Christ all the fulness of the Godhead is pre-sent in bodily shape.

of the Godhead is lacking in Him, in Whose working and speaking and manifestation God works and speaks and is beheld. They are not 54. Now I ask, whose Godhead is it wheretwo Gods, Who in their working and words of the fulness dwells in Him? If it be not and manifestation put on a semblance of unity. that of the Father, what other God do you, Neither is He a solitary God. Who in the misleading preacher of one God, thrust upon works and words and sight of God, Himself me as Him Whose Godhead dwells fully in worked and spoke and was seen as God. The Christ? But if it be that of the Father, inform Church understands this. The Synagogue me how this fulness dwells in Him in bodily does not believe, philosophy does not know, fashion. If you hold that the Father abides that being One of One, Whole of Whole, God in the Son in bodily fashion, the Father, while and Son, He has neither by His birth de- dwelling in the Son, will not exist in Himprived the Father of His completeness, nor self. If on the other hand, and this is more failed to possess the same completeness in true, the Godhead abiding in Him in bodily Himself by right of His birth. And whosoever shape displays within Him the verity of the is caught in this folly of unbelief is a disciple either of the Jews or of the heathen.

Christ He dwells in bodily form, and yet whatever dwells in Him bodily is according to the fulness of Godhead; why follow after the doctrines of men? Why cleave to the teaching of empty falsehoods? Why talk of agreement' or harmony of will' or 'a creature?' The fulness of Godhead dwells in Christ bodily.

nature of God from God, inasmuch as God is in Him, abiding neither through condescension 53. Now that you may understand the say- nor through will but by birth, true and wholly ing of the Lord, when He said, All things in bodily fulness according as He is; and whatsoever the Father hath are Mine, learn inasmuch as, in the whole compass of His the teaching and faith of the Apostle who said, being, He was born by His divine birth to Take heed lest any lead you astray through be God, and within the Godhead there is philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of no difference or dissimilarity, except that in men, after the elements of the world and not afer Christ; for in Him dwelleth the fulness of Godhead bodily. That man is of the world and savours of the teaching of men and is the victim of philosophy, who does not know Christ to be the true God, who does not recognise in Him the fulness of Godhead. The mind of man knows only that which it 55. The Apostle has herein held fast to the understands, and the world's powers of be- canon of his faith, by teaching that the fulness lief are limited, since it judges according to of the Godhead dwelt in Christ bodily; and the laws of the material elements that that this, in order that the teaching of the faith alone is possible which it can see or do. For might not degenerate into an unholy profesthe elements of the world have come into sion of a oneness of Persons or sinful frenzy being out of nothing, but Christ's continuity of break forth into the belief of two different existence did not begin in the non-existent, nor natures. For the fulness of Godhead which did He ever begin to exist, but He took from dwells in Christ in bodily fashion is neither the beginning a beginning which is eternal. The elements of the world are either without life, or have issued out of this stage into life, but Christ is life, born to be living God from the living God. The elements of the world have been established by God, but they are not God: Christ as God of God is Himself wholly all that God is. The elements of the world, since they are within it, cannot pos- Christ. Lay hands on every chance that sibly rise out of their condition and cease to offers for your quibbles, sharpen the points be within it, but Christ, while having God of your blasphemous wit. Name, at least, within Himself through the Mystery, is Him- the imaginary being whose fulness of Godhead self in God. The elements of the universe, it is which dwells in Christ in bodily fashion. generating from themselves creatures with a For He is Christ, and there is dwelling in Him life like their own, do indeed through the ex- in bodily fashion the fulness of Godhead. ercise of their bodily functions bestow upon 56. And if you would know what it is them from their own bodies the beginnings of to dwell in bodily fashion,' understand what life, but they are not themselves present as it is to speak in one that speaks, to be seen in living beings in their offspring, whereas in one who is seen, to work in one who works,

solitary nor separable; for the fulness in bodily form does not admit any partition from the other bodily fulness, and the indwelling Godhead cannot be regarded as also the dwelling-place of the Godhead. And Christ is so constituted that the fulness of Godhead dwells in Him in bodily fashion, and that this fulness must be held one in nature with

to be God in God, whole of whole, one of one; and thus learn what is meant by the

fulness of God in bodily shape. Remember, is His Godhead that dwells in Christ in bodily too, that the Apostle does not keep silence on the question, whose Godhead it is, which dwells fully in Christ in bodily fashion, for he says, For the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His everlasting power and divinity 9. So it

