On the True Faith, addressed to the Queens

^A and who, as you lay hold upon the kingdom in Christ, are zealous both to think and to do what is pleasing to Him: this, as I have said, by shining forth in deeds and in blameless faith, and by adorning your own and the royal courts with the glory of virginity; and that, by raising up most sumptuous temples to Christ. For this zeal for piety, among other things, along with the rest, has been granted by Him to your holy souls.

II. Therefore, to draw something also from the holy Scriptures: ^B "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. Let your forbearance be known to all men" (Phil. IV, 4). Indeed, this has long since been spread abroad and noised about among all men of every city and land, and just like a painting upon a tablet, it has clearly shone forth the beauty of piety toward Christ, and has been deemed worthy of all admiration. I deemed that I would be doing something worthwhile if I were to offer to you, truly holy spouses of Christ (though you may seem abundantly instructed for every good work), this little book, recently composed by me, as a kind of spiritual gift—for it will bring, I think, no small fruit of profit to those who read it. For it will bring back to the right path and will well instruct in the mysteries those who have unlearned how to think rightly, or rather, who have been persuaded otherwise regarding Christ the Savior of all; while those who walk with a right mind and who dwell in the doctrines of the truth, it will render more secure through various inventions of arguments and opinions, and through demonstrations from the divinely inspired Scriptures. For they shall learn that Emmanuel is truly and by nature God, and that the Virgin who bore Him is, for His sake, truly Theotokos. For if any, fearful of saying and thinking this, have not understood, as is likely, the deep mystery of piety, I consider it necessary that I should say in few words what the apostolic and evangelical tradition is, which has been established in Christ the Lord of all, and what the scope of all divine Scripture is concerning Him, and to what point the power of the doctrines of the truth looks.

III. ^D We believe, therefore, in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, His Son, begotten naturally of Him before all ages and time. For as regards time, He is equally without beginning and coeternal with Him who begat Him; and He is of the same power and glory with Him, and in sum, equal to Him in all things. For He is the character and radiance of His substance (Hebr. I, 3). We believe likewise also in the Holy Spirit, not counting Him as alien to the divine nature; for He is from the Father by...

^A the Son, flowing into creation. For thus the holy and adorable Trinity is understood to be one and consubstantial, and in identity of glory.

We affirm, moreover, that the Only-Begotten Word Himself, who was unspeakably begotten from the essence of God the Father, the Creator of the ages, through whom are all things and in whom all things consist, the true Light, and the nature that gives life to all things (for He is manifest as Life, as proceeding from the Life of the Father), in the final periods of the age, by the good pleasure of the Father, so that He might save the race on earth that had fallen into the curse, and through sin had been brought down to death and corruption, took hold of the seed of Abraham, according to the Scriptures, and has partaken of blood and flesh, that is to say, He became man. And having taken flesh, and having made it His own, He was born carnally through the holy and Theotokos Mary.

^B IV. But although He became as we are, and dispensed by taking the form of a servant, He remained in the divinity and lordship that belongs to Him by nature. For He has not ceased to be God, even if He has become flesh, that is to say, both like us and man. And since He is immutable by nature, as God, remaining what He always was, is, and shall be, He has been named Son of Man.

V. And since He willingly descended into the measures of humanity (for He emptied Himself), He necessarily also submitted to birth from a woman, not that His divine nature received a beginning of existence ^C when He is said to have been born according to the flesh; but, as I said, the Word was and is naturally and truly from God the Father. But because He who was born from the holy Virgin is not understood as a man simply like us, but as the Word of God Himself incarnate, who made the body taken from her His own, for this reason He is said to have been born carnally, as He appropriates to Himself the birth of His own flesh.

VI. But those who ignorantly say that the holy Virgin is not the Theotokos are necessarily driven into saying there are two Sons of God. For if the holy Virgin did not give birth carnally to God who became flesh, there is every necessity—even if they are unwilling—for them to confess that she gave birth to a common man, having nothing more than we do. ^D Then how shall every knee bend to Him, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father? How do the angels, and the holy multitude of the powers above, adore Him? Does, then, the whole of heaven worship a common man with us? God forbid; for we worship Emmanuel as the true God. He will not be otherwise adorable if we do not believe that He—the Word from God, who is worshipped by all creation—became flesh according to the Scriptures; not changed into flesh, but from the holy Virgin...

^A taking flesh, as I have said, and having undergone a human birth with us; so that, having become man for our sake, He might die as a man, but rise again as God, having trampled down the power of death. For thus it was possible for us also, having conquered in Christ, to master sin, to cast off corruption, and to escape death, and so to say from the joy that is in Christ: "O death, where is your victory? O grave, where is your sting?" For just as we have fallen in Adam, so have we conquered in Christ.

VII. But if Emmanuel were a common man, how could the death of a man have brought aid to human nature? For many holy prophets died before Him—that renowned Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses, and Samuel, and the holy men who succeeded them—yet the death of those men brought nothing at all to the human race; but the death of Christ has afforded salvation. For He offered on our behalf His own flesh, and by giving it to death for our sake, He delivered all men from the bonds of death. For it sufficed that the One who was more worthy than all should die for all, because He is by nature the Word from the Father, and the body which He offered for us as a sweet-smelling savor to God and the Father was His own. ^B It is therefore impious, and among the most extreme absurdities, to divide the one Lord Jesus Christ into two sons, especially when the wisest Paul clearly protests against this opinion. For he says: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism." For if there is but one Lord, then—seeing that some rend the one Lord into two sons—to which of them shall we attribute the glory of lordship? To the Word born of the Father? For to Him, since He is in reality the Lord of all, both the name and the reality of lordship befit in the highest degree, and He is truly the Master of all. Where, then, shall we place the other? For he will be found to be outside of being Lord, giving way to the One who pre-exists and is incomparably exalted. But shall we attribute the glory of lordship to the one born of a woman, as those who separate them say? But then how will the Word from God the Father be Lord, if, while there is but one Lord according to the Scriptures, we bestow the name of lordship upon a mere man? ^C And how, then, is there one faith? Or how is the baptism one? For if there are two sons, as some suppose, in which of them do we believe? It would be the task of their own ignorance to say into whose name we have even been baptized, although the baptism is one.

VIII. Your prudence clearly understands that this insane doctrine inclines toward a great absurdity, or rather, that it is being hurried headlong into the most extreme impiety. I believe, therefore, that you...

^A probe the mystery of Christ with greater accuracy, and discern with the keen eye of your mind those who contrive this imposture, and who, while putting on their discourse the mask of piety, strike meanwhile with more venom than any dart. For if one may speak openly of what the matter truly is, they deny the Lord who redeemed them, that is, Christ. Nevertheless, fearing the offense taken by the pious at this, and also their zeal, which is worthy of emulation, they profess that He who was born of the holy Virgin is both God and Lord and Son of God. And if any of the simpler folk should chance to hear their words, they would surely think, as is probable, that they speak rightly and fitly, and in no way discordant with the dogmas of truth. But if anyone should choose to examine them more rigorously, and to subject what is said to a precise testing, he will find nothing simple there. For there are many gods and many lords, both in heaven and on earth, as the blessed Paul writes to us: ^B "But to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him." But when we name Jesus Christ, the Word from God the Father who has appeared in human form, we signify that He does not possess this dignity as a gift bestowed from above or added externally, but that He is in truth what He is believed to be. For being God by nature even without flesh, He remained God also after the flesh; and being Son by nature even before the flesh, He remained Son also when the flesh had come to be; and being truly the Lord of all, He is seen again in such glory ^C even when He has come to be in humanity. Therefore, if they say that He who was born of the holy Virgin—that is, the Word from God the Father, united by nature to flesh—is true God, why do they fear to confess that the holy Virgin is Theotokos? But their goal is to feign and to say that He is indeed God and Lord, and that He sits with the Father. Yet they do not think this according to the truth; rather, they say that it is as a matter of grace, and that it was bestowed by way of progress upon the common man like us who was born of the holy Virgin, both the glory of the sonship and of the lordship.

IX. That the term Theotokos was also familiar ^D to the holy Fathers before us, who are admired for their correct faith, and to all who have followed them down to this day throughout the whole world, I have thought it necessary to affirm. For in order that I may not seem to be saying whatever comes into my mind simply and without examination, I shall endeavor to confirm the truth of my discourse by bringing forward arguments from the books which they composed for the utility of the Church, and by setting them forth as proof. Therefore, the thrice-blessed and

^A most famous Athanasius, who held the bishopric of the Church of Alexandria in former times, discourses in his book on Christ incarnate in these terms:

Of bishop Athanasius of Alexandria, from the book On the Incarnation of the Word. — On Christ.

We acknowledge him, he says, to be the Son of God and God according to the Spirit, and the Son of man according to the flesh, not two natures in one Son, one to be worshipped and the other not to be worshipped; but the one nature of the Word of God incarnate, which is worshipped together with his flesh in one act of worship. Nor do we acknowledge two sons, one a true Son of God who is worshipped, and another a man from Mary who is not worshipped—as if he were adopted as a son of God by grace, just like other men—but rather, as I have said, the one Son of God who is from God, who is himself God and no other. And he was born from Mary according to the flesh in the last days, just as when the angel was speaking to the Theotokos Mary: "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" He explained to her, for he said: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; therefore also that which is born of thee shall be called holy, the Son of God." ^B He, therefore, whom the Virgin brought forth is the true and natural Son of God, and God indeed, not by participation or by grace; he is man only according to the flesh which he took from Mary, but according to the Spirit he is himself the Son of God and God. He indeed suffered the trials appropriate to human nature according to the flesh, as it is written: "Christ having suffered for us in the flesh." Again: "He who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all." Nevertheless, according to his divine nature he remained impassible and immutable, according to that which was spoken by the prophet: "I am God, and I do not change." He died indeed according to the flesh, undergoing our death for the sake of our sins, so that he might abolish death through the death he took upon himself for our sake. Hence the Apostle says: "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O grave, where is thy sting?" Again: "Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures." ^C But according to his divinity, he remained immortal and beyond the reach of death, as the impassible power of the Father, according to the saying of Peter: for it was not possible that he should be held by death. Then, having interposed other things, he adds the following: If, however, anyone should teach anything contrary to these things from the divine Scriptures, asserting that the Son of God is one person, and he who is from Mary is another, adopted by grace like us, so that there are two sons—one a Son of God by nature who is from God, and another, the man from Mary, who is a son by grace—or if anyone says that the flesh of our Lord is from above and not from the Virgin Mary, or that the divinity was turned into flesh, or commingled, or changed, or that the divinity of the Lord is passible, or that the flesh of our Lord is not to be worshipped as being that of a man and not to be worshipped as ^D of the Lord...

the holy and catholic Church anathematizes him, obeying the divine Apostle who says: "If anyone preaches a gospel to you other than that which you have received, let him be anathema." ^A So far the blessed Athanasius.

X. I think it necessary also to set forth the voices of other holy bishops, which have the same purpose and which by no means should be omitted here.

Of Atticus, Bishop.

Today Christ the Lord accepted a birth of kindness toward men; for He pre-existed the birth of divine dignity. He adds to these again: "The Word of kindness, though not capable of emptying Himself by His own nature, is emptied; for He emptied Himself, having taken the form of a servant. He who is without flesh is embodied, 'and the Word became flesh.' He who does not fall under the touch because of the incorporeal nature of His divinity, becomes palpable. He who knew no beginning comes under a bodily beginning. The perfect one increases; the immutable one makes progress; the rich one is born in an inn. He ^B who covers the heaven with clouds is swaddled in bands; the King is laid in a manger."

Of Antiochus, Bishop.

He whom yesterday, for our salvation, the bearer of life, the bearer of beauty, the mother of magnificence and light, the bringer of hope, the Theotokos, who in a new way brought forth a child, the Virgin and Mother Mary, brought forth through an immaculate birth.

Of Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, from the book On the Birth of the Lord according to the flesh.

Truth is known, grace has come, and life has appeared. The Son of God, who is the Word of God, became flesh for us, that He might indeed call mortals from death to eternal life. The Creator of all things, who before every creature, both visible and invisible, co-existed as immortal with the Father alone and the Holy Spirit, behold, He is born today for us from a Virgin, without any sin, without the labor of a man or husband.

Of Ammon, Bishop of Adrianople.

For he himself also speaks somewhere concerning the Word of God:

"If He who is God by nature, being the only-begotten Son of God, having become in the assumption of the form of a servant, and having deigned to be called the firstborn Son of the holy Virgin, gave Himself as a ransom for all." He adds besides: "It is clearly evident into what impiety the Arians fall, who assert that the Theotokos Mary had need of those sacrifices which, according to the law, it was the custom to offer for women who had given birth." ^D

Of John Bishop of Constantinople, Concerning the Divine Generation.

Of Severian the Bishop.

Of Vitalius the Bishop, from the Discourse on the Faith.

Of Theophilus the Bishop, from the address to those who hold the views of Origen.

XI. It shall not be difficult, therefore, to add many other clear testimonies of this kind to these; these, however, I pass over, since I am not ignorant that it is written: "Give an opportunity to a wise man, and wisdom will be added to him; teach a just man, and he will hasten to receive." ^C This one thing, however, I will not omit for the present: that all the most excellent and wisest Fathers who have existed before us, all call the holy Virgin the Theotokos, and maintain that the Word of God was united by nature to the flesh; and they say He was in the virginal womb and went forth from it according to the flesh, although He had His origin from the Father without beginning, before all ages and time.

