BOOK XI.

1. THE Apostle in his letter to the Ephe- one Lord and one God the Father? Further, sians, reviewing in its manifold aspects the full how can the faith be one, when its preachers and perfect mystery of the Gospel, mingles are so at variance? One comes teaching that with other instructions in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, being in the weakness God the following: As ye also were called in of our nature, groaned with anguish when the one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, nails pierced His hands, that He lost the one baptism, one God and Father of al, and virtue of His own power and nature, and through all, and in us all. He does not leave shrank shuddering from the death which us in the vague and misleading paths of an threatened Him. Another even denies the indefinite teaching, or abandon us to the shift- cardinal doctrine of the Generation and proing fancies of imagination, but limits the un-nounces Him a creature. Another will call impeded license of intellect and desire by the Him, but not think Him, God on the ground appointment of restraining barriers. He gives that religion allows us to speak of more Gods us no opportunity to be wise beyond what he than One, but He, Whom we recognise as God, preached, but defines in exact and precise must be conscious of sharing the divine nature 2. language the faith fixed for all time, that there Again, how can Christ the Lord be one, when may be no excuse for instability of belief. He some say that as God He feels no pain, others deciares one faith, as he preaches one Lord, make Him weak and fearful: to some He is and pronounces one baptism, as he declares God in name, to others God in nature: to one faith of one Lord. that as there is one some the Son by Generation, to others the faith of one Lord, so there may be one bap- Son by appellation? And if this is so, how can tism of one faith in one Lord. And since the God the Father be one in the faith, when to whole mystery of the baptism and the faith is some He is Father by His authority, to others not only in one Lord, but also in one God, Father by generation, in the sense that God he completes the consummation of our hope is Father of the universe? by the confession of one God. The one baptism and the one faith are of one God, as they are of one Lord. Lord and God are each one, not by union of person but by distinction of properties for, on the one hand, it is the property of Each to be one, whether of the Father in His Fatherhood, or of the Son in His Sonship, and on the other hand, that property of individuality, which Each possesses, constitutes for Each the mystery of His union with the Other. Thus the one Lord Christ cannot take away from God the Father His Lordship, or the one God the Father deny to the one Lord Christ His Godhead. If, because God is one, Christ is not also by nature divine, then we cannot allow that the one God is Lord, because there is one Lord Christ : 3. Yet it cannot be denied that Christ was that is, on the supposition that by their 'one- Christ. It cannot be that He was incognisness' is signified not the mystery, but an ex- able to mankind. The books of the proclusive unity. So there is one baptism and one faith of one Lord, as of one God.

2. But how can it be any longer one faith, if it does not steadfastly and sincerely confess one Lord and one God the Father: and how can the faith which is not one faith confess

1 Eph. iv. 4-6.

And yet, who will deny that whatever is not the one faith, is not faith at all? For in the one faith there is one Lord Christ, and God the Father is one. But the one Lord Jesus Christ is not one in the truth of the confession, as well as in name, unless He is Son, unless He is God3, unless He is unchangeable, unless His Sonship and His Godhead have been eternally present in Him. He who preaches Christ other than He is, that is, other than Son and God, preaches another Christ. Nor is he in the one faith of the one baptism, for in the teaching of the Apostle the one faith is the faith of that one baptism, in which the one Lord is Christ, the Son of God Who is also God.

phets have set their seal upon Him: the ful

that, while we have the authority of the Bible to speak of God, 2 The text is very corrupt here, but the meaning seems to be if we do not attach its full meaning to the word (e.g. Psalm in its proper significance it is blasphemous to call Christ God. The reading of the earlier editions and some MSS., duos dici irreligiosum est, et Deum non intelligi,' is probably a gloss to soften the difficulty.

