On First Principles 2.6.1–2.7.4

Now that these things have been gone through, it is time for us to return to the incarnation of our Lord and Saviour, how or why he became man. With our very slight powers we have considered the divine nature more from the contemplation of his works than from our own understanding, and have looked at his visible creatures and contemplated the invisible ones by faith, since human frailty can neither see all things with the eyes nor grasp them by reason, because we human beings are the weakest and frailest of all rational living beings, those which are held to be in heaven or above the heavens being more excellent. It remains that we seek the middle between all these creatures and God, that is, the mediator, whom the apostle Paul declares to be the firstborn of all creation. We see also what is related in the holy Scriptures about his majesty, and observe that he is called “the image of the invisible God and the firstborn of all creation,” and that “in him were created all things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and in him; and he is before all, and all things hold together in him”; he is the head of all, having as his head God the Father alone; for it is written, “The head of Christ is God.” We perceive also that it is written, “No one knows the Father except the Son, nor does anyone know the Son except the Father” (for who can know what Wisdom is except him who begot her? Or who knows clearly what the truth is except the Father of truth? Who indeed could investigate the whole nature of his Word, and of God himself, which is from God, except God alone, with whom the Word was?). We ought therefore to hold for certain that this Word, or Reason as it may be called, this Wisdom, this Truth, no one knows except the Father alone; of whom it is written, “I think that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written,” namely about the glory and majesty of the Son of God. For it is impossible to commit to writing the things that pertain to the glory of the Saviour. Having considered such great things about the nature of the Son of God, we are struck dumb with the highest wonder that this nature, pre-eminent over all, emptying itself of its state of majesty, became man and lived among human beings, as the grace poured on his lips testifies, and as the heavenly Father bears witness to him, and as is confirmed by the signs and wonders and various mighty works done by him. Before this presence of his which he showed in the body, he sent the prophets as forerunners and messengers of his coming; and after his ascension into heaven he made the holy apostles, men unskilled and unlearned, taken from among tax collectors or fishermen but filled with the power of his divinity, go round the world, so that from every race and all peoples they might gather a people of the pious who believe in him.

But of all the miracles and wonders concerning him, this one altogether surpasses the admiration of the human mind, and the frailty of mortal intelligence cannot find how to conceive or understand it: that this so great power of the divine majesty, the very Word of the Father and the very Wisdom of God, in which all things visible and invisible were created, is to be believed to have been within the limits of that man who appeared in Judea; and, more, that the Wisdom of God entered a woman's womb, and was born a little child, and uttered cries like crying children; then that he is related to have been troubled in the face of death, as he himself declares, saying, “My soul is sorrowful even to death”; and finally that he was brought to the death which is held most shameful among human beings, although he rose again on the third day. Since, then, we see in him some things so human that they seem in no way to differ from the common frailty of mortals, and some things so divine that they befit none other than that first and ineffable nature of the Godhead, the narrowness of human understanding is at a loss, and, struck with amazement at such great wonder, does not know where to turn, what to hold, whither to direct itself. If it thinks of God, it sees a mortal; if it thinks of a man, it sees him returning from the dead with the spoils, having conquered the empire of death. Therefore this must be contemplated with all fear and reverence, so that the truth of each nature may be shown in one and the same person, in such a way that nothing unworthy or unfitting is thought of in that divine and ineffable substance, nor, on the other hand, are the things that were done thought to be illusions of false appearances. To bring these things to human ears and explain them in words far exceeds the powers of our merit, or of our ability and speech. I think indeed that it surpasses even the measure of the holy apostles; indeed, perhaps the explanation of this mystery is beyond the whole creation of the heavenly powers. Of this we shall speak, not from any rashness but because the order of the place requires it, in very few words, setting forth rather what our faith holds than what the assertion of human reason is accustomed to claim, and bringing forward our conjectures rather than any clear affirmations.

