damaging His glory?
A. That the Nature of God the Word has been filled with true glory, Royalty and Lordship, how can one doubt? and that He is firmly to be conceived of as being in heights the most God-befitting? but since He appeared as man to whom all things are a gift and imparted: therefore He, Full and giving to all from out His own fulness, in human wise receives, making our poverty His own: and in Christ was an unwonted and strange marvel, in servant's form Lordship, in human mean estate God-befitting glory, that which is under the yoke (as to the measure of manhood) crowned with the dignities of Royalty, and in Supremest Excellences that which is low. For the Only-Begotten hath been made man, not in order that He might remain in the |287 measure of the emptying, but in order that taking along therewith what is its. He might thus too be known to be God by Nature and might ennoble because of Himself the nature of man, rendering it participate of holy and Divine dignities. And we shall find the saints themselves too calling the Son even when He was made man, the glory of God the Father, and King and Lord. For Esaias somewhere says, As if a man gleaneth an olive-tree, thus shall they glean them, and when the vintage ceaseth, these shall shout with their voice, and they that are left in the earth shall rejoice together with the glory of the Lord, and again another of the saints says, Shine o Jerusalem for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee: lo darkness and gloom shall cover the earth hut upon thee shall the Lord appear and the glory of the Lord shall he seen on thee: and James His disciple says, Brethren, have not in respect of persons the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory, the Divine Peter again, If ye are reproached for Christ , ye are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God hath rested upon you.
B. Enough, good sir, of such testimonies: but tell us how we ought to understand what is written of Christ, Who in the days of His flesh having offered supplications and entreaties with mighty cry and tears to Him that is able to save Him from death and, heard for His fear, although Son, learned obedience from the things which He suffered and, perfected, became author to them that obey Him of salvation indissoluble; I will add to what I said, this too, My God, My God, why forsookest Thou Me? for they say that such things are incongruous to God the Word and I would say that they come very far short of His inherent Excellence.
A. I myself too know that these things would not befit the Word which is sprung forth of God the Father, if the mode of the Economy be put aside and if we do not admit |288 that He have been made flesh according to the Scriptures: but since we rest firmly on this, and the doubting one whit abont it involves a charge of impiety, come let us view closely, as far as we may, the depth of the economy.
The Word therefore from forth of God the Father appeared in likeness of us, to aid in countless ways our human condition and to shew full well the path that leads us to everything that is admirable. It was then necessary that we should learn, when temptation attacks them who are in peril for the love of God, what sort of people they ought to be who have chosen to live a life and conversation noble and excellent; whether they should be seen by their Saviour remiss and falling back into negligence and out of due season revelling and spreading themselves out for delight: or intent unto prayer and bathed in tears and thirsting for aid from Him and for manliness, if He should be pleased that we should also suffer. It needed besides what we should know to our profit, whither the goal of obedience ends and through what prizes it goes, what and how great the reward of endurance. Christ therefore became a pattern of such things, and hereto the divine Peter confirms us saying, For what renown if sinning and buffeted ye endure? but if well-doing ye endure, this is thank from God, because Christ too died for us, leaving us an ensample that ye should follow His steps. Hence the Word of God no longer bare and imparticipate in the measures of the emptying but in the days of His flesh has been made a pattern to us; in that then without any blame He could use the measures of the human nature and prolong His prayer and shed the tear and seem now both to need a Saviour and |289 to learn obedience, albeit Son. For the Spirit-clad was as it were astonished at the Mystery, that being by Nature and truly Son and Eminent in the glories of the Godhead He let Himself down unto low estate, so as to undergo the meanness of our human poverty. Yet was the pattern (as I said) comely and helpful, so as one might learn hence, and that full easily, that we ought not to hasten another road, when the season calls us to manliness. And indeed Christ said at one time, And fear not them that slay the body but cannot slay the soul, but rather fear Him Who can destroy both soul and body in Hell, at another again, If any man will come after Me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. The duty of following Him, what else is it than that we must be all-manly against temptations, and with that, ask the aid that is from above not negligently nor remissly but using rather intensest prayers and letting fall from our eyes the tear of godly fear?
B. You say well.
A. If moreover He say, My God My God why forsookest Thou Me, how will they understand it?
B. They would deem, as I suppose, that these are the words of the man who is assumed.
A. Of one who has broken down and who considers the |290 onslaught of the trial as not to be borne, as intolerable, or how?
B. Of one who is distraught (as appears) out of human faint-heartedness: since to the disciples too He said, Exceeding sorrowful is My Soul unto death, and fell down before the Father Himself saying, Father, if it be possible, let this Cup pass from Me, yet not as I will but as THOU.
A. And verily this is nothing else than what we said just now, Who in the days of His flesh having offered both supplications and entreaties to Him Who could save Him from death with a mighty cry and tears. If any think that Christ had come down to this point of faint-heartedness and that He was sorrowful and very heavy, holding it intolerable to suffer, overcome with fear and mastered by weakness, he clearly accuses Him of not being God, and shews that to no purpose, as it seems, did He rebuke Peter.
B. How do you say?
A. For Christ said, See we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of man will be betrayed into the hands of sinners, and they shall mock Him and crucify Him, and the third day He shall rise. He being pious, says, [ God be ] propitious to Thee, Lord, this shall not be to Thee. And what said Christ to him? Get thee behind Me satan, thou art an offence to Me, because thou dost not think the things of God but the things of men. And yet how did the disciple miss of what is fitting, in wanting the trial to be taken away from his Master, if it were insufferable to Him and by no means tolerable but rather lowering unto impotence and apt to shiver in pieces Him Who charged His disciples to be stout against the fear of death and to count suffering nothing, so that the good-pleasure of God should be accomplished by them?
And I wonder that they, saying that he has been connected with the Only-Begotten, and declaring him partaker of the Divine dignities, subject him to the fear of death, that so he may be seen to be bare man as we are and to have gained nothing from the Divine Dignities. |291
B. What then is the plan of the Economy herein?
A. Clearly mystical and deep and to be marvelled at by them who know aright the mystery of Christ. For view I pray, the words which beseem the emptying and are not incongruous to the measures of the manhood, how they were uttered in due and needful season, that He Who is over all creation might be seen to have been made in every respect as we. Hereto will follow again this also.
B. What?