Theological Orations 27-30 4-1 part 2/2

save that here there is something more.

For there the image is motionless, of one that moves;

but here it is the living image of the Living One, and having more of unalterableness than Seth had of Adam, or any offspring of its begetter.

For such is the nature of simple beings, that they do not resemble in one respect and differ in another, but the whole is the impress of the whole, and rather the same than a mere likeness.

And He is Light, as the brightness of souls cleansed both by reason and by life.

For if ignorance and sin are darkness, then knowledge and the godly life would be light.

And He is Life, because He is Light, and the foundation and substantiation of every rational nature.

For in Him we live, and move, and have our being, according to the double power of the inbreathing — both being breathed into thence as breath, all of us, and as Holy Spirit so many as are capable, and that to the degree that we open the mouth of the mind.

And He is Righteousness, because He apportions according to worth, and judges justly between those under the law and those under grace, between soul and body, so that the one should rule and the other be ruled, and the better should hold the lordship over the worse, so that the worse should not rise up against the better.

And He is Sanctification, as being purity, that the pure might be contained by purity.

And He is Redemption, as setting us free who were held under sin, and giving Himself as a ransom for us, a purifying sacrifice for the world.

And He is Resurrection, as raising us up from hence, and bringing back to life those who were deadened by sin.

These, then, are still common to Him who is above us and to Him who is for our sake.

But those which are peculiarly ours, and belong to the manhood He there assumed, are these:

He is Man, not only that He might be contained by bodies through a body, who otherwise could not be contained because of the incomprehensibility of His nature;

but also that through Himself He might sanctify man, becoming as it were a leaven to the whole lump, and, having united to Himself the whole that was condemned, might dissolve the condemnation of the whole, becoming all things for all that we are, except sin — body, soul, mind, all that death pervades;

the common term from these is "Man" — God seen, because of that which is conceived (the Godhead).

And He is Son of Man, both because of Adam and because of the Virgin, from whom He came;

of the one as forefather, of the other as mother, by the law and yet not by the law of generation.

And He is Christ, because of the Godhead;

for this is the anointing of the manhood, sanctifying not by an energy as in the case of the other christs (anointed ones), but by the presence of the whole Anointer;

whose effect is that the Anointing should be called Man, and that which is anointed should be made God.

And He is the Way, as leading us through Himself.

And He is the Shepherd, as making us to lie down in a place of green pasture, and nourishing us beside the water of rest, and leading us thence, and warring on our behalf against the wild beasts;

turning back the wandering, bringing home the lost, binding up the broken, guarding the strong, and gathering them to the fold above by the words of pastoral skill.

And He is High Priest, as the one who brings us near (to God).

Melchizedek again: as 'without mother' in respect of what is above us, and 'without father' in respect of what is according to us;

and as 'without genealogy' in respect of the realm above;

for 'Who shall declare his generation?' it says. And He is King of Salem—which means Peace—and King of righteousness, and One who receives tithes from patriarchs who prevailed in valour against the powers of evil.

You have the titles of the Son.

Walk through them—those that are lofty, in a manner befitting God; and those that are bodily, with compassion;

for our sake He came down from on high.

Above all, and before all, keep this in mind, and you will not stumble over either the loftier or the lowlier names:

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today in His bodily nature, the same spiritually, and unto the ages of ages.