On the Trinity 1 part 4/6

'I overthrew you,' He says, 'as the Lord overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.' 16. The Lord therefore overthrew Sodom, that is, God overthrew Sodom; but in the overthrow of the Sodomites the Lord rained fire from the Lord. Now this Lord was God, seen by Abraham; and this God is the guest of Abraham, surely seen because touched. But since the Father, being invisible, was assuredly not then seen, He was seen — both received as a guest and welcomed — who was wont to be touched and seen; and this Son of God, the Lord, rained from the Lord upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire. Now this is the Word of God; and the Word of God was made flesh and dwelt among us. Now this is Christ. 17. Therefore it was not the Father who was the guest with Abraham, but Christ;

nor was it then the Father who was seen, but the Son; and it was Christ who was seen. Rightly therefore is Christ both Lord and God, who was seen by Abraham in no other way than because, before Abraham himself, God the Word was begotten from God the Father. 18. Furthermore, he says, the same angel and God comforts and visits this same Hagar, put to flight from the house of Abraham with her child. For when she had laid down the infant in the wilderness, because the water had failed from the skin, and when that child had cried out and had raised up weeping and lamentation, 'God heard,' says the Scripture, 'the voice of the child from the place where he was.' 19. When it had reported that it was God who heard the voice of the infant, it added:

'And the angel of the Lord called Hagar herself from heaven' — reporting that He whom it had called God was an angel, and declaring that He whom it had set down as an angel was the Lord; and this angel and God further promises to Hagar herself greater consolations, saying, 'Fear not, for I have heard the voice of the child from the place where he was. Arise, take up the child and hold him; for I will make him a great nation.' 20. This angel, if he is an angel only, why does he claim this for himself, to say, 'For I will make him a great nation,' when this kind of power surely belongs to God and cannot belong to an angel? From which He too is confirmed to be God who can do this, since, that this very thing might be proved, the Scripture immediately adds:

'And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of living water, and went and filled the skin from the well and gave it to the child; and God was with the child.' 21. If therefore here God was with the child — He who opened the eyes of Hagar, that she might see the well of living water and draw water on account of the pressing need of thirst — and this same God calls her from heaven, being called an angel (since above, hearing the voice of the crying child, He was rather God) — then He is understood to be none other than at once both angel and God. 22.

Since this cannot be fitting and suitable to the Father, who is God only, but can be fitting to Christ, who is declared to be not God only, but also angel — it plainly appears that it was not the Father who then spoke there to Hagar, but rather Christ, since He is God to whom also the name of angel belongs, inasmuch as He was made the Angel of great counsel; and He is an angel insofar as He unfolds the bosom of the Father, as John declares. 23.

For if John himself says that this same one, who unfolds the bosom of the Father, the Word, was made flesh, that He might be able to unfold the bosom of the Father — then rightly Christ is not only man, but also angel; nor angel only, but also God, as is shown through the Scriptures and as is by us believed to be so — lest, if we were unwilling to receive that it was Christ who then spoke to Hagar, we should either make an angel God, or count God the Father almighty among the angels. XIX. 1. What if in another place we likewise read that God was set down as an angel?

For when Jacob, before his wives Leah and Rachel, was complaining of the iniquity of their father, and when he was reporting that he now desired to return and go back to his own land, he also interposed the authority of his dream, in which he relates that the angel of God said to him in the dream, 'Jacob, Jacob.' 'And I,' he says, 'said, What is it?' 'Look up,' He says, 'with your eyes and see the he-goats and rams mounting upon the sheep and the she-goats, speckled, white and varied and ashen and spotted. For I have seen all that Laban has done to you. I am the God who appeared to you in the place of God, where you anointed for me a pillar standing there, and vowed to me there a vow; now therefore arise and depart from this land, and go into the land of your nativity, and I will be with you.' 2.

If the angel of God speaks these things to Jacob, and the angel himself adds, saying, 'I am the God who appeared to you in the place of God,' then we behold, without any hesitation, not only this angel but also God set down; and He reports to Himself that a vow was destined to Him by Jacob 'in the place of God,' and He does not say 'in my place.' There is therefore a place of God; here too there is God. 3. But there it is simply set down 'in the place of God' — for it was not said 'in the place of the angel and of God,' but only 'of God' — whereas here, He who promises these things is set forth as being both God and angel, so that there is rightly a distinction between Him who is called God only and Him who is declared not simply God, but also angel. 4.

