De incarnatione verbi ad Januarium; ex Origenis opere Peri Archon

Two Books on the Incarnation of the Word, Addressed to Januarius, Collected from Origen’s Work *Peri Archon*, According to the Translation of Rufinus. Book One. Chapter One. — He gathers together those things which have been preached concerning God by the Apostles. Now the types of those things which are clearly handed down through apostolic preaching are these. First, that there is one God who created and arranged all things, and who, when they were nothing, made everything exist. God from the first creature and foundation of the world of all the righteous, the God of Adam, Abel, Seth, Enos, Enoch, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the twelve Patriarchs, Moses, and the Prophets. And that this God in the last days, as He had previously promised through His Prophets, sent the Lord Jesus Christ, first indeed to call Israel, and secondly also the Gentiles after the faithlessness of the people of Israel. This God, just and good, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Himself gave the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospels, who is also the God of the Apostles, and of the Old and New Testament. Then next, that Jesus Christ, who came before every creature, was born from the Father: who, when He had ministered to the Father in every creation (for through Him all things were made [John 1:3]), in the most recent times, emptying Himself, became man, was incarnated although He was God, and having become man, remained what He was, God. He took on a body similar to our body, differing only in that it was born from a virgin and the Holy Spirit.

And since this God, Jesus Christ, was born and suffered in truth, not through phantasy, he truly died this common death. For he truly rose again from the dead, and after the resurrection he conversed with his disciples and was taken up. Then finally he handed on the Holy Spirit, associated in nature, honor, and dignity with the Father and the Son. Indeed, that this same Holy Spirit inspired each one of the saints, whether Prophets or Apostles, and that it was not one spirit in the ancients and another in those who were inspired at the coming of Christ, is preached most clearly in the Church. Chapter II. — The Free Will and Origin of the Soul. After this, the soul, which already has its own substance and life, when it departs from this world, will be dispensed according to its merits: either it will enjoy the inheritance of eternal life and blessedness, if its deeds have earned this for it; or it will be consigned to eternal punishment, if the guilt of its crimes has turned it in that direction. But there will also be a time of resurrection of the dead, when this body, which is now sown in corruption, will rise in incorruption; and what is sown in dishonor will rise in glory (1 Cor. 15:42, 43).

There is also this defined in ecclesiastical preaching: that every soul is rational, of free choice and will; that it also has a struggle against the devil and his angels and contrary powers, in that they strive to burden it with sins, while we, if we live rightly and prudently, try to shake off such a stain. Hence it follows to understand that we are not subject to necessity, so that we are compelled, even against our will, to do either good or evil. For if we are of our own free will, some powers may perhaps assail us to sin, and others help toward salvation; yet we are not compelled by necessity either to act rightly or wrongly, as those think who say that the course and motions of the stars are the cause of human deeds, not only of those which happen outside the freedom of choice, but also of those which are placed in our power. Concerning the soul, however, whether it is derived from the transmission of seed, so that its reason or substance is inserted into the bodily seeds themselves, or whether it has another beginning, and this beginning itself, whether it is generated or ungenerated, or certainly whether it is introduced into the body from without or not, is not sufficiently distinguished by clear preaching.

CHAPTER III. — On the state of the devil. Ecclesiastical preaching has also taught concerning the devil and his angels and the contrary powers, that they indeed exist; but what they are, or in what manner they exist, it has not set forth with sufficient clarity. Among many, however, this opinion is held: that the devil was an angel, and having become an apostate, he persuaded very many angels to turn aside with him, who even now are called his angels. CHAPTER IV. — The beginning and end of the world. There is also this in ecclesiastical preaching: that this world was made, and began at a certain time, and is to be dissolved on account of its own corruption. Yet what existed before this world, or what will be afterward, has not become manifestly known to many. For no clear statement concerning these matters is put forth in ecclesiastical preaching. CHAPTER V. — The hidden sense of Scripture. Finally, that the Scriptures were written by the Spirit of God, and have not only the sense which is manifest, but also another certain hidden sense for very many. For these are forms which describe certain sacraments and images of divine things: concerning which the whole Church is of one opinion, that the entire Law is spiritual; yet that which the Law breathes is not known to men except only to those to whom the grace of the Holy Spirit is granted in the word of wisdom and knowledge.

CHAPTER VI. — Good angels. It is also a part of ecclesiastical teaching that there are certain angels of God and good powers, which minister to him for the consummation of the salvation of men; but when these were created, or of what nature or in what manner they exist, is not sufficiently clearly distinguished. CHAPTER VII. — How truth is to be investigated. Therefore it is necessary to use such things as increments and foundations, according to the command which says, "Light for yourselves the lamp of knowledge": everyone who desires to construct a certain edifice, and to complete a body from the reasoning of all these things, so that by manifest and necessary assertions concerning each and every thing, he may examine what is true, and, as we have said, make one body, by means of examples and affirmations, either those which he has found in the holy Scriptures, or those which he has discovered by his own investigation and by the right course of reason. CHAPTER VIII. — The Son born without beginning. We have always known God the Father of his only-begotten Son, born indeed from him, and drawing what he is from him, yet without any beginning: not only in the sense that it cannot be distinguished by any intervals of time, but not even by that which the mind alone is accustomed to contemplate within itself, and to perceive, so to speak, with the naked intellect and spirit. Therefore it is to be believed that Wisdom was generated outside every beginning which can be either spoken or understood.

In this very subsistence of Wisdom, therefore, because every power and form of the future creature was inherent, whether of those which exist principally or of those which follow consequently, preformed and arranged by the power of prescience: for the sake of those very creatures which had been, as it were, described and prefigured in Wisdom itself, Wisdom itself, through Solomon, said that it was created as the Beginning of the ways of God (Prov. 8:22), containing, of course, in itself either the beginnings, or the reasons, or the species of the whole creation. But just as we have understood Wisdom to be the beginning of the ways of God, and how it is said to be created, namely, preforming and containing in itself the species and reasons of the whole creation, so also is it to be understood that it is the Word of God: by this, that it opens to all others, that is, to the whole creation, the reason of the mysteries and secrets which are, of course, contained within the Wisdom of God; and by this it is called the Word, because it is, as it were, the interpreter of the secrets of the mind. John, in the beginning of his Gospel, defining God by his own definition as the Word, says: And the Word was God, and this was in the beginning with God (John 1:1). But whoever gives a beginning to the Word of God or the Wisdom of God, consider whether he does not rather cast his impiety upon the unbegotten Father himself, by denying that he was always Father, and that he begot the Word, and had Wisdom in all prior times or ages, or whatever it is that can be named.

CHAPTER IX.—Exemplary Reasons in the Word. Therefore this Son is also the truth, the life, and the way of all things that exist (John 14:6). And rightly so. For how could things that are made live, unless from life? Or how could things that exist consist in truth, unless they descended from truth? Or how could rational substances exist, unless word or reason preceded? Or how could they be wise, unless wisdom existed? Thus the Word of God and Wisdom became the way, which is so called because it leads to the Father those who walk through it. Therefore, whatever we may say of the Wisdom of God, these things will also be fittingly applied and understood for the fact that the Son of God is life, and for the fact that He is the word, and for the fact that He is the truth, and for the fact that He is the way, and for the fact that He is the resurrection: because all these appellations are named from His works and powers; and in none of them can anything corporeal be understood, even by a slight opinion, nor anything that seems to designate magnitude, or shape, or color.

CHAPTER X.—The Inconceivable Birth of the Word. But since those who among us are seen as sons of men or of other animals correspond to the seed of those by whom they are sown, or even to those in whose womb we are formed and nourished, taking from them whatever it is that they assume and bring forth into this light as they are about to proceed: it is unspeakable and unlawful to equate God the Father in the generation of his only-begotten Son, and in his substance, with any man or other living being that generates. But it is necessary that there be something exceptional, and worthy of God, for which absolutely no comparison can be found, not only in things, but not even in thought or sensation, so that human thought might be able to grasp how the unbegotten God the Father becomes the father of the only-begotten Son. For it is an eternal and everlasting generation, just as brightness is generated from light. For the Son is not made Son by adoption of the Spirit from without: but he is Son by nature. Let us see, however, how these things we say are also supported by the authority of divine Scripture. The apostle Paul says that the only-begotten Son is the image of the invisible God, and that he is the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1:15). And writing to the Hebrews about him, he says that he is the radiance of glory, and the express figure of his substance (Hebrews 1:3).

We find also, nevertheless, in the Wisdom which is called Solomon's, a certain description of the Wisdom of God, written in this manner: For it is a vapor, it says, of the power of God, and, that is, the purest emanation of the glory of the Almighty. Therefore nothing defiled can fall into it, for it is the splendor of eternal light, and the immaculate mirror of the operation of God, and the image of his goodness (Wisdom 7:25, 26). But we call the Wisdom of God, as we said above, having subsistence nowhere else than in him who is the beginning of all things, from whom it was born. Which Wisdom, because he himself is the one who is by nature the only Son, is for that reason also called the Only-begotten. CHAPTER XI.—The Word the Image of the Father. Let us see indeed what is also to be understood concerning this, that he is called the image of the invisible God, so that by this we may perceive how God is rightly called the Father of his Son. And let us consider first from those things which by human custom are accustomed to be called images. An image is sometimes said to be that which is painted or carved in some material, that is, of wood or stone. Sometimes an image is called the one who is born of him who begot, when in him the likeness of the features of the one who begot are imitated in the one who is born. I think, therefore, that the former example can be applied to him who was first made man to the image and likeness of God, concerning which we will see more diligently, God willing, when we begin to expound that place itself in Genesis.

The second image, however, can be compared to the image of the Son of God, of whom we now speak, even according to this, that it is the invisible image of the invisible God. Just as according to history we say that the image of Adam is his son Seth. For it is written thus: And Adam begot Seth according to his image and according to his form (Gen. 5:3). This image also contains the unity of the nature and substance of the Father and the Son. For if everything that the Father has made, the Son likewise makes (John 5:19), in that the Son has made everything just as the Father did, the image of the Father is formed in the Son, who is certainly born from him as a kind of will proceeding from the mind. And therefore I think that the will of the Father ought to suffice for the subsistence of that which the Father wills. For in willing, he uses no other means than that which is brought forth by the counsel of the will. Thus, therefore, the subsistence of the Son is generated from him, which must first be accepted by those who confess nothing unbegotten, that is, unborn, except God the Father alone. For it must be observed lest anyone fall into those absurd fables of those who depict for themselves certain emanations, so as to divide the divine nature into parts and to divide God the Father, as far as in them lies, since to suspect even lightly such a thing of an incorporeal nature is not only of the utmost impiety, but also of utter foolishness, and does not at all follow from understanding, that a substantial division of an incorporeal nature can be conceived.

Therefore, just as will proceeds from the mind, and does not cut off any part of the mind, nor is it separated or divided from it, in such a manner must it be thought that the Father begot the Son, that is, his own image: so that, just as he himself is invisible by nature, he also begot an invisible image. For the Son is the Word, and therefore nothing sensible is to be understood in him. He is Wisdom, and in Wisdom nothing corporeal is to be suspected. He is the true light, which illuminates every man coming into this world (John 1:9), but he has nothing in common with the light of this sun. Therefore, our Savior is the image of the invisible God the Father: as regards the Father himself, he is truth; as regards us, to whom he reveals the Father, he is the image through which we know the Father, whom no one else knows except the Son, and to whomever the Son wishes to reveal him (Matthew 11:27). He reveals him, however, through the fact that he himself is understood. For by whomever he himself has been understood, the Father is consequently understood, according to what he himself said: "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father as well" (John 14:9).

CHAPTER 12. — Christ is the form of the paternal substance. But since we have inserted the statement of Paul speaking about Christ, where he says that he is the radiance of the glory of God and the express image of his substance (Heb. 1:3), let us see what is to be thought about this. God is light, according to John (1 John 1:5). Therefore the radiance of the light is the only-begotten Son, proceeding from it inseparably, just as radiance proceeds from light, and illuminating the whole creation. According to this, as we have explained above, how he is the way and leads to the Father: and how he is the Word, interpreting the hidden mysteries of wisdom and knowledge and bringing them forth to the rational creature: how also he is truth, or life, or resurrection. Consequently we must also understand the work of the radiance. For through the radiance what the light itself is is known and perceived. This radiance, offering itself more gently and mildly to the fragile and weak eyes of mortals, and gradually, as it were, teaching and accustoming them to bear the brightness of the light, when it has removed from them everything that obscures and hinders vision, according to what the Lord said, "Remove the beam from your eye" (Matt. 7:5), makes them capable of receiving the glory of the light, also in this acting as a kind of mediator between men and the light. But since he is called by the Apostle not only the radiance of glory, but also the express image of his substance or subsistence (Heb.

I, 3); it does not seem to me to be of idle understanding to note how something other than the substance or subsistence of God itself, whatever that substance or subsistence is called, is said to be the figure of His substance. And see whether perhaps, since the Son of God, who is also called His Word and Wisdom, and who alone knows the Father and reveals Him to whom He wills (Matthew 11:27)—that is, to those who have been capable of His Word and Wisdom—according to this very fact that He makes God understood and known, He is said to express the figure of His substance or subsistence: that is, when Wisdom first describes in itself what it wishes to reveal to others, from which God is known and understood by them; and this is called the express figure of the substance of God. But in order to understand more fully how the Savior is the figure of the substance or subsistence of God, let us also use an example, which, although it does not fully or properly signify the matter we are treating, nevertheless seems to be assumed for this sole purpose: that the Son, who was in the form of God (Philippians 2:6), by emptying Himself, through this very emptying, strove to show us the fullness of divinity.

