Exposition of the True Faith 12–18

But we too confessed long ago that we do not understand clearly the comprehension of this truth, and now no less we acknowledge it, confessing the knowledge according to the measure given to us, as far as [concerns] a more godly and clear account … we are eager to lead [the comparison] up from the example, and we wish to liken the union not to some small and cheap image, but to a great one, befitting the begetting from the Father. For since the Word came into the world as light, shining forth from the unbegotten light, I wish the example of the union also to be light. Let the Word, then, be understood as the primal light, which came to be at the first word of God through the Word himself; and the human body as the body of the sun, to which in an ineffable manner the Word was united. And do not think that the sun is another light besides the one that came to be first. For the sun did not come to be to fill up what was lacking, as though the first light were insufficient for the illumination of the universe; for the craftsman is not such as neither to foresee what is perfect nor to create the radiance for the need it serves. The primal light, then, is one; and the sun was made as a body for it; gathered upon this, the light, which before was poured out everywhere, is made … And through the body it completes for us blamelessly the course of the hours of the day. For if it had not been bound to a body, but had been poured whole through the whole air, it would neither have marked off for us the measures of the day nor shown an ordered motion and the [established course]. If you say to me that even before the sun was made there were day and night, first you will likewise agree that the nature of light was sufficient to illumine all things; and then, seeking in common the cause of the sun's creation, you will find it to be none other than the one just stated by us. For formerly the light, poured whole through the whole air, neither ran an even course nor marked off the measures of the day, but by contracting gave way to the night; so that it is truer than anything that the light is one thing and the solar body that received it another. The light being so related to the solar body, consider the argument with care. For just as after the union of the firstborn light with the solar body no one would separate them from each other, nor call the one by itself the sun and the other again light divided, but the light together with the body becomes one sun, so in the case of the true light and the all-holy body no one would say, after the union, that the divine Word is the Son separately and the man the Son separately; but one and the same … both the light received and the body that received it. Again, as there is one light and one sun, but two natures, the one of light and the other of the solar body, so here too there is one Son and Lord and Christ and Only-begotten, but two natures, the one beyond us and the other ours. And again, as in the case of light no one could separate its activity from the very body that receives it, but distinguishing by reason would recognize the nature to which the activity properly belongs, so in the case of the one only-begotten Son of God no one could separate any activity from the one sonship, but by reason would recognize to which nature what happens belongs. Having thus made the example of the divine union, as … Of these things, if anything seems to you to be somewhat nearer the truth, praise him who has given the measure of knowledge; but if you have learned something more godly from another, praise again the same guardian; for he, being the same, has worked in another. Let these things suffice, then: having set out the right confession as far as we could, bidding farewell to the sons of the church and confessing our thanks to him who supplied the word, [let us bring] the discourse to the life of quiet …

But I see some calling the discourse back, pointing out the course of another inquiry, and forcing it to run again, perhaps also … But [the discourse] imitates a spring, … has risen up for the race, and has not yet peeped out of the gates, and awaits the starter's signal. Wishing to mark out the question for you, it is ready to rush forward and overthrow unbelief, to shut the God-fighting tongues, to distinguish what one must inquire about divine things and what one must believe, and to be proclaimed victor by the law of the race. “How,” he says, “is the Word everywhere according to substance, and how in his own temple? For if he is there as in all things, the temple will have nothing more than all things. And where shall we put the saying, ‘In whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily’? But if one grants that he is more in the temple, he is not present to all things according to substance, which is proper to God.”

To ask “how” in the case of God is a clear proof of unbelief. … For how is he the creator of heaven, how of earth, and of sea, of air and of plants and of all living things, and of you yourself, who inquire so exactly about God? But you will surely say that the power of God is present to the things that come to be … as to existing things, even before they came to be; since what is accidental does not exist by itself but in underlying subjects. And if this is ridiculous, then, since the power was present by substance to all things that came to be, its possessor had nothing more than they … the word rushed forward and overthrew unbelief. Look around …