From which, if such great authority cannot here be received as belonging to any other angel — that he should confess himself also to be God and testify that a vow was made to himself — save only to Christ, to whom a vow can be vowed not because He is an angel only, but because He is God, then it is manifest that the Father cannot here be received, but the Son, God and angel. 5. But if this is Christ, as indeed it is, then he is in grave peril who calls Christ either man, or angel only, taking away from Him the power of the divine name, which He has frequently received from the faith of the heavenly Scriptures, which frequently call Him both angel and God. 6.

To all these there is added also this: that, just as the divine Scripture has frequently set Him down as both angel and God, so it sets Him down as both man and God — the same divine Scripture expressing what He was to be, and depicting even then in figure what He was destined to be in the truth of His substance. 7. 'For Jacob,' it says, 'remained alone, and a man wrestled with him until morning; and he saw that he could not prevail against him, and he touched the breadth of Jacob's thigh while he wrestled with him, and he himself with him; and he said to him, Let me go, for the day-star has risen. And he said, I will not let you go, unless you bless me. And he said, What is your name? And he said, Jacob. And he said to him:

Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name, because you have prevailed with God, and with men you are mighty. And he further adds: And Jacob called the name of that place "the vision of God." For I have seen God face to face, and my soul has been saved. And the sun rose upon him as soon as he passed by the vision of God; but he himself was limping in his thigh.' 8. 'A man,' it says, 'wrestled with Jacob.' If a solitary man, who is this? Whence is he? Why does he contend and wrestle with Jacob? What had come between them? What had been done? What was the reason for so great a contention and so great a struggle?

Why, moreover, is Jacob — who is found stronger for holding the man with whom he wrestled, and who asks a blessing from him whom he detained because the day-star was now rising — found therefore to have made his request, unless because there was being prefigured this contention destined to be between Christ and the sons of Jacob, which in the Gospel is said to have been brought to completion? 9.

For it was against this man that the people of Jacob wrestled, and in that wrestling the people of Jacob was found the stronger, inasmuch as against Christ it obtained the victory of its own iniquity; at which time, on account of the crime it committed, it began most grievously to limp in the gait of its own faith and salvation, uncertain and unsteady. And though it was found superior in condemning Christ, yet it has need of His mercy, yet it has need of His blessing. 10. But indeed this man who wrestled with Jacob said: 'Thy name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name.' And if Israel is a man 'seeing God,' the Lord elegantly showed that He who then wrestled with Jacob was not only man, but also God.

11. Indeed Jacob saw God, with whom he wrestled, although in the wrestling he held His man. And that there might be no possible doubt remaining, He Himself supplied the interpretation by saying: 'Because thou hast prevailed with God, and art mighty among men.' 12. For which cause this same Jacob, now understanding the force of the mystery and clearly perceiving the authority of Him with whom he had wrestled, called the name of that place where he wrestled 'the vision of God.' 13. Moreover he built up the grounds for advancing the interpretation of 'God.' For he said: 'I have seen God face to face, and my soul has been saved.'

But he saw God, with whom he wrestled as with a man; yet as a victor he held the man, while as an inferior he asked the blessing as from God. Thus he wrestled with God and with man. 14. And if this wrestling was indeed there prefigured, but in the Gospel it was brought to fulfillment between Christ and the people of Jacob, in which, though the people was found superior, it was found the lesser inasmuch as it was proved guilty—who then will doubt that in Christ, in whom this figure of the wrestling was completed, he should acknowledge not only man but also God, since the very figure of the wrestling appears to have proved Him both man and God? 15.

And yet even after this the same divine Scripture likewise does not cease to call the angel God, and to declare God an angel. 16. For when this same Jacob was about to bless Manasseh and Ephraim, the sons of Joseph, placing his hands crosswise over the boys' heads, he said: 'God, who feeds me from my youth until this day, the angel who delivered me from all evils, bless the boys.' 17. So far indeed does he set down as the same the angel whom he had called God, that at the close of his utterance he set down in the singular the person of whom he was speaking, saying: 'Let Him bless these boys.' 18. For if he had wished a second angel to be understood, he would have embraced two persons in the plural number;

but now he put down the singular number of one person in the blessing, by which he willed that the same be understood as both God and angel. 19. But God the Father cannot be understood here; whereas Christ can be understood as both God and angel. And that He is the author of this blessing, Jacob signified also by placing his hands crosswise over the boys, as though Christ were their father, from whom he set his hands so as to show the figure and form of the future Passion. 20. Let no one, therefore, who does not hesitate to call Christ an angel, also hesitate to declare Him God, since he understands that this same One was invoked in the blessing of these boys, as both God and angel, set forth through the mystery of the Passion in the figure of the hands. XX. 1.