9 Rom. i. ao.

fashion, not partially but wholly, not parcelwise but in fulness; and so dwelling that the Two are one, and so one, that the One Who is God does not differ from the Other Who is God: Both so equally divine, as a perfect birth engendered perfect God. And the birth exists thus in its perfection, because the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily in God born of God.

BOOK IX.

I. IN the last book we treated of the in-, merely a relationship of mutual harmony. distinguishable nature of God the Father and But the blessed Apostle, after many indubitGod the Son, and demonstrated that the able statements of the real truth, cuts short words, I and the Father are One', go to their rash and profane assertions, by saying, prove not a solitary God, but a unity of the in Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the GodGodhead unbroken by the birth of the Son: head bodily, for by the bodily indwelling of for God can be born only of God, and He the incorporeal God in Christ is taught that is born God of God must be all that the strict unity of Their nature. It is, thereGod is. We reviewed, although not exhaust- fore, not a matter of words, but a real truth ively, yet enough to make our meaning clear, that the Son was not alone, but the Father the sayings of our Lord and the Apostles, abode in Him: and not only abode, but also which teach the inseparable nature and power worked and spoke: not only worked and of the Father and the Son; and we came spoke, but also manifested Himself in Him. to the passage in the teaching of the Apostle, Through the Mystery of the birth the Son's where he says, Take heed lest there shall be power is the power of the Father, His auany one that leadeth you astray through philo-thority the Father's authority, His nature the sophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of Father's nature. By His birth the Son posmen, after the rudiments of the world, and not sesses the nature of the Father: as the Father's after Christ; for in Him dwelleth all the ful-image, He reproduces from the Father all that ness of the Godhead bodily. We pointed is in the Father, because He is the reality as out that here the words, in Him dwelleth well as the image of the Father, for a perfect ail the fulness of the Godhead bodily, prove birth produces a perfect image, and the fulness Him true and perfect God of His Father's of the Godhead dwelling bodily in Him indinature, neither severing Him from, nor iden- cates the truth of His nature. tifying Him with, the Father. On the one

2. All this is indeed as it is: He, Who hand we are taught that, since the incorporeal is by nature God of God, must possess the God dwelt in Him bodily, the Son as God nature of His origin, which God possesses, begotten of God is in natural unity with the and the indistinguishable unity of a living Father and on the other hand, if God dwelt nature cannot be divided by the birth of in Christ, this proves the birth of the personal a living nature. Yet nevertheless the heretics, Christ in Whom He dwelt 3. We have thus, under cover of the saving confession of the it seems to me, more than answered the Gospel faith, are stealing on to the subversion irreverence of those who refer to a unity of the truth: for by forcing their own interor agreement of will such words of the Lord pretations on words uttered with other meanas, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father, ings and intentions, they are robbing the Son or, The Father is in Me and I in the Father 5, of His natural unity. Thus to deny the Son of or, I and the Father are One, or, All things God, they quote the authority of His own words, whatsoever the Father hath are Mine7. Not Why callest thou Me good? None is good, save daring to deny the words themselves, these one, God. These words, they say, proclaim false teachers, in the mask of religion, corrupt the Oneness of God: anything else, therefore, the sense of the words. For instance, it is true that where the unity of nature is proclaimed, the agreement of will cannot be denied; but in order to set aside that unity which follows from the birth, they profess

which shares the name of God, cannot possess the nature of God, for God is One. And from His words, This is life eternal, that they should know Thee the only true God, they attempt to establish the theory that Christ is called God by a mere title, not as being Further, to exclude Him from the very God.

8 St. Mark x. 18 (cf. St. Matt. xix. 17, St. Luke xviii. 19). The Greek is oudeis ayatos, ei μn els ò Deós, 'save one, even God' (R.V.). The application of this text by the Arians depends upon the omission of the article ò.