lxxxii. 6, "I have said, 'Ye are Gods,' '), yet if we use the name

3 Reading 'unus est, si filius sit, si Deus sit.'

7. In our reply we have followed Him to blush or the false excuse; for there are occathe moment of His glorious death, and taking sions when even pardon accorded to ignorance one by one the statements of their unhallowed is refused, and wilful misconstruction is exposed doctrine, we have refuted them from the teach-in its naked profanity. Let us postpone for ing of the Gospels and the Apostle. But even a moment the exposition of this passage in the after His glorious resurrection there are cer- Gospel, and ask them first whether they have tain things which they have made bold to con- forgotten the preaching of the Apostle, who strue as proofs of the weakness of a lower said, Without controversy great is the mystery nature, and to these we must now reply. Let of godliness, which was manifested in the flesh, us adopt once more our usual method of draw-justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached ing out from the words themselves their true among the nations, believed on in the world, signification, that so we may discover the truth received up in glory. Who is so dull that he precisely where they think to overthrow it. cannot comprehend that the mystery of godFor the Lord spoke in simple words for our liness is simply the Dispensation of the flesh. instruction in the faith, and His words cannot assumed by the Lord? At the outset then, he need support or comment from foreign and who does not agree in this confession is not irrelevant sayings. in the faith of God. For the Apostle leaves 8. Among their other sins the heretics no doubt that all must confess that the hidden often employ as an argument the words secret of our salvation is not the dishonour of the Lord, I ascend unto My Father of God, but the mystery of great godliness, and your Father, and My God and your and a mystery no longer kept from our eyes, God. His Father is also their Father, His but manifested in the flesh; no longer weak God their God; therefore He is not in the through the nature of flesh, but justified in nature of God, for He pronounces God the the Spirit. And so by the justification of the Father of others as of Himself, and His Spirit is removed from our faith the idea of unique Sonship ceases when He shares with fleshly weakness; through the manifestation of others the nature and the origin which make the flesh is revealed that which was secret, and Him Son and God. But let them add further in the unknown cause of that which was secret the words of the Apostle, But when He saith is contained the only confession, the confession All things are put in subjection, He is excepted of the mystery of great godliness. This is the Who did subject all things unto Him. And whole system of the faith set forth by the when all things have been subjected unto Him, Apostle in its proper order. From godliness then shall He Himself be subjected unto Him, proceeds the mystery, from the mystery the that did subject all things unto Himself, that manifestation in the flesh, from the manifesGod may be all in all, whereby, since they tation in the flesh the justification in the Spirit: regard that subjection as a proof of weakness, for the mystery of godliness which was manithey may dispossess Him of the virtue of His fested in the flesh, to be truly a mystery, was Father's nature, because His natural infirmity manifested in the flesh through the justification subjected Him to the dominion of a stronger of the Spirit. Again, we must not forget what nature. And after that, let them adopt their manner of justification in the Spirit is this very strongest position and their impregnable manifestation in the flesh: for the mystery defence, before which the truth of the Divine which was manifested in the flesh, justified in birth is to be demolished; namely, that if He the Spirit, seen of angels, preached among the is subjected, He is not God; if His God and nations, and believed on in this world, this Father is ours also, He shares all in common same mystery was received up in glory. Thus with creatures, and therefore is Himself also is it in every way a mystery of great godliness, a creature: created of God and not begotten, when it is manifested in the flesh, when it is since the creature has its substance out of justified in the Spirit, when it is seen of angels, nothing, but the begotten possesses the nature when it is preached among the nations, when of its author. it is believed on in the world, and when it is received up in glory. The preaching follows the seeing, and the believing the preaching, and the consummation of all is the receiving up in glory for the assumption into glory is the mystery of great godliness, and by faith in the Dispensation we are prepared to be received up, and to be conformed to the glory of the Lord. The assumption of flesh is there

9. Falsehood is always infamous, for the liar throwing off the bridle of shame dares to gainsay the truth, or else at times he hides behind some veil of pretext, that he may appear to defend with modesty what is shameless in intention. But in this case, when they sacrilegiously use the Scriptures to degrade the dignity of our Lord, there is no room for the

fore also the mystery of great godliness, for 12. See in all that He said, how carefully through the assumption of flesh the mystery the Lord tempers the pious acknowledgment was manifested in the flesh. But we must of His debt, so that neither the confession of believe that the manifestation in the flesh also the birth could be held to reflect upon His is this same mystery of great godliness, for divinity, nor His reverent obedience to infringe His manifestation in the flesh is His justifica- upon His sovereign nature. He does not tion in the Spirit, and His assumption into withhold the homage due from Him as the glory. And now what room does our faith Begotten, Who owed to His Author His very leave for any to think that the secret of the existence, but He manifests by His confident Dispensation of godliness is the enfeebling of bearing the consciousness of participation in the divinity, when through the assumption of that nature, which belongs to Him by virtue glory is to be confessed the mystery of great of the origin whereby He was born as God. godliness? What was 'infirmity' is now the Take, for instance, the words, He that hath 'mystery: what was 'necessity' becomes 'god-seen Me, hath seen the Father also 3, and, The liness 9. And now let us turn to the meaning words that I say, I speak not from Myself 4. He of the Evangelist's words, that the secret of does not speak from Himself: therefore He our salvation and our glory may not be con- receives from His Author that which He verted into an occasion of blasphemy. says. But if any have seen Him, they

10. You credit with the weight of irresistible have seen the Father also: they are conauthority, heretic, that saying of the Lord, scious, by this evidence, given to shew that 1 ascend to My Father and your Father, and God is in Him, that a nature, one in kind My God and your God1. The same Father, with that of God, was born from God to you say, is His Father and ours, the same subsist as God. Take again the words, God His God and ours. He partakes, there- That which the Father hath given unto Me, fore, of our weakness, for in the possession of the same Father we are not inferior as sons, and in the service of the same God we are equal as servants. Since, then, we are of created origin and a servant's nature, but have a common Father and God with Him, He is in common with our nature a creature and a servant. So runs this infatuated and unhallowed teaching. It produces also the words of the Prophet, Thy God hath anointed Thee, O God, to prove that Christ does not partake of that glorious nature which belongs to God, since the God Who anoints Him is preferred before Him as His God 2.

11. We do not know Christ the God unless we know God the Begotten. But to be born God is to belong to the nature of God, for the name Begotten signifies indeed the manner of His origin, but does not make Him different in kind from the Begetter. And if so, the Begotten owes indeed to His Author the source of His being, but is not dispossessed of the nature of that Author, for the birth of God can arise but from one origin, and have but one nature. If its origin is not from God, it is not a birth; if it is anything but a birth, Christ is not God. But He is God of God, and therefore God the Father stands to God the Son as God of His birth and Father of His nature, for the birth of God is from God, and in the specific nature of God.

is greater than all 5, and, I and the Father are one 6. To say that the Father gave, is a confession that He received His origin: but the unity of Himself with the Father is a property of His nature derived from that origin. Take another instance, He hath given all judgment unto the Son, that all may honour the Son even as they honour the Father. He acknowledges that the judgment is given to Him, and therefore He does not put His birth in the background: but He claims equal honour with the Father, and therefore He does not resign His nature. Yet another example, I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me, and, The Father is greater than 19. The One is in the Other recognise, then, the divinity of God, the Begotten of God the Father is greater than He: perceive, then, His acknowledgment of the Father's authority. In the same way He says, The Son can do nothing of Himself but what He hath seen the Father doing: for what things soever He doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner1. He doeth nothing of Himself: that is, in accordance with His birth the Father prompts His actions: yet what things soever the Father doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner; that is, He subsists as nothing less than God, and by the Father's omnipotent nature residing in Him, can do all that God the Father does. All is uttered in agreement with His unity of Spirit with the Father, and the properties of that nature,

which He possesses by virtue of His birth. are the brethren of the Only-begotten God. That birth, which brought Him into being, It is as a worm and no man that He says, constituted Him divine, and His being reveals I will declare Thy name unto My brethren 3. the consciousness of that divine nature. God As a worm, which is born without the ordithe Son confesses God His Father, because nary process of conception, or else comes up He was born of Him; but also, because He into the world, already living, from the depths was born, He inherits the whole nature of God. of the earth, He speaks here in manifestation 13. So the Dispensation of the great and of the fact that He had assumed flesh and also godly mystery makes Him, Who was already brought it up, living, from Hades. Throughout Father of the divine Son, also His Lord in the the Psalm He is foretelling by the Spirit of created form which He assumed, for He, Who prophecy the mysteries of His Passion: it is was in the form of God, was found also in therefore in respect of the Dispensation, in the form of a servant. Yet He was not a which He suffered, that He has brethren. servant, for according to the Spirit He was The Apostle also recognises the mystery of God the Son of God. Every one will agree this brotherhood, for he calls Him not only also that there is no servant where there is the firstborn from the dead, but also the firstno lord. God is indeed Father in the Gen- born among many brethren 5. Christ is the eration of the Only-begotten God, but only Firstborn among many brethren in the same in the case that the Other is a servant can sense in which He is Firstborn from the dead : we call Him Lord as well as Father. The Son was not at the first a servant by nature, but afterwards began to be by nature something which He was not before. Thus the Father is Lord on the same grounds as the Son is servant. By the Dispensation of His nature the Son had a Lord, when He made Himself a servant by the assumption of manhood.

and as the mystery of death concerns His body, so the mystery of brotherhood also refers to His flesh. Thus Gol has brethren according to His flesh, for the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us: but the Onlybegotten Son, unique as the Only-begotten, has no brethren.

16. By assuming flesh, however, He acquired our nature in our totality, and became all that 14. Being, then, in the form of a servant, we are, but did not lose that which He was Jesus Christ, Who before was in the form of before. Both before by His heavenly origin, God, said as a man, I ascend to My Father and now by His earthly constitution, God is and your Father, and My God and your God. His Father. By His earthly constitution God He was speaking as a servant to servants: how is His Father, since all things are from God can we then dissociate the words from Christ the Father, and God is Father to all things, the servant, and transfer them to that nature, since from Him and in Him are all things. which had nothing of the servant in it? For But to the Only-begotten God, God is Father, He Who abode in the form of God took upon not only because the Word became flesh; His Him the form of a servant, this form being Fatherhood extends also to Him Who was, the indispensable condition of His fellowship as a servant with servants. It is in this sense that God is His Father and the Father of men, His God and the God of servants. Jesus Christ was speaking as a man in the form of a servant to men and servants; what difficulty is there then in the idea, that in His human aspect the Father is His Father as ours, in His servant's nature God is His God as all men's?

15. These, then, are the words with which He prefaces the message, Go unto My brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and My God and your God. I ask, Are they to be understood as His brethren with reference to the form of God or to the form of a servant? And has our flesh kinship with Him in regard to the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in Him, that we should be reckoned His brothers in respect of His divinity? No, for the Spirit of prophecy recognises clearly in what respect we

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as God the Word, with God in the beginning. Thus, when the Word became flesh, God was His Father both by the birth of God the Word, and by the constitution of His flesh : for God is the Father of all flesh, though not in the same way that He is Father to God the Word. But God the Word, though He did not cease to be God, really did become flesh and while He thus dwelt He was still truly the Word, just as when the Word became flesh He was still truly God as well as man. For to dwell' can only be said of one who abides in something and to become flesh' of one who is born. He dwelt among us; that is, He assumed our flesh. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us; that is, He was God in the reality of our body. If Christ Jesus, the man according to the flesh, robbed God the Word of the divine nature, or was