And if some heretic, obstinately struggling against the truth, should wish in all these examples to understand it properly as an angel, or should contend that it must be so understood, in this too he must needs be broken by the forces of the truth. 2. For if, with all things heavenly, earthly, and infernal subjected to Christ, even the angels themselves, together with all other things that are subjected to Christ, are called gods, then by right Christ also is God. And if any angel subjected to Christ can be called god, and if this is said and uttered without blasphemy, then much more surely can this also befit Christ the Son of God Himself, that He be declared God. 3.

For if an angel subjected to Christ is set forth as god, then much more and more steadfastly will Christ, to whom all angels are subjected, be called God. For it does not accord with nature that what is granted to lesser ones should be denied to greater ones. Thus if an angel is less than Christ, yet an angel is called god, then far more consequently is Christ called God, who is found greater and better than not one but all the angels. 4. And if 'God stood in the assembly of the gods, and in the midst God distinguishes between the gods,' and if Christ sometimes stood in the synagogue, then Christ stood in the synagogue as God, judging, namely, the gods to whom He says:

'How long will you accept the persons of men?'—accusing, namely, in consequence the men of the synagogue who do not exercise just judgments. 5. Furthermore, if those who are rebuked and blamed nevertheless, on account of some cause, seem without blasphemy to obtain this name, so that they are called gods, then much more surely will this One be held as God, who is said not only to have stood as God of gods, but is also revealed, from the authority of the same lesson, as distinguishing and judging the gods. 6. And if those who, like one of the princes, fall, are nevertheless called gods, then much more will He be called God who not only, like one of the princes, does not fall, but even conquers the very author and prince of wickedness himself. 7.

But what evil reasoning is it that, when they read that this name was given even to Moses—when it is said, 'I have made thee a god to Pharaoh'—it should be denied to Christ, who is found constituted both Lord and God not of Pharaoh, but of the whole creation? 8. And in the former this name was given moderately, in the latter lavishly; in the former by measure, in the latter beyond all measure whatsoever. 'For the Father,' He says, 'gives not the Spirit to the Son by measure; for the Father,' He says, 'loves the Son.' In the former for a time, in the latter without time; for He received the power of the divine name both over all things and for all time. 9.

But if he who received power over one man nevertheless, in the smallness of this granted power, undoubtingly obtains that name of god, how much more will He who has power over Moses himself be believed to have obtained the authority of that name? XXI. 1. And I could indeed sift through the discussions of all the heavenly Scriptures and stir up, so to speak, a vast forest concerning this aspect of Christ's divinity, were it not that my purpose is not so much to speak against this heresy as briefly to set forth, concerning the person of Christ, the rule of truth. 2. Yet, though I hasten on to other matters, I do not think that this should be passed over, which in the Gospel the Lord expressed to signify His own majesty, saying:

'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up'; or when in another place and another passage He declares: 'I have power to lay down my life, and to take it up again; for this commandment I have received from my Father.' 3.

For who is it that says he can lay down his life or take up his life again, because he has received this commandment from the Father; or who says that he can raise up again and rebuild the destroyed temple of his own body, except that Word which is from the Father, which is with the Father, through whom all things were made and without whom nothing was made—the imitator of the paternal works and virtues, the image of the invisible God, who came down from heaven, who bore witness to what He saw and heard, who came not to do His own will, but rather to do the will of the Father, by whom He had been sent for this very purpose, that, having become the angel of great counsel, He might unlock for us the laws of heavenly secrets; and who, the Word made flesh, dwelt among us—from us this Christ is proved to be not man only, because the Son of man, but also God, because the Son of God?