Since it was likely that the mind, in the longer and consecutive sequences of verses, might have grown weary—or rather, wishing to see the most pure beauty of the dogmas concerning Christ as if in a brief and concentrated form—I have collected them, so to speak, as if they were the very hearts ^D of the thoughts taken from the God-inspired New Testament Scriptures, and have sent them to your God-fearing piety. In order that, as you run through these briefly and point by point, you may, in the first place, further adorn your own mind, and then be an aid to others, whomever it may seem good to you, for the recognition of the truth, and also be able to wreathe your heads with apostolic proclamations, just as with garlands. For the reward for this is very rich; for it is written, "He who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul."

from death, and will cover a multitude of sins." ^A

But in our search for conceptual conclusions—that is to say, when we say that Christ is therefore God, or that the Son and Lord Jesus Christ is one—we do not mean it in the way that they do: that Emmanuel is called God, or Son, or Lord merely by grace, or that he arrived at this peak of glory through progress and advancement, as if he were just one man from the crowd, like us, who had been sanctified. Rather, we mean that the Word, being God, emptied himself and descended into the form of a servant, yet remained no less true God and the Lord of all by nature, and the one, true, and proper Son. ^B And we, too, being conformed to him by his grace, ascend to the glory of adoption.

XII. But as for this name "Christ," some—I know not how—assert that it belongs to the Word of God the Father even separately and by himself—that is, as he is conceived in the mind apart from the flesh—but they then contend that it applies in the same way to him who was born of the holy Virgin, insofar as he is also considered to subsist separately by himself. Finally, they maintain that it is appropriate to both together, as if to one, by virtue of a "conjunction," as they phrase it, binding them into one person ^C (for they have no regard for that true and natural union, even though this path of the mystery lies open and is safe from all error); and this pretended confession of theirs is not sincere, but full of dark poison and deceit. For when Holy Scripture calls him Christ, it attributes everything divine simply to him (for it knows, it knows indeed, that the Word of God appeared in human form and became flesh). The goal and purpose, however, of those who hold opinions different from these is to persuade men that the one born of a woman is just one particular man who, through advancement, as I said, and through his own—that is, human—virtue, proved himself worthy to attain the honor of connection with the Word of God and to be chosen by a notable predestination.

XIII. For this reason, they assert that the name "Christ" belongs ^D also to the Word born of God the Father, considered as subsisting separately and by himself. But we have never learned to think or speak in this way; for we say that the Word first obtained the appellation of Jesus Christ when he became flesh; since he is called Christ because he was anointed by God the Father with the oil of gladness, that is, with the Holy Spirit. Moreover, that this anointing belongs to him by reason of the humanity he assumed, no one who thinks correctly would call into question; for if the Word of God is God, he would certainly not need anointing; for no one, surely, would say that he was anointed[...]

^A and sanctified by his own Spirit as if by some other person who is superior and excels him in nature. For without any gainsaying, the lesser is blessed by the better. Since, therefore, being sanctified and anointed is fitting for the measures of human nature, it is necessary that the Word of God was not bestowed with the name of Christ when he was still naked—that is, not yet incarnate—but only when, having become as we are, that is, man, he was anointed according to his humanity. Consequently, the name 'Christ' could in no way be applied to the Word born of God the Father, not yet having become as we are. But if he is called Christ anywhere, you should understand it as him having become man; and even if you hear 'Word,' do not forget the flesh united to him, now that the incarnation has been completed. ^B To suppose that this title applies to this part separately, and to that part again separately, is completely foolish, or rather, I should say, ungodly and profane either to think or to say. For there is one Lord Jesus Christ, and he is not divided, just as even the most wise Paul himself, who had Christ speaking the divine mystery within him, clearly teaches. But if you apply yourselves to the chapters that follow, you will find my discourse straight and polished toward the truth. I think it also good to declare beforehand this: just as the Word from God the Father is perfect in divinity, so also is he perfect in humanity, according to the principle of humanity; for he did not take a soul-less body, but rather one ^C endowed with a rational soul. May God, who is over all, and who distributes heavenly goods to those who love him, fill your holy souls with the gifts that come from him; so that, rising also to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, you may manifest your most admirable life as glorious and well-approved, O holy brides of Christ.

HEREIN ARE CONTAINED THE FOLLOWING.

That Christ is God, by the union ascending to the glory of the Word of God, and the assumed temple as well, from the apostolic writings. ^D From the catholic epistles, a selection to the same effect. From the gospels, a selection to the same effect. That Christ is life and life-giver, from the passages set forth by the apostle Paul, and you will find [others] in the apostolic writings. That faith is in Christ as in God, from the catholic and evangelical [writings]. That Christ is life and a propitiation, various selections. That the death of Christ is salvific for the world, selections from the apostolic and evangelical [writings].

That Christ is God, by reason of the union with God the Word ascending to his glory, and of the temple also that was assumed.

^AFrom the Epistle to the Romans. “Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the Gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. I, 1-4). Therefore, if the preaching concerning Christ is the Gospel of God, how is Christ not God? And if all the prophets without exception look toward Him as their goal, and the divine Scriptures proclaim that very one who arose from the seed of David to be the Son of God—even if, on account of the mystery of the incarnation, He is said to have been declared such according to the Spirit of holiness—how is He not truly the Son, being testified to by His resurrection from the dead? For He has not arisen as a common man like us, but as one superior to death, inasmuch as He is ^B both Life and God.

Regarding those who worship the creature in place of the Creator: “Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools” (Rom. I, 21-22). The same Paul writes elsewhere to those who were called from the Gentiles, that is, to us, in this way: “But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God” (Gal. IV, 9). Whom, I ask, have we known through faith, if not Christ Jesus Himself? Wherefore, if we have known Him as God, and honor Him as God with the reverence that is due, we have truly been illuminated; but if we exchange His glory, we too are deservedly caught in our own thoughts to have become futile. For if we believe in Him truly, we believe in Him as in God. Otherwise, it would have to be confessed in every way that we are still held in the snares of ancient error, as it were, believing in a ^C common man. But the matter is not so.

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting” (Rom. I, 28). If we acknowledge Christ as God, let us not reject the knowledge of Him by declaring Him to be a common man. But if, blinded by ignorance, we should dare to do this, we shall necessarily fall headlong, together with the others, into a debased mind.

“But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds” (Rom. II, 5). The blessed Paul teaches ^D here that it behooves all of us to be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive...

^A what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Another of the holy apostles also says: “There is one lawgiver and judge” (Jas. IV, 12). And David himself also sings: “For God is judge” (Ps. LXXIV, 7). Since, therefore, he calls the sentence which Christ shall render concerning everyone when sitting before the divine tribunal (for we shall stand before his tribunal, not as before a man like ourselves, but as before God, and Judge, and Lawgiver) the righteous judgment of God, how is Christ not God? “For through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, attested by the law and the prophets. And the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” (Rom. III, 20–22). He says that righteousness apart from law (to which he also claims witness has been borne by the holy prophets) is that which is through faith in Christ Jesus. Furthermore, how is he who justifies those who believe not God, since he is truly God? For he looks to this as the end of faith. And since the holy prophets bear witness to the faith in Christ, who would dare to say that he is not God because of his human nature, that is, because the Word became flesh?

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. III, 23). If the stain of sin makes us fall short of the glory of God, because he knows no sin—for it is written concerning Christ that he did not commit sin—while we fall short of his glory on this account because we fail, then the Word is God even after the flesh; for he did not commit sin.

“Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means; on the contrary, we uphold the law” (Rom. III, 31). The law given through Moses taught those from Israel to worship one God. For it says: “The Lord your God, the Lord is one” (Deut. VI, 4). And God himself also addressed them, saying: “You shall have no other gods beside me” (Exod. XX, 4). Did the faith in Christ, therefore, move those called through it to no longer worship the one God by nature? Do we overthrow the law, which brings us to the one true God? “By no means,” he says, “on the contrary, we uphold the law.” Therefore, we approach Christ as God, so that we may not be accused of violating the law, but may rather be praised, as those who uphold the law through faith.

Concerning Abraham he says: “In the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls the things that are not as though they were” (Rom. IV, 17). Since, therefore, the ability to give life to the dead would not befit any other than the one who is God by nature alone; and Christ gives life...

through his own flesh to those who have been corrupted, ^A and touches the dead, and raises them up—how is he not the true God, who has even given to others the power to raise the dead through his name?

“So, my brethren, you also were put to death through the law by the body of Christ, so that you might belong to another, who has been raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God” (Rom. VII, 4). We are put to death to the law, by ceasing from the worship according to it; but we become another’s, namely Christ’s, who was raised from the dead, by striving to follow after his evangelical decrees, so that we might bear fruit for God. The summary and head of the evangelical decrees is faith in him. And this is our fruit, offered as to God, to Christ. Therefore, he who rose from the dead is God, for the Word became flesh.

“Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. If Christ is in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom. VIII, 8-11). Behold, the Spirit of God is clearly said to be of Christ. But if he were a man, individually and ^B subsisting apart, having only the Word of God as an inhabitant within him, how is his Spirit called divine? Yet it is his own Spirit. Therefore he is God, and it is not otherwise. For the Word of God did not come to be in a man, but he became man truly, while remaining God. For thus would the Spirit of the Father be understood to be also the Spirit of Christ.

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption, by which we cry out, Abba, Father” (Rom. VIII, 14-15). The blessed Paul writes again in another place: “Because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Gal. IV, 6). If, therefore, through the Spirit of the Son we have gained the confidence to call God Father, as being enriched with the Spirit of the natural and true Son, how is Christ not God? ^C Not insofar as he is perceived by us as man alone, but insofar as the Word became flesh, and has participated like us in blood and flesh:

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Rom. VIII, 35). The law given through Moses declared among other things, and commanded earnestly: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deut. VI, 5; cf. Matth. XXII, 37). Therefore, since we owe the love which is most fitting to God, as

it is of that kind which, springing from the highest and supreme strength, reaches even to the soul and the blood, can anyone dare to say that Christ is not God? Nor is it credible that the judgment of the saints in any way strayed from the mark of truth.

“For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor strength, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. VIII, 38, 39). If nothing at all can separate us from the love of God, and this love is manifested by us in Christ Jesus, how is Christ not clearly God, if, in loving him, we love the God of all? And when I say Christ, I signify the Word of God who has become man. ^B

“For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ” (Rom. XIV, 10), he says; and we shall all be set before Christ. For he shall sit upon the throne of his glory, judging the world in righteousness. Since, therefore, David calls God the judge, it follows absolutely that Christ is God.

“But I have written more boldly to you, brethren, in part, as putting you in mind, because of the grace which is given me by God, that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ among the Gentiles, sanctifying the Gospel of God, that the oblation of the Gentiles may be made acceptable and sanctified in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. XV, 15, 16). Truly, those to whom the office of sacred ministry is entrusted minister to God alone, for priests do not stand before men. Since, therefore, the Apostle professes this grace to have been given to him by God, to be the minister of Jesus Christ and to administer the Gospel of Christ among the Gentiles, and—while announcing Christ—asserts plainly that he is preaching the Gospel of God to them, that they might be accepted as having been sanctified in the Spirit, who would dare to call the divinity of Christ into question? ^C

“I have therefore glory in Christ Jesus towards God. For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and work, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem round about, even unto Illyricum, I have replenished the Gospel of Christ” (Rom. XV, 17-19). Behold, while he boasts in Christ, he says that he glories in those things which are of God. That the power of the Spirit to perform signs and wonders through the holy apostles is a work greater than human strength, and that Christ is able to perform them, this it is not permitted to call into doubt. For just as each one of us works his own deeds by his own power, so also Christ, as one who makes use of the Spirit as his own power, performs miracles through the hands of the holy apostles. ^D

Moreover, how is He not God, whose own proper Spirit ^A is the Holy Spirit? "All the churches of Christ salute you," and in another place, writing to Timothy, he speaks thus: "That you may know how one ought to behave in the house of God." But if he knows them to be the churches of Christ, and has testified to them as such, Christ is therefore God. "And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly." Since peace is said to be of God (for Christ said somewhere to the holy apostles: "My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you"), then how is He who is the giver of peace, and who bestows it upon those who are worthy as His own proper good, not truly God?

From the First Epistle to the Corinthians.

"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the church of God." Observe here: addressing the Romans, he says, "All the churches of Christ salute you," but now writing to the Corinthians, he asserts it to be the church of God. "Now I say this, that each one of you says, 'I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ.' Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul?" If therefore Christ is not divided, all things are His, and all are His. And if ^B He Himself was crucified for our sake, and we were baptized in His name, clearly we owe ourselves to Him; and we are subject to Him, not as to a man like ourselves, but as unto God. To us, therefore, Christ is God. "For both the Jews seek a sign, and the Greeks seek wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews indeed a stumbling block, and to the Gentiles foolishness." Who, I pray, must not confess that the evangelical preaching invites all those scattered throughout the world to the true knowledge of God? But by what reasoning could this ever be ambiguous to anyone? Yet of what kind, I ask, do the sacred teachers preach Christ crucified? Are they preaching only a man like us, who suffered death on the cross, in such a way that the world now believes in a simple man? God forbid! For we have believed in a living and true God. Therefore, he knew Christ crucified to be God, and fearlessly announces to the world that he who believes in Him does not err.

"And I, when I came to you, brethren, came not with excellency of speech ^C or of wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God. For I did not judge myself to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." Behold, here he clearly explains that he is announcing the testimony of God to the world, yet he immediately joins Christ Jesus to it, and Him crucified. Therefore, Christ Jesus is God, who endured the punishment of the cross for our sake; whose testimony is also announced to the world by the holy apostles ^D

of the holy apostles, but as in the power of the Spirit. ^A “Howbeit we speak wisdom among the perfect; yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nought: but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, even the wisdom that hath been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds unto our glory: which none of the rulers of this world have known: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” If the mystery of Christ is the wisdom of God, and then it is preached to the world, and yet—as some, I know not how, are persuaded—it is not truly God, and faith is placed in Him: how is the mystery wise, if it leads those on earth away from the true knowledge of God, and effects the worship of a man throughout the world? But this is not true. Rather, the mystery is wise because it leads wandering souls to God; therefore, Christ is God. And it is rightly said that the One who was crucified is the Lord of glory. ^B “According to the grace of God which was given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” If we are supported by Christ as it were by a foundation, and are being built upon Him through faith, and He Himself is the safety of all, how could He not be truly God, in whom all things consist, and in whom lies the faith of all—not as in one of those who are like us, seeing that we have not worshipped a creature, but Him who is God by nature and in truth? ^C “Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” If, by receiving the Spirit of Christ, we are made a temple of God, how is He not to be deemed true God, through whom we are made temples of God? ^D “Wherefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts. And then shall each man have his praise from God.” We look forward to our Lord Jesus Christ’s descending from heaven at the appointed time, before whom we shall all stand when He judges the hidden things and makes manifest the counsels of hearts. And that He will also praise the righteous, we have been fully assured. For to those standing at His right hand He will say: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Since, therefore, he declares that when Christ gives praise, praise will be given to each man from God, how is it not manifest that He is God?

