A Treatise on the Trinity

—But these impieties being cast away and rejected, for us, as the blessed apostle Paul says: There is one God the Father, from whom are all things; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things; and one Holy Spirit, in whom are all things. But this very thing we say, from whom, and through whom, and in whom are all things, does not cut nature apart, but confesses the unity both of nature, and of will, and of operation. There is therefore one God in these three, and these three are one God. That this is so, the Apostle confirms likewise, saying: Of him, and through him, and in him are all things: to him be glory forever and ever, amen. To which agrees what the prophet David says: May God bless us, our God, may God bless us; and let all the ends of the earth fear him.

The Father therefore is Father without beginning; for there is nothing else from which he is Father: and the Son is Son without beginning, at least in this sense; for he is of the Father, and is the creator of all times: and therefore he does not take his beginning from time, because he is the Word, because he is the power, because he is the wisdom, which both made and precedes all time. The Holy Spirit, however, is truly Spirit, proceeding indeed from the Father: but he is not himself the Son; because he is not begotten, but proceeds from the Father. For everything that is, is either unbegotten, or begotten, or made.

There is therefore that which is neither born nor made: there is that which is born and is not made: and there is that which is neither born nor made: and there is that which is made and is not born: and there is that which is made and is born and is reborn: and there is that which is made and is born and is not reborn. Now, however, mindful of what has been proposed, let us assign substances to each of these things. That therefore which is neither born nor made is the Father: for he is not from any other. That which is born and is not made is the Son, who was begotten from the Father. That which is neither born nor made is the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father. That which also is made and is not born is heaven, and earth, and the other things that exist. That which is made and is born and is reborn is man, who is first born carnal, and in baptism is reborn spiritual.

That which is made and is born and is not reborn is the animals.

—That we may teach each point with examples: of the Father it is thus written: For there is one God the Father, from whom are all things; of the Son, however: One Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things; and again: For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus; of the Holy Spirit, however: For no one knows the things of man, which are in him, except the spirit of man, which is in him: so also the things of God no man knows, except the Spirit of God; and again: But the Spirit searches even the deep things of God. That the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit lack a beginning, some reckon this to mean that thereby a person is lacking, and designate each to be nothing.

Is shown, because that which the Father is did not begin to be; and if he did not begin, neither did the Son begin: the Holy Spirit, however, who proceeds from the Father, did not himself begin either; because his procession is continuous, and is from him who did not begin: for the Father did not begin to be, and because he did not begin, neither did the Spirit begin to be; for this reason, that he is both in him, and is his. Of the Son again, that he did not begin, the evangelist testifies, saying: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God. Therefore, because he was, he did not begin; and because he was with God, he did not begin: and because he was God, he did not begin: and because this was in the beginning with God, he did not begin: because thus God was born of God, so as not to know a beginning.

Neither therefore was the Father defrauded, in that he is unbegotten, or because he begot the Son: nor was the Son defrauded, in that he was begotten, or because he is begotten from the unbegotten: nor was the Holy Spirit defrauded, because he belongs to both, that is, to the Father and the Son. Yet in such a way is he theirs, that he is poured back neither into the Father, nor into the Son; because he is God, having neither beginning nor any end, inasmuch as he is coeternal with the Father and the Son; because where he wills, and whom he wills, and as many as he wills, and as much as he wills, he inspires by his own will. He fills therefore with his grace whom he wills, and as many as he wills, and as much as he wills; he himself is not filled: he bestows perfection, he does not receive it: he sanctifies, but is not himself sanctified.

—This one therefore, like the Father and the Son, is both life and life-giving, and light and illuminating, and good and goodness, and holy and holiness: this is the Spirit of adoption: this is he who divides his gifts to each, as he wills: this is the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of knowledge and piety, of counsel and might, and of the fear of God: this is the Holy Spirit, through whom the Father is known, and the Son is glorified; and by whom alone he himself is known, and who alone knows all their things through unity of nature: this is he of whom the Son said: And my Father will give good things to those who ask him, that is, either himself, or all his graces.

As therefore the Lord Christ is called both Word, and power, and wisdom, and justice, and pearl, and light, and way, and resurrection, and the other things which are written of him; so also the Holy Spirit is called, as has already been said, of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear. Not, however, that he is diverse according to the differences of names, but that he is one and the same fount and principle of all virtues, who has always dwelt in the Lord Christ, as a partaker of his nature. These are the seven eyes, which in the prophet Zechariah are said to be in one stone, that is, in the Lord Christ. There is therefore an immovable property for each; but one worship, one veneration, one sanctification always belongs to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. For it is not fitting either that the Son should have been lacking to the Father, or that the Holy Spirit should have been lacking to the Son, as impious heretics falsely assert.

Let us therefore, guarding against these things, keep the good purpose which we have received from the holy Fathers. Let us adore the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, understanding the Father in the Son, and the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit: dividing before we join, and joining before we divide: venerating unity in Trinity, and confessing Trinity in unity. The whole holy Trinity therefore is to be adored by us; because it is wholly royal, because it is of one power, and of one glory above the world, above times, uncreated, invisible, incomprehensible, unsearchable: which alone knows in what order it exists within itself; but by us it is adored equally. In this invisible and ineffable holy Trinity we ought to understand nothing so proper, so fixed, as peace and quiet. For there is no dissension in the nature of God, since it must not be thought capable even of dissolution, inasmuch as it is always peace and charity.

For if four substances, that is, heat, blood, phlegm, and moisture, make a man, and yet there is one man; how do you not understand Trinity in unity, or unity in Trinity? God therefore the Father almighty, having an almighty Word and Spirit, is above human understanding, and beyond what can be thought, incomprehensible and eternal: whom we can then know, so far as the weakness of our nature permits, when we have come to know the Lord Christ, who is his form and only Son; because, as he himself says: He who has seen the Son has seen the Father also, who sent him, and who is in him, and who abides in him; and again: Now this is eternal life, that they may know thee the true God, and him whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ. Therefore the almighty Father has obtained the name of Father through the Son; because no one can be or be called a father without a son, nor a son without a father.

But it is honorable to confess the Only-begotten Son of God, the Word, and Wisdom, and his Holy Spirit, as substantially equal in all things to the Father. For who indeed has ever fitted a color, or a habit, or a magnitude to the Word and Wisdom, according to what wisdom is, and to the Holy Spirit; that he should require degrees there, and make orders, where all things always remain invisible and united and peaceful?