9 St. John xvii. 3.

because He remains for ever God. This is the true faith for human blessedness, to preach at once the Godhead and the manhood, to confess the Word and the flesh, neither forgetting the God, because He is man, nor ignoring the flesh, because He is the Word.

So

proper nature of the true God, they quote, The Son can do nothing of Himself except that which He hath seen the Father do. They use also the text, The Father is greater than I Finally, when they repeat the words, Of that day and that hour knoweth no one, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father 4. It is contrary to our experience of nature, only 3, as though they were the absolute renun- that He should be born man and still remain ciation of His claim to divinity, they boast God; but it accords with the tenor of our that they have overthrown the faith of the expectation, that being born man, He still Church. The birth, they say, cannot raise remained God, for when the higher nature to equality the nature which the limitation is born into the lower, it is credible that the of ignorance degrades. The Father's omnis lower should also be born into the higher. cience and the Son's ignorance reveal un- And, indeed, according to the laws and habits likeness in the Divinity, for God must be of nature, the working of our expectation even ignorant of nothing, and the ignorant cannot anticipates the divine mystery. For in every be compared with the omniscient. All these thing that is born, nature has the capacity passages they neither understand rationally, for increase, but has no power of decrease. nor distinguish as to their occasions, nor Look at the trees, the crops, the cattle. Reapprehend in the light of the Gospel mysteries, gard man himself, the possessor of reason. nor realize in the strict meaning of the words; He always expands by growth, he does not and so they impugn the divine nature of Christ contract by decrease; nor does he ever lose with crude and insensate rashness, quoting the self into which he has grown. He wastes single detached utterances to catch the ears indeed with age, or is cut off by death; he of the unwary, and keeping back either the undergoes change by lapse of time, or reaches sequel which explains or the incidents which the end allotted to the constitution of life, prompted them, though the meaning of words yet it is not in his power to cease to be what must be sought in the context before or after he is; I mean that he cannot make a new them. self by decrease from his old self, that is, 3. We will offer later an explanation of become a child again from an old man. these texts in the words of the Gospels and the necessity of perpetual increase, which is Epistles themselves. But first we hold it right imposed on our nature by natural law, leads to remind the members of our common faith, us on good grounds to expect its promotion that the knowledge of the Eternal is presented into a higher nature, since its increase is acin the same confession which gives eternal cording to, and its decrease contrary to, nature. life 4. He does not, he cannot know his own It was God alone Who could become somelife, who is ignorant that Christ Jesus was thing other than before, and yet not cease to very God, as He was very man. It is equally be what He had ever been; Who could shrink perilous, whether we deny that Christ Jesus within the limits of womb, cradle, and infancy, was God the Spirit, or that He was flesh of yet not depart from the power of God. This our body: Every one therefore who shall con- is a mystery, not for Himself, but for us. fess Me before men, him will I also confess The assumption of our nature was no adbefore My Father which is in Heaven. But vancement for God, but His willingness to whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will lower Himself is our promotion, for He did I also deny before My Father which is in heaven 5. not resign His divinity but conferred divinity So said the Word made flesh; so taught the on man. man Jesus Christ, the Lord of majesty, con- 5. The Only-begotten God, therefore, when stituted Mediator in His own person for the He was born man of the Virgin, and in the salvation of the Church, and being in that fulness of time was about in His own person very mystery of Mediatorship between men to raise humanity to divinity, always mainand God, Himself one Person, both man and tained this form of the Gospel teaching. He God. For He, being of two natures united taught, namely, to believe Him the Son of for that Mediatorship, is the full reality of each God, and exhorted to preach Him the Son nature; while abiding in cach, He is wanting of Man; man saying and doing all that belongs in neither; He does not cease to be God to God; God saying and doing all that belongs because He becomes man, nor fail to be man to man. Yet never did He speak without signifying by the twofold aspect of these very utterances both His manhood and His divinity. Though He proclaimed one God the Father, He declared Himself to be in the

St. John v. 19.