^A “Or do you not know that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify and carry God in your body.” If, having received the Spirit of Christ, we have become temples of God and are not our own, having been bought with His blood, so that we no longer live for ourselves but for Him who bought us, how is it not manifest that Christ is truly God, through whom we are made temples of God, and whom we serve even as God?

“Now concerning food offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God except one. For even if there are those who are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God the Father, from whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him.” If there is only one God, and there is no other besides Him, and yet that one Jesus Christ, through whom all things exist, is included in the one nature of the Godhead, then Christ must indeed be God, being understood ^B divinely in the consubstantiality of the Father, even when He is named Jesus Christ, having been made of a woman. It is necessary to observe that by naming Christ Jesus, he says that all things were made through Him, as being one Son according to the economy of union.

“I became,” he says, “to those who were without law as one without law, not being without law to God, but within the law of Christ.” If he who has the law of Christ has the law of God, how is Christ not God?

“Be without offense to Jews and to Greeks, and to the Church of God.” Note here again that by calling the Church God’s, he knows it likewise to be Christ’s.

“But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, ^C and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.” ^D When the blessed Luke wove the genealogy of Christ, he began from Joseph, then, reaching up to Adam, he adds by saying, “Who was of God,” assigning God the creator as the principle for man. In the same way, we define Christ as the head of every man; for through Him he was created and brought forth to birth—not that the Son of God existed as an instrument or minister of that creation, but that, as the natural Artificer of all things, He produced him by divine power. The head of the woman, however, is the man, since she was taken from his flesh and has him as a sort of beginning for herself. Likewise, the head of Christ is God, since He is from Him according to nature; for the Word has been begotten of God and the Father. Then how is Christ not God?

But when I call Him Christ, I understand the Word of God the Father, who has appeared in human nature. ^A

"Therefore I make known to you, that no one speaking in the Spirit of God says 'anathema' to Jesus; and no one can say 'Lord Jesus' except in the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of ministrations, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of operations, but the same God who works all things in all." Truly, if saying that Christ is not God by nature and in truth is nothing else than saying 'anathema' to Jesus—those who exclude Him from being in truth Jesus are not doing this in the Holy Spirit. And if, in speaking of the varieties of gifts, the Apostle says that at one time the Spirit works, at another the Lord Himself, and at another the same God, he therefore acknowledges that Christ is God, ^B who works as God through the Spirit, and who, as Lord by nature, distributes with authority the gifts from above as He wills. It is necessary to remember that Paul also spoke of Christ as having worked effectively in the power of the Holy Spirit:

"And those whom God has set in the Church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings." When God is said to accomplish these things, it is Christ who works them; for it was He who Himself set the apostles in the Church, and indeed the teachers as well, ^C and who granted the power to work miracles; for He gave the authority to the holy disciples to cure every disease and every infirmity among the people.

"The greeting in my hand, Paul's. If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be anathema, maranatha." Who, I ask, does He call Lord in this passage? For it is acknowledged that both the Son Himself and the Spirit are called Lord and are Lord; for it is written: "The Spirit is Lord." But the intention of the blessed Paul in these words was directed toward Jesus Himself; for he says: "There is one Lord, Jesus Christ." Therefore, he strikes with anathema every person who does not love Him. But he who does not love Him is he who does not recognize Him to be the Son of God by nature and in truth, but puts Him in a second rank ^D after the Word born of God, and does wrong to the mystery of the Economy by dividing into two the one Lord and Jesus, and affecting the mystery of the Economy with atrocious injury.

From the Second Epistle to the Corinthians

"But thanks be to God, who always triumphs over us in Christ Jesus, and manifests the odor of His knowledge"

^A through us in every place: for we are the sweet odor of Christ to God, among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing." If, then, Christ is the odor of the knowledge of the Father, how is He not God? For one would not learn the odor of the divine nature in human nature; but just as the odor of humanity indicates, in some way, a human being, so also does the odor of the divinity indicate God. And if Christ is said to be the sweet odor of the Father, and truly is, how is Christ not God, even if the Word who is from God the Father has become man by dispensation?

"You are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read by all men: being manifest that you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tables of stone, but on tables of hearts of flesh ^B." God speaks somewhere through one of the holy prophets: "In those days, says the Lord, I will give my laws into their mind, and on their hearts I will write them." We have therefore become an epistle of Christ, who writes to us not what seems good to Him in ink, but in the Spirit of the living God; not so much ministerially, but, if we might say so, efficiently; for the Spirit is His own. How, then, is He not God, who writes the way of the knowledge of God for us in His own Spirit? Concerning the Jews, he adds:

"But their minds were hardened. For until this very day the same veil remains in the reading of the ^C Old Testament, not being unveiled, because it is abolished in Christ; but until this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies upon their heart. But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." If Christ is the end of the law and the prophets, and the veil that adheres to the reading of the Old Testament is not taken away except through Christ alone, how will it be consistent with reason to imagine that He is a mere man, and honored only by the title of sonship? For in this opinion, it would follow that our faith would not be aimed at God as its end, but at one of those like ourselves; than which what could be thought of as more absurd?

"But if our Gospel also is veiled, it is veiled in those who are perishing, in whom the God of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that the illumination of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine upon them ^D." If, as some think, Christ is a common man, having communion with the Word of God only by a union of persons (for this is how they speak), how is the Gospel of God hidden in those who are perishing? For the nations do not have a veil over them because He is God, but because He is a man like us.

How have those who speak about Him only as a man been blinded by Satan? And what illumination is there in the Gospel of Christ, if He is not God, and is not glorified as God? Finally, how can He be the image of God, if He reaches only to those things which are of human nature, and does not possess in reality the fact that He is Son and God? ^A For this reason, we also make it our ambition, whether at home or away, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may render account through the body for what he has done, whether good or evil [II Cor. v, 9]. If the holy men are all intent upon this, to please God, and we, having rejected the favor of mortals, strive earnestly to approve ourselves to Christ in this way, how is it not manifest that Christ is God? Again, if He is the one who is to judge the world (for the lawgiver and judge is not one and another, but one and the same [Jas. iv, 12]), it is evident that for this reason also He is God, even if the Word has become flesh. ^B

For the love of Christ urges us, calculating this, that if one died for all, then all died. And He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for their sake and was raised.

So we are ambassadors for Christ, as God were entreating you through us; we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

"But in everything commending ourselves as God's ministers."

"For we are the temples of the living God, as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

"Destroying arguments, and every height lifting itself up against the knowledge of God, and taking captive every thought into the obedience of Christ."

The Word indeed emptied Himself voluntarily, and became obedient to the Father even unto death ^A. When, therefore, from those things which are said or done by way of dispensation on account of the flesh and the weakness of human nature, some lift themselves up against the knowledge of the Son, saying that He who took upon Himself the human form is not the true God and the Son by nature, then at last we shall crush every height lifting itself up, overturning the opinions of those who have chosen to think such things, and bringing over every thought to the dispensation of obedience. For it behoves the Son, having appeared in the measure and state of human nature, not to shrink from those things which are proper to human nature.

From the Epistle to the Galatians.

"For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God; I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me ^B." It is necessary to observe diligently what the divine Paul says in this place. The law which God had proclaimed through the mouth of the prophets was of this kind: "But the righteous shall live by faith." A law was also given through Moses. Therefore, he says, having embraced the law of faith, I died to the law given through Moses, no longer acting in accordance with those things which were prescribed to the ancients in shadows and figures. For this is what it means to die to the law given through Moses, that we may live to God, adhering to the faith that is in Christ. When, therefore, we die to the law given through Moses, ^C preferring the justification which has come through Christ, how shall Christ, through whom the law is rendered void as being weaker than faith, not be God? But if Christ were merely a man, how could faith in Him have turned out to be superior to the law itself?

"Does He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, do so by works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" If the law of Moses, although it was the law of God and was proclaimed through angels, does not provide the Holy Spirit, nor did it impart to anyone the power to work miracles, while through the faith which is in Christ we attain both: how is faith not superior to the ancient law? Again, if Christ were a man in no respect unlike us, how could it come to pass that faith in Him abolished the divine law? ^D If, likewise, through faith we enjoy greater blessings than those who lived during the time when the law still held its power, how is Christ not God?

"But before faith came, we were kept under law..."

shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." ^A If the law was a schoolmaster, directing us to no one else but Christ alone, although it was a teacher of the knowledge of God, how is Christ not God? And if the law is abolished through the faith that is in him, and if faith sets it free from the duty of schoolmastering, as it has brought those who were being schooled to the ultimate good, and the ultimate good is nothing other than the knowledge and understanding of the truth and divinity; who then could doubt that Christ is God? Moreover, if we are baptized into the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, how are we said to be baptized into Christ if Christ is not the true Son, when there is only one who is Son by nature? But we truly have been baptized into him; therefore, he is God, as the one Son and one Lord, for by the dispensation of union, the Word has become flesh.

"But then, indeed, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements?" If we have known God by confessing Christ, and we say that we have been known by God ^B because we have been known by him, how is Christ not God?

"But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." The blessed David sings, "I will make my boast in God my Saviour." Truly this is a wise and holy word; for it is not right for us to glory in man, but in God. How, then, does Paul say he glories in the cross of Christ? For he ought rather to have done this in God; for this was the aim of the other saints. But being filled with the Spirit, he says he glories in the death of Christ. He knew, therefore, that he was the true God, even if he did suffer death in the flesh for our sake.

From the Epistle to the Ephesians.

Regarding God and the Father, he says: "According to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all Principality, and Power, and Might, and Dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come." ^D Behold, the Father has set him who was raised from the dead at his own right hand, far above all Principality, and Power, and Might, and every name that is named. Does, therefore, a man—conceived of as being like us and nothing more—sit with the nature that is above all? Or is it not the truth, that as God he became man, and while existing [...]

^A consubstantial to the Father, as he has shone forth from him, he took on human nature by way of dispensation, so that in one and the same person he might be understood to be both God and man, and for this reason, crowned with divine glory?

"Wherefore remember, that you once were Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by what is called circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants, having no hope of the promise, and without God in the world." If the Gentiles, not having Christ, remained in godlessness according to this world, yet after they began to possess him, they were no longer without God: how then is Christ not God? ^B "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father [of our Lord Jesus Christ], of whom every family in heaven and on earth is named: that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." The name Christ Jesus (as we have very often warned before) everywhere signifies the Word of God the Father clothed in human form. If, therefore, Christ (after the Word, who also himself dwells in us as God through the Spirit, had once assumed flesh) is not God: how is he said to dwell in our hearts by faith? Again, if Christ is a common man, and a son distinct from him who is Son by nature ^C and who alone is born of God: who, I ask, is he who dwells in us? Or how does he dwell in men by faith? Seeing that John says of him clearly: "In this we know that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit."

From the Epistle to the Philippians.

He speaks concerning the boastings in the Law: "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ." What, I pray, is the excellent knowledge of Christ Jesus? Why did he consider all things that belong to the Law as in the place of loss and refuse? Moreover, ^D the Mosaic Law preached the true and natural God to those ancient people, while the teachers of the new Law now announce Jesus Christ to men. Indeed, if he were only a common man similar to us, and not joined by hypostatic union to the Word who proceeds from God, and therefore not believed to be God: I do not see by what reason faith in him excels the faith which is of the Law.

From the Epistle to the Colossians.

"I rejoice now," he says, "in my sufferings for

you, and I fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for his body, which is the Church; whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given me towards you, that I may fulfill the word of God: the mystery which hath been hidden from ages and generations, but now is manifested to his saints, to whom God would make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory; whom we preach." ^A How is the mystery hidden, or how is he entirely the Word of God, and what are the riches of the glory that reside in him, if Christ is merely a common man like us? For the mystery here is not great, nor is it of any significant weight, unless we approach Christ as God, and understand that, being God the Word, and in the form and equality of the Father, he humbled himself unto emptying, becoming man, while remaining what he was. For in this way the mystery is understood to be rich and of great glory.

"As therefore you have received Jesus Christ the Lord, walk ye in him; rooted and built up in him, and confirmed in the faith." How we have received Christ, the wise John will teach us, saying: "And the Word was made flesh." But he has not ceased to be the Word, even if he has become flesh; for he sits with his Father even thus, and he who suffered the punishment of the cross is called the Lord of glory. ^B

"Be instant in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving: praying withal for us also, that God may open unto us a door of speech, to speak the mystery of Christ (for which also I am bound), that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak." If Christ were not God, but a man honored by the gift of divine grace, the mystery concerning him would not have anything deep in it. What door, then, would be needed to manifest it and to speak as one ought? For it is neither a great nor a difficult thing to say of a man that he is a man by nature. But if the Word of God, having become man, is preached, there is surely need of God, who both opens the door and grants the ability to speak the mystery in the manner that is fitting. ^C

From the Epistle to the Hebrews.

"And when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith: And let all the angels of God adore him." The natural Word of God the Father is called only-begotten, insofar as he alone was begotten of the Father alone; but he obtained the name of first-begotten only then, when he became man, and a part of the world, ^D

^A and yet even in this way he is worshiped by the holy angels, since worship is due to God alone, and ought to be referred to him alone. Who then would doubt that Christ is God, so that he is worshiped even in heaven?