—First of all, then, it must be believed that there is one God, who made all things out of nothing through His Word, and gave them life through the Holy Spirit: who, while He contains all things, is Himself contained by none. That this is so, the prophet David sums up in a single verse, saying: By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all the power of them by the Spirit of his mouth. This is the Holy Spirit, who in the beginning and the making of the world was borne over the waters. This is He in whom Moses and Aaron worked signs before Pharaoh king of Egypt, and of whom the Magicians said: This is the finger of God. This is He who spoke in Moses, and in all the holy patriarchs and prophets and apostles; of whom the Apostle says: And we have all been made to drink into one Spirit.

This is He who fashioned the flesh of the Word of God in the sacred womb of the Virgin: this is He whom, after the baptism, the Father sent upon the Son: this is He by whose power Jesus, full of the Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and went back into Galilee: this is He whom the Father gives to those who ask Him: this is He who, called by the Son our advocate before the Father, is named another Paraclete, whom the Son promised He would send to us. If therefore He were not of one nature with the Father and the Son, He would never be called another Paraclete than the Son: therefore He is called another Paraclete for this reason, that we might recognize the equality of nature and power. One, then, ascending from us to the Father, another coming to us from the Father, He declares the ever-fatherly and most loving affection toward us.

He never allows us, in the temptations of this world and in our miseries, to be either without an advocate or without a comforter. This is He who together with the Father sent the Son for the salvation of the human race, as the prophet Isaiah testifies, speaking in the person of the Son, saying: The Lord has sent me, and his Spirit. This is He in whom Jesus cast out demons: this is He whom the Lord Jesus Christ, rising from the dead on the third day, gave to His disciples, saying: Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained. This is He who, descending upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost, imparted to them various tongues and graces, fulfilling the prophecy of the holy prophet Joel. This is He who, speaking in the holy martyrs, overcame the devil and the adversaries of Christ: this is He who filled Paul, and set him apart for the apostolate.

This is He who works His various gifts in each member of the Lord Christ even to the end of the world. This is He who not only drives away from us sadness and grief and the evil thoughts of shameful things, but also grants us the remembrance of God, so that we may rightly say with the prophet David: I remembered God, and was delighted; and again: I will remember thy wonderful works. This is He who, coming to us when we rightly believe and act well, illuminating with His own light the darkness and anguish and faintheartedness of our heart, mingles with our understanding the mind of Christ; so that we may think of our life, which is hidden in Christ; and consider, in the ages to come and eternal, what our state shall be, following Jesus the Son of God, who penetrated the heavens, and sitting at the right hand of God, and existing in every place, has left nothing empty of His presence.

If, however, we confess that He was not contained within the space of one place by the dispensation of the body which He took up for our salvation, nor circumscribed according to the nature of His divinity and incorporeality. By diversity of places divinity cannot be separated; and that this is so, the Savior Himself proved, saying: No man hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man, who is in heaven. The Spirit, therefore, does not need place in order to accomplish His works—the Word, the Power, the Wisdom, the Splendor, the Image, the Vapor, and the Brightness of God without stain: all of which without doubt demonstrate the Person of the Son. There was never, then, any time when the Father was without the Son, or the Son without the Father, or the Holy Spirit without the Father and the Son.

It is proper to God, then, not to have begun, but always to be the same as He always is. That this is so God proves of Himself, speaking to Moses: Go, and say to the children of Israel: He who is, hath sent me to you. This is the Holy Spirit, who was neither born nor made: but is uncreated, as are the Father and the Son. This is the Holy Spirit, who raises up the fallen; and gives to those lying down the occasion of rising again, and dispenses each thing according to the variety of merits, and the will of the Father and the Son, all of which He knows not by investigation, but by unity of nature. He is the one of whom the prophet says: The Spirit of the Lord is manifold, clean, undefiled, and holy. As, therefore, light does not admit darkness, so also the Holy Spirit has it by nature that He is incapable of any defilement. This is He who removes Himself from thoughts that are without God.

This is He who pours Himself into holy souls and makes them friends of God and prophets. Unless, then, one has the Holy Spirit, neither the Father nor the Son, whose He is, and with whom He is one God, come to him, to make their abode with him. This is the spirit of wisdom, who is therefore called manifold, because He has many things in Himself, and what He has, that He also is, and through all things He is one, nor is He changed into any of the things which He works; just as an image from a signet ring, which passes into wax, yet does not leave the ring. That this is so the Lord proves, saying to Moses: I will take, therefore, of the spirit which is in thee, and will give it to those seventy, as it were fire transferred from a spark, without loss to that from which it is taken.

On account of this unchangeableness, then, and diverse operation, it was said by the Lord concerning holy John the Baptist, that he came in the spirit and power of Elijah. This is He whom God sent into our hearts crying: Abba, Father; and in whom we cry: Abba, Father; for both are said, both that we have received the Spirit crying: Abba, Father; and that we have received the Spirit in whom we cry: Abba, Father. He explained, then, what he said, crying, that is, making us to cry. This is the Spirit who with unspeakable groanings asks for us, when human frailty does not know what it ought to pray for.

This the holy Apostle taught us in his own person not only by word, but also showed us by his example, when, contrary to his own benefit and perfection, not knowing, he prayed that the thorn of the flesh which buffeted him might depart from him: which afterward, being taught by the Holy Spirit Himself, he therefore said had been given him, lest he should be exalted by the greatness of his revelations, and suffer some loss of good. But because the Lord loved him, who is accustomed always to show forth the power of His divinity through weak things, He did not do what he was asking in ignorance. This is the Holy 326 Spirit, who has poured Himself out with every fountain of grace throughout the catholic Church spread over the whole world. This is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, who at the end of the world will slay the antichrist by His power.

This is the Holy Spirit, whom no heretic has; who, although they all think they have the baptism of Christ, yet unless they come to the Church of Christ, they cannot have the Spirit of Christ. That this is so, the blessed Apostle Paul proves, saying: If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And again: No man can say, The Lord Jesus, but by the Holy Spirit. Confirming this, the blessed Apostle and Evangelist John says: In this is known the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that dissolveth Jesus is not of God: and this is antichrist, of whom you have heard that he cometh; and now already he is in the world; and again: Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood.

And it is the Spirit which testifies that Jesus is the truth; because there are three that give testimony on earth, the spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three are one.

—Justly, then, to those who confess Him as Lord without the Holy Spirit, He will say in the judgment: Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say; and, not gathering with me, you have scattered the peoples and my members, for whom I poured out my blood? And therefore the offering of heretics, who do not have the Holy Spirit, avails not for the worship of God, but for the worship of demons. For whatever heretics utter in their synagogues, that is, in the conventicles of Satan, is not the doctrine of the Lord, but the howling and delusions of demons.

For these are they of whom the Holy Spirit, through the prophet Isaiah, says that the people of the Jews prepared a table, saying: And you prepared a table for Fortune; and therefore the Apostle rebukes both them and sinners who, not judging themselves, boldly approach the most sacred body and blood of Christ, saying: You cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord, and of the table of devils: you cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils. Let these things said concerning the offering of heretics suffice; now, however, let us return to the order of our discourse.

—Whatever therefore we have said concerning the Holy Spirit, this we have likewise left untouched and undiscussed as being also done by the Father and the Son; although we know for certain that the holy and inseparable Trinity never does anything outside itself. And that what I have said may be clear, I will briefly show it. The Trinity effected the incarnation of the Word, and yet the incarnation belongs only to the Word. The Trinity made the voice from heaven over the Son after his baptism, and yet it belongs only to the Father. The Trinity made the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Son in the form of a dove, and yet it belongs only to the Holy Spirit. This threefold operation, remaining in unity, the blessed Apostle proves, saying: For there are diversities of graces, but the same Spirit; and there are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of operations, but the same God who worketh all in all.

These three things therefore grant one grace to believers, because the substance of the holy and inseparable Trinity is not one and another. When therefore the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are each said to work, yet all work equally. Wisdom founded, the Spirit gave life, and just judgment ordered. He himself therefore by his justice distributed the world into various forms, and by his grace ordaining, incomprehensibly dispenses, contains, and governs so many members of it: whose governance of providence is so just, so hidden, so secret, that what is thought to be punishment is medicine to the sufferer.

One God therefore, subsisting in the holy Trinity, does these things: which he himself, proving concerning himself, says through the prophet Isaiah: I am the Lord, and there is none else besides me, that is, besides my Word and my Spirit, my power and my wisdom, which is always in me; there is no other God and Saviour, of whom the same prophet says: And the Lord shall send them a saviour, who shall save them from their sins. And again, in the person of the Father, the aforesaid prophet says: I have sworn by myself, that a word shall go forth from my mouth, and shall not return to me void. Indeed the Word of the Father did not return to him void, because he placed at the right hand of the Father the pledges of our salvation, that is, the true soul and true body that he assumed.

That this would be so, the prophet, beholding in the Spirit, says: Truly thou art a hidden God, that is, in the flesh, the God of Israel, Saviour; and again: His face hidden and despised; so that the divine power might be concealed in a human body; and again: And he is man, and who knoweth him? And again: This is our God, none other shall be accounted beside him, who was seen on earth, and conversed with men; and again: A man of sorrows, and knowing how to bear infirmities; showing indeed through these words the true body of a man, and the true soul, who, knowing how to bear infirmities, overcame by his divinity, making peace through the blood of his cross, whether things in heaven or things on earth. For it became clear through these words that in the Lord Jesus Christ there is not truth in part and falsehood in part, but that all truth is in him, that is, both of God and of man.

—But human wisdom does not understand this, which the blessed Apostle condemns, saying: Let not your faith be in the wisdom of men, whose thoughts the Lord knows, that they are vain: but in the power of God; and again: Not taught in words of human wisdom, but taught by the Holy Spirit. Therefore let faith not be in the wisdom of men, and there is no heresy. In the Father therefore the Son and the Holy Spirit always are; which the Son himself confirms, saying: I and the Father are one: one on account of the nature of divinity, "are" on account of the properties of the persons; and again: Behold the hour comes that you will leave me alone; and I am not alone, because the Father is with me; and again: The works which I do, the Father abiding in me, he does them. He himself therefore is always in the Father, the Son, who says to Moses: He who is has sent me to you.

He it is with whom the Father rejoiced together when the world was completed; because he had founded so great a mass of the earth upon the seas, and had set it upon the rivers; so that the heaviest element hung by his will over the slender waters. In the stability of the world, therefore, when the Father was establishing its foundations, no one was with him besides those who were in him, that is, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Let the impious heretics therefore blush, who say the Son of God or the Holy Spirit is a creature, or that there was a time when they did not exist; for the founder of times has no beginning at any time. Whatever therefore the Son speaks, are the words of the Father, and are the words of the Holy Spirit: whatever the Father speaks, are the words of the Son, are the words of the Holy Spirit: whatever the Holy Spirit speaks, are the words of the Father, are the words of the Son of God.

Therefore the knowledge of the one who fulfills all things, and in whom all things are, is proclaimed by these words under the mystery of the holy Trinity; for the Son says: The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father; yet on account of the fellowship and unity of nature he is sent by the Son: which Son was seen by the prophet Isaiah in the habit of one reigning, but on account of the fellowship of majesty and the unity of substance the Holy Spirit spoke in the prophet: indeed in the Cherubim and Seraphim, where that vision is described as having occurred, the Lord is in part shown, and in part concealed; for with two wings they covered his face, and with two they covered his feet, and with two they flew. Those things therefore are veiled which were before the world, and those which shall be after the world, which neither eye has seen, nor ear heard: but those things which were made in six days have come to our knowledge through sacred reading.

We therefore confess in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit not only one operation, but also equality; because where there is equality, there is the same nature, and the same substance. Therefore, says the Evangelist, when the Jews persecuted him, because he not only broke the sabbath, but also, by calling himself the Son of God, made himself equal to God. Which the Lord himself proves, saying: I and the Father are one, and I am in the Father, and the Father is in me; and again: What the Father has given me is greater than all; and no one can snatch it out of my hand; and he immediately adds: And no one can snatch it out of the Father's hand.

If therefore no one can snatch out of the Son's hand what the Father has given, and these same things are in the Father's hand, which are not snatched from him; it is plainly proved that all things of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, who is both of the Father and of the Son, are common; and that what belongs to the Father is held in the Son's hand; and what belongs to the Son is held in the Father's hand. The Lord Christ therefore, Son of God and of man, who was always with the Father and in the Father, spoke in two ways, that is, now according to the glory of his divinity, now according to the man taken up of our nature.

The Father therefore is in the Son, and the Son in the Father, and in both is the Holy Spirit: and therefore the right confession of the mystery of the holy and inseparable Trinity is our ignorance; for since the holy Apostle testifies that the judgments of God are unsearchable, the wise reader already understands how unsearchable and hidden he is, whose judgments are unsearchable and hidden. Yet the holy Apostle did not say: The judgments of God are found with difficulty, or never; lest he should seem to cut off entirely the hope of those who inquire: but he says, The judgments of God are unsearchable. However much therefore one may advance in knowledge, and, given to wisdom, search out secret things; yet a created nature can never comprehend the substance of the uncreated. For when it has discovered some things, again other things present themselves to inquiry; when it has found those, it will also find countless others.

So much material is always offered to the one investigating, that ignorance of the remaining things involves the knowledge of the former. Whence also the most wise Solomon, knowing the natures of things and their difficulties, and setting a measure to his wisdom, says: I said, I will become wise, and it withdrew farther from me than it was, and the deep height, who shall find it? And again: For many are the works of the Lord that are hidden; and again: As you do not know what is the way of the spirit, and by what means the bones are formed in the womb of a woman with child; so you do not know the works of God, who is the maker of all things; and again: Seek not things too high for you, nor search out things too strong for you; and again: As he who eats much honey, it is not good for him; so he who is a searcher of majesty is overwhelmed by glory.

And truly nothing is so true, nothing so manifest; for it is written: Who understands his sins? If therefore men do not understand their own sins; how much less will they be able to discover the nature of God and his counsels! Which the prophet, proving, says: Who has declared his generation? In this one God, therefore, the Father almighty, we believe, maker of things visible and invisible, whose judgments and counsels are hidden, but never unjust. Yet this Father, without any father of his own, is Father: and therefore the Son, begotten of him—whose generation human speech is not able to declare—cannot be inferior to him; because, as has been said, he is his word, his power, and his wisdom.

We confess therefore God the Lord, God the Son of God the Father most high, the only Son of the Only One, and we confess that with the Father and the Holy Spirit he is one God; whose equality, although human speech cannot explain it, yet we have come to know the most sacred and venerable mysteries of his incarnation from the holy Archangel Gabriel addressing the holy Virgin Mary, who, made fruitful by the word, was wedded solely by the hearing of her ear. For he says: The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you; and therefore that which shall be born of you holy shall be called the Son of God.

This generation, therefore, by which he was born of a virgin for our salvation, does not make him posterior to the Father either in time or in power; because he is not a temporal begetter, that the Son should be prejudiced by time, since the eternal Father begot the Son co-eternal: nor was he born or made from outside, as the heretics falsely claim, but true faith holds that he was begotten from the Father's own substance.

From the true God, therefore, in whom the eternity and omnipotence of the perfect and holy Trinity consists, it is honorable to confess the true Son: and therefore just as it befits us to believe in the Father, so also in the Son; because he who was begotten is wholly that which he who begot is. We believe also in the Holy Spirit, whose majesty, power, and equality, which he possesses with the Father and the Son, we have already shown above, by his own gift, proceeding from the Father, and possessing deity, operation, and substance common with the Father and the Son: and distinguishing the persons in their properties, yet we confess the deity of the holy Trinity to be inseparable; because what we separate by names and by persons, this we join by power and deity and unity. Therefore the term of the holy Trinity is a great mystery and secret; and therefore when our discourse is about spiritual things, nothing at all of carnal things is to be set before the eyes of the heart.

To the holy and inseparable Trinity, therefore, belongs invisible light, inseparable power, incomprehensible substance, unending life, whom everlasting peace attends wholly, which no creature ever penetrates, none disturbs. If anyone therefore, outside the majesty of the Father, calls either the Son or the Holy Spirit, he seems to himself to seek hope from himself, that is, from a like nature, not from a superior one; for everything that is created, as far as this pertains, is made from that which was not, and is like to itself. Therefore to the Lord Christ, God the Father is his own proper generation; but to us by voluntary adoption: to him he is father by nature, to us by grace: to him he is God by unity of mystery, to us however by power. Whoever therefore holds otherwise than this, and does not so believe, let him be anathema.

—But the Holy Spirit himself is, as has already been said, he who is of the Father and of the Son: he is the one who, like the Father and the Son, fills the circle of the earth: he is the one who was pronounced holy and good by the Son: he is the one who, by the prophet David, like the Lord Christ, is pronounced good and right; for he says: The Word of the Lord is right, this concerning the Son; and: My heart has belched forth a good Word. But concerning the Holy Spirit: Renew a right spirit within my inward parts; and: Thy good Spirit shall lead me into the right way. He is the one who foresees future things as though present; he is the one who, many years before, foretold to us the nativity of Christ the Lord, his wonders, his persecution, his passion, his cross, his death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension into heaven, and his coming to judgment.

Therefore, just as the Father is without beginning, so too he has the Holy Spirit and the Son, coeternal without beginning, begotten of himself, not after himself. And therefore, just as the Father precedes all antiquity of times, consumes it by eternity, surpasses it by longevity; so also he begot the Son as a partner both in power to himself, and in that equality which we have mentioned: but this power, this wisdom, this Word, which is the Son—to use the words of the Apostle—though he was in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man.

He humbled himself unto death, even the death of the cross, wherefore also God exalted him, and gave him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, things on earth, and things under the earth, and every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father. On account of this mystery, therefore, the Son of God is called Christ; which nonetheless signifies his nativity according to the flesh, his passion, and his death: but this wonderful and singular nativity, by which Christ was begotten, came to be of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, as the faith of the holy Symbol testifies. This only Son of God in divinity is found, therefore, to be an only Son also in his carnal nativity, by which he assumed our humanity in order to save it; for he alone was born of a Virgin, who felt neither pregnancy from a man, nor corruption from the birth.

Of the Holy Spirit, therefore, and the Virgin Mary, we confess that he was born according to the flesh; for so too the Archangel Gabriel had promised to blessed Mary the Virgin what was to come, as has already been said, saying: The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; and therefore that which shall be born of thee holy shall be called the Son of God. This Son of God, for our salvation, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and was buried. Therefore true flesh was taken from the Virgin, was truly crucified, was truly buried, was truly raised again on the third day.

To the womb, then, of the sacred Virgin, both to take flesh from it, and to form a man there, the Holy Spirit came as maker and sanctifier; so that, by the conjunction of the Word and man from the first forming, Christ, mediator of God and men, might be born in perfection, arising without fraud to humanity, without corruption to deity: destined to die by death, because created; but destined to overcome the bonds of death, as creator. No separation, therefore, is to be spoken of between the Word and the man assumed by him, since we confess one Christ, the Son of God, composed of two natures, that is, divine and human, by a mystical reckoning.

—It is fitting for us, then, to believe these things, not to discuss them: to seek humbly, not to inquire proudly. The Word, then, and substance of God, which is throughout incorporeal, could not be inserted into a human body, unless by the mediation of some spiritual nature, that is, a soul. The soul, therefore, receiving the Word of God in a hidden, rational manner, God was born of a Virgin without any contagion from a man. Therefore, just as the Son of God, offering an example to all by his participation, according to that which he is—the Word of God and Wisdom—is not diminished by the communion of that participation; so the holy soul of Jesus, which on account of our sins was both sorrowful and troubled, contracted nothing therefrom. This is the soul which God loved above his fellows (Ambrose on Luke, bk. X, n.

127): this is our life, of which the Apostle says: And your life is hid with Christ in God: this is the one who loved justice and hated iniquity: this one was sorrowful not because of death, but unto death: this one on the cross was troubled not for itself, but for us: not the power, not the wisdom, not the Word of God, who assumed it for the salvation of our souls, and adorning it with every ornament of virtue and holiness, brought it into fellowship with deity. Concerning this soul, therefore, which in every respect is like our souls, the Savior says: I have power to lay down my life, and to take it again; and: No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself, and I take it again. This is the blessed soul which on the cross cried out to the divinity, saying: God, my God, look upon me, why hast thou forsaken me?

Therefore man cried out, about to die by separation from divinity: for since divinity is free from death, death certainly could not occur unless life departed, because life is divinity; for that which is always immortal and incorrupt never suffers either death or corruption. God, therefore, who is Word and Spirit, who breathes where he wills, did not abandon the flesh or soul he had assumed unwillingly: but because he willed it, where he willed, in what manner he willed, and when he willed, laying it aside he put it down, and took it up again. He was not stripped of his flesh, therefore, by anyone's right or power, but stripped himself of it; for he who is able not to die, if he were unwilling, doubtless died because he willed it.

The Apostle, proving this to be so, says: Having spoiled himself of the flesh, he despoiled principalities and powers, triumphing over them in himself, namely through the death of the man he had assumed; that, as the same blessed Apostle says, through the death of the man assumed he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through their whole life had been subject to slavery.

That this would come to pass the prophet Isaiah had foretold long before, saying: As a sheep is led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is dumb; and again: He was offered because he himself willed it, for the pouring out of the sins of many; and again: He gave over his soul unto death, and was reckoned among the wicked; and he himself bore the sins of many, and made intercession for transgressors Christ the Lord, therefore, endured the cross not by necessity but by will, saying to Peter, who, out of the fragility of fear, was scandalized at the mystery of the cross and trembled with human dread: Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art a scandal unto me; because thou savorest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men. For the cup which the Father has given me, thou wouldst not that I drink it.

Otherwise, if he had not been offered up of his own will, and had not willed to endure the cross, how could he have pointed out and foretold the traitor, and have said to the apostles: All ye shall be offended because of me this night? He could have avoided those who had been sent to seize him; whom he met undaunted and said: Whom seek ye? Who immediately fell backward; because they could not bear the voice of the present God. It was not, therefore, of necessity that he suffered, but of will; not so much his own, but also the Father's, to whom he says: To do thy will, O my God, I have desired it. Through the true flesh, therefore, of the immortal mediator of God and men, we mortals have been redeemed, made alive, saved, and freed from the snares and captivity of the devil, over whom he gave us power, saying: Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy.

All the humility, then, and mystery of the incarnation was accomplished for this reason: that we might receive power over the devil, who, knowing himself to be a creature, through pride fell into such madness that he wished to make himself equal to the Most High Creator, saying: I will set my throne toward the north, and I will be like the Most High. The Apostle proves this to be so, saying: For what was impossible to the Law, in that it was weak, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and on account of sin, that is, of the first man's sin, condemned sin in the flesh; so that, just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ, who through the passion of the cross gave us from his side a laver and a drink consecrated by martyrdom, all might be made alive.

—On this account, then, it behooves us to consider more diligently, who offers, to whom he offers, what he offers, and for whom he offers, he who has become for us the way, the truth, and the door; concerning which door the Holy Spirit says through the Prophet: This is the door of the Lord, the just shall enter through it; and again. He shall not be confounded, when he speaketh with his enemies in the gate. But none shall come to that door, except those who by God's grace and help have deserved to be exalted from the gates of death, that is, from sins. His sufferings, therefore, in whom I believe, I recall with steadfast profession, nor am I ashamed of those things which the Redeemer of the world undertook for my salvation, and by his own power overcame.

Laugh, though thou be Jew or Gentile, that I place my hope in him whom I profess to have been crucified and dead; yet I glory in these wounds, through which I understand that I please my Redeemer—a thing which thou dost not know: for the word of the cross, as the Apostle says, is foolishness to them that perish, but to them that are saved it is the power of God. Behold, I make mention of Pilate the judge, by whom he was judged who is to be the judge of the world. But why should the punishments of that blessed body, which the swift resurrection that followed destroyed, gnaw at the dignity of my faith? For this is not the end of my faith and confession: but hear what follows.

On the third day he rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, and from thence shall come to judge the living and the dead, that is, both the just and sinners, both Gentiles and Jews, both souls and bodies. Does not our belief seem to thee now to stand firm and blessed, resting as it does on him whom not even death itself will be able to withstand or resist?

—Finally, never has it appeared more clearly with how great clemency and patience our Redeemer abounded, than when the office of this mystery was undertaken, that is, that by assuming our substance he should also assume the rights of the gibbet and the tomb. Therefore his adversities were expended for our prosperities, and the divine and human nature in our Redeemer entered into a certain sacred commerce between themselves; that divinity might bear testimony from humanity, and humanity might receive reward from divinity, that is, that by the wounds of his body our God might show the greatness of his love toward us, and that both our soul and body might acknowledge that the grace of obedience was repaid to them by fellowship with divinity.

With what faith, then, and with what devotion we ought to cleave and be subject to this Lord, so generous of such gifts toward us, is to be considered; who had no other measure of bestowing than to give to the faithful in reward as much as he himself possessed in his kingdom: even choosing that we might believe ourselves able to become his co-heirs, he chose also to be a partaker of our nature; not, however, so as to thrust his substance down from the citadel of divinity, but so as to draw us, weak and dwelling in the utmost vileness and necessity of death, up to the glory of the resurrection. Because, then, he showed in himself whatsoever he promised to us; and by rising again he taught fully that the substance of this flesh does not perish: and by his ascension he showed where, after the resurrection, its dwelling place would be.

This, therefore, is the great, and truly great, mystery of piety, that it was manifested in the flesh, as the Doctor of the Gentiles announced, together with the outcome of events.

Moreover, he is clearly justified in the Spirit; since the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, afforded us an example not only of hoped-for blessedness, but also of truth to be attained. And indeed this mystery of piety, through which our founder and redeemer embraces us, just as it shone forth by the testimony of power, so also in the ascension, being taken up in glory, it was celebrated by the homage of the Angels; and therefore the nature of human flesh is not to be despised, which through the Lord Christ has merited to enter into the substance and fellowship of the holy Trinity. I think indeed that, by God's gift, enough has been said concerning the mystery of the holy Trinity, and the incarnation of the Lord Savior: but since at the end of our doctrine is placed the resurrection of our flesh, this must be more firmly and more often repeated by us on account of the heretics.

—For the Word of God, who is the Lord Christ, who is the firstborn of all creation, and who is the firstborn from the dead, came to his own image, which he himself had earlier fashioned; of which image it is written: And God formed man to his own image and likeness; and taking flesh for the sake of flesh, with the rational soul as intermediary, from the holy virgin Mary, and taking things like unto us, that is, purifying soul and flesh by things alike, he was made in all things man without sin.

With the soul, then, as intermediary between God and flesh, he who, as the Apostle says, making all men rich, was made poor, that by his poverty we might be enriched with divine and heavenly riches; by that sign of salvation which God gave to the human race, the prophet Isaiah saying: Behold, the Lord shall give you a sign, behold, a Virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us: who, before he knew how to call his father or his mother, ate butter and honey, that is, was filled with the Holy Spirit, whose teaching is sweeter to us than honey and the honeycomb: who, receiving the spoils of Samaria from the Magi, was proved to be man, king, and God. Of this wondrous sign also holy Simeon says to the Virgin Mary: Behold, this child is set for the fall and the rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign that shall be contradicted.

Of which sign the blessed apostle Paul also says: The Jews require signs, and the Greeks seek wisdom. For his image, therefore, which he had fashioned in the first man, which he had seen counterfeited in man by the art of the devil, Christ came in the likeness of sin; that he might recall man, through the passion of the cross and death, to the pristine image: which image indeed can be obscured through carelessness, but by nature cannot be destroyed. Of this image the Prophet says: Although man walks in the image of God, yet he shall be troubled in vain. There is no one, therefore, who does not have some image, that is, either of holiness or of sin. We walk in the image of God when good thoughts, which have been implanted in us by God, remain in us, and lead us to good works. The remembrance of God, therefore, excludes from our heart all crimes and sins which the devil strives to sow and depict in our heart.

Whence it is said by the Prophet: Lord, in thy city thou shalt bring their images to nothing. Nothing, therefore, profits from having read or heard, unless the good things which you have read or heard you have laid up in the treasury of memory. As, therefore, there are three things in man, that is, body, soul, and spirit, so there are three more eminent things which lead us either to good or to evil, that is, either thought, or speech, or action. These three the Holy Spirit briefly comprehends in the first psalm, saying: Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of pestilence. These are the three attendants of the devil, who lie in wait for the wretched soul, that either by word, or by deed, or by thought, they may incite it to sin.

By spirit, soul, and body, then, we either do well or ill; either we are chaste, or we fornicate: and therefore, just as the greedy and the rapacious are slaves of mammon; and just as gluttons and drunkards are slaves of the belly and of lust; so every sin lords it over men, the prophet attesting this and saying: There shall be five cities in the land of Egypt, speaking the language of Canaan, that is, the five carnal senses, which speak to the wretched soul oppressed by the darkness of Egypt; for Egypt is interpreted as persecuting, or afflicting and constraining. Unless, therefore, we conquer the most cold north wind by the heat of faith, with Christ helping us, who both teaches and delights in good things, it will straightway arouse in us the heat of concupiscence and lust.

Let the flesh, then, be worn thin by fastings, and circumcised with the knife of every concupiscence, and let sin not reign in our mortal body; that we may be able to flee the fellowships of the world and the reproaches of the devil. Fasting, then, is contrition and humbling of the soul; but affliction is of the body.

Let this suffice concerning the image of God, to which man was made. Now let us return to the order. From a virgin mother, then, he was born among men, without a human father; for he had God the Father in the heavens, whom he had not come to deny, that he should be born of another. On account, then, of the sentence of Eve the virgin, which she received after sin, who, being immortal, after the transgression was made mortal, he himself came through a Virgin: and just as through a virgin death held sway, so through the virgin Mary came he who would conquer death. The occasion of death entered through wood, but by the death of the Lord it was excluded through wood: woman was brought forth from the side of the sleeping man; and likewise also the Church was formed from the side of Christ on the cross through the passion and the sleep of death.

From the side of the man the woman was formed; and therefore the Lord is struck in the side, that for the woman the man might suffer, from whose side she was formed who persuaded him. But let us see—for the place demands it—what must now be answered to the heretics, who wish the soul of Adam to be either a portion of God, or made before him, before his body was fashioned from the earth: which is wholly foreign to the catholic faith, and alien to it. For it is written that God formed man from the slime of the earth, and after the forming breathed into him the spirit of life; and man was made into a living soul (Wisdom xv, 11).

That this is so, the example of the woman Eve teaches us, who, when she had been formed into a woman from the rib of Adam, afterward received a soul from God; which form of creation is preserved in us even to the end of the world, as the prophet Isaiah attests, saying: Who forms the spirit of man within him; and David: Who fashioned their hearts individually. Therefore, according to so evident an example, the soul is neither prior to the body, nor fashioned beforehand, nor from the substance of God, nor, as the heretics wish, one that had already dwelt long before in bodily and irrational creatures somewhere, they know not where—a thing for which they have no proof. Every day, then, God of majesty makes souls in bodies already formed, and sends them in, as Moses the lawgiver attests concerning pregnant women, who have an infant already formed, or not yet formed. That this is so the Lord proves, saying: My Father works until now, and I work.

Just as, therefore, it is impious to say that the soul of man is of the substance of God, or that soul comes from soul: so it is impious to say that it was made before the fashioning of the body; since Adam himself proclaims, saying: This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. God, then, is one thing, the soul of man another; because it was made by him, not of him. For God is invisible, incorruptible, impenetrable, undefilable, who can in no part be corrupted, and to whom no harm can in any part be done: but the soul of man, which is not God, is capable of sin, and is subject to distress, and is led into falsehood, is tempted, is blinded, is troubled, is corrupted, is taken captive; and therefore it needs the power of a liberator.

This change of the soul, then, this variableness, shows me clearly that the soul of man is neither God, nor of his substance; for if the soul of man is the substance of God, according to those who say this, the substance of God is grieved, the substance of God is deceived, the substance of God is blinded, the substance of God is corrupted, the substance of God is taken captive; and now it is judged, and on the day of judgment, having taken up flesh, it will be condemned with the devil to the eternal fire: which how impious it is, he who is sound of mind understands. The Lord himself cries out, comforting his apostles, and says: Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Shall God, then, according to these madmen, as has already been said, judge his own portion or nature? God forbid.

And therefore into these very bodies in which we were born, and from which our souls have departed when we died, into these same, after the resurrection, our souls enter by God's command; and they rise again, if they have done good, unto the resurrection of life, to receive the glory of the kingdom of heaven: but if they have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment, and everlasting reproach and confusion. That this shall be so the blessed Apostle proves, saying: We must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad.

For then, according to the prophecy of Isaiah the prophet, there shall be no difference between the noble and the ignoble, the priest and the layman, the servant and the master, the handmaid and her mistress, the rich and the poor, the creditor and him who is pressed by another's debt, between the buyer and the seller (so Jerome in the same passage of Isaiah). All, then, shall stand equally before the judgment seat of Christ, nor shall there be respect of persons with God. Which also holy Job declares in almost the same words, saying: The small and the great are there, and the servant is free from his master. And the Savior in the Gospel, to whom all judgment has been given on account of the glorious passion of the man he took upon himself, testifies in full speech, saying: For when the Son of man shall come with the holy Angels in the majesty of his Father, then he shall reward every man according to his works.

All these things, then, are yet to come; because what is to come the Lord has spoken through the prophets, who says: I have multiplied visions, and by the hand of the prophets I have been likened (Hosea xii, 10).

Concerning this secret of the incarnation the above-written prophet inquires and says: O watchman, what of the night? What of the night, watchman? My secret to myself, my secret to myself. Woe is me. When, says the prophet, I had heard these things; namely that the God of majesty was about to put on flesh, and I foresaw that the prophecy was to be fulfilled in him: I spoke to myself with an inward affection of heart; for I cannot relate all things that I behold: my tongue cleaves to my jaws, my voice is stopped up with grief and dread; because such great mysteries pass before my eyes. For I see present things which are yet to come: I understand that the watchman is that Samaritan, who, coming down from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves. This is the watchman, to whom blessed Job said: O watchman of men, why hast thou set me contrary to thyself, and I am become a burden to myself?

Why dost thou not take away my sin, and why dost thou not remove my iniquity? This is the watchman who says: I stand continually upon my watch, standing so many days and nights; and of whom the Prophet says: Behold, he shall neither slumber nor sleep, who keeps Israel. On account of these terms, then, the prophets are obscure, and because the persons in them are very often changed, and many parables occur. But now let us return to the order.

The heretics who deny the resurrection of the flesh are accustomed to oppose to us that testimony of the blessed Apostle in which he says: Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God; craftily suppressing what follows. For when he had said: Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God, there follows and he says: Neither shall corruption possess incorruption. These things, then, were said not because the nature of the bodies of our saints will perish, but because this corruptible thing puts on incorruption, as the same Apostle confirms, saying: So also is the resurrection of the dead; it is sown in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption: it is sown in dishonor, it shall rise in glory: it is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power: it is sown a natural body; it shall rise a spiritual body. For these are the four orders of the resurrection, which among the prophet were prefigured by that priestly rod which blossomed in the tabernacle of the Lord.

Thus, then, is it to be understood: Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God, in the same way as that which God threatens against the sinning people, saying: I will make the heaven which is over you brass, and the earth which you tread iron: not that the nature of the elements is changed, but that by brass and iron the greatness of the punishments is shown. The Lord Christ, therefore, made manifest to us in himself the true resurrection that is to come, who after the resurrection of the third day showed to the doubting disciples the marks of the nails and the wound of the spear.

—Let us not, then, despise our flesh by living wickedly and luxuriously, the flesh in which the Lord Christ was both born and suffered, and rose again: let us not despise the clay of our flesh, which, baked in the deity of the Lord Christ, which is fire, reigns in the heavens as a most pure vessel. It is indeed to be asked why the Apostle said: For our God is a consuming fire: for our God, who is a living, divine and eternal fire, consumes not these bodily materials, but the consciences of sinners, and kindles our hearts in his love. And therefore the Angels, who are full of charity, are themselves also called fire. But indeed all the saints too, who are kindled with that fire of which the Lord says: I came to send fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled! And again: Let your loins be girded, and your lamps burning in your hands. Of which also the Apostle says: Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.

Therefore the divine word is fiery and fervent. This the Lord himself confirms, saying to the prophet Jeremiah: Behold, I have put my words in your mouth as fire; which fire the prophet himself declares as boiling within him, saying: And it became in my heart as a burning fire. Therefore what was said: Our God is a consuming fire, was said in this way, not that God, who is spirit, is fire; but that he illumines the just, whereas to those who endure it, it seems to be the punishment of fire. This much concerning what was said: Our God is a consuming fire. Now let us return to order.

—How, then, is the resurrection of the flesh denied, when long before, through the prophet, in his own person the Lord Christ said: My flesh shall rest in hope; and in another place: His flesh shall not see corruption; and again: His burial has been taken away: and again: And all flesh shall see the salvation of God; and again: All flesh shall come, that shall worship in the sight of the Lord, that is, either in the heavenly Jerusalem, or in every place where it may have fallen or been buried, according to that saying of the Apostle: I will that men pray in every place, lifting up pure hands; for if the sun, which is a creature, to which it is commanded that it rise, is seen in the whole circle of the earth, and extends its rays; how much more must the Creator and Almighty God be believed to exist in every place! To whom the Prophet says: Whither shall I go from your presence? If I descend into hell, you are there; and so forth.

If, then, all flesh is to worship the Lord, and on the other hand the bodies of the men who transgressed against God shall be delivered to eternal burnings; the true resurrection of the flesh will be for both parties. And therefore we must not turn aside from this holy and catholic faith either to the right or to the left, that is, that we follow neither the Jewish nor the heretical error; of whom some, who are carnal, love only the flesh: others, ungrateful for the benefits of God, refuse to hold what the Lord Jesus Christ both had in being born, and possesses forever in rising again.

For this is the true resurrection, which so bestows glory upon the flesh that it does not take away its truth, as has already been said, the Apostle says: This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality; and again: We would not, therefore, be unclothed, understand, of the flesh: but would be clothed upon, desiring the glory which is from heaven; and again: That being clothed we may not be found naked, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. No one, then, is clothed upon, except one who is already clothed; just as our Lord too, who was transfigured on the mountain into glory, when he presented Moses and Elijah as his witnesses; whose not only garments but also face shone as the sun; and where the face is named, I judge that the other members too were seen.

—To this glorification, then, all the just shall be transformed in the resurrection, John the Evangelist proving this and saying: Beloved, we are the sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. And the just man says: But I will appear before you in justice; I shall be satisfied when your glory shall be manifested to me. Our bodies, therefore, shall rise, to abide forever either in glory or in punishment. Of which Elijah and Enoch are witnesses, who through so many series of years remain thus even until the second coming of the Lord Christ. That this is so, the blessed Job proves, saying: I know that my Redeemer lives, and on the last day I shall rise from the earth; and again I shall be clothed about with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see God.

This my hope is laid up in my bosom Let the heretics blush, then, who falsely claim that either the Lord's body was airy or phantasmal, or that ours shall be such, or who lie about metempsychosis.

—It is indeed truly impious and unjust that Job, who saw with his own eyes his wounds, and touched with his own hands the rottenness and worms of his body, should be said to rise again either in another flesh or another soul. What, then, we have said concerning blessed Job, the same applies to Peter, the same to Paul, and to all the saints who laid down their souls in various torments for God's sake. It is indeed mockingly asked of us by the heretics, whether in the resurrection there is diversity of sex, that is, whether women too shall rise together with men, blind as they are to the ignorance of the Lord's saying: The queen of the south shall rise in judgment with the men of this generation, and shall condemn them. Where, then, there is true flesh, there is diversity of sex; and where there is diversity of sex, there John is John, and Mary is Mary.

The true resurrection of the flesh, then, shall be without the works of the flesh; for as the Truth says: They shall neither marry nor be given in marriage, but shall be as the angels in heaven. An angelic likeness, then, is promised to us; the substance of the flesh is not denied; for when it is said: They shall neither marry nor be given in marriage; this is said of those who are able to marry, and yet do not marry. For if here in this life, which is a trial upon the earth, many, for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, making themselves eunuchs, do not marry; and not only men but also women, with Christ's help, do this: how much more, in that blessed life, must we not say that this happens, but it will not even be lawful to think of it!

It is, therefore, catholic and right to confess both sexes in the resurrection of the flesh without the works of sex: since, as has already been said, even now, placed in this life, we strive with God's help not to fulfil the works of the flesh, which lusts against the spirit; the Apostle proving this, and saying: You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit; for in denying that they were in the flesh, whom it was well known were in the flesh, he condemned in them not the substance of the flesh, but the sins, that is, the works of the flesh; and again: That what is mortal may be swallowed up by life; because although our outward man is corrupted, yet the inward man is renewed: which, however, we know takes place not only in the kingdom of heaven and in baptism, but also daily in those who do penance, in whom the death of the flesh yields to spiritual progress.

For him, then, there shall be neither works of the flesh, nor growth of members, nor shall hair or nail grow; because we shall all rise into a perfect man, which is Christ. For if for the Fathers in the wilderness, for forty years, neither hair nor nails grew, nor were their garments or shoes worn out; how impious it is to ask this concerning the kingdom of heaven, where sorrow and groaning and sadness shall flee away, the wise reader understands.

—But against this teaching so true, so firm, and against demonstrations so clear and supported by every strength, heretics are wont to oppose to us that saying of the Apostle (Tertullian, bk. On the Resurrection, ch. 52), where he says: Not all flesh is the same flesh, but one is the flesh of men, another of beasts, another of birds, and so on; not understanding, poor wretches, that the blessed Apostle spoke this with reference to the honor of the body, not to a difference of kind. One flesh, then, is that of man, that is, of the servant of God; another is that of the beast, that is, of the pagan, and of the sinner, and of the heretic, who, though he was in honor, redeemed and honored by the blood of Christ, did not understand, but was compared to senseless beasts, and became like unto them. Another is that of birds, that is, of the martyrs, who ascend to the heavenly regions borne up on the wings of the Holy Spirit.

Another is that of fishes, that is, of those who are taken up after the water of the Savior's baptism. One is the glory of the sun, that is, of Christ; another the glory of the moon, that is, of the Church; and another the glory of the stars, that is, of the seed of Abraham, and of those who show themselves by faith and good works to be his children; for star differs from star in glory, that is, the apostles and those prophets who desired to see and hear Christ; but these are they who saw and heard him—and there are heavenly bodies, and earthly bodies, that is, of Christians and of Jews. Finally, in order to show the resurrection of all, he thus concluded his statement, saying: so also is the resurrection of the dead. That this may be so understood, let us set forth examples from our own condition, as it occurs in this age.

For when an infant has grown into a boy, and the boy into a youth, and the youth into a man, and the man into an old man, he by no means perishes through the several ages, but is always the same one that he was. Gradually, then, the age here perishes, but not the nature. But in that heavenly Jerusalem, where this sun and moon will shine sevenfold, there will be no diversities of ages; for there will be neither infant nor old man, nor any small one who does not fulfill his days, as being a son of the resurrection, and who does not come to the measure of the fullness of the age of Christ, so that no one lacks any span of years, nor has any left over.

In that time, then, when the age of all shall be one, both the holy and the sinner will be made perfect by a like resurrection, nor will they differ from one another in time; but the one is drawn to eternal rewards, and to receive good things a hundredfold, the other is dragged off to eternal punishments. Since, then, in the human race men are born in one way and another, in the resurrection of the flesh the resurrection will be one and alike for all; for Adam was born in one way, Eve in another, Cain and Abel in another, and all men were and are born in various ways; but the man Christ Jesus, who is the mediator of God and men, was born in another way.

Although, then, man is born by diverse beginnings, yet the one nature of man does not differ in the resurrection of the flesh and of all its members; all of which members are declared by one saying of the Lord, when he spoke of that man who did not have a wedding garment, nor kept that commandment: Let your garments be clean at all times; whom he ordered to be bound hand and foot and carried away, lest he recline at the banquet, lest he sit upon the throne, lest he stand at the right hand of God; but to be cast into the fire of gehenna, where there is weeping of the eyes and gnashing of teeth.

Moreover, to doubt concerning our hairs is quite impious, which the Lord signified to be numbered. In vain, then, were they numbered if they were ever to perish; but they do not perish, because in the likeness of the Lord Christ we are to rise again with all our members. For if into that temporal fire, which consumes everything it receives, almighty God showed his power in the three young men, whose hair he preserved untouched in the furnace of burning fire; shall he not raise up our hair in the resurrection? He will raise it up plainly, without any increase or diminution.

There will therefore be no variety or difference in the resurrection of the dead, as now the fragile weakness of flesh is in us, which is weighed down by the mass of its own burden, which is discolored, defiled, blinded, injured, wounded, healed, dies, is corrupted, and is called back into earth and dust; and yet after all these things, on the day of judgment, it will be reformed in the simple glory of the first Adam and of the second. There will therefore be a true resurrection of the dead in the flesh, and a diversity of sex, without the work of flesh and blood: The hour is coming, says the Lord, in which all who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God, and will come forth. They will hear, therefore, with ears, and will come forth on feet, as did Lazarus, and all whom the Savior raised up. They themselves, therefore, will come forth from the tombs who had been carried into the tombs.

All flesh, then, will come, not only from the earth, but also from the sea, and from the rivers; that they may see the salvation of God (Tertullian, bk. On the