4. But if Christ is also called by the apostle 'the firstborn of all creation,' how could He be the firstborn of all creation, except because, according to His divinity, the Word proceeded from God the Father before all creation? And unless the heretics so understand it, they will be forced to show that Christ as man is the firstborn of all creation—which they will not be able to do. 5. Therefore He is either before all creation, so that He is the firstborn of all creation, and is not man only, because man is after all creation; or He is man only, and is after all creation. 6.

And how is He the firstborn of all creation, except because that Word, which is before all creation and therefore the firstborn of all creation, becomes flesh and dwells among us—that is, takes up this man who is after all creation, and so with him and in him dwells among us—so that neither is the man withdrawn from Christ, nor is the divinity denied? 7. For if He is only before all creation, the man in Him is withdrawn. But if He is only man, the divinity, which is before all creation, is cut off. Both, therefore, are confederated in Christ, and both are conjoined, and both are knit together. 8.

And rightly, since there is in Him something that transcends the creature, the concord of divinity and humanity is seen to be pledged in Him. For which cause He who is set forth as having been made the mediator of God and men is found to have united in Himself God and man. 9. And if the same apostle reports concerning Christ that, 'having put off the flesh, He disgraced the powers, openly triumphing over them in Himself,' surely He did not idly set forth the flesh as put off, except because He also wished the resurrection to be understood as His being clothed again. 10. Who, then, is this One who is unclothed and again clothed? Let the heretics inquire.

For we know that the Word of God was clothed with the substance of flesh, and that this same Word was again unclothed of the same material of the body, which He again took up in the resurrection and resumed as a garment. 11. But indeed Christ would have been neither unclothed nor clothed with the man, had He been man only. For no one is ever despoiled of, or clothed with, his own self. For it must needs be that whatever is despoiled of or clothed with from elsewhere is something else. 12. Whence with reason it was the Word of God who was unclothed of the flesh and in the resurrection again clothed; and He was unclothed because in His nativity He had been clothed. And so in Christ it is God who is clothed and who also must needs be unclothed, for the reason that he who is clothed must equally be unclothed as well.

Now man is clothed and unclothed as it were with a certain tunic of the woven body. And on this account, consequently, it was, as we have said, the Word of God, who is found to be now clothed, now unclothed. 13. For this also He foretold beforehand in the blessings: 'He shall wash His robe in wine, and His garment in the blood of the grape.' 14. If in Christ the robe is the flesh and the garment is the body itself, let it be inquired who that one is whose body is the garment and whose flesh is the robe. For to us it is manifest that the flesh was the robe and the body the garment of the Word, who washed the substance of the body and the material of the flesh in blood—that is, in wine—cleansing it by the Passion in respect of the man assumed. 15. Wherefore, inasmuch as He is washed, He is man, because the garment that is washed is flesh.

But He who washes is the Word of God, who, in order to wash the garment, became the assumer of the garment. 16. With reason, from that substance which was received in order to be washed, He is expressed as man; just as from the authority of the Word, He who washes is shown to be God. XXII. 1. But why, although we may seem to hasten on to another part of the discussion, should we pass over that passage in the apostle: 'Who, when He was in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man; He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross;

therefore God also highly exalted Him, and gave Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus is in the glory of God the Father.' 2. 'Who, when He was in the form of God,' he says. If Christ were man only, He would have been reported as in the image of God, not in the form of God. For we know that man was made after the image, not after the form, of God. 3. Who, then, is this One who, as we have said, was made in the form of God? An angel?

But neither do we read of the form of God in the angels, except that this One, preeminent and noble above all, the Son of God, the Word of God, the imitator of all the paternal works—since He Himself also works even as His Father does—is, as we have set forth, the form of God the Father. 4. And rightly was He declared to be in the form of God, since He Himself, holding divine power over all things and over all creation, is also God after the example of the Father; yet He obtained this very thing from His own Father, namely that He should be both God and Lord of all, and God in the form of God the Father, begotten and brought forth from Him. 5. This One, therefore, though He was in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal with God.

For although He was mindful that He was God from God the Father, He never either compared or matched Himself with God the Father, mindful that He was from His own Father, and that this very thing which He is, He had from the Father's giving. Hence, indeed, both before the assumption of the flesh, and also after the assumption of the body, and moreover after the resurrection itself, He rendered—and equally renders—obedience to the Father in all things. 6.