73 73 And to the angels, indeed, he says: *Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.* But to the Son: *Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. And: A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved justice, and hated iniquity: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.* If he who possesses a throne for ever and ever is the creator of the angels, and has loved justice—and hated iniquity, and for this reason is said to be anointed with the oil of gladness by God and Father—what then shall ^B we say when we come to ponder the thoughts concerning him? For if he makes his angels spirits, and has a throne of divinity, in what manner is he anointed with the oil of gladness? Therefore, he creates the angels as God, but he is anointed as man; the anointing is related, without a doubt, not to the nature of his divinity, but to the wise dispensation. Christ is, therefore, God and man: God indeed by nature, but man, like us, by dispensation, when in fact he was born of a woman according to the flesh.

[*] *See, brethren, lest perhaps there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, to depart from the living God.* If, by denying Christ, we fall away from the living and true God, but by persisting in the faith which is in him we are in no way held guilty of the crime of ^C apostasy, how is Christ not God?

[*] *For if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of a heifer being sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who by the Holy Ghost offered himself unspotted unto God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God?* If Christ is not true God, what profit, I ask, can his blood bring us? Or how can it cleanse our consciences from dead works? For what more merit or efficacy has the blood of a common man than the blood of goats? Nothing at all. For this is the only difference between the one and the other: the latter is of a brute animal, the former of one endowed with reason. But because the natural Son of God assumed flesh, and poured out his own blood for all, it came to pass that he has the power to cleanse ^D those who believe in him, and to free them from dead works, and to bring them to serve God.

74 74 *A man making void the law of Moses, dieth without any mercy under two or three witnesses: how much more do you think he deserveth worse punishments, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath deemed the blood of the testament.

^A polluted, wherein he was sanctified, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? If he who doth despite to the divine law, or trangresseth it, is not held liable to the same crime as one who hath sinned against a man, but to one far more grievous (seeing that he who violated the law was punished with death, whereas he who hath offended against a man may sometimes obtain pardon): how then is he deemed worthy of greater punishment who hath deemed the blood of Christ polluted, than he who hath committed sin against the Mosaic law? And yet he surely deserves the more grievous one, beyond all controversy. Why so? Because the blood of Christ is not the blood of an ordinary or common man. For the Word, who clothed Himself with flesh, is God.

"See that you refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake upon earth, much more shall we, who turn away from him that speaketh to us from heaven, whose voice then moved the earth; but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I will move not only the earth, but also heaven." Who, I ask, is he whom the elders of the Jews, by rejecting him when he spake on earth, brought upon themselves grave peril? Is it not clear that this was Moses? But Christ is not from the earth, but rather from heaven. For the God-Word, who is from above and from the Father, has become man and is God. More grievous, therefore, is the punishment for those who turn away from Him, and most justly so. For as the wise John says, "He that is of the earth ^B is of the earth, he speaketh of the earth," that is, of human things; "but he that cometh from above is above all," as God, clearly. And this was and is Christ.

"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and for ever." We shall find the Word who is born of God called Jesus Christ only at the time when He became man from a woman. How then is He the same yesterday, and today, and for ever? By the union, clearly, with the Word who is from God, the flesh assumed from Him being understood as one with the Son; for thus the immutability of the Word according to nature will remain again with Him, even being understood as with the flesh.

From the First Epistle to Timothy

"Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God ^C our Saviour, and Christ Jesus our hope, unto Timothy, my beloved child in the faith." The name of Saviour would belong more properly and truly to no other save the One who is God by nature; and thus even now the teacher of mysteries has named Him. But He is our Saviour and Lord, Jesus Christ; for He has been named Jesus, and the blessed angel, making clear the power, or interpretation, of this name, said: "And thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save ^D

his people from their sins." If, then, Christ is God, since He is the Savior of all men, as the inspired Paul says. ^A

From the Epistle to Titus.

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, instructing us that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live soberly, and justly, and godly in this present world; looking for the blessed hope and coming of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and might cleanse to himself a people acceptable, a pursuer of good works." What grace, I ask, or the grace of what God, appeared to us, which is preached in this place as salvation to all men? It is plain that it is of that God and Lord who, according to the blessed David, hath shined upon us, and whose glorious manifestation from heaven we expect. This great God himself is our Savior Jesus Christ, who offered Himself for us, that, having freed us from every sin, He might present us to Himself as genuine worshippers. Since, therefore, the blessed Paul proclaims our Savior Jesus Christ to be the great God, who would dare to deny that Emmanuel is the true God? ^B

FROM THE CATHOLICS.

From the Epistle of James.

That Christ is God.

"Do not err, my most beloved brethren: Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights." Every best gift, he says, is good; and a good gift is the Holy Spirit, and the ability to perform divine signs through Him. If, therefore, Christ bestows the Holy Spirit upon the saints, and indeed grants them the power to perform wondrous works, how would Christ not be the true God?

"Be ye therefore subject to God, but resist the devil, and he will fly from you." Behold, he clearly says in these words that it is our duty to be subject to God. But Christ says: "Take up my yoke upon you." Since, therefore, those who take Christ’s yoke upon themselves are subject to no one else but God, how would Christ not be God? ^C

From the first Epistle of Peter.

"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers dispersed through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, unto the sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: grace unto you and peace be multiplied." Behold, according to the foreknowledge of God the ^D

^A Father, he calls himself an apostle of Christ; and explaining to us the manner of the apostolate, he declares it to have been performed unto the sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Since, therefore, we who believe in him are sanctified by the Spirit, and he sprinkles us also with his blood for our purification; how should he not be considered God, who sanctifies with his own Spirit, and purifies those who believe in him with his own blood? For God was in the flesh.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven." If God has begotten us unto a living and abiding hope, and Christ has accomplished this through his own resurrection from the dead, how then should he not be God?

"Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify." ^B Behold, here again the Holy Spirit, who is God's, is said to be Christ's. He is therefore God, inasmuch as he possesses as his own the Holy Spirit.

*From the second Epistle of Peter.*

"But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them." For we have been bought at a price, not with corruptible silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. We are therefore his who bought us, even while serving the living and true God. Since, then, we assign the title of "Lord" to Christ, and know him to be the living and true Lord, why should we deny that he is God?

*From the first Epistle of John.*

"And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, ^C that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life." Jesus Christ, not naked and by himself and outside of flesh, is the Word from God the Father; but when he became man, then he was also named Jesus Christ. Since, therefore, he himself is the true God and eternal life, who could endure those who think otherwise?

*From the Epistle of Jude.*

"Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were of old ordained ^D to this condemnation."

turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Master and our Lord Jesus Christ. ^A In what manner can one of those who have once believed deny our Lord Jesus Christ? And yet, if we receive the doctrine of the incarnation, but say that the Word from God the Father is one Son, and that he who is from a woman is another, we are denying the only Master. For there is one Lord Jesus Christ, according to an economic union—the union, I say, towards the Word from God, whereby his flesh ascends to the glory of the Godhead. There is, then, one Christ and Son; for thus he will be the Master of all things.

From the Gospel according to Matthew.

That Christ is God.

^B "But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins." ^C He places here together two things which befit only the divine nature, and are not appropriate to the human nature. For he declares that those who are saved through him are the own people of him who was born of Mary; and furthermore, that he himself will deliver them from their sins. But all things belong to God, and it is proper to Him and to Him alone to be able to deliver those who have sinned. Therefore, He who was born of the holy Virgin is God, whose own people we are, and who has delivered us from the bonds of sins, as having the authority for this also.

"Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judæa." He was born in Bethlehem of Judæa, from the root of Jesse. And God and the Father says regarding him through one of the prophets: "And thou Bethlehem, house of Ephrata, art thou not the least to be among the thousands of Judah? Out of thee shall come forth unto me that he may be ruler in Israel; and his goings forth are from the beginning, from the days of eternity." ^D How then is he who was born in Bethlehem of Judæa said to have his goings forth from the beginning of eternity—that is, the beginning of his subsistence—although he was born in the last times of the age? Christ, then, is God, and the antiquity of the divine Word itself belongs to him. For he was God, having deigned for our sake to be born man from a woman.

"I indeed, he says, baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing-floor." It is in no wise a work of human nature to baptize in the Holy Spirit; nor, indeed, to cleanse the intellectual threshing-floor, that is to say, those who are upon the

^A earth, which we say belongs to man. For all things belong to God, and to Him alone it is fitting to be able to baptize those who believe in the Holy Spirit. Christ, indeed, who came in the flesh after John—that is to say, in the time of the flesh—accomplished this. He Himself also cleanses His own threshing-floor. Therefore, He is truly God.

« And, behold, a leper coming, worshipped Him, saying: Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean. And stretching forth His hand, He touched him, saying: I will, be thou made clean. And forth with his leprosy was cleansed. » To be able to work in a manner befitting God is not a property of man, but would rather be assigned ^B to the nature alone which is above all things. But Christ works in this way; therefore, He is not a mere man like us, but rather God in human form. You will understand this also in the case of Peter’s mother-in-law, even if He is seen rebuking the winds, and the sea, and the waters. Whence also the inspired disciples, seeing both the sea and the winds subject unto Him, marvelled, saying: « What manner of man is this? » For it was not of a mere man to be able to do such things. Therefore, Christ is at once God and man.

« And the demons, he says, besought Him, saying: If Thou cast us out, send us into the herd of swine. And He said to them: Go. » To provide for all things, and to save them, to whom, I pray, would this belong, save to Him alone who is God by nature? Thus also the Saviour said: « Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing, and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father who is in heaven? But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. » ^C Behold, therefore, what great providence Christ exercised over created things, so that it was not even permitted to the unclean demons to have power over a herd of swine. Being besought, therefore, He allowed them with difficulty, not that He was fulfilling their request, but so that He might persuade us to grasp that He provides for all things as God. How, then, is He not God, who has the power which is certain to fall only to God, and who exercises dominion over all things, and preserves as His own those things which were created through Him?

« Then He says to His disciples: The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He send forth labourers into His harvest. And having called together His twelve disciples, He gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of disease and all manner of sickness. » He knows that the God of all is the Lord of ^D the harvest; for the intellectual threshing-floor, that is to say, humanity, is His alone; and the harvest is His also. But behold, having commanded us to pray

^A that the Lord of the harvest send forth laborers, He immediately demonstrated Himself to be that very Lord, by sending forth the laborers, that is to say, the holy apostles, to whom He also gave power against unclean spirits as God. For it is not within the measures of human nature to give to others the operation of the Holy Spirit; but Christ has given it. How then is He not by nature and in truth God, even if the Word has become flesh?

• “Every one, therefore, who shall confess in me before men, I will also confess in him before my Father who is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.” • Many of the saints have been called to the glory of martyrdom and have been perfected through sufferings and death, having confessed Christ. [B] Were they crowned, then, by asserting and maintaining that He was a common man, or rather by honoring Him in their confessions as God? The matter is clear; for it is established that those who denied Him have fallen away from the glory of martyrdom, and will find Christ Himself denying them on the day of judgment. How, then, is He not to be deemed God, who crowns with the glory of martyrdom those who confess that He is truly this?

• “Come to me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you.” • If Emmanuel is not truly God, how does He impose His own yoke upon us, since all things are servants to God? The law, too, is called a yoke. But Christ imposes His own yoke upon us and renders us subject to Himself, even though He submits all things to the Father. He is, therefore, God; hence it is fitting that all things be subject to Him. [C]

• “Have you not read in the law, that on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are without blame? But I tell you that there is one here greater than the temple.” • If the priests who profane the Sabbath are without blame because they are occupied in divine worship, how is the service which is rendered to Christ regarded as more excellent than the ministry which the priests performed in the temple? But it is manifest that those who lived under the law served God in the shadow and figure of heavenly things. But those divine disciples, the followers of Christ, and they themselves ministering, attained to greater honor and glory. [D] If then the service that is rendered to Christ far excels the legal worship, how can it enter into the thought of any sober-minded person that Christ is not the true God?

• “If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges.” • If the disciples healed those vexed by demons in the name of Christ (for they used to call upon the name of Jesus of Nazareth), how is it possible to doubt His true divinity? For no human glory or power whatsoever would have been sufficient to overcome Satan.

"As the tares are gathered and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. The Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire." Concerning God ^A it is written: "Bless the Lord, all his angels." For no angel belongs to an angel, but all things are God's. Since, therefore, it is said of the Son of man that he will send his own angels—and he possesses those supreme spirits and angels as his own ministers—it is evident that he is God.

"Jesus questioned his disciples: 'Who do men say that I, the Son of man, am?' And they said, 'Some John the Baptist; others, Elijah; others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.' He says to them, 'But who do you say that I am?' And Peter answering, said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' And Jesus answering, said to him, 'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven.'" If Christ is merely a common or ordinary man, why was Peter declared admirable and praised for his confession? ^B Or how is it said that he was divinely taught? Or what need had he of illumination from above to grasp that mystery concerning Him? But because he recognized that He is God, and confessed Him to be the Son of the living God, for this reason he is considered admirable and distinguished. Yet he did not confess two sons, but only one. It is therefore impious to divide Christ into two sons. "For the Son of man is to come in the glory of his Father with his angels." Behold, again he calls the heavenly spirits his angels, even though he is spoken of as the Son of man.

And when ^C they had come to Capernaum, those who collected the didrachma came to Peter and said, "Does your teacher not pay the didrachma?" And he says, "Yes." And when he had entered into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, "What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their own sons, or from strangers?" And he said to him, "From strangers." Jesus said to him, "Then the sons are free." How does he speak of himself as free, and outside the law, and exempt from payment, and as the Son in truth, if he is not God, who has communicated with flesh and blood by union according to subsistence? Yet he paid the didrachma as one who had become subject to the law, though the Son is above the law. But as a human being, he is not considered to be above the law—for how could he be? Nor could he possess natural ^D freedom unless he is understood as God clothed in human form.

While Christ, the Savior of us all, was going up to Jerusalem, the children went before him, praising his deeds.

^A And saying: "Hosanna to the son of David." Now, such a doxology is entirely fitting for God. "But the Pharisees were indignant, and they approached, saying: 'Do you hear what they are saying?' And Jesus said to them: 'Yes. Have you never read that out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes you have perfected praise?'" It is necessary in these things to call to mind the blessed David saying: "O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is your name in all the earth! For your magnificence is elevated above the heavens. Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes you have perfected praise." For the children were saying, praising him: "Hosanna to the son of David." And he accepts the doxology as one being praised. But the blessed David did not assign this to some common man, but rather to the Lord, whose name is admirable in all the earth; for his magnificence was elevated above the heavens. Then, how is Christ—the Son of David according to the flesh—not God?

"When the Son of man shall come in his majesty, and all the angels with him, then he shall sit upon the seat of his majesty." ^B Does Christ sit before the judgment seat as some man like us, with all the angels standing around him, and will he judge the world? What, I ask, is there of reason in this? Is it not written: "There is one lawgiver and judge"? Therefore, Christ is God, who, being equal in glory with God, possessing a judicial throne, having the angels standing round about, will judge the world in justice.

"And the high priest," he says, "said to him: 'I adjure you by the living God, that you tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' Jesus says to him: 'You have said it; nevertheless I say to you, hereafter you shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven.'" How does the Son of man sit at the right hand of the Power? ^C But it is clear that even if the Word who is from God has become the Son of man, he does not cease to be God, but is what he was; for this reason he sits with the One who begat him, and is seen to be illustrious in the honors of divinity, even if he has become flesh.

"And Jesus, crying with a loud voice, yielded up the spirit. And behold the veil of the temple was torn in two parts, from the top even to the bottom; and the earth was shaken, and the rocks were torn, and the monuments were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had slept, arose." If Christ were a common man, why, when he was expiring, did such a disturbance occur among the elements themselves? For the sun, having withdrawn its rays, shed darkness over the day; the earth, seeing its own Lord most unworthily treated by the insults of the Jews, was torn apart; and finally, hades itself released the souls of the saints. ^D By whose will were these things done? Was it not by God’s? For he was God.

^A in the flesh, to whom the creation also, in a certain manner, shared in the indignation when he was treated with such contumely.

From the Gospel according to John. “But Jesus did not trust himself to them, because he knew all men, and because he needed no one to testify about man; for he himself knew what was in man.” It is written of God: “He who fashions the hearts of them individually.” And he himself somewhere says: “Shall anything be hidden from me?” If, therefore, Christ understands all things, and knows exactly all that is in man, as one who examines hearts and kidneys, how is he not God?

“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.” ^B Do you hear that he says salvation is from the Jews? And yet we have designated him as God the Savior; for not a legate, not an angel, but the Lord himself has saved us, according to the Scriptures. For he has been named Christ Jesus, having been born of the Jews according to the flesh. And Jesus, moreover, is interpreted as salvation. Therefore, he himself is the salvation that came from the Jews. So even if the Word became flesh and took hold of the seed of Abraham, he is God nevertheless, even with the flesh.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he also will do, and greater than these he will do, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do.” He declares, he says, that he is going to the Father, ^C although the Son is God by nature, and he himself is the one who fills all things. For he goes away according to human nature; for he was taken up into heaven. But as God, he promises to fulfill the requests of those who pray, if they make their petitions in his name. To whom, then, pray tell, would it be more appropriate to fulfill the prayers of the saints, and to grant their requests, than to him who is truly and naturally God?

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give you.” Behold, he shows everywhere that he works with equal power with the Father. ^D For he said, “Whatever you ask in my name, I will do;” but now he says, “Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.” Does the Father, therefore, grant some things separately without the Son, or does the Son again grant some things separately and individually without the Father, so that the requests made in prayers are provided to the saints by two gods? But matters are not thus; may

^A it never be, for God the Father is one, and Lord Jesus Christ is one. For the Father distributes goods through the Son in the Holy Spirit; nevertheless, the petition in prayers is made through Jesus Christ. Moreover, by the name of the Lord Jesus, we accept and designate the Word made man.

« In that day you will ask me nothing. Amen, amen, I say to you, if you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it you. Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full. » This also has the same meaning in its brief consideration as the foregoing, and what follows is similar. It proceeds thus: « In that day you shall ask in my name: and I do not say to you, that I will ask the Father for you: for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came out from the Father. »

« Now this is eternal life, that they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. » If it is necessary that the knowledge of Jesus Christ be joined and united with the knowledge of the only and true God, and this very thing brings about eternal life, to whom can it be obscure that Christ is the true God? For the Word became flesh, and remained the Word.

« That the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, as we also are one. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. » ^B Applying the sharp eye of the mind to the power of the matter set before us, let us diligently explore what things lie hidden within it. What kind of glory does the Son say he received from the Father, which he then made common to us? Indeed, he himself frees us from this question while saying: « That they may be one, as we also are one. » For while the Word from God is known as one with his own Father in natural identity, even if each is understood according to his own hypostasis. But how has this come about in us? In an equal manner, I say substantially and naturally; ^C and yet the nature of God would be utterly incompatible with creation, if I were to speak of identity in terms of essence. How then has he who is above creation become in us naturally? For he has become man, so that just as he is in the nature of deity towards the Father, so also may he become in us in a relation according to humanity; for we too are thus perfected into one.

« When therefore it was evening on that day, the first of the sabbath ^D and the doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered together for fear of the Jews, Jesus came, and stood in the midst, and said to them: Peace be to you. » Someone might not unreasonably doubt here and say: If the Word after the resurrection was in the body just as before the venerable cross, how, when the doors were

^A shut, did he appear unexpectedly in the midst of the disciples? To this we reply that it was accomplished by divine power. We must recall what Paul says: « Therefore, from now on, we know no one according to the flesh; even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him no longer » (2 Cor. v, 16). For after his resurrection from the dead, as the economy had already been accomplished — for the sake of which the assumption of flesh was undertaken in a manner befitting the need — he made use of authority and power that was God-befitting, wishing through these much more than through the measures of the emptying (kenosis) to be recognized as appropriate to the season.

« And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said: Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained » (John xx, 22). Everything that is recorded here is God-befitting and worthy of all account. For, in the first place, it was not a work of human nature to impart the Holy Spirit to the apostles by exsufflation. Then, it is something greater and above creation to bestow such authority as to retain the sins of whomever they might wish, and to forgive them to whomever they might choose, as it were. But why does he give the Spirit through a corporeal breath? It is, of course, because the flesh did not become foreign to the Word, but was his own. And while the exsufflation through the flesh was indeed human, to make those who were deemed worthy partakers of the Spirit was the work of divine power.

^C

From the Gospel according to Luke.

An angel of God says to Zacharias concerning the holy Baptist: « And there will be joy for you and exultation, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he shall drink no wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God » (Luc. i, 14-16). The blessed John, when questioned by the Jews, « Who are you? » says: « I am the voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths » (John i, 19). And Zacharias himself, prophesying over his own child, says: « And you, child, will be called Prophet of the Highest; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give ^D knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins » (Luc. i, 76). For he walked ahead of Christ, and became his forerunner, and proclaimed that the ways should be prepared for him, and gave utterance to the prophetic oracle concerning him, turning them toward him as toward God who has the power to justify those in sins. And then, how is Christ not God?

« He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,

of his Father; and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end." ^A Shall we then be subject to one who is like ourselves, ruling over us with an everlasting and unbroken power? Or shall we rather be subject to God, ruling us in Christ, not as if some external mediator were taken for this purpose, but as God and Father reigning over all things through the Son and in the Son? If this is true, then Christ is God.

"But Mary said to the angel: How shall this be, since I know not a man? And the angel answering said to her: The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." ^B Is he who was formed and born of the holy Virgin by the secret and ineffable operation of the Holy Spirit only called Son, or is he believed to be truly and naturally the Son of God, and God? But this, without a doubt, is true. Let the Word, therefore, be understood as having become flesh according to hypostasis—that is, as having taken to himself flesh through the Holy Spirit from the holy Virgin, and having made it his own. By this reasoning, it shall be discovered that he is true God.

"And it came to pass, that when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and cried out with a loud voice, and said: Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" ^C By the inward energy and power of God can the gift of prophecy be obtained by anyone; otherwise, not at all. Since, then, the salutation of the holy Virgin Mary, who was still carrying Jesus in her womb, moved John, while still enclosed in his mother's womb, to prophecy, how is Christ not God, who, even while lurking within virginal cloisters, led the Baptist to the grace of prophecy by divine power?

"Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word, in peace. Because my eyes have seen thy Salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples: a light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." ^D Simeon, having taken Jesus into his arms, brought forth such praises as these concerning him. How then is he "Salvation," and how is he a "light to the revelation of the Gentiles," if he is not the one and only true Son and God, born naturally from the Father as the Word, yet born according to the flesh from the Virgin? For what revelation was made to the Gentiles, save that they learned concerning him that he is God? And offering divine worship to him, they escaped those crimes into which those are wont to fall who serve another god than him, who alone is God by nature and in truth.

^A And as Jesus discerned their thoughts, he answered and said to them: "Why do you think in your hearts? Which is easier to say: 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say: 'Arise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,"—he said to the paralytic—"I say to you, arise, pick up your bed, and go into your house." If God, the Lord of all, is the only one who cleanses us from sins, and this belongs to no other, yet Christ grants this with divine authority, how could he not be God? For he is called the Son of Man, having been born of a woman according to the flesh, even though, as the Word, he is God.

^B "In that hour he healed many from diseases, and plagues, and evil spirits; and to many who were blind he granted sight. And he answered and said to them: 'Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended in me.'" In these acts, Christ demonstrates himself to be the performer of divine and truly miraculous works, bringing back to memory those things which had been spoken of old concerning him through the voice of the prophets. For the blessed Isaiah had said: "Be strengthened, you relaxed hands, and you paralyzed knees." ^C Then, as if pointing with a finger or an outstretched hand, he manifests Emmanuel, saying thus: "Behold our God, behold, the Lord comes with strength, and his arm with power." He said also in other places, that "then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear; then the lame shall leap as a deer, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be clear." And in addition to these: "The dead shall rise, and those in the graves shall be awakened; for the dew which is from you is health to them." The same prophet also said again in the person of Christ: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; he has sent me to preach the gospel to the poor, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind." When, therefore, he offers the oracles of the prophets as a sign or proof of the faith that is due to him, and the prophets themselves proclaim him to be God, who would dare to say things contrary to these?

^D It is said that while the disciples were being tossed by a storm on the lake, they drew near and awakened him, saying: "Master, we are perishing." But he, being awakened, rebuked the wind and the raging of the water; and it ceased—and there was a calm. It had been said of Christ through the voice of the blessed David: "You rule over the power of the sea, and you calm the surging of its waves. Yours are the heavens, and yours is the earth; the world and its fullness you have founded." When, therefore, it is fitting for him who calms the sea also to rule over all things, and to possess the heavens as his own, and to be able to found—

^A the world and its fullness, how could one fail to think that Christ is truly God, who rebukes the sea and the winds, and this with authority?

The man from whom the demons had gone out entreated him that he might be with him. But Jesus dismissed him, saying, "Return to your house, and relate how much God has done for you." And he went off through the entire city proclaiming how much Jesus had done for him. In the region of the Gerasenes, Christ healed the man who was fiercely demon-possessed, who even pleaded that it be permitted for him to spend his life with him from then on. But although he healed him and had cast out the spirits, he nevertheless commanded him to return to his own house and tell how much God had done for him. Christ, therefore, acted as true God; for it is by no means right to say that he existed as an instrument of divine grace in the manner of the prophets or the holy apostles; but he himself, by his own ^B and God-befitting power, was crushing Satan. Therefore, the demons were subject to the holy apostles in his name, and they themselves confessed this.

Regarding the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, Christ says, "Do not weep; for the child is not dead, but sleeps." Did he therefore lie? Heaven forbid! But he spoke the truth; and in what way, Paul explains, saying, "He is not God of the dead, but of the living." For those who are destined to live, live to God; therefore, while they are dead to men, they have not died according to the life-giving nature, that is, the divine. For he speaks the truth as God ^C concerning the maiden when he declares, "She is not dead, but sleeps."

Conversing with his own disciples, he was saying, "Which is greater, the one who reclines, or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines? But I am in your midst as one who serves." Observe how, in what pertains to the godhead and the majesty of the Lordly glory, he all but avoids and refuses to be reckoned in the rank of ministers. Nevertheless, because of human nature, he admits the ministry. For he says, "I am in your midst as one who serves." If, therefore, he has voluntarily lowered himself among those who serve, yet he himself is the one reclining as Lord, ^D and honored by the service of all creation as God.

Christ therefore said to them (namely, to the chief priests of the Jews who were asking, "If you are the Christ?"): "If I tell you, you will not believe me; and if I ask, you will not answer, nor will you release me. But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God." If the Son of Man sits at the right hand of the power of God, how is Christ not God, he who is adorned with that highest throne and shares the same authority of the seat with the Father?

^A For a nature produced by creation does not sit with the God who is such by nature. But the Son of Man does sit with Him, in accordance with the dispensation of the union, having become the Word who was begotten of God.

That Christ is life and life-giving.

in himself and first in the Only-Begotten who is according to us, and the one who changes the mortal into immortality and the corruptible into incorruption. For thus he has become a way to life for us ourselves.

From the second epistle to the Corinthians.

«But we ourselves, he says, have had the answer of death in ourselves, that we might not be trusting in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.» If the raising of the dead is most fitting to Him who is God by nature, because He alone is life and the life-giver; and Christ clearly calls Himself the resurrection and the life, and it is certain that He has raised the dead: who, then, can doubt that He is both the true God and life by nature?

From the epistle to the Hebrews.