The only-begotten of God, then, through whom, as the course of the discussion has taught above, all things visible and invisible were made, according to the statement of Scripture both made all things and loves what he made. For since he himself is the invisible image of the invisible God, he gave a share of himself invisibly to all rational creatures, so that each received a share of him in proportion to the love with which it had clung to him. But since, by the faculty of free choice, variety and diversity of minds had taken hold of each one, so that one was held by a more ardent, another by a fainter and weaker love toward its author, that soul of which Jesus said, “No one takes my soul from me,” clinging to him from the beginning of creation and ever after inseparably and indissolubly, as to the Wisdom and Word of God and the truth and the true light, and receiving him wholly, and itself passing into his light and splendour, was made with him in a principal way one spirit, as the Apostle also promises to those who ought to imitate it, that “he who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit.” With this substance of the soul, then, mediating between God and the flesh (for it was not possible for the nature of God to be mingled with a body without a mediator), there is born, as we said, the God-man, that substance being the middle; for it was certainly not contrary to its nature to take on a body. Nor again was it contrary to the nature of that soul, as a rational substance, to receive God, into whom, as we said above, as into the Word and Wisdom and Truth, it had already wholly passed. Hence, deservedly, because it was either wholly in the Son of God or received the Son of God wholly into itself, it too, together with the flesh it had taken, is called the Son of God and the power of God, Christ and the Wisdom of God; and again the Son of God, through whom all things were created, is named Jesus Christ and the Son of Man. For the Son of God too is said to have died, namely with respect to that nature which could certainly receive death; and he is called the Son of Man who is proclaimed as about to come in the glory of God the Father with the holy angels. For this reason, throughout all Scripture, the divine nature is called by human names, and the human nature is adorned with the marks of divine designation. For of this more than of any other can be said what is written: “They two shall be in one flesh, and they are no longer two but one flesh.” For the Word of God is to be thought to be in one flesh with the soul more than a husband with his wife. And to whom is it more fitting to be one spirit with God than to this soul, which so joined itself to God by love that it may deservedly be said to be one spirit with him?

That the perfection of love and the sincerity of a deserving affection made for it this inseparable unity with God, so that the taking up of his soul was not by chance or with respect of persons, but was conferred on it by the merit of its virtues, hear the Prophet saying to it: “You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.” By the merit of love, then, it is anointed with the oil of gladness; that is, the soul of Christ together with the Word of God becomes Christ. For to be anointed with the oil of gladness is understood as nothing other than to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And in saying “above your fellows,” he indicates that the grace of the Spirit was not given to it as to the prophets, but that the substantial fullness of the very Word of God was in it, as the Apostle too said: “In whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” For this reason, indeed, he not only said, “You have loved righteousness,” but added, “and hated iniquity.” For to hate iniquity is what Scripture says of him, that “he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth”; and what it says, “tempted in all things in like manner, without sin.” And the Lord himself also says, “Which of you convicts me of sin?” And again he says of himself, “Behold, the prince of this world comes, and finds nothing in me.” All these things indicate that no sense of sin existed in him. And to indicate more clearly that no sense of iniquity ever entered him, the prophet says: “Before the child knew how to call father or mother, he turned away from iniquity.”

But if this seems difficult to anyone, because we have shown above that there is a rational soul in Christ, while throughout all our discussions we have often shown that the nature of souls is capable of good and evil, the difficulty of this matter will be explained in this way. That the nature of that soul was the same as that of all souls cannot be doubted; otherwise it could not even be called a soul, if it was not truly a soul. But since the power of choosing good and evil is present to all, this soul which is Christ's so chose to love righteousness that, by the immensity of its love, it clung to it unchangeably and inseparably, so that firmness of purpose, immensity of affection and the inextinguishable warmth of love cut off every sense of turning or change, and what was placed in choice has now been turned into nature by the affection of long use. So it must be believed both that there was in Christ a human and rational soul, and that it had no sense or possibility of sin.