From which it is proved that He never counted the divinity to be a kind of robbery, so as to make Himself equal to God the Father; nay rather, on the contrary, being obedient and subject to His every command and will, He was content even to take the form of a servant—that is, to become that man, and the substance of flesh and body, which, coming from the servitude of paternal sins committed according to man, He took up by being born; at which time He also emptied Himself, in that He did not refuse to take up the frailty of the human condition. 7. For if He had been born man only, He would not thereby have been emptied; for a man, being born, is augmented, not emptied.

For while He begins to be what, when He was not, He could not have, as we have said, He is not emptied, but rather is augmented and enriched. 8. And if Christ is emptied in that He is born, by taking the form of a servant, how is He man only? Of whom it would have been more truly said that He was enriched when He was born, not emptied—except because the authority of the divine Word, meanwhile coming to rest in order to take up the man, and not exercising itself in its own powers, casts itself down for a time and lays itself aside, while it bears the man whom it has taken up. 9. He empties Himself, while He descends to injuries and insults, while He hears unspeakable things, experiences unworthy things—yet of whose humility there is at once present an excellent fruit. 10.

For He received the name which is above every name, which we understand to be nothing else than the name of God. For since it belongs to God alone to be above all things, it follows that that name is above all things which is the name of Him who is the God above all things. Therefore that name which is above every name is His—the name which is His, consequently, who, when He was in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal with God. 11. For unless Christ were also God, every knee of things heavenly, earthly, and infernal would not bow at His name, nor would things visible or invisible, nor every creature of all things, be subjected or laid prostrate to a man—which would remember that it existed before man. 12.

From which—both because Christ is said to be in the form of God, and because He is shown to have emptied Himself into a nativity according to the flesh, and because He is declared to have received from the Father that name which is above every name, and because every knee of things heavenly, earthly, and infernal is shown to bow and bend at His name, and because this very thing is asserted to redound to the glory of God the Father—it consequently follows that He is not man from that alone, namely because He was made obedient to the Father unto death, even the death of the cross; but also from these higher things, which proclaim the divinity of Christ, the Lord Christ Jesus is shown to be God as well—which the heretics do not want. XXIII. 1. In this place it will be permitted me to seek out arguments even from the side of other heretics.

It is a firm kind of proof which is taken even from an adversary, so that the truth may be proved even by the very enemies of truth. 2. For it is to such a degree manifest in the Scriptures that He is handed down as God, that very many of the heretics, moved by the greatness and truth of His very divinity, extending His honors beyond measure, have dared to set forth or to suppose Him to be not the Son, but God the Father Himself. 3. And although this is contrary to the truth of the Scriptures, yet it is a grand and remarkable argument for the divinity of Christ, who is so far God—but inasmuch as He is the Son of God, born of God—that very many of the heretics, as we have said, have so received Him as God that they thought He should be declared not the Son, but the Father. 4.

Let them therefore judge whether this is God, whose authority so moved certain ones that they thought Him, as we said above, to be already the Father God Himself—confessing the divinity in Christ too unrestrainedly and too lavishly, the manifest divinity of Christ compelling them to this, so that Him whom they read as the Son, because they perceived Him to be God, they supposed to be the Father. 5. Other heretics also so embraced the manifest divinity of Christ that they said He was without flesh, and took away from Him the whole man assumed, lest they should boil down in Him the power of the divine name, if, as they supposed, they had associated with Him a human nativity. 6.

This, however, we do not approve; but we adduce it as an argument that Christ is so far God, that some, taking away the man, supposed Him to be God only, while others believed Him to be God the Father Himself—whereas the reason and the balanced measure of the heavenly Scriptures show Christ to be God, but inasmuch as He is the Son of God; and, the Son of man having also been assumed by God, He must be believed to be man as well. 7.

For since He came to man, that He might be the mediator of God and men, it was fitting that He should be with him, and that the Word should become flesh, in order that in Himself He might bind together the concord of things earthly and equally of things heavenly, while, knitting in Himself the pledges of both parties, He might unite both God to man and man to God; so that with reason the Son of God might, through the assumption of flesh, be made the Son of man, and the Son of man, through the reception of the Word of God, might be made the Son of God. 8. This most lofty and hidden mystery, destined before the ages for the salvation of the human race, is found to be fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, God and man, whereby the condition of the human race might be brought to the fruit of eternal salvation. XXIV. 1.