«Since therefore the children shared in flesh and blood, he also himself likewise partook of them, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.» Even as we, who are reckoned among the children of ^B God, the Word of God became a partaker of flesh and blood; by which, indeed, handing over His own body to death, as one who is life and God by His own nature, He might restore it to life again. For how is the power of death destroyed, if the body which was, according to nature, the property of Life—that is, of the Word of God—having fallen into death, is not raised again?

That there is one Son and Lord Jesus Christ.

From the first Catholic Epistle of John.

«That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life; and the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and we bear witness, and we announce to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and appeared to us.» Behold, he testifies that he saw with his eyes and handled with his hands Him who was from the beginning, and the eternal life, that is, the Word of God the Father; ^C although the Word who proceeds from the Father by His own nature flees from sight and cannot be touched; for that which is bodiless cannot be touched. But he says that he saw and handled the Word who had become flesh. Therefore, there is one Son and God and Lord, even if the Word has become flesh.

That faith is in Christ, as in God.

From the first Epistle of Peter.

«So that, he says, your faith and hope might be in God.» And yet Christ is preached through the holy

we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ.» If it is not alien to the will of God the Father that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ; if our faith tends toward him, not as toward a naked man, but as toward a living and true God, then it becomes evident that Christ is God. ^B «Hereby is the Spirit of God known: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that dissolveth Jesus is not of God; and this is that of Antichrist, of whom you have heard that he cometh, and even now he is already in the world.» Do we therefore confess Christ Jesus merely as some man like us? Or rather, that he, being the Word of God, became flesh, not having discarded or repudiated his divinity (for he remained steadfastly what he was), but having assumed human nature? But this is beyond controversy. Whoever, therefore, denying his divinity, divides Christ and diminishes his glory and majesty, is clearly convicted of having imbibed the spirit of Antichrist. ^C «And we have seen, and do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.» We acknowledge that the only-begotten Son of God—that is, the Word who proceeds naturally from God—was sent by God the Father. And we assert that he was then named Jesus, when he did not disdain, for the sake of the economy, to be born of a woman according to the flesh. The Word of God, therefore, became man. And if anyone professes him in this way, he has God dwelling in him, and he himself will in turn dwell in God; for He will be mindful of him, and will count him as kin, as one who is a partaker of Him. But he who does not confess that Jesus is the very Word of God the Father, who lowered himself into humanity, will neither possess God within himself, nor will he himself be in God, at least in the manner of spiritual kinship. ^D «Every one that believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.» Therefore, he who does not believe cannot be counted among the children of God. For if to all those who received the Son, He gave the power to become the sons of God, as the evangelist testifies; then it follows that those who do not receive him cannot be counted among the children of God, inasmuch as they have not acknowledged Him through whom this very thing is made possible. «Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ: not in water

only, but in water and blood. And the Spirit is that which beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three are one.» ^A He who believes that Jesus is the Son of God overcomes the world. But who is this Jesus? The disciple of Jesus himself unfolds it to us, saying: «This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ.» But he says that he came in blood and in Spirit, and he declares that these three are one. Therefore, the Word became flesh, and he sanctifies us by the Spirit, and expiates us by the blood, and cleanses us again with pure water. Yet the Son is altogether one, whose Spirit, water, and blood we say these are.

«If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.» ^B And the Father bore witness to the Son by the Spirit and by a voice. For that he is truly his Son, it should be attested by the fact that he himself was able to bestow the Holy Spirit and the power of performing miracles upon the saints. To this end it certainly tended when he said, «He shall glorify me.» He also bore witness to him in another way; for he glorified him in the Jordan, saying: «This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.» Whoever, therefore, led by division, deny that he who was born of a woman is the true Son of God, and assign the name of Son to the bare and naked Word of God alone; they make the Father a liar, seeing that he clearly showed the incarnate Word in the Jordan: at which time, moreover, the Spirit testily testified both that he was God, and that he was truly the Son. ^C

That Christ is life.

From the Gospel according to Matthew.

It stands written concerning the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, that «when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose.» Why, I ask, when he restored life to the maid, was he not satisfied with a word, as in the resurrection of Lazarus, but also took hold of her hand? Surely, it was to show that his body is life-giving: for it is the body of life. Wherefore, the union of the Word with the flesh is natural and true, not according to a mere meeting of persons, or a bare attribution of an auspicious name, or a harmony of wills, or a simple conjunction, as some ignorantly babble.

From the Gospel according to John.

«Labour,» he says, «not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth-

- ^A unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.» The Son of man has given us food enduring unto eternal life, namely his own flesh, for it is life-giving. How then is he not God, who is able to give life even through his own flesh, and who is in all things like unto God and Father? For this is what I know to be signified by his saying that he was sealed by God; for the term "being sealed" signifies an accurate likeness. For just as if one were to imprint a golden seal, or indeed one made of some other material, upon wax, he communicates the whole of its image in every respect; so also does God the Father have the characters of his own nature substantially and befittingly present in the Son. And this is what it is to say that he is sealed by the Father.

From the Gospel according to Luke.

Christ raised Lazarus, the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, and the widow's son. How then is he not life by nature, who is able to terrify death not only by his word, but also by the touch of his hand? For it was fitting and necessary that the body of him who is Life by nature should be life-giving.

That Christ is a propitiation through faith. From the Epistle to the Romans.

Regarding Christ, he says: «Whom God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance ^B of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.» If Christ could not otherwise be a propitiation for those who were held subject to sin, and to the curse, and to the penalty of death, except by shedding his blood for the remission of previous sins, how was it not necessary for the Word to become flesh, so that by his own blood—it is manifest that this means the blood of his own flesh—he might justify all who believe in him?

That we have been redeemed and have gained reconciliation with God through his blood. From the first Epistle to the Corinthians.

«But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, ^C and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.» We are therefore redeemed in Christ, and have been sanctified, and have become wise. «Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, that is to say, God.» How then is Christ not God, ^D

^A who grants us wisdom, and sanctification, and redemption?

That we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. From the First Epistle of Peter. «Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver or gold, from your vain conversation of the tradition of your fathers; but with the precious blood as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled, Christ.» For we have been redeemed, since Christ offered up His own body for us. But if He is regarded as an ordinary man, how does His blood equal in value the life of all? But if it was God in the flesh, who is in every respect most worthy, then most assuredly the price paid for the salvation of the whole world by His blood is most abundant, and most fitting. ^B

That the death of Christ was salutary to the world. From the Epistle to the Romans. «But God commendeth his charity towards us: because when as yet we were sinners, Christ died for us. Much more therefore, being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved from wrath through him.» And again: «For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved in his life.» If, therefore, the world could not be saved otherwise than by the blood and death of Christ, which was fruitfully and economically taken up for the remission of past offenses, which God had tolerated—and we have been saved through Christ—how then was the mode of the incarnation not necessary for the Word who is born of God, so that He might justify those who believe in Him by His blood, and reconcile them to the Father through the death of His own body, so that we might also live together with Him? ^C

«Know you not that all we who are baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized in his death? For we are buried together with him by baptism into death; that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life.» If there is an absolute necessity for those who dwell upon the earth to be buried together with Christ through baptism into His death, so that as He rose from the dead, we also may walk in newness of life, as having been buried together and raised together with Him who died and rose again for our sake: surely the mystery of the incarnation was not accomplished without the greatest utility and necessity, and the Word shared in flesh and blood, so that, having died according to the flesh, as it is said, and being even raised, we might also die and rise again together with Him. ^D «For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.»

^A In the same sense, you may also explain this: «For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.» Christ is called the second Adam. And just as the first Adam cast us down into corruption, so the second Adam raised us up unto life; not as a mere man who suffered death for our sake, lest we remain dead in Him, but as God incarnate. For He suffered in the flesh as man, so that, while He raised up His own temple by divine power, we too might be raised up together with Him.

From the Epistle to the Galatians.

From the Epistle to the Ephesians.

From the Epistle to the Hebrews.

^A "Therefore, when he comes into the world, he says: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me. Burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you did not require. Then I said, 'Behold, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me: To do your will, O God.'" The passion of Christ has brought salvation to the world. But it is worthwhile to consider who it is that enters the world; for he was, in all respects, entirely outside the world; for how did he who was outside the world enter into it? Therefore, existing by nature above the whole world as God the Only-Begotten, he has entered into it, having become a part of it, that is, man; thus, having offered the sacrifice on our behalf and having surrendered himself, he has saved all that is under heaven. "Therefore Jesus also, so that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside the gate." How, I ask, could the blood of an ordinary man make people holy? But the blood of Christ did sanctify us. It is, therefore, divine and not merely human; for it was God in the flesh, cleansing us with his own blood.

From the Epistle to Timothy.

"For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all." Christ's death is, without controversy, saving for the whole world. But if Christ is not God, how could he, being one and alone, be sufficient to be a ransom for all? Yet he was alone sufficient, having died for all, because he is also above all. It is God, then, who by the death of his own flesh has banished death from the world.

FROM THE CATHOLIC EPISTLES.

From the First Epistle of Peter.

That the death of Christ was saving for the world.

"For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit. In which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who sometimes were disobedient." Many of the ^D holy prophets have been killed; but none of them is said to have died for sins, nor to have brought us to God through his own death; nor did any of them preach to the spirits in prison. But Christ has performed this, and through him and in him we have been redeemed, and his passion was saving for the world. He died, therefore, for us, not as a man who is one of us, but as God in the flesh, giving his own body as a ransom for the life of all.

“For Christ having suffered for us in the flesh.” ^A For since Christ is truly God, the disciple wisely and intelligently says that He suffered in the flesh, removing the ineffable nature—to which suffering is foreign—from the act of suffering. Therefore, He suffered specifically in the flesh, even though the Word of God is accustomed to be void of suffering. Therefore, Christ is God, impassible in terms of His divinity, but passible according to the flesh.

That the death of Christ is salvific for the world.

From the Gospel according to John.

“These things His disciples did not understand at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him.” And again: “But Jesus answers them, saying: The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Amen, amen, I say to you, ^B unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it remains alone; but if it die, it brings forth much fruit.”

Now, it is not a matter of doubt that the entire world has been saved because Emmanuel endured death for its sake. Yet, one may rightly ask how He attained glory through death, since this occurrence might seem to be a certain evidence of weakness; and for this reason, it is also said that He despised shame, having become obedient unto death. Perhaps you will say that He was glorified through His resurrection. That is correct, and the statement is true. Did He, therefore, come to life again more by divine power or by human? But I think, by divine power. When, therefore, the Word of God Himself is said to have suffered in the flesh, let us not be ashamed of the ^C Passion; for the end brings with it glory, and that, too, worthy of God.

That there is one Son of God and Lord Jesus Christ.

From the Epistle to the Romans.

“I myself, therefore, serve with the mind the law of God; but with the flesh, the law of sin. There is now therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh. For the law of the spirit of life, in Christ Jesus, has delivered me from the law of sin and of death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh and of sin, hath condemned sin in the flesh, ^D that the justification of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.” For the flesh and the spirit do indeed openly war against one another, that is to say, the carnal mind and the movement of our innate desires, and the power of the life according to the Spirit. And even though the divine law invites us to the desire for good, the cupidity of the flesh nonetheless forces us toward the contrary. But this strife, through Christ,

God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, to condemn sin in the flesh" (Rom. 8:3). How then could the incarnation of the Word not be most highly necessary? For thus sin is condemned in our flesh. But if the Word did not become flesh, our condition has remained altogether prostrate and unamended, and we remain in servitude to the law of sin in the flesh, with nothing in us to blunt or restrain its impulse. Therefore, we affirm that the hypostatic union of the flesh with the Word was necessary, and not merely a coupling of persons or a mere harmony of wills and simple conjunction, as some assert.

"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" (Rom. 8:31, 32). If God the Father has given his own Son—he who is, strictly speaking, from his own substance—for our sake, then the body that endured ^B death was his own, he who suffered according to the flesh (for he could not suffer according to the nature of his divinity); for he who cannot suffer in himself suffered death by dispensation. Therefore, those who divide the one into two clearly bind themselves with the crime of impiety; for the Father is no longer found to have given his own Son for us, if he is a man divided [from the Word], and not rather the Word of God himself, clothed in flesh, presiding upon the throne of the kingdom with the Father as the true and natural Son.

"Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn? Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us" (Rom. 8:33, 34). If Christ justifies by faith, and it is God who bestows the gift of justification, it follows that Christ is true God. Furthermore, if he sits at the right hand of the Father, and possesses the same glory and majesty with him, even though he has died and risen, the body assumed is therefore ^C the Word's own. For even though it became flesh, it nonetheless sits with the Father, along with the flesh that was taken up, as the Son by nature, even if the Word has become flesh.

"But the righteousness from faith says this: 'Do not say in your heart: Who will ascend into heaven?' (that is, to bring Christ down) 'or who will descend into the abyss?' (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? 'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart'; that is, the word of faith which we preach. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. 10:6-10). If, according to the opinion of some, Christ is understood ^D as a "God-bearing" man, having only a union of persons with the Word of God, for what reason—believing in him as Lord, and confessing his resurrection from the dead, is he justification...

justified by faith in him? But faith is exercised, clearly, as in God. Therefore, the hypostatic union of the Word of God with the human is necessary. For thus we shall confess one Christ as Lord by nature, and ^A by acknowledging the resurrection of his flesh, we are justified, believing as in God. "For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself; whether we live, therefore, we live to the Lord; or if we die, we die to the Lord. Whether we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and rose again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living." The blessed Paul has cried out somewhere to those from among the Gentiles: "But now, having known God, or rather being known by God, how do you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elements of the world, to which you desire to be enslaved again?" ^B We have therefore been redeemed through faith in Christ from the servitude of the elements, and have been brought to serve the living and true God. But if Christ died that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living, and we live to him as to the living and true God, how is it not necessary that a true union of the Word with the flesh has taken place? For having died in it, he has become Lord both of the living and of the dead.