For a fuller explanation of the matter, however, it does not seem absurd if we also use some comparison, although in a matter so arduous and so difficult there is not even an abundance of suitable examples. Yet, to speak without prejudging anything: the metal iron is capable of cold and of heat. If, then, some mass of iron is always placed in fire, receiving fire through all its pores and all its veins and becoming wholly fire, if neither the fire ever ceases from it nor it is separated from the fire, shall we say that this, which by nature is indeed a mass of iron, placed in fire and burning unceasingly, can ever receive cold? Rather, what is truer, we say that it has become wholly fire, as we often see with our eyes happen in furnaces, since nothing else is seen in it but fire; and if anyone tries to touch and handle it, he will feel the force not of iron but of fire. In this way, then, that soul too which, like iron in fire, has been placed always in the Word, always in Wisdom, always in God, is God in all that it does, feels and understands; and therefore it cannot be called changeable or mutable, since, set unceasingly on fire by its union with the Word of God, it possessed unchangeableness. To all the saints, indeed, some warmth of the Word of God must be thought to have come; but in this soul the divine fire itself must be believed to have rested substantially, and from it some warmth has come to the others. Finally, in saying, “God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows,” he shows that this soul is anointed with the oil of gladness, that is, with the Word of God and Wisdom, in one way, and its fellows, that is, the holy prophets and apostles, in another. For they are said to have run in the fragrance of his ointments; but this soul was the vessel of that ointment itself, from whose fragrance those who shared in it became worthy prophets and apostles. As, then, the substance of an ointment is one thing and its fragrance another, so Christ is one thing and his fellows another. And as the vessel itself which contains the substance of the ointment can in no way receive any foul smell, while those who share in its fragrance may, if they move a little farther from its fragrance, receive a foul smell that comes upon them, so it was impossible for Christ, as the very vessel in which the substance of the ointment was, to receive the contrary smell; but his fellows will share in and be capable of the fragrance in proportion as they are near the vessel.

I think, indeed, that the prophet Jeremiah too, understanding what the nature of the Wisdom of God in him was, which was also the same that he had taken for the salvation of the world, said: “The breath of our face, Christ the Lord, of whom we said that in his shadow we shall live among the nations.” For just as the shadow of our body is inseparable from the body and takes on and performs the movements and gestures of the body without deviation, I think that he, wishing to show the work and movement of Christ's soul, which clung to him inseparably and did all things according to his movement and will, called this the shadow of Christ the Lord, in which shadow we were to live among the nations. For in the mystery of this assumption the nations live, who, imitating it, come to salvation through faith. And David too, saying, “Remember, Lord, my reproach, with which they reproached me in exchange for your Christ,” seems to me to show similar things. And what else does Paul mean when he says, “Your life is hidden with Christ in God”? In another place indeed he says, “Do you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me?” And now he says that Christ is hidden in God. Unless some such understanding of this is indicated as we said above is signified by the prophet through the shadow of Christ, perhaps this sense too exceeds the human mind. We see very many other passages in the divine Scriptures concerning the meaning of shadow, such as that in the Gospel according to Luke, when Gabriel says to Mary: “The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” And the Apostle says of the law that those who have fleshly circumcision serve a likeness and shadow of heavenly things. And elsewhere it is said: “Is not our life a shadow upon the earth?” If, then, both the law which is upon the earth is a shadow, and our whole life which is upon the earth is a shadow, and we live in the shadow of Christ among the nations, we must see whether the truth of all these shadows will be known in that revelation when, no longer through a mirror and in an enigma but face to face, all the saints will merit to behold the glory of God and the causes and truth of things. Having already received the pledge of this truth through the Holy Spirit, the Apostle said: “Even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer.” These things, for the present, have been able to occur to us as we discuss matters so difficult, namely the incarnation and the deity of Christ. If anyone can find something better and confirm what he says by clearer statements from the holy Scriptures, let that be accepted rather than this.

After those first discussions which we set out at the beginning about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as the matter required, it seemed that we ought to go back and show that the same God is the creator of the world and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is, that the God of the law and the prophets and the Gospels is one and the same; and then also concerning Christ, that he who had been shown above to be the Word and Wisdom of God had to be shown in what follows to have become man, and how. It remains, then, that we also go back briefly, as far as we can, to the Holy Spirit. It is time now for us to discuss a little, as far as we can, about the Holy Spirit, whom our Lord and Saviour named the Paraclete in the Gospel according to John. For just as it is the same God himself and the same Christ himself, so it is the same Holy Spirit who was in the prophets and in the apostles, that is, both in those who believed in God before the coming of Christ and in those who have taken refuge in God through Christ. That heretics have dared to say there are two Gods and two Christs we have heard; but that there are two Holy Spirits we have never known to be preached by anyone. For how will they be able to affirm this from the Scriptures, or what difference will they be able to give between Holy Spirit and Holy Spirit, if indeed any definition or description of the Holy Spirit can be found? For even if we grant to Marcion or Valentinus that they can introduce differences in the Godhead, and describe one nature of the good and another of the just, what will he devise and find in order to introduce a difference in the Holy Spirit? I think, then, that they can find nothing to indicate any difference whatever.