2 Ib. xiv. 238. 3 St. Mark xiii. 32; cf. St. Matt. xxiv. 36. 4 Alluding to St. John xvii. 3, quoted in c. 2. 5 St. Matt. x. 32, 33.

nature of the one God, by the truth of His generation. Yet in His office as Son and His condition as man, He subjected Himself to God the Father, since everything that is born must refer itself back to its author, and all flesh must confess itself weak before God. Here, accordingly, the heretics find opportunity to deceive the simple and ignorant. These words, uttered in His human character, they falsely refer to the weakness of His divine nature; and because He was one and the same Person in all His utterances, they claim that He spake always of His entire self.

this, not merely through man, for He was born of Himself, He suffered of His own free will, and died of Himself. He did it also as man, for He was really born, suffered and died. These were the mysteries of the secret counsels of heaven, determined before the world was made. The Only-begotten God was to become man of His own will, and man was to abide eternally in God. God was to suffer of His own will, that the malice of the devil, working in the weakness of human infirmity, might not confirm the law of sin in us, since God had assumed our weakness. God was to die of His own will, that no power, after that the immortal God had constrained Himself within the law of death, might raise up its head against Him, or put forth the natural strength which He had created in it. Thus God was born to take us into Himself, suffered to justify us, and died to avenge us; for our manhood abides for ever in Him, the weakness of our infirmity is united with His strength, and the spiritual powers of iniquity and wickedness are subdued in the triumph of our flesh, since God died through the flesh.

6. We do not deny that all the sayings which are preserved of His, refer to His nature. But, if Jesus Christ be man and God, neither God for the first time, when He became man, nor then ceasing to be God, nor after He became Man in God less than perfect man and perfect God, then the mystery of His words must be one and the same with that of His nature. When according to the time indicated, we disconnect His divinity from humanity, then let us also disconnect His language as God from the language of man; when we confess Him God and man at the sime time, let us distinguish at the same time 8. The Apostle, who knew this mystery, His words as God and His words as man; and had received the knowledge of the faith when after His manhood and Godhead, we through the Lord Himself, was not unmindful, recognise again the time when His whole that neither the world, nor mankind, nor phimanhood is wholly God, let us refer to that losophy could contain Him, for he writes, time all that is revealed concerning it. It is Take heed, lest there shall be any one that one thing, that He was God before He was leadeth you astray through philosophy and vain man, another, that He was man and God, deceit, after the tradition of men, after the and another, that after being man and God, rudiments of the world, and not after Jesus He was perfect man and perfect God. Do Christ, for in Him dwelleth all the fulness of not then confuse the times and natures in the Godhead bodily, and in Him ye are made full, the mystery of the dispensation, for according Who is the head of all principalities and powers?. to the attributes of His different natures, He After the announcement that in Christ dwelleth must speak of Himself in relation to the mys- all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, follows tery of His humanity, in one way before His immediately the mystery of our assumption, birth, in another while He was yet to die, in the words, in Him ye are made full. As and in another as eternal. the fulness of the Godhead is in Him, so we are made full in Him. The Apostle says not merely ye are made full, but, in IÏım je are made full; for all who are, or shall be, regenerated through the hope of faith to life eternal, abide even now in the body of Christ; and afterwards they shall be made full no longer in Him, but in themselves, at the time of which the Apostle says, Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory. Now, therefore, we are made full in Him, that is, by the assumption of His flesh, for in Him 6 The three periods referred to in these three sentences are dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily. (1) before the Incarnation: we can assign only to His Godhead Nor has this our hope a light authority the words Christ uses in reference to this period, because He was not yet man. (2) The Incarnation: we must distinguish whether in Him. Our fulness in Him constitutes His He is speaking of Himself as man or as God. (3) After the Resurrection, when His manhood remains, but is perfected in the Godhead.

7. For our sake, therefore, Jesus Christ, retaining all these attributes, and being born man in our body, spoke after the fashion of our nature without concealing that divinity belonged to His own nature. In His birth, His passion, and His death, He passed through all the circumstances of our nature, but He bore them all by the power of His own. He was Himself the cause of His birth, He willed to suffer what He could not suffer, He died though He lives for ever. Yet God did all

7 Col. ii. 8-10.

8 Phil. iii. 21.