Chapter 1. — Although, dearly beloved, the ineffable nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which He clothed Himself with the flesh of our nature [surpasses all speech], yet I dare not to trust in my own capacity, but to presume upon His own inspiration, that on the day which has been chosen for the mystery of human restoration, something may be brought forth from us that can edify those who hear. For not because the greater part of the Church of God understands what it believes is it therefore unnecessary to speak also the things that have been said, since certainly now, with many coming for the first time to the faith, we owe them the service of our lips, and it is better to burden the learned with things already known than to defraud the untaught of things to be learned.
That therefore the Son of God—who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is not of one person but of one essence—deigned to become a partaker of our lowliness, and willed to be one of those capable of suffering, one of the mortals, is so sacred and so wondrous, that the reason of the divine counsel cannot lie open to the wise of the world, unless the true light dispel the darkness of human ignorance. For not in the mere working of virtues, nor in the mere observance of the commandments, but even in the path of faith, narrow and steep is the way that leads to life (Matt. 7:14); and it is of great labor and great peril to walk with unstumbling steps by the one safe pathway of doctrine, amid the doubtful opinions of the ignorant and the plausible falsehoods;
19:3
etcumundiqueselaqueierrorisopponant,omnepericulumdeceptionisevadereQuisautemadhaecidoneus,nisiquispirituDeido-" ceturetregitur ? dicenteApostolo: Nosautamnonspiritumhujusmundiaccepimus, sedspiritumquiexDeoest, utsciamusquæaDeodonatasuntnobis (ICor. II, i2); canenteetiamDavidtBeatushomoquemtuerudieris, Domine, etdelegetuadocueriseum (Ps. sCItI, 12). CAP. II.
and when snares of error beset one on every side, to escape all danger of deception. But who is sufficient for these things, save he who is taught and governed by the Spirit of God? as the Apostle says: 'But we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we may know the things that are given to us by God' (1 Cor. 2:12); David also singing: 'Blessed is the man whom You shall instruct, O Lord, and shall teach him out of Your law' (Ps. 93:12). Chapter 2.
— Having therefore, dearly beloved, amid the perils of error the safeguards of truth, and being taught not by the words of human wisdom but by the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, we believe what we have learned, we preach what we believe: that the Son of God, begotten of the Father before the ages, and coeternal with the Father in everlasting and consubstantial equality, came into this world through the womb of the Virgin chosen for this mystery of loving-kindness, in whom and from whom Wisdom built for itself a house (Prov. 9:1), and the Godhead of the unchangeable Word fitted to itself the form of a servant into the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom. 8:3): in nothing lesser in His glory before Himself and the Father and the Holy Spirit:
because the nature of the supreme and eternal essence admits neither diminution nor change. But for the sake of our infirmity He attenuated Himself for those incapable of Him, and with the veil of a body He covered the splendor of His majesty, which the sight of men could not bear. Hence He is even said to have emptied Himself (Phil. 2:7), as though He had evacuated Himself of His own power, while in that humility by which He provided for us He was made lesser not only than the Father, but even than Himself. Nor did anything depart from Him by this inclination, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the very being that He is, is common: so that we may understand this very thing to pertain to omnipotence, whereby He who is lesser according to what is ours is not lesser according to what is His own.