For example: if some statue were made which, by its magnitude, held the entire globe of the earth, and because of its immensity could be considered by no one, but another statue were made, in the habit of its limbs and the lineaments of its face, in appearance and material entirely similar, but without the immensity of size, so that those who could not consider and behold that immense one, by seeing this one might consider that they had seen that one, because it preserved all things—that is, the lineaments of limbs or face, or the very appearance and material—in an utterly indistinguishable likeness; by some such similitude the Son of God empties Himself from the equality of the Father, and, showing us the way of knowing Him, becomes the expressed figure of His substance: so that we, who could not behold the glory placed in the magnitude of His brightness of pure light, by this which becomes for us a splendor, may grasp the way of beholding the divine light through the sight of the splendor. The comparison concerning statues, placed as it is among corporeal things, is to be received for nothing other than this: that the Son of God, very briefly inserted into the form of a human body, by the similarity of works and power, designated in Himself the immense and invisible magnitude of God the Father, through what He said to His disciples: “He who has seen me has seen the Father also” (John 14:9); and “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). By which also that similar saying is to be understood, which He spoke: “The Father is in me, and I in Him” (John 14:10).

CHAPTER XIII. — The Son as a Vapor of Divine Power. Let us now consider how that passage is to be understood which we read written in the Wisdom of Solomon, concerning Wisdom: that it is a certain vapor of the power of God, that is, an emanation of the purest glory of the Almighty, and the splendor of eternal light, and the immaculate mirror of the operation or power of God, and the image of his goodness (Wisdom 7:25). Therefore, delineating these five things concerning God, it designates from each of them certain attributes inherent in the Wisdom of God. For it names the power of God, and glory, and eternal light, and operation, and goodness. But it says that Wisdom is a vapor not of the glory of the Almighty, nor of eternal light, nor of the operation of the Father, nor of his goodness; for it was not fitting to ascribe a vapor to any of these: but with all propriety it says that Wisdom is a vapor of the power of God. Therefore, the power of God is to be understood, by which He is vigorous; by which He either institutes, or contains, or governs all visible and invisible things; because it is sufficient for all things of which it exercises providence, because it is present to all as if united. Therefore, of this entire power, so great and so immense, the vapor, and, so to speak, that very vigor, having been brought into its own subsistence, although it proceeds from that power itself as will proceeds from the mind, nevertheless the will of God itself becomes none other than the power of God.

Therefore, another power is produced, subsisting in its own substance, as the language of Scripture says: a certain vapor of the first and unbegotten power of God, drawing from that which it is. Yet there is no time when it did not exist. If anyone should wish to say that it did not exist before but later came into subsistence, let him state the reason why the Father, who caused it to subsist, did not do this earlier. But if he once gave it a beginning, at which beginning this vapor proceeded from the power of God, we will again ask why not also before that which he called the beginning. And thus, always inquiring about earlier times and ascending with the word of questioning, we will arrive at that understanding: since God was always able and always willing, it could never have been fitting, nor could any cause have existed, for him not always to have had that which he willed as good. From this it is shown that this vapor of the power of God always existed, having no beginning except God himself. For it was not fitting that there be any other beginning than that from which it is and is born, with you. According to the Apostle, however, who says that Christ is the power of God (1 Cor. 1:24), it is now to be called not merely a vapor of the power of God, but power from power.

But let no one think that the appellation "Omnipotent" is prior in God to the birth of Wisdom, through whom He is called Father, because it has been said that Wisdom, who is the Son of God, is the most pure outflow of the glory of the Omnipotent. Let those who wish to suspect this hear what divine Scripture clearly pronounces, saying, "For you have made all things in wisdom" (Psalm 103:24). And the Gospel teaches that "all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made" (John 1:3). And from this they will understand that the appellation "Omnipotent" cannot be older in God than that of "Father." For the Father is omnipotent through the Son. But since it said that Wisdom is the outflow of the glory of the Omnipotent, this gives us to understand that in the glory of omnipotence, Wisdom also has a share, through whom God is called omnipotent. Through Wisdom, which is Christ, God holds power over all things, not only by the authority of the ruler, but also by the willing service of the subjects. Moreover, so that you may recognize that the omnipotence of the Father and the Son is one and the same, just as He is one and the same God and Lord with the Father, hear John speaking in the Apocalypse in this way: "Thus says the Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Omnipotent" (Revelation 1:8). For who else is the one who is to come but Christ? And just as no one should be offended that God is the Father.

And also the Savior is God. So too, when He is called "Omnipotent," Father, no one should be offended that the Son of God is also called "Omnipotent." For in this way that saying will be true which He Himself says to the Father: "All that is mine is yours, and yours is mine, and I am glorified in them" (John 17:10). Therefore, if all things that are the Father's are Christ's, and among all things that the Father is, He is also Omnipotent, then without doubt the only-begotten Son of God must also be Omnipotent, so that all that the Father has, the Son also has. "And I am glorified," He says, "in them": for in the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of the celestial, terrestrial, and infernal beings, and every tongue shall confess that the Lord Jesus is in the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11). Therefore, the outflow of the glory of God, according to this that He is Omnipotent, is the pure and limpid Wisdom of God itself, glorified as an outflow of omnipotence or glory. But that it may be more clearly understood what the glory of omnipotence is, we add this as well. God the Father is Omnipotent, because He holds dominion over all things, that is, of heaven and earth, of the sea, and of all that is in them. Now He exercises dominion over these through His Word, because in the name of Jesus every knee bows, of the celestial, terrestrial, and infernal beings. If every knee bows to Jesus, without doubt Jesus is Omnipotent, to whom all things are subject; and He it is who exercises dominion over all things, and through whom all things are subject to the Father.

For through wisdom, that is, through word and reason, not by force and necessity, are things subjected. And therefore in the very fact that it holds sway over all things is its glory: and this is the purest and most limpid glory of omnipotence, when all things are subjected by reason and wisdom, not by force or necessity. CHAPTER XIV. — Glory and splendor. The eternal, what is meant. The operation of God, what it is. Now the purest and most limpid glory of wisdom has been quite fittingly mentioned, to distinguish it from that glory which is called neither pure nor sincere. For every nature which is convertible and changeable, even if it is glorified in works of justice or wisdom, by the very fact that it has justice or wisdom as an accident, and that what is accidental can also depart, its glory cannot be called sincere and limpid. But the wisdom of God, which is the only-begotten Son, since it is in all things inconvertible and immutable, and every good in it is substantial, which indeed can never be changed or altered, therefore its pure and sincere glory is proclaimed. (a) Eternal or everlasting is properly said of that which neither had a beginning of its being, nor can ever cease to be what it is. This is indicated in John when he says that God is light (1 John 1:5). The splendor of his light, however, is his wisdom, not only according to the fact that it is everlasting light, so that his wisdom is the eternal and eternal splendor.

If this is understood in its integrity, it clearly declares that the substance of the Son descends from the Father Himself, but not temporally, nor from any other beginning, except, as we have said, from God Himself. But wisdom is also called the immaculate mirror of the Father’s operation of God. Therefore, what the operation of the power of God is must first be understood; it is a certain vigor, so to speak, by which the Father operates, whether when He creates, or when He provides, or when He judges, or when He arranges and administers each individual thing in its own time. For just as in a mirror, with all the movements and all the actions by which the one who looks into the mirror is moved or acts, the very same image that is formed through the mirror is likewise moved or acts by those same actions or movements, in no way deviating; so also wisdom wishes to be understood concerning itself, when it is called the immaculate mirror of the Father’s power of operation of God: just as the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the wisdom of God, declares concerning Himself, saying that the works which the Father does, these also the Son does similarly. And again He says that the Son cannot do anything by Himself unless He has seen the Father doing it (John.

Since, therefore, the Son is in no way changed or different from the Father in the power of His works, nor is the work of the Son other than that of the Father, but one and the same, so to speak, even the motion is in all things: for this reason He called Him an immaculate mirror, so that by this no dissimilarity of the Son from the Father is understood, since in the Gospel the Son is said not to do similar things, but to do the same things similarly. CHAPTER XV. — The Son is the Image of the Divine Goodness. It remains to inquire what is the image of His goodness: in which, I think, it is fitting to understand the same things which we expressed above concerning the image that is formed through a mirror. For the principal goodness is without doubt the Father, from whom the Son is born, who is called the image in all things. For there does not exist in the Son some other secondary goodness besides that which is in the Father. Whence also rightly the Savior Himself says in the Gospel, "No one is good except one God" (Mark 10:18). By which, of course, it is understood that the Son is not of another goodness, but of that only which is in the Father: of which He is rightly called the image; because He is from nowhere else except from that principal goodness itself, nor does any other goodness than that which is in the Father appear in the Son; nor is there any dissimilarity or distance of goodness in the Son.

For this reason, it should not be thought that there is some kind of blasphemy in what has been said, that "No one is good except the one God," so that on that account it is supposed that either Christ or the Holy Spirit is denied to be good. But, as we said above, the principal goodness is to be understood in God the Father, from whom either the Son is born or the Holy Spirit proceeds, without doubt bearing in itself the nature of goodness, which is in that source from which the Son is born or from which the Holy Spirit proceeds. Now if any other things are called good in the Scriptures—whether angel, or man, or servant, or treasure, or the care of men, or a good tree—all these are called good improperly, containing in themselves an accidental, not a substantial, goodness. Chapter XVI. — The Dignity of the Holy Spirit. But it is a great task, and belongs to another work or time, to gather together all the appellations of the Son of God: for example, how He is called the true light, or the door, or justice, or sanctification, or redemption, and countless other names; and to explain for what reasons, or powers, or affections each of these is named. But content with those matters about which we have discoursed above, let us consequently also investigate the remaining ones. It is fitting, therefore, that we now inquire, as briefly as we can, concerning the Holy Spirit.

And indeed, all who in any way perceive that providence exists confess that God is unbegotten, who created and arranged the universe, and they understand him as the parent of the whole; yet that he has a Son, we are not the only ones to declare. Although this seems sufficiently strange and incredible to those who appear to philosophize among the Greeks or Barbarians, nevertheless the opinion of him seems to have been held by some even among them, when they confess that all things were created by the Word of God or reason. But we, according to the faith of that teaching which we hold as certainly divinely inspired, believe that we are able to expound and bring into human knowledge a more eminent and more divine account of the Son of God, by no other possibility than that of that Scripture alone which is inspired by the Holy Spirit, that is, the apostolic and evangelical, as well as the Law and the Prophets, as Christ himself asserted. Concerning the substance of the Holy Spirit, moreover, no one could have any suspicion, except those who are versed in the Law and the Prophets, or those who profess to believe in Christ. For concerning God the Father, although no one is able to speak worthily, nevertheless it is possible for some understanding to be grasped from the occasion of visible creatures, and from those things which the human mind naturally perceives, and moreover it is possible for it to be confirmed from the holy Scriptures.

But concerning the Son of God, although no one begets the Son except the Father, yet from the divine Scriptures, even regarding how he ought to be understood, the human mind is formed—not only from the New, but also from the Old Testament, through those things which were done figuratively by the saints and refer to Christ, and by which either his divine nature or the human nature which was assumed by him can be perceived. Concerning the Holy Spirit, that he exists, many Scriptures teach us, as David says in the fiftieth Psalm: "And do not take your Holy Spirit from me" (Ps. 50:13). And in Daniel it is said: "The Holy Spirit who is in you" (Dan. 4:15; 5:11). In the New Testament, moreover, we are instructed by abundant testimonies, when the Holy Spirit is written to have descended upon him (Matt. 3:16); and when the Lord himself breathed on the Apostles after the resurrection, saying: "Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22). And to Mary it is said by the Angel: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you" (Luke 1:35). Paul teaches that "No one can say 'Lord Jesus' except in the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:5). And in the Acts of the Apostles, through the laying on of hands by the apostles, the Holy Spirit was given in Baptism (Acts 8:17).

From all these things we have learned that the substance of the Holy Spirit is of such authority and dignity that the saving Baptism is completed only by the invocation of the most excellent Trinity, that is, by the naming of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and the name of the Holy Spirit is joined to the unbegotten God the Father and His only-begotten Son. Who, therefore, would not be amazed at how great the majesty of the Holy Spirit is, since one who has spoken a word against the Son of man dares to hope for pardon, but one who has blasphemed against the Holy Spirit has no pardon, neither in the present age nor in the future? CHAPTER XVII. — The term "Spirit" in the Scriptures. Nevertheless, up to the present, we have been unable to find any passage in the holy Scriptures by which the Holy Spirit is said to be a making or a creature, not even in the manner in which we have above taught that Solomon refers to wisdom, or in the way we have treated what is to be understood concerning life or word and other appellations of the Son of God. Therefore, the Spirit of God which was borne over the waters, as it is written, in the beginning of the making of the world (Gen. 1:2), I think is none other than the Holy Spirit, according to what I am able to understand: just as, when we were expounding those same passages, we showed, not according to history, but according to spiritual understanding.

Now indeed our predecessors in the New Testament observed that wherever "spirit" is named without an addition that designates what kind of spirit it is, it ought to be understood of the Holy Spirit: for example, "But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace" (Galatians 5:22), etc. And also there: "When you begin with the Spirit, you will be consummated in the flesh" (Galatians 3:5). We, however, think that this distinction can also be maintained in the Old Testament: as when it says, "Who gives the Spirit to the people who are upon the earth, and the Spirit to those who tread upon it" (Isaiah 42:5). For without doubt everyone who treads upon the earth, that is, earthly and corporeal things, is a partaker of the Holy Spirit, receiving it from God. For just as it is said of the Son that "No one knows the Father except the Son, and him to whom the Son wills to reveal him" (Matthew 11:27), so also the Apostle teaches this same thing concerning the Holy Spirit when he says, "But God has revealed to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the deep things of God" (1 Corinthians 2:10). And again in the Gospel, when the Savior mentions divine and more profound teachings that His disciples could not yet grasp, He speaks thus to the Apostles: "I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now; but when the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father, comes, He will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you" (John 16:13).

CHAPTER XVIII. — On the Influxes and Various Operations of the Holy Spirit. And so it must be known that just as the Son, who alone knows the Father, reveals him to whom he wills, so also the Holy Spirit, who alone searches even the other things of God, reveals God to whom he wills. For the Spirit breathes where he wills (John 3:8). For it must not be thought that the Holy Spirit also knows the Father through the Son’s revelation. For if the Holy Spirit knows the Father through the Son’s revelation, then he comes from ignorance to knowledge: which is certainly both impious and foolish, to confess the Holy Spirit and to ascribe ignorance to him. For it is not as if he were something else before he was the Holy Spirit, and came by progress into being the Holy Spirit: so that one might dare to say that when he was not yet the Holy Spirit, he was ignorant of the Father, but afterward, when he received knowledge, he also became the Holy Spirit. But if this were so, he would never be held in the unity of the Trinity, that is, of the unchangeable God the Father, and his Son, and also the Holy Spirit, unless he himself was always the Holy Spirit. Now this that we say, whether “Always,” or “Was,” or any other such word of temporal signification that we employ, is to be taken simply and with indulgence: for indeed the meanings of these words are temporal; but the things of which we speak, though in the discourse they are named temporally, by their own nature exceed every understanding of temporal sense.

God the Father grants to all that they exist; but by participation in Christ, according to that which he is Word or Reason, he makes them rational. From this it follows that they are worthy either of praise or of blame, because they are capable of both virtue and malice. For this reason the grace of the Holy Spirit is also present, so that those things which are not substantially holy may become holy by participation in him. Therefore, first they have existence from God the Father; second, they have rationality from the Word; third, they have holiness from the Holy Spirit. Again, by Christ, according to that which he is the justice of God, those things which have already been sanctified through the Holy Spirit become capable of justice. And those who have advanced to this degree through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit also obtain the gift of wisdom according to the power of the operation of the Spirit of God. And I think this is what Paul means when he says that to some is given the speech of wisdom, to others the speech of knowledge, according to the same Spirit. And designating each distinction of gifts, he refers all to the source of the whole, and says, "For there are divisions of operations, but there is one God, who works all things in all" (1 Cor. 12:8, 6).

Hence, in the operation of the Father, which grants being to all, he is found more clear and more magnificent: when each one, through participation in Christ, according to that which he is wisdom, and according to that which he is knowledge and sanctification, advances and comes into higher degrees of progress; and through this, that one has been sanctified by participation in the Holy Spirit, rendered purer and more sincere, he more worthily receives the grace of wisdom and knowledge; so that, with all stains of pollution and ignorance driven out and purged, he may receive such a degree of sincerity and purity that what he has received from God to be is such as is worthy of God, who assuredly granted being purely and perfectly, so that what is may be as worthy as is he who made it to be. For thus, indeed, one who is such as he who made him wished him to be will receive from God the power always to be and to endure forever. That this may happen, and that those things made by him may attend unceasingly and inseparably upon him who is, it is the work of wisdom to instruct and educate them and to lead them to perfection through the confirmation and unceasing sanctification of the Holy Spirit, by which alone they can receive it. Thus, therefore, through the unceasing work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit toward us, renewed through each and every degree of progress, we may perhaps at some time behold the holy and blessed life.

When we have been able to reach that state after many struggles, we must so persevere that no satiety of that good ever seizes us; but the more we perceive of that blessedness, the more the desire for it is either spread or increased within us, while we ever more ardently and capaciously either grasp or hold the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. But if satiety should ever take hold of any of those who have stood at the highest and most perfect degree, I do not think that such a one is suddenly emptied and falls; but he must necessarily flow away little by little and in parts, so that it can sometimes happen that if some brief lapse occurs, and he quickly recovers and returns to himself, he does not utterly fall, but draws back his foot and returns to his state, and can again set in place what had slipped away through negligence. For the only-begotten Son of God, who was the Word and Wisdom of the Father, when he was in that glory with the Father which he had before the world existed, emptied himself, and taking the form of a servant became obedient unto death, so that he might teach obedience to those who could attain salvation only through obedience, first fulfilling in himself what he wished to be fulfilled by others.

Therefore, he not only became obedient to the Father unto the death of the cross, but also in the consummation of the age, encompassing in himself all whom he subjects to the Father and who come to salvation through him; when both they themselves and, in them, he himself is also said to be subject to the Father: while all things stand in him, and he is the head of all, and he is the fullness of those who attain salvation. This, then, is what the Apostle says about him: "But when all things have been subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subject to him who has subjected all things to himself, so that God may be all in all" (1 Cor. 15:28). Yet, in some way, heretics, not understanding the Apostle's meaning contained in these words, defame the name of subjection in the Son: the property of which appellation, if sought, can easily be found from its opposites. For if being subject is not good, it remains that what is contrary is good, that is, not being subject. For the Apostle's discourse, according to what they wish, seems to show this, when he says, "But when all things have been subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subject to him who has subjected all things to himself": as if he who is now not subject to the Father will then be subject, when first the Father has subjected all things to him.

But I wonder how this can be understood, that he who is not himself subject before all are subjected to him, then when all have been subjected to him, when he is king of all and holds power over all, they think he is to be subjected, when he was not subject before: not understanding that Christ’s subjection to the Father shows the blessedness of our perfection and declares the palm of the work undertaken by him; since he offers to the Father not only the summit of ruling and reigning, which he had set right throughout the whole of creation, but also the institutions of obedience and subjection of the human race, corrected and restored. If, then, this subjection, by which the Son is said to be subject to the Father, is taken as good and salutary, it is very consistent and coherent that the subjection of the enemies, who are said to be subject to the Son of God, should be understood as something salutary and useful: so that, just as when the Son is said to be subject to the Father, the perfect restoration of the whole of creation is declared, so when the enemies of the Son of God are said to be subject, the salvation of the subjects is understood in it, and the restoration of the lost.

But this subjection will be completed by certain means, disciplines, and times—that is, not by any necessity compelling subjection, nor will the whole world become subject to God by force, but by word, reason, teaching, the exhortation of better men, the best institutions, and also by worthy and fitting threats, which justly hang over those who neglect the care and health of their own salvation and advantage. Finally, even we humans, when we train either slaves or children, while they are still incapable of reason due to age, we restrain them with beginnings and fear; but when they have grasped the understanding of what is good, useful, and honorable, then, with the fear of blows ceasing, persuaded by word and reason, they acquiesce in all that is good.

How, with the freedom of choice preserved for all rational creatures, each one ought to be managed—that is, whom the Word of God finds and instructs as already prepared and capable, whom it postpones for a time, from whom it is entirely hidden, and whose hearing it arranges to be kept far away, until again those who despise the Word of God, once it has been shown and proclaimed to them, are driven by certain reproofs and chastisements inflicted upon them toward salvation, and their conversion is in some way demanded and extorted; to whom it also provides certain opportunities for salvation, so that sometimes even from a response uttered in faith alone one receives undoubted salvation; for what reasons or on what occasions these things happen; what divine wisdom looks into, or what movements of their purpose it sees, as it administers all these things—this is known only to God, and to His Only-Begotten, through whom all things were created and restored, and to the Holy Spirit, through whom all things are sanctified, who proceeds from the Father and the Son Himself, to whom is glory in eternal ages.

BOOK TWO. EXCERPTED LIKEWISE FROM THE BOOKS OF ORIGEN. We say that God is everywhere and in all things, because nothing can be empty of God; yet we do not say that He is now all things in which He exists. Hence it must be examined more carefully what this is that signifies the perfection of blessedness and the end of things, namely, that God is not only said to be in all things, but is also said to be all things. Let us therefore inquire what these all things are that God is to become in all things. And I indeed think that this statement that God is said to be all things in all things signifies that He is also all things in each individual. But He will be all things in each individual in this way: that whatever a rational mind, purged of all the dregs of vices and thoroughly wiped clean of every cloud of malice, can perceive, understand, or think, all that is God; and that it no longer senses, thinks, sees, or holds anything else but God, and that every motion of its own is God. For there is no longer any distinction between good and evil, because evil is nowhere present; for everything is God to one to whom evil no longer adheres; nor will one who is always in the good, and for whom everything is God, any longer desire to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Thus the end is restored to the beginning, and the outcome of things is compared to their origins, and it will restore that state which rational nature then had, when it had no need to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; and with every sense of malice removed and wiped clean to a pure and sincere state, God alone, who is the one good, will be all things to it, and not in a few or many things, but so that in all things He Himself is all things; and when there is nowhere death, nowhere the sting of death, nowhere any evil at all, then truly God will be all in all. CHAPTER XIX. — How the Son is to be subjected to the Father. It is now time, having gone through these things as we were able, for the sake of recalling what we have said in scattered fashion, to recapitulate each point: and first of all to repeat concerning the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. God the Father, since He is both indivisible and inseparable from the Son, the Son is not generated from Him by a process of emission, as some think. For if the Son is an emission from the Father, and "emission" is said to signify such a generation as is usually the offspring of animals or men, then necessarily both that which emits and that which is emitted are bodies.

We do not say, as the heretics think, that some part of the substance of God was turned into the Son, or that the Son was created by the Father from non-existing things, that is, outside his own substance, so that there was ever a time when he was not: but, setting aside every corporeal sense, we say that the Word and Wisdom were begotten from the invisible and incorporeal God without any bodily passion, just as will proceeds from the mind. Nor will it seem absurd, since he is called the Son of Love, if he is also thought of in this way as the Son of Will. But John judges that God is light (1 John 1:5), and Paul designates that the Son is the radiance of eternal light (Heb. 1:3). Therefore, just as light could never exist without radiance, so neither can the Son be understood without the Father; he who is also called the express image of his substance, and the Word, and Wisdom. How then can it be said that there was ever a time when the Son was not or had not been? For that is nothing other than to say that there was ever a time when truth was not, when wisdom was not, when life was not: since in all these the substance of God the Father is perfectly considered. For these cannot be separated from him or ever divided from his substance. Although they are said to be many in understanding, in reality and substance they are one, in which the fullness of divinity resides.

Now this very thing which we say, that there never was a time when it was not, must be taken with allowance, lest even these names themselves bear the significance of a temporal term, that is, "When" or "Never"; for those things which are said concerning the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are to be understood as above all time, and above all ages, and above all eternity. For this alone is the Trinity, which exceeds every sense of understanding, not only temporal but even eternal; but all other things which are outside the Trinity are to be measured in ages and in times. Therefore, let no one consequently think that this Son of God, according to that which He is the Word, God, who was in the beginning with God (John 1:1), is contained in any place, neither according to that which He is wisdom, nor according to that which He is life, or justice, or sanctification, or redemption: for all these things do not need a place in order to be able to act or operate, but these individual things are to be understood for the sake of those who participate in His virtue and operation. But if someone should say that through those who are participants of the Word of God, or of His wisdom, or of truth, or of life, the Word and wisdom itself is also seen to be in a place, it must be answered to him that there is no doubt that Christ, according to that which He is Word and wisdom, and all other things, was in Paul. For which reason he said: "Do you seek an experiment of him who speaks in me, Christ?" (2 Corinthians 13:3).

And again: "I live no longer, but Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20). Therefore, when He was in Paul, who will doubt that He was similarly in Peter, and in John, and in each and every one of the saints, and not only in those who are on earth, but also in those who are in heaven? For it is absurd to say that Christ was in Peter and in Paul, but was not in Michael the archangel and in Gabriel. From this it is clearly understood that the divinity of the Son of God was not confined to any place; otherwise He would have been only in that one place, and not in another. But according to the majesty of an incorporeal nature, since it is confined to no place, it is understood to be absent from none. Yet the only difference to be understood is that, even if He is in different individuals, as we have said in Peter, or in Paul, or Michael, or Gabriel, He is not present in all in the same way. For He is more fully, more clearly, and, so to speak, more openly in the Archangels than in other holy men. This is evident from the fact that when any of the saints have attained the highest perfection, they are said to become like or equal to the Angels, according to the saying in the Gospel (Matthew 22:30). Hence it is clear that in each and every one, Christ becomes present to the extent that the measure of their merits allows.

These things, then, having been briefly repeated by us concerning the faith of the Trinity, it follows that we should likewise admonish that all things which are said to be created through the Son—those in the heavens and those on earth, visible and invisible, whether Thrones or Dominations or Principalities or Powers—all things were created through him and in him; and he is before all, and all things stand firm in him, who is the head. With which things John also, in the Gospel, speaks consistently, saying that all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made (John 1:3). David, indeed, signifying the mystery of the whole Trinity in the condition of the universe, says, "The heavens were strengthened by the Word of the Lord, and all their power by the spirit of his mouth" (Psalm 32:6). After these things, we will suitably admonish concerning the bodily advent and incarnation of the only-begotten Son of God: in which it is not to be thought that the whole majesty of his divinity was enclosed within the confines of a very small body, so that the entire Word of God and its wisdom and substantial truth and life were either torn away from the Father or were confined and circumscribed within the brevity of that body, and were thought to operate nowhere else besides. But between the two there ought to be such a confession of piety that neither is anything of the divinity believed to have been lacking in Christ, nor is any division at all from the paternal substance, which is everywhere, thought to have been made.

For indeed John the Baptist indicates something of this sort when, with Jesus physically absent, he said to the crowds, "There stands among you one whom you do not know, who comes after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie" (John 1:26). This certainly could not have been said of one who was absent, as far as bodily presence is concerned, that he stood in their midst among whom he was not physically present. Hence it is shown that the Son of God was both wholly in his body and wholly present everywhere. But let no one think that by this we affirm that some part of the divinity of the Son of God was in Christ, and the remaining part elsewhere or everywhere—which those who are ignorant of the nature of incorporeal and invisible substance might suppose. For it is impossible for any division to occur in an incorporeal being. But he is in all things, through all things, and above all things, in the manner we described above: that is, as wisdom, or word, or life, or truth is understood, by which understanding all local limitation is without doubt excluded. Therefore, the Son of God, God, wishing for the salvation of the human race to appear to men and to dwell among men, took up not only a human body, as some think, but also a soul, similar to our souls in nature, but in purpose and virtue similar to himself, and such a soul as could unfailingly fulfill all the wills and dispensations of the Word and Wisdom.

But that it had a soul, the Savior himself most clearly indicates in the Gospel, saying, "No one takes my soul from me, but I lay it down of my own accord"; and again, "I have the power to lay down my soul, and I have the power to take it up again" (John 10:18); and again, "My soul is sad unto death" (Matthew 26:38); and again, "Now my soul is troubled" (John 12:27). For a sad and troubled soul is not to be understood as the Word of God, which, by the authority of its divinity, says, "I have the power to lay down my soul." Yet we do not say that the Son of God was in that soul as he was in the soul of Peter or Paul and the other saints, in whom Christ is believed to speak similarly as in Paul. But of all those, that is to be understood which Scripture says, because "No one is clean from stain, not even if his life were of a single day" (Job 25:4). But this soul which was in Christ, before it knew evil, chose good (Isaiah 7:45); and because it loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore God anointed it with the oil of gladness above its fellows (Psalm 45:8). It is anointed, then, with the oil of gladness when it is joined in an immaculate union with the Word of God; and through this, alone of all souls, it was incapable of sin, because it was fully and well capable of the Son of God; and therefore it is one with him, and is called by his names, and is named Jesus Christ, through whom all things are said to have been made (John 1:3).

Concerning this soul, because it had received into itself the whole of the wisdom of God and truth and life, I also think the Apostle said this: that "your life is hidden with Christ in God; but when Christ appears, your life, then you also will appear with him in glory" (Colossians 3:3). For who else is to be understood here as Christ, who is said to be hidden in God and later to appear, except the one who, anointed with the oil of gladness, is filled, that is, substantially filled with God, in whom he is now said to be hidden? For this reason, Christ is also set forth as an example to all believers, because just as he always, even before he knew evil at all, chose the good and loved justice and hated iniquity, and for that reason God anointed him with the oil of gladness; so also each one, whether after a fall or after error, purges himself from stains, with the example set before him, and having a guide for the journey, advances on the arduous path of virtue: so that if by chance through this, as far as is possible, by imitation of him he becomes a partaker of the divine nature, as it is written, because "he who says he abides in Christ ought to walk as he walked" (1 John 2:6). Therefore this Word and this wisdom, by the imitation of which we are called either wise or rational, becomes all things to all, so that it may win all, and becomes weak to the weak, so that it may win the weak.

And because he is made weak, for this reason it is said of him, "Although he was crucified from weakness, yet he lives by the power of God" (2 Cor. 13:4). Concerning this, Paul indicates to the Corinthians, who were weak, that he knows nothing among them except Jesus Christ, and him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2). But some wish it to seem that it was said concerning that soul itself, when it first assumed a body from Mary, also that which the Apostle says: "Who, when he was in the form of God, did not consider it a usurpation to be equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant" (Phil. 2:6); by which he would without doubt restore it into the form of God through better examples and institutions, and recall it into that fullness from which he had emptied himself. But just as by participation in the Son of God one is adopted as a son, and by participation in wisdom one becomes wise in God, so also by participation in the Holy Spirit one becomes holy and spiritual. For to take a share of the Holy Spirit is one and the same as that of the Father and the Son, since the nature of the Trinity is one and incorporeal. Therefore, the only-begotten Son of God, by whom all things visible and invisible were made, as the preceding discourse of the argument taught according to the sentence of Scripture, both made all things and loves what he made. For since he himself is the image of the invisible God, by participation in himself he [restores] one.

to rational creatures invisibly, so that each one took from it as much participation as the affection of love for him had taken hold in him. But since, by the faculty of free will, variety and diversity of minds had taken hold of each one, so that one was held by a more ardent, another by a thinner and more meager love for their author: that soul of which Jesus said, "No one takes my soul from me" (John 18), clinging inseparably and indissociably, as being the Word and wisdom of God and truth and true light, and receiving the whole entirely, and itself yielding into his light and splendor, became with him principally one spirit. Just as the Apostle promises to those who ought to imitate it, because "He who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit" (1 Cor. 6:17). Therefore, with this substance of the soul mediating between God and flesh (for it was not possible for the nature of God to be mixed with the body without a mediator), God is born man, as we have said, with that mediating substance existing, for which it was certainly not contrary to nature to assume a body. But neither, on the other hand, did that soul, as a rational substance, have it contrary to nature to receive that into which, as we said above, it had already wholly yielded itself, as into the Word and wisdom and truth: whence also, deservedly, because it was wholly in the Son of God, or wholly received the Son of God into itself, even itself, with the flesh it had assumed, is called the Son of God, and the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

And again the Son of God, through whom all things were created, is called Jesus Christ and Son of Man: for the Son of God is said to have died, namely on account of that nature which could at any rate receive death; and he is called Son of Man, who is proclaimed to come in the glory of God the Father with the holy angels. And for this reason throughout all Scripture, both the divine nature is called by human names, and the human nature is adorned with the insignia of divine appellation. For more can be said about this than about any other, that it is written, "They will be both in one flesh" (Gen. 2:24); and, "Now they are not two, but one flesh" (Matt. 19:5). The Word of God with the soul is to be thought of as being in one flesh more than a man with his wife; but also to be one spirit with God, to whom does it more fittingly belong than to this soul, which has so joined itself to God through love that it is deservedly said to be one spirit with him, the Psalmist saying, "You have loved justice, and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness among your companions" (Ps. 45:8). By the merit of love, therefore, it is anointed with the oil of gladness, that is, the soul becomes Christ with the Word of God. For to be anointed with the oil of gladness is understood as nothing other than to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

But when it says "before his peers," it indicates that the gift of the Spirit was not given to her as to the Prophets, but that the fullness of the Word of God itself was substantially inherent in her, just as the Apostle said, "In whom dwells all the fullness of divinity bodily" (Colossians 2:9). Finally, because of this, it not only said, "You have loved justice," but added, "and you have hated iniquity." For hating iniquity is what Scripture says of him: "Who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth" (Isaiah 53:9; 1 Peter 2:; 1 John 3:5). And what it says: "Tempted in every way for likeness without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). And again he himself says of himself: "Behold, the prince of this world comes, and in me he finds nothing" (John 14:30). All these things indicate that no sense of sin existed in him. And to make it clearer as a prophet, because the sense of iniquity had never entered into him, it says: "Before the child knew how to call father or mother, he turned away from iniquity" (Isaiah 8:4). But if this seems difficult to someone, because we have shown above that there is a rational soul in Christ, since we have frequently shown in all our disputations that the nature of souls is capable of both good and evil, the difficulty of this matter will be explained in this way.

I think that even the prophet Jeremiah, understanding what nature of God's wisdom is in him, which he had also undertaken for the salvation of the world, said: "The Spirit of our face is Christ the Lord, to whom we said that in his shadow we would live among the nations" (Lamentations 4:20). For just as the shadow of our body is inseparable from the body, and unfailingly takes up and carries the movements and gestures of the body, I think that he, wishing to show the work and movement of the soul of Christ, which clung inseparably to him and accomplished everything according to his nod and will, called this the shadow of Christ the Lord, in which shadow we would live among the nations. For in the sacrament of this assumption the nations live, who, imitating it through faith, come to salvation. But also David, saying, "Remember my reproach, O Lord, with which they reproached me in the change of your Christ" (Psalm 88:51), seems to me to show similar things. And what else does Paul mean when he says, "Our life is hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:5)? And what does he mean in another place when he says, "Do you seek an experiment of him who speaks in me, Christ" (2 Corinthians 13:3)? And now he says that Christ is hidden in God: the understanding of which matter is difficult, unless he is judged to be something such as we said above was signified by the shadow of Christ through the prophet. Perhaps this also exceeds the sense of the human mind.

On the contrary—and this is more true—we say that a mass, as we often observe happening in furnaces with our eyes, has become entirely fire; because nothing else is seen in it but fire. And if anyone attempts to touch and handle it, he will feel not the force of iron, but of fire. In this way, therefore, that soul which, like iron in fire, is always placed in the Word, always in wisdom, always in God: everything it does, feels, and understands is God. And therefore it cannot be called convertible or changeable, which, through the unity of the Word of God, will possess inconvertibility, being perpetually ignited. Finally, some heat of the Word of God is to be thought to have reached all the saints; but in this soul, the divine fire itself is believed to have substantially rested, from which some heat came to the others. Finally, what it said, "For your God, God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows" (Ps. 44:8), shows that this soul is anointed with the oil of gladness, that is, 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 scent of its ointments (Song 1:3); but this soul was the vessel of the ointment itself, from whose fragrance worthy Prophets and Apostles were made participants. Therefore, just as the odor of ointment is one thing and the substance of ointment another, so Christ is one thing, and his participants another.

And just as the vessel itself which contains the substance of ointment can in no way receive any stench, while those who partake of its fragrance, if they withdraw a little further from its scent, can possibly receive a stench that falls upon them; so the soul of Christ, like a vessel in which the substance of ointment resided, was unable to receive the opposite odor; but those who are participants, the closer they are to the vessel, the more they will be partakers and capable of the odor. In this way the difficulty of this matter will be explained. Indeed, that the nature of that soul was the same as that of all souls cannot be doubted; otherwise it could not have been called a soul, if it were not truly a soul. But since the faculty of choosing good and evil is present to all, this soul which is Christ's so chose to love justice that, by the immensity of its love, it adhered to it inconvertibly and inseparably; so that the firmness of purpose, the immensity of affection, and the inextinguishable heat of love cut off all sense of turning away; so that what was placed in free will, by the affection of long use, was already turned into nature. Thus it must be believed that there was indeed a human and rational soul in Christ, and it must be thought to have had no sense or possibility of sin.

For a fuller explanation of the matter, however, it does not seem absurd if we also employ some similitude: although in so difficult and arduous a matter there is not even an abundance of suitable examples to use, yet let us say without any prejudice: the metal of iron is capable of both cold and heat. If, therefore, some mass of iron were always placed in fire, receiving fire through all its pores and all its veins, and having become entirely fire, if the fire never ceased from it, nor it were ever separated from the fire, would we say that this mass, which is indeed iron by nature, placed in fire and burning incessantly, could ever admit cold? But we also see very many other things inserted in the divine Scriptures concerning the significance of shadow: as 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" (Luke 1:35). And the Apostle says of the Law, that "those who have a carnal circumcision serve the similitude and shadow of heavenly things" (Heb. 8:5). And elsewhere it is said, "Is not our life a shadow on the earth?" (Job 8:9). If, therefore, the Law which is on earth is a shadow, and all our life which is on earth is a shadow, and we live among the Gentiles in the shadow of Christ, it is to be seen whether the truth of all these shadows is known in that revelation, when not through a mirror and in a riddle, but face to face (1 Cor. 13:12).

each of the saints will merit to contemplate the glory of God and the causes and truth of things; of which truth, having already received a pledge through the Holy Spirit, the Apostle said: "And if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him no longer" (2 Cor. 5:16). These things, for the present, have been able to occur to us as we discuss such difficult matters, that is, concerning the incarnation and divinity of Christ. If anyone should be able to find something better, and to confirm what he says with clearer assertions from the holy Scriptures, let those be received rather than these.