We, however, think that every rational creature receives participation in him, as in the Wisdom of God and the Word of God, without any difference. Yet I see that the special coming of the Holy Spirit to human beings is declared after Christ's ascension into heaven rather than before his coming. For before, the gift of the Holy Spirit was granted only to the prophets and to a few, if anyone among the people happened to merit it; but after the coming of the Saviour it is written that what was said in the prophet Joel was fulfilled: “It shall be in the last days, and I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh, and they shall prophesy”; which is like that saying, “All nations shall serve him.” Through the grace of the Holy Spirit, then, among very many other things this most magnificent thing is shown: that in what was written in the prophets or in the law of Moses, few then, namely the prophets themselves, and scarcely here and there one out of the whole people, could rise above the bodily understanding and understand something greater, that is, something spiritual, in the law or the prophets; but now there are countless multitudes of believers who, although not all can explain in order and clearly the sequence of the spiritual understanding, yet all are persuaded that neither circumcision is to be understood bodily, nor the rest of the Sabbath, nor the shedding of the blood of cattle, nor that it was about these things that God gave his answers to Moses; and this understanding is undoubtedly suggested to all by the power of the Holy Spirit.

But just as there are many ways of understanding Christ, who, although he is wisdom, does not act or have the force of wisdom in all, but only in those who devote themselves to wisdom in him; and who, though he is called physician, does not act as a physician toward all, but only toward those who, perceiving the weakness of their sickness, take refuge in his mercy so as to obtain health; so I think it is also with the Holy Spirit, in whom is every kind of gift. For to some is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to others the word of knowledge, to others faith; and so in each of those who can receive him the Spirit himself becomes, or is understood as, that which is needed by the one who has merited to share in him. Not noticing these divisions and differences, those who hear him named the Paraclete in the Gospel, and not considering from what work or act he is named Paraclete, have compared him to I know not what base spirits, and by this have tried to disturb the churches of Christ, so that they produced no small dissensions among the brethren. But the Gospel shows him to be of such power and majesty that it says the apostles could not yet grasp what the Saviour wished to teach them until the Holy Spirit should come, who, pouring himself into their souls, could enlighten them about the account and faith of the Trinity. These people, however, through the ignorance of their understanding, since not only are they themselves unable to set out consistently what is right, but cannot even lend a hearing to what is said by us, thinking less than is fitting about his divinity, have given themselves over to errors and deceptions, depraved by a wandering spirit rather than instructed by the teachings of the Holy Spirit, as the Apostle said: “following the doctrine of spirits of demons, forbidding to marry,” to the destruction and ruin of many, and unseasonably to abstain from foods, so that by a show of stricter observance they might lead astray the souls of the innocent.

We must know, then, that the Paraclete is the Holy Spirit, teaching greater things than can be uttered by the voice, and, so to speak, things that are unspeakable, “which it is not lawful for a man to utter,” that is, which cannot be indicated in human speech. We take it that “is not lawful” was said by the Apostle for “cannot,” as also where he says: “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are expedient; all things are lawful for me, but not all things build up.” For the things in our power, because we can have them, he says are lawful for us. The Holy Spirit is called the Paraclete from consolation; for paraclesis in Latin is called consolatio. For if anyone has merited to share in the Holy Spirit, when he has come to know the unspeakable mysteries, he undoubtedly receives consolation and gladness of heart. For when he has come to know, by the Spirit's showing, the reasons of all things that happen, why or how they happen, his soul can in no way be disturbed or receive any sense of sorrow; nor is he afraid in anything, when, clinging to the Word of God and his Wisdom, he calls Jesus Lord in the Holy Spirit. But since we have mentioned the Paraclete and have set out as far as we could how he ought to be thought of, and since our Saviour too is called Paraclete in the Epistle of John, when it says, “If any of us sins, we have a Paraclete with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins,” let us consider whether this name Paraclete perhaps means one thing of the Saviour and another of the Holy Spirit. For of the Saviour, Paraclete seems to be said for intercessor; for Paraclete in Greek means both, intercessor and consoler. Because of the words that follow, then, “And he is the propitiation for our sins,” the name Paraclete seems in the Saviour's case to be understood rather as intercessor; for he is said to intercede with the Father for our sins. In the case of the Holy Spirit, Paraclete ought to be understood as consoler, because he grants consolation to the souls to which he openly reveals the sense of spiritual knowledge.