For because light looked upon the blind, strength upon the weak, mercy upon the wretched, it was done out of great power, that the Son of God should take up the human substance and cause, He who would both reform our nature which He had founded, and abolish the death which He did not make. Chapter 3. — All the opinions of the impious therefore being repudiated and cast far off—by which Christ is either folly or a scandal—let the faith of upright minds exult, and let it understand the one true Son of God not only according to the Godhead by which He is begotten of the Father, but also according to the humanity by which He is born of the Virgin Mother. For He Himself is in our lowliness who is in the divine majesty, true man and true God: everlasting in His own, temporal in ours;
one with the Father in substance, in which He was never less than the Father; one with the mother in the body which He created. For in the assumption of our nature He became for us a step by which we might ascend to Him through Him. For that essence which is always and everywhere whole had no need of local descent, and it was as proper to Him to be wholly inserted into man as it is proper to Him not to be wholly divided from the Father. There remains therefore that which in the beginning was the Word (John 1:1), and it is not accidental to Him that what is should at some time not have been. For everlastingly the Son is the Son; and everlastingly the Father is the Father. Whence, when the Son Himself says, 'He who sees me sees also the Father' (John
14:9), your impiety has blinded you, O heretic, so that you who have not seen the majesty of the Son could not see the glory of the Father: for by saying that He was begotten who was not, you assert the Son to be temporal; and while you assert the Son to be temporal, you believe the Father to be mutable. For that is mutable, not only which is diminished, but also whatever is increased; and if the Begotten is therefore unequal to the Father because, as it seems to you, in begetting He begot one who was not, then the essence even of the Begetter was imperfect, which by begetting advanced to having what it did not have. But the catholic faith execrates and condemns this impious perversity of yours, which recognizes nothing of temporality in the true Godhead, but confesses both the Father and the Son to be of one eternity:
because the splendor sprung from the light is not later than the light, and the true light is never wanting in its own splendor, thus having it as substantial ever to shine, just as it has substantial ever to exist. But the manifestation of this splendor is called a mission, by which Christ appeared to the world. Who, though He always filled all things with His invisible majesty, nevertheless came, as if from a most remote and lofty secret, to those to whom He was unknown, when He took away the blindness of ignorance, and, as it is written, 'to those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, a light has risen upon them' (Isa. 9:2). Chapter 4. — For although in former ages also the light of truth was sent forth for the illumination of the holy fathers and prophets, David saying:
'Send forth Your light and Your truth' (Ps. 42:3); and in diverse manners and by many signs the Godhead of the Son declared the works of His presence; nevertheless all those significations, and all the miracles, were testimonies of that mission of which the Apostle says: 'When therefore the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law' (Gal. 4:4). But what is this, but the Word becoming flesh, the Founder of the world being born through the womb of the Virgin, the Lord of majesty fitting Himself to human beginnings, and, although to the spiritual conception no contagions of earthly seed were mingled, yet taking from the mother only the nature, to receive the substance of true flesh?
By this mission, in which God was united to man, the Son is unequal to the Father, not in that which is from the Father, but in that which He was made from man. For the equality which the Godhead holds inviolable, the humanity did not corrupt; and the descent of the Creator to the creature is the advancement of believers to eternal things. For because, as the Apostle says, in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe (1 Cor. 1:21). To the world, therefore, that is, to the prudent of the world, their own wisdom became blindness, nor could they through it know God, to the knowledge of whom no one attains except in His wisdom.
And therefore, because the world was proud of the vanity of its own dogmas, the Lord established the faith of those to be saved in that which might seem unworthy and foolish, so that, with all the presumptions of opinions failing, the grace of God alone might reveal what human intelligence was not able to comprehend. Chapter 5. — Let the catholic faith therefore recognize in the lowliness of the Lord its own glory, and let the Church, which is the body of Christ, rejoice in the mysteries of its salvation: because unless the Word of God had become flesh and dwelt among us, unless the Creator Himself had descended into communion with the creature, and recalled the old humanity to a new beginning by His nativity, death would have reigned from Adam (Rom. 5:
14) unto the end, and over all men an insoluble condemnation would have remained, since from the sole condition of being born there was one cause of perishing for all. Alone therefore among the sons of men the Lord Jesus was born innocent, because alone He was conceived without the pollution of carnal concupiscence. He was made a man of our race, that we might be able to be sharers of the divine nature. The origin which He took in the womb of the Virgin, He placed in the font of baptism: He gave to the water what He gave to the mother; for the power of the Most High and the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35), which made Mary bring forth the Savior, the same makes the water regenerate the believer.
But what was more fitting for the healing of the sick, the enlightening of the blind, the quickening of the dead, than that the wounds of pride should be cured by the remedies of humility? Adam, neglecting the precepts of God, brought in the condemnation of sin; Jesus, made under the law, restored the liberty of righteousness. The one, obeying the devil unto transgression, earned that in him all should die; the other, obedient to the Father unto the cross, brought it to pass that in Him all should be made alive. The one, greedy of angelic honor, lost the dignity of his nature; the other, taking up the condition of our infirmity, placed in the heavens those very ones for whose sake He descended to hell. Lastly, to the one fallen through pride it was said: 'Earth you are, and into earth you shall go' (Gen. 3:19);
to this One, exalted through subjection, it was said: 'Sit at my right hand, until I make Your enemies the footstool of Your feet' (Ps. 109:1). Chapter 6. — These works of our Lord, dearly beloved, are useful to us not only as a mystery, but also as an example of imitation, if the very remedies be transferred into discipline, and what was expended upon the mysteries may profit also our morals: so that we may remember that we must live in the humility and meekness of our Redeemer; since, as the Apostle says, 'if we suffer together, we shall also reign together' (Rom. 8:17). For we are called Christians in vain, if we are not imitators of Christ, who therefore said He is the way (John
14:6), so that the conduct of the Master might be a pattern for the disciples, and the servant might choose that humility which the Lord followed; who lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen.