De sancta trinitat

And since the union has taken place, he is confessed and glorified as God, and for this reason he gives life, and is a life-giving Spirit, by the principle of divinity; nor is it ours according to the composite. Apoll.: Does Christ live by his own nature, or by the grace of God? If by his own nature, he is God; but if by the grace of God, he is neither above us, nor will he give us life. Orth.: Christ is one person composed of God and humanity, as every common man is composed of animal and rational. And by the nature from the Father he will give us life, since he is life subsisting in person, formed in the form of the servant. Apoll.: If by choice he has become better, how has he been able to do this? For a man's choice does not accomplish true righteousness. But if he is righteous by nature, he is God; but if he is justified by activity that is from God, while he himself is inactive, then those who are active are better. Orth.: And how did those who heard, "You also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel," not accomplish true righteousness? and, "You

Are you the light of the world? And even if they have practiced true righteousness, they are not righteousness itself. But the Word of God, being righteousness itself, took the form of a slave, and became for us righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. He who is righteousness became righteousness according to the principle of humanity, so that he might justify by his own grace us who were not righteousness. And the same is both God and man: as God, being righteousness; as man, becoming righteousness, so that what was said might be fulfilled: Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in all things. Apoll.: If man has been woven together with God, in Christ did he himself and of himself give the law, or not? But if of himself, he is God; but if not of himself, how did he not say, Thus says the Lord, but, I say to you? And how was he who does not speak not separated from the one who speaks? Orth.: If Christ is another person, he has not been woven together with God, and you have asked inconsistently; but if Christ himself is God and man, what is the excess of the labor of the question? And from where did you take has been woven together, which you asked, when Scripture nowhere says so? And whether you wish to say, Has been woven together, or, as Scripture said, He took, or, He became, he is God the Word, having taken the form of a slave, being named Christ, and being, and being believed; and being anointed as man with the Holy Spirit; but as God, himself providing to the worthy.

Thus God also gives the law, and as a man he comes under the law, and for this reason he does not say, "Thus says the Lord," since he is not a man who has partaken of divinity, but God who has partaken of blood and flesh, that is, of humanity. For Scripture calls man flesh and blood, as when Paul says: "I did not consult with flesh and blood"; and just as man is one person, composed of animal and rational, so also Christ is one person, existing from God and the form of a slave, and for this reason he does not say, "Thus says the Lord," but, "I say to you," and, "I am the life and the truth." Therefore, just as if the rational element in us should say: I am the one made in the image of God, fashioned incorruptible; and again the same rational element: I am earth and ashes—it is not that sometimes the animal speaks and sometimes the rational, but the rational itself sometimes says its own proper things and sometimes the things of the animal—so, from the union, the man and the Word of God being one person, when he says, "He who has seen me has seen the Father," he speaks of the vision of his own divinity. For he who has seen the flesh has not seen the Father; otherwise, Pontius, and Herod, and those who struck him, and the executioners who nailed him, will be found to have seen the Father. And when he says, "I gave my back to scourges," he does not speak of the back of the divinity; nor when he says—for how could anyone touch the divinity?

But the one who touched the body with faith touched both together—with the hand the body, with the faith the divinity—since the one who is both together is one person, Christ, "who became all things to all, that he might have mercy on all." So it is not that at one time God speaks and at another man; for, as has been said before, it is not that at one time the living being speaks separated from the rational, and at another the rational separated from the living being; but the rational is in the living being, and through the living being it speaks. I say the same thing by way of parallel, so that from every angle you may know the union. Apoll.: Moreover, either he himself was performing the wonders, or he was not. But if he was performing them, he was not a man; and if not, how does he say that he performs them? Or how is he the same as the one who performs them? Orth.: Just as the rational in the living being performs its own works, not being separated from the living being, so God the Word, united to a man, performs the wonders, not separated from the humanity, through it, and in it, and with it, having been pleased to work his own divine power. And just as if someone were to grant to the word that the sun, that great star, sends forth its own light through a lamp and in a lamp—for hear the same thing again by way of parallel—they are not two lights. For the lamp does not shine over against the sun; for it is not prevented from being a lamp; but it remains its own activity and

having motion; does not the sun shine in it and through it, while the lamp prevails and makes it its own, so that the sun is called a lamp? So God the Word, working his own power in a rational living being and through a rational living being, by his own good pleasure makes that living being beyond its nature, and did not prevent the living being from being rational; and he did not deem it unworthy to be called the same man, and in accomplishing the wonders he is not separated from the one united, that is, assumed, but as having become his, he works all things; and for this reason it is said, "The Word became flesh," and not "in flesh," that we may know the union by good pleasure, and, taught this, may recognize one and the same Christ as God and man. Apollinarius: Is the man worshiped by angels, or not? But if he is not worshiped, how is he united, and how does the Son send his angels? But if he is worshiped because divine power dwells in him, how is he worshiped by those who always have divine power dwelling in them? And shall we too worship the man, or not? But if we do not worship him, how shall we think him united, and how are we baptized into his death? But if we worship both the man and God alike, we shall be impious, setting the creature on equal terms with the Creator. And if we expect the man to judge together with God, illuminating the hidden things of darkness, we shall be attributing God's judgment to a man; but if not, how "the Father gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man"? And how is he united to the one who judges? Orthodox:

For this reason he received from God authority to execute judgment, being Lord of glory and of all authority, since, being God the Word, he became man, taking whole humanity. For the form of the servant is whole humanity, as the form of God is whole divinity. And we and the angels worship him, God the Word himself, who took the form of a servant; and we do not worship God in part and man in part; nor do we place creature and Creator on equal terms; but just as you, if indeed you confess that he took flesh from the Virgin consubstantial with us, worship him incarnate together with the flesh, not placing the flesh and the divinity on equal terms, nor separating the flesh and worshipping it in part, but worshipping the divinity together with the flesh—so also we worship the divinity become man, not separating it from the humanity. And Christ illuminates the hidden things of darkness, being one and the same God and man, like fire in matter illuminating those who approach his light, not separated from the matter united to it, nor is the matter consumed, just as neither was the bush in Moses' time. Apoll.: A man yoked to God is other than God in his vital motions, both rational and passible; and suffering, he suffers as another, and being worshipped, he is worshipped as another. But the flesh of God is an instrument of life fitted to the passions for the divine counsels, and it has neither words nor deeds proper to the flesh, and is subject to the passions;

According to what pertains to the flesh, he has power over the passions, because the flesh is God's, so as even to begin impassibility for bodies that are not similarly [disposed] but are of like nature; and it is worshipped as God's flesh, since the one worshipped is thus God; and he gives us union with himself, whose body it is; and it is worshipped, not as a creature, because no creature is a part of God. Those, then, who believe that God took flesh both obtain the benefits and do not fall into another [state]; those who say that a man was joined alongside God have the opposite of these things. Orth.: You have departed from the God-inspired Scripture, and for this reason you have fallen from grace, since the Scripture says, "He took," and, "He became"; you have dug for yourself the "joined alongside" like a broken cistern, unable to hold water. But how do you not wish the Word to be separated from humanity by the vital, rational, and passible movements? For did he also, while growing, grow divinely by a divine movement from age to age? And while advancing in wisdom, did he advance divinely? And while grieving and being in agony, and being troubled, did he grieve and agonize and was troubled divinely, and did he grow weary and suffer? May it not be! But just as God the Word called the body from Mary his own body, though it is not of the same substance as the divinity, so too he calls the passions and the vital and rational growth his own, appropriating all things of humanity by the good pleasure of grace; likewise also the flesh, fitted as an instrument of life for the divine counsels. For in order that he might spit, he used the body as an instrument; in order that he might be buried, likewise with the body;

So that he might suffer willingly, and so that he might despoil Hades, by the soul which he said he was laying down for the sheep. And neither are the words his own as a man, nor the deeds; but the flesh, subjected to passions in the way that befits a man, has power over the passions through its union with God. "For he did not commit sin, nor was guile found in his mouth," so as to begin impassibility for those who are like him. For "the God Logos has been made like his brothers in all things," united to humanity, and is worshipped as God made man; and he gives us a connection to himself, having partaken of blood and flesh, and the same one is worshipped, by his union with us as a man, but being God by nature and essence. But why did you dare to say that the flesh from the seed of David, from Mary the Virgin, the flesh not in appearance but in truth, and which appeared even after the resurrection, is a part of God? For when the disciples thought it was a phantom, because he entered while the doors were closed, remember his words, so that you may hear: "Touch me and see, that a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see me having." But how it is possible to conceive a part of the indivisible God, and that flesh, is for your wisdom to explain. Apoll.: If the flesh, as being at war with the mind, is separated from the mind, according to the Apostle, then God, having taken flesh, has from it the motions that war against the mind, and which are not subject to him as to an adversary to the mind. But if this is so, he is not himself the one who suffers, insofar as he is God. Orth.: For to which of the saints were the motions that war against the mind not subjected? Or how are they saints, if they did not subject them?

But if the movements that war against the mind were subjected to the mind of the saints, how will they not be subjected to God the Word, who was united to a rational soul with flesh, so that he might be made like his brothers in all things without sin, and might himself be both God and man? But what does this mean: "But if this is so, he who suffers is not himself, insofar as he is God"? Others will understand, those who inscribe you as their teacher.