From the First Epistle to the Corinthians

"For they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them: and the Rock was Christ." The name Christ is given to Emmanuel only when he was born through the holy Virgin. How, then, could he ^C be the Rock who watered Israel? But it is clear that the holy Scripture acknowledges one Son and one Christ. For the Word, having become flesh, is himself also the spiritual Rock, not casting off the antiquity of his own nature because of the newness of the economy.

From the Second Epistle to the Corinthians

"So that we from now on know no one according to the flesh; even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, but now we know him no longer." What then is it that Paul says? Does he deny Christ after the resurrection? Does he not know him to have been raised in the flesh and taken up with it into heaven? And who would ^D dare to say this? For he knew that he had ascended into heaven and would come again in the appointed times just as he had ascended. How then does he say he does not know the Son according to the flesh? Because, after his life from the dead, he considered it better to know and confess him from the greatness of his divinity rather than by the measure of the flesh. For before the mystery of the economy was completed, he was proclaimed according to the flesh, so that the Only-begotten might be believed to have become man; but since the mystery has been finished, it is better to confess him as he is God than from the fact that he was emptied.

^A One, therefore, is Christ and Son and Lord. "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich." If Christ is mere man, and not rich as God by a true union with the Word of God, how did he become poor? For what indeed is the wealth of human nature? It is said to every man: "What do you have that you did not receive?" But he became poor, though being rich as God; for he became poor by economically appropriating to himself the lowliness of human nature, being the Word truly rich from God the Father. One, therefore, is Christ and Son; and rich, as God; but poor, because he became man, so that we might become rich through him.

From the Epistle to the Galatians.

"Paul an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead." Does not the initiator into the mysteries, by these words, suggest to us the God incarnate, and one Son and Lord from both? For he says that he was sent, not from men, nor through man; but he has added, "but through Jesus Christ." ^B And yet, how does he not know him to be a man, Jesus Christ, who preached him as such to the whole world? By no means; he certainly knew him to be a man. But he knew him to be not a man simply, but rather the Word of God who has become man; and that he is not to be understood as God in a man, but as having become truly man while remaining God. Whenever, therefore, he says that he was not sent by man, but through Jesus Christ, how is it not evident to all that he acknowledges him to be also true God after he has also become in the flesh as we are? He signifies him now, not from the measures of the emptying, but from his divine excellence over all ^C things.

"When we were children, we were enslaved to the elements of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons." Whom, I ask, did God and Father send, who was born of woman and became under the law? Is it not fitting to say, and worthy to consider, that he sent him who would not have been born of woman, nor been subject to the law, had he not remained what he was, clearly outside of flesh and blood? But the word is clear: for the Word from God the Father was born of woman according to the flesh; he who, as God, was Lord of the law, became ^D under the law, that he might become also a brother to those under the law, for in this way we received adoption.

So if he had not become under the law and from a woman, we would not have become brothers to the Lord who is God by nature. But since this has come to pass through him, we have been enriched. The divine Paul provides a clear demonstration of the matter, adding immediately: “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father.’” How then is the Spirit of him who is born of a woman and made under the law the Holy Spirit, through whom we also cry, “Abba, Father,” if Christ is not God, being one, and the Son?

From the Epistle to the Ephesians.

“One Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Therefore he says: ‘Having ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.’ Now what is ‘he ascended,’ except that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same as he who ascended above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.” ^B Observe again with me how much reasoning is in this, declaring most clearly and manifest-ly, being knowing and able, that Christ is one Lord, brought together through an oikonomic union of the Word with the human; for from both there is one true Son. For how is there one Lord? How is there one faith? Or how is baptism one? For if there are two sons, there are necessarily also two lords; the faith is double, and baptism is not one. For in whom have we believed? Or in whose name have we been baptized? But truly there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; it is therefore evident that there is also one Son, even if the Only-begotten be understood as having become like us. ^C But who in total is the one who ascended on high? Or who is the one who descended into the lower parts of the earth? Did he not himself descend humanly? For he emptied himself and humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death; and he ascended with flesh above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.

From the Epistle to the Philippians.

“Let each of you think this within yourselves, which is also in Christ Jesus: who, existing in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal to God; but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and found in habit as a man; ^D he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave him the name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven"

and of things on earth, and of things under the earth; and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” ^A Observe how he says that the Word, who was existing in the form of God ^B and who was God, did not account being equal to God a thing to be seized. For while he possessed equality with God the Father by nature, having received the form of a servant—that is, having become man, and having been found in a state like our own—he humbled himself unto emptying. But since he also endured the cross, he says that he is exalted, and that the name which is above every name has been given to him, so that every knee should bow to him, and every tongue should confess him. How then is he who was in the form and equality of God said to have lowered himself unto emptying, and yet to be exalted after this? Is not the mystery of Christ most evident? For being God by nature, he became man in humility and lowliness of form. But having become as we are, he returns to his own glory even with the flesh. And it is fitting that this exaltation should belong to the dispensation, and not rather to the nature of the Word itself. One, therefore, is Christ, God in human nature and existing with human nature ^C, the same as he was before, continuing throughout.

From the Epistle to the Colossians.

“Giving thanks,” he says, “to the Father, who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love; in whom we have our redemption, the remission of our sins: who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him; and he is before all things, and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the Church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence; specifically, for in him it was the good pleasure of the whole fullness to dwell; and through him to reconcile all things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross, through him, I say, whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens.” ^D Behold here again he calls him the image of the invisible God; he clearly asserts that Thrones, and Principalities, and Dominions were created through him; and he says that all things consist in him and through him; and he proclaims the same person both head of the body of the Church and firstborn from the dead. Who, pray, could be the image of God and the creator of the universe, if not he who is the only-begotten Son of God himself? He who also became the firstborn of the dead, inasmuch as he tasted death in his own flesh, and not in that of some other. Wherefore there is one Christ and Son, God at once and man.

From the Epistle to the Hebrews.

“God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in divers manners and in divers portions, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us…

in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.” ^A The Only-begotten Word of God is believed to be, together with God the Father, the natural Lord of all things; yet He is also set as heir because He became flesh. For it was said to Him, as One who for our sake became man like us: “Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” But by saying that the worlds were also made through Him—the very One who is the heir—the Scripture intends to refer the antiquity of the matter to the Word. Therefore, there is one Christ and Son, the same being at once God and man.

“Who being the brightness of His glory, and the impress of His substance, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; having become by so much better than the angels, as He hath inherited a more excellent name than they.” ^B But how, I ask, can the brightness of the glory and the impress of the substance of God the Father—that is, the Only-begotten Son who proceeds from Him by nature—having made purification of our sins (and there is no doubt that this was through His own blood), sit at the right hand of the Father, and be declared to have become more excellent than the angels, even though by nature and by the supremacy of His divinity He surpasses all things? Does He not, even as man, excel all things, as God indeed does—the invisible creation? For ^C the selfsame One, being the brightness and the impress, has by His own blood worked the purification of our sins. One, therefore, is Christ, and Son, and Lord.

“For both He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying: I will declare thy name unto my brethren.” That which is holy by nature is not sanctified, because it has no need of sanctification; but that which has received holiness by participation from another cannot sanctify others. How then does the Same sanctify and is sanctified? We must inquire. He sanctifies, then, as God, having the capacity to sanctify as a property of His own nature; but ^D He is sanctified with us, according to His humanity. One, therefore, is Christ and Son and Lord, sanctifying divinely, but being sanctified with us humanly.

“Now in the points which we are saying: We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.” If every priest, as the blessed Paul says, is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, not for himself

^A nor for those called to the priesthood, but rather to God, to whom worship is due from every creature; and if he who ministers to God will not be placed on the same level as God, nor will he bear the glory that befits Him alone—how then does Christ, having become our high priest, sit at the right hand of God, and possess the throne of majesty in the heavens, and serve as minister of the holy things, and of that tabernacle on high and true, offering up the worship of all to Himself and to the Father? Therefore, Christ and the Son is one, who sits indeed as God on the throne of His own divinity, but who has been named priest and minister according to the dispensation because of the human element.

^B “Therefore, having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us put aside every weight and the sin that clings to us, and run with patience the race set before us, looking to the author and perfecter of our faith, Jesus Christ, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” If Christ is a mere man, and not truly God, truly clothed in flesh as we are, what joy does he say was set before Him? Or how has He sat at the right hand of the throne of God? But indeed there was joy set before Him (for the most high nature ever dwells in unceasing delights); yet, having assumed a body capable of being crucified, He endured the cross, and having suffered the punishment of the cross, He sat at the right hand of God and the Father. ^C Thus, there is one Lord Jesus Christ, crucified indeed as a man, but reigning as God with the Father.

That the Son and Lord is one.

Ex Evangelio secundum Matthæum. “All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son, except the Father; and no one knows the Father, except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” If no one knows the Son except the Father alone, how is it that some reject the testimony of the Father as if it were weak? For He pointed out His own Son in the Jordan, saying: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” But He ^D did not present the Word naked to our eyes, but incarnate. And He did not say: “In this is my Son,” but, “This one, whom you behold in the flesh, is my Son.” One, therefore, is the Lord and Son.

Ex Evangelio secundum Joannem. “There was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” Behold, how accurately he speaks of divine things; and, having affirmed that every man coming into the world is enlightened by the true light, and that the world was created through Him, he declares that this same One came unto His own. The Only-Begotten, however, having become man, as towards

his own, and especially towards ^A those of the blood of Israel. Since, therefore, He Himself is the true light, through whom all things were created; and since He is the One who became incarnate and came unto His own: how is it not necessary to confess one Christ and Son? "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the Only-Begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." If the Word became flesh, that is, in like manner to us partook of blood and flesh, and took hold of the seed of Abraham, that He might be made like unto His brethren in all things: how could anyone doubt that He remained the Word, even though He has become flesh? For the nature of the Word is immutable. And if He has been named our brother, how does He possess the glory of the Only-Begotten? Therefore, even if He has become flesh, He is nonetheless God; and He is Only-Begotten as God, but First-born because of the human suffering on the cross.

John testifies concerning Him, and cries out, saying: "This was He of whom I said: He that cometh after me, has been made before me, because He was before me; because of His fullness have we all received." John says concerning Christ: "He that cometh after me" (that is, He who was manifested after me, whom he himself had openly preached, "has been made before me"), that is, being first in rank and glory; for He was also first in existence, as God. How then was the same One both after ^B him and before him in time? Because the Word was God, and became flesh. He was therefore first as Word, but second as man. And if all the saints have partaken of His fullness (and the Divine alone is full, as he says by the voice of Isaiah), it would be fitting for Him, and Him alone, as from His own fullness, to fulfill the needs of others. Christ has done this. One, then, is the Son and Lord, the Word from God who became flesh, Himself God at once and man. The meaning of the passage immediately following would be this: "This is He of whom I said: After me cometh a man, who has been made before me, because He was before me." For see, while calling Him a man, and coming after, he affirms that He is first as God: "For in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God."

And John bore witness, saying, that "I beheld the Spirit descending as a dove from heaven, and it remained upon Him. And I knew Him not; but He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me: Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining upon Him, the same is He who baptizeth with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen, and borne witness that this is the Son of God." Behold clearly and plainly in these things our Lord Jesus Christ, receiving the Spirit humanly on account of the ^C dispensation ^D of the flesh (for being rich, He became poor for our sakes), 114 yet baptizing divinely in the Holy Spirit. For upon whom should He—

^A be able to bestow the grace of the Spirit, except upon Him who is by nature and in truth God? There is, therefore, one Christ and Son; and the evangelist will bear witness, saying: “And I have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” 115 But this one, who is he? He whom the Spirit has seen receiving [it] indeed as a man, but knows to be baptizing divinely in the Holy Spirit. “If I have told you earthly things, and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? And no one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven.” 116 How has the Son of man descended from heaven, seeing that His holy flesh was born of a woman? Yet it was the body proper to the Word who had come down from heaven, who also became the Son of man. There is, therefore, one Christ and Son. Thus, the things of the Word have become proper to the flesh, and the things of the flesh have become proper to the Word, apart only from the stain of sin. ^B

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up; that everyone who believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” 117 Serpents in the desert were infesting the sons of Israel with their bites; soon the Lord of all commanded Moses to suspend a bronze serpent. “And it shall be,” He says, “if a serpent has bitten a man, and he looks at the serpent, he shall live.” 118 What, then, does this enigma signify? Why is he who looks at the serpent saved? The Only-begotten Word of God, who is life by His own nature, became in the likeness of us, that is, man (and man is a noxious thing, not unlike the serpent); but even if He became as we are, if anyone looks into Him, he escapes, being superior to death. But what else is it, I beseech you, to look into Him, than to weigh the mystery of that incarnation with an exact and accurate judgment of soul? For by this consideration, He is discovered to possess both the likeness of the wicked, that is, of men, and yet to be, as God, the life-giver and the healer and destroyer of the serpent’s stings. There is, therefore, one Lord, and the same is the Son, who is both life-giving as God, and ^C visible in the form of the wicked through the dispensation. While, indeed, as God He is life-giving; according to the flesh,

“The children of the Hebrews,” He says, “taking branches of palms, went out to meet Him, and cried: Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel.” 119 Of what sort, I ask, did the divine Scriptures predict that He would come in the name of the Lord? For if they meant him who was born from the holy Virgin as man absolutely, not united to the Word of God according to hypostasis, the name of lordship will surely be common to Him as it is to us, and there will be nothing great in Christ; but if as Lord [He is understood]

^A He was announced to come as the true Lord—which is also true (for the Only-Begotten has truly come into this world not without flesh)—then He is one by nature and truly Lord, and Christ, and Son.

“And for their sake I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.” ^B Christ sanctifies Himself. Is it as man, or rather because He is God by nature, possessing the Holy Spirit as His own? Which is the truth. Therefore, since no man sanctifies himself, Christ sanctifies Himself. He is therefore one Son and Lord, who is sanctified as man, but as God sanctifies His own temple by His own Spirit.