Tell us, you who are thought to champion Christianity, … seeking and putting forward such things, … the notions of mixture and confusion, and of change from body into Godhead, and such things, saying that the Word became … and at another time … holding no sound view at all of the deviations of your mind. Tell us, then, how the Word, becoming flesh, did not leave the heavens. You will surely say that, remaining God, he so became flesh. Tell us again, then, how, remaining, he became. For if he remained what he was, how did he become what he was not? And if he became what he was not, how did he remain what he was? Are you at a loss over this? Be at a loss over the manner of the union also. But you believe that, remaining, he became; believe also that the Word is present everywhere by substance, and is in his own temple in a special way. … If this, the body remains a body, since God is not a body, but it has received a share in divine dignity, not divine nature, by the good pleasure of the Word. But if the Word through the union changed the body into his own substance, let us ask again how the body was changed into the substance of the Word. Did it, when changed into the substance of the Word, provide an addition to that substance? Then the substance would have been deficient before this, if it received an addition. Or did it receive nothing from this? Then what was changed would be nothing. And how did nothing pass into the divine substance? “But the Word,” they will say, “did not dissolve the body into his own substance, but made it into a divine one.” Let them answer us again: divine as another besides his own, or the same as his own? For if the same as his own, we shall proclaim two divine substances of the Word: one, which he had as begotten from the Father; another, according to which he made the body itself. But if another besides his own, and not divine, they will surely say created. For there could be nothing between Godhead and creation. And what was the need of change for the body, if it was again remade into a created substance?

You are dizzy at the difficulties, and perhaps you fear that something said may undo the account of our faith. But when I, in my inquiry, am at a loss, then I will cry aloud the wonder of the mystery of the Christians: that our things are beyond mind, beyond reason, beyond the comprehension of created nature. And when you too, inquiring into such things, meet some difficulty, bring faith as a ready solution to what is inquired into, reckoning that where God is concerned, even if something of what is said is not known, whether because of the transcendence of his nature or because of the manner of the economy, no harm comes from this to those who do not know. And how do you not fear the daring of attempting to set divine things straight? Or have you not heard the divine words which, restraining those like you from such attempts, set before us the image of the clay and the potter, teaching by it that we must not be curious or inquisitive about divine things, but yield to the divine will as the clay to the potter? Be cautious at last, then, and lull your reasonings to rest with a very gentle mind … let faith alone resolve the difficulties for you, and tremble at the divine words, as it is written, so that, being made worthy of the divine rest, you may hear from the God of all those blessed words that say: “On whom shall I look but on the humble and quiet and him who trembles at my words?” … of the God-fighting tongues, the discourse runs, hastening to the distinction. But you, sons of the church, who make your inquiry piously, and put forward the questions on difficulties not to test but to learn if possible, prepare your mind thus with me. The form of the divine teaching is many-branched, but it is gathered as in a summary into the learning and keeping of the commandments, and into the knowledge and worship of God. The lovers of godliness, then, will try to be ignorant in no respect of the keeping and learning of the commandments, and before these of the worship of God. But the knowledge of divine things … let them worship as unattainable, lest the things of the faith be emptied for us. Knowing thus what must be inquired into and what believed, we set the discourse on the contests of the race: “Enter now into the contests, O word …”

We confess that we do not have clear knowledge of the truth; since this is a great part of victory. But examining what is attainable by human nature, I will easily resolve the question for you. For how, he says, is the Word in his own temple by substance, and likewise in all beings, and what more will the temple have than all? Let us hear, then, the Word saying, “Who is in the bosom of the Father”; … by substance he is present to all things indivisibly; and we do not say that he is in the Father as he is in the rest, not because his substance is contracted when it comes to be in others, but because of the measure of the recipients, who are too weak for the divine reception. So, saying that he is inseparably in his own temple, and confessing that the fullness of the Godhead, as it were, dwells there, we say that he is present to all things by substance, and not alike. For a defiled body does not receive the rays of the Godhead; learn what is said from an example. For I would not shrink from … The sun is common to us every day, set before all; it does not shed less on one and more on another, but sends forth its activity in common to all equally. But if someone has strong eyes, he receives more of its ray, not because of the sun, as though it spread itself more on him than on the rest, but because of the proper power of his sight. But he who is weak in his eyes will not be able even to look at the radiance of the light, because of the weakness of his eyes. So understand with me the sun of righteousness: present to all equally by substance, as being God; but all of us, like weak eyes bleared with the filth of sins, too weak to receive the light; and his own temple like a most pure eye, able to contain the whole brightness of the light, as formed by the Holy Spirit and wholly separated from sin. For as the sun, falling equally on all by its activity, is not received alike by all, so the Word, present to all by substance, is not present alike to the others and to his own temple.

… So, having run the race, let the word be adorned with the crowns of victory, and let it lead the defeat of its adversaries in triumph. But let us, with Christ leading us, sing the song of victory, crying the good contest: “O word, you have fought, you have finished the race, you have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for you the crown of righteousness.” Or rather let us praise him who supplied the victory, the most divine Word, the true light that enlightens every man coming into the world, in whom we live and move and have our being, through whom are all things, through whom we undo such twists of arguments, the guardian, the president, the benefactor; to whom we continually offer a sacrifice of praise, and pour out to him as God sincere prayers, and offer the fragrance of our deeds, thinking of him, attending to him, praising him in all things, the blessed hope and giver of the kingdom on high.