Many other signs indeed did Jesus ^C in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing, you may have life in His name. He who was born of the holy Virgin, Emmanuel, is called Jesus by the voice of the Gospel. Since, therefore, it is He Himself, and no other, who is the Son of God, and he who believes has eternal life in His name, how are they not mad who, introducing a division, assert that the Word of God from the Father is one Son, and that He who took His origin from the holy Virgin is another? For the evangelist appears in these ^D things most clearly to know and preach one and only Jesus Christ derived from both; that is, the Word from God the Father, who has partaken of blood and flesh in like manner to us, as it is written.

From the Gospel according to Luke.

“And it came to pass, when they were there, her days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” The holy Virgin brought forth one and only one Son, namely Emmanuel; why then does it say, “Her firstborn Son”? For no others were born after Him, and she remained a virgin. It is pointed out, therefore, as if from the divinely inspired Scripture; for the Only-Begotten Word of God is called firstborn because He has partaken of blood and flesh, and in like manner to us has shared in the same things. Thus He became the firstborn among many brothers. Yet, as God, He is worshipped both by us and by the spirits above.

“And His mother said to Him, Son, why have You done so to us? Behold, Your father and I have sought You sorrowing. And He said to them, How is it that you sought Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” Behold now how—

^A He calls the One in heaven His own proper Father. But if He were a mere man, such as we are, and nothing more, why did He not rather use this form of speech: “Did you not know that I must be in the things that belong to the common Father of all?” But He claims Him as His own proper Father; for He alone is born of Him according to nature in a divine manner. And the same One, having also become man, still retains God as His own proper Father by nature.

“And it came to pass, when He was in one of the cities, that behold a man full of leprosy: and seeing Jesus, he fell on his face, and besought Him, saying: Lord, if You will, You can make me clean. And stretching forth His hand, He touched him, saying: I will, be clean” (Luke v, 12, 13). You will wonder at Christ in these acts, working in a divine ^B and at the same time a bodily way; for the willing was divine, but the stretching out of the hand was human. Therefore, one is the Son out of both. For even if the Word has become flesh, yet as God He works with His own flesh, it having power on His account.

“And He said unto them: How say they that Christ is the son of David? For David himself says in the book of Psalms: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies your footstool. David therefore calls Him Lord: and how is He his Son?” (Luke xx, 41-44). Do you hear how ^C Christ Himself tries to show in these words that, even if the Word has come of the seed of David according to the flesh, yet He is still even in this way Lord by nature, as Son and God? For if, he says, He is the son of David, how does David call Him Lord? But he neither denies in these words the generation from the seed of David according to the flesh, nor does he push away the fact of His being Lord by nature; rather, he says that both belong to Him, if he intends the one to be revealed as appearing from both. Therefore, Christ is one, and truly the Son.

That faith in Christ is as in God. Concerning the Epistle to the Romans.

“By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith in all nations, for His name; among whom are you also the called of Jesus Christ” (Rom. i, 5, 6). The nations were called through faith. And Christ was the One being preached to them through the holy apostles; and the faith was exercised ^D by those being initiated, not as in a man, but as in God. For we surely do not say that the nations were called from error into error, having accepted faith in Christ, but rather that, having been led away from gods falsely so called, they turned to the living God. Since, therefore, the stewards of the mysteries profess that they have received an apostleship for obedience to faith for the sake of the name of Christ, how could He not be God, if the faith is in Him as in God?

“For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit, in the Gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers” (Rom. i, 9). Those who serve God, do not as God

^A serve another besides Him. And His Gospel also says this. For He Himself is proclaimed to the world as God, although the Father is God by nature, and governs all things. Therefore, Christ is God, through whom and in whom even the Father Himself is proclaimed as God, and is honored by all with worship.

“Being justified therefore by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also obtained access by faith into this grace, in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. v, 1, 2). We are justified as believing in God. But if our faith is in Christ Jesus, and through Him we have attained access (for we have been united to God and the Father, Christ, as it were, raising us up with Him), how is He not God, even if He was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, according to the Scriptures?

“As it is written,” he says: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of scandal; and everyone who believes in Him shall not be put to shame” (Rom. ix, 33). The righteous Simeon, when he received the divine child in his arms, said to God: “Now You dismiss Your servant, O Lord, according to Your word, in peace; because my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared before the face of all peoples” (Luke ii, 29-32), and what follows. He added to these: “Behold, this one is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against” (Luke ii, 34). The same one, therefore, is the stone of stumbling and the rock of scandal. And while some, stumbling against Him through ^B unbelief, have been broken, others, who have embraced faith in Him, have escaped being put to shame. Have we then believed in Him as in a man, or as in God? Clearly, as in God. Therefore, Christ is God; for it is of Him that the righteous Simeon spoke the words we have just cited.

Concerning the Jews he says: “For being ignorant of the justice of God, and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted themselves to the justice of God. For Christ is the end of the law, for justice to everyone who believes” (Rom. x, 3). If Christ is the end of the law, and He Himself is justice, justifying through faith in Him—and the power to justify belongs to God alone as something peculiar to Him—how is Christ not God?

“But the justice which is of faith speaks thus: Do not say in your heart: Who shall ascend into heaven? that is, to bring Christ down; or: Who shall descend into the abyss? that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. This is the word of faith which we preach: that if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart ^C one believes unto justice, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says: Everyone who believes

^A in him, shall not be put to shame. If the person of Christ is set forth as the limit of our entire faith and the power of our confession, and by confessing his death and resurrection we are justified as though we had believed in God, who would dare say that he is devoid of divinity, since he is the sum and head of the salvation of all, and the door and the way, and the confession of faith in him? For through him and in him, the Father himself is also known to us.

[A(b)] "Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret for eternal ages, but now made manifest through the prophetic writings, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith among all nations, to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and honor for ever and ever. Amen." Here he clearly affirms that the Gospel and the preaching of it pertained to Christ himself; he proclaims that the mystery concerning him, which was hidden and kept secret for eternal ages, has now at last been made manifest for the obedience of faith among all nations. For the nations, having been liberated from the worship of false gods and having attained the true knowledge of the true and natural God, have been converted to Christ. If, then, God has been made known openly through Jesus Christ, how is the mystery of Christ not great? But if he is thought of in our minds simply as some man, and not rather as God having become man, that mystery would certainly not be of great wisdom.

^C "For I say that Christ Jesus became a minister of the circumcision for the sake of God's truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs; but that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. For it is written: 'Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.'" It was said to him again: "In you shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed." This, indeed, Paul made clear to us, saying: "For the promise to Abraham, that he should be the heir of the world, did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." And again: "So then, those who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." If, therefore, the promises of God came to the patriarchs through faith, and Christ became a minister, that is to say, a mediator, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs by God—namely, the justification which is obtained through faith (and Christ became a minister, that is, a mediator, not in order to reconcile faith to another, but rather to himself and through himself to the Father)—who can doubt that he exists as God truly according to nature? For just as the blessed Abraham was justified by believing in God, so indeed shall the Gentiles also be justified in him, having followed in his footsteps, and...

believing in God, that is to say, in Christ. ^A

From the First Epistle to the Corinthians

From the Second Epistle to the Corinthians

From the Epistle to the Galatians

"But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me." For he who had once obtained the teaching and revelation of the divine mysteries from God had no need of instruction from men. Nevertheless, we say this: Whom did the Father reveal to the blessed Paul, or whom did he command him to preach among the Gentiles ^D

^A to announce? Was it the Word of God, and the only-begotten Son, not united to flesh, and not having become man according to the divine dispensation? Far be it that things should be so. For he announced the same one as God and man at once, calling him Son and Lord Jesus Christ.

«Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ: and we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law.» If believing in God has justification as its reward (for those before us were ^B justified in this way; for it is written: «Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness»), how then is Emmanuel not God, if it is true that we are justified by believing in him?

From the Epistle to the Ephesians.

«In whom you also, when you had heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation), in whom also believing you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance, unto the redemption of acquisition, unto the praise of his glory.» Many things may be perceived at once in the thoughts set before us, from which it is possible to learn that Christ is the true God, and that the faith of all toward him is ^C not directed simply as toward one of us, but as toward one Lord, and Son, and God. For, first, he himself is the gospel of salvation, in whom our faith is placed, clearly as in God. And there follows the reward of faith, that is, the Spirit of promise, the pledge of our inheritance; for we have been redeemed unto the praise of the glory of Christ. For he saved us not as an ordinary man, but as God having become flesh for our sake. For thus shall we be unto the praise of his glory.

«For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for you Gentiles, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me towards you: how that, according to revelation, the mystery was made known to me, as I have written above in a few words; ^D as you reading may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ.» What need is there of understanding, and of revelation from God, to make known the mystery of Christ, if he is merely a man, separated from the Word of God, and honored only by a bare union of persons? For what does it contain that is hidden, or what difficulty is there at all in understanding regarding some ordinary man, resembling us, that he is a man? But this mystery is truly profound and great, if the Word, being God, is said to have become like us. When, therefore, those who are deep in understanding, and have been favored with divine revelation, have handed down to us the mystery of Christ as a divine mystery, and our faith is in him, clearly as in God—how should he not be God?

Another thing similar to this, and having the same

mind. ^A “To me, the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to enlighten all as to what is the dispensation of the mystery hidden from the ages in God, who created all things.” “Husbands,” he says, “love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.” What, then, is the word by which we are cleansed, having washed the body with pure water, if it is not entirely that concerning which the inspired Paul says: “This is the word of faith which we preach, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”? Since, therefore, we who confess Christ in faith are saved, how is He not true God, in whom, when the word of faith is realized, we are both cleansed and sanctified?

From the Epistle to the Philippians. “For what then?” he says. “Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached.” Is He, then, preached to the world as a man honored by grace? And yet the world has come to know Christ as God, having honored Him with faith. How, then, is He not God, who is preached to the world in the glory of deity? ^B “Striving together,” he says, “for the faith of the Gospel (and not terrified in anything by your adversaries), which is to them a token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God; because to you it has been granted for the sake of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” If we receive as a portion of grace from God the fact that we believe in Christ, and are not thereby led into error, but rather have come to know Him who is God by nature and in truth, how could anyone doubt that Christ is God?

From the First Epistle to Timothy. “Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first; but for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Christ Jesus might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who were to believe on Him for eternal life.” ^C If Christ saves sinners, and is longsuffering toward transgressions, accepting their repentance; and if our whole faith is in Him, and through the faith in Him we have obtained eternal life; how could He not be God? For it would fittingly be appropriate for God alone both to be able to save the world, or those who are in the world, and to be longsuffering toward those who sin, and to make alive through faith in Himself. ^D

^A And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory. Who, I ask, is He who was manifested in the flesh? Is it not manifest in every way that He is none other than the Word who is from God the Father? For thus will the mystery of godliness be great. God was manifest in the flesh, and was seen of angels ascending into heaven; He was preached among the Gentiles by the holy apostles, and was believed on in the world. And we do not say that He is merely a man like us, but rather as God made flesh and having become like us. He was also received up in glory, so that He might hear God and the Father saying: "Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool."

*From the Epistle to Titus.*

"This is a faithful saying: and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works." Do not those, therefore, who believe in God, believe in Christ? And yet the blessed John is clearly seen speaking of Him: "As many," he says, "as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." And the blessed Paul also adds his signature, for he says: "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified in him." Since, therefore, those who offer faith to Christ believe in God, how can Christ not be true God?

That faith is in Christ.

"As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." He places here together two things that pertain to God; for there is no other way in which we embrace Christ than by the fact that we tend toward Him by faith, and this he makes clear when he says: "To them that believe on his name." But we believe in His name, not considering Him a common man and like ourselves, but as God incarnate. ^C Furthermore, the fact that He gives power to become sons of God is not the work of human ^D strength, but of the divine nature, and something more sublime than the whole of creation. Since, therefore, faith tends toward Christ Himself, and He Himself gives the grace that we may be made children of God, how is Christ not God?

"This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him." The sign having been performed, and the glory of Christ having been manifested, in whom, I ask, did those blessed disciples believe? Was it in a man merely holy? And yet before the sign was performed they followed Him, having admired Him as a holy man; but they beheld through the sign

^A His power and authority beyond that of man. Therefore they have believed as in God. But it must be known that many of the saints have performed many wondrous deeds; and they were admired indeed, but no one believed in them. He would have the same thought: "Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast, many believed in his name, beholding his signs which he performed."

"For God sent not his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He that believeth in him is not judged; but he that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." If faith in the Son is the way of salvation, how do we then believe in Him? Or how shall we escape the judgment that comes from being judged? Are we, by accepting Him perhaps as a mere man, to see nothing beyond this? But then how shall we not be worshiping a man? But we believe as in God; for this is the truth. Who then would dare to say that He, in whom faith has justified all under heaven, is not in truth God? ^B

"The father knew then that it was in that hour in which He said to him, 'Thy son liveth.' And he believed, he and his whole house." Christ raised the son of the royal official from the dead, having said to him, "Go, thy son liveth." And then he believed with his whole household. Did the royal official, then, because of such great and God-befitting authority, believe in Him as in a man? Or did he recognize that He was God by nature, and that He quickens with authority whomever He might choose, and by a word alone? But it is clear that he believed ^C as in God.

"Amen, amen I say to you, that he who heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life." God the Father has sent to us from heaven His own Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish, but have eternal life. How then does He say in these things that he who believes in Him that sent Him has eternal life? In whom, then, is faith placed? Is it as in two gods, the Father and the Son? Far be it! But as in one true God. Therefore, if anyone should believe in Christ, he has believed in God; and if he should believe in God the Father, he will have believed also in the one Lord ^D Jesus Christ.

"Jesus answered and said to them: This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent." If we perform what is pleasing to God by believing in Christ (for the Father truly sent Him into the world when He became man for our sake), how would He not be true God? For it would not be the work of God to believe in Him.

"Jesus cried out and said: He that believeth in me, believeth not in me, but in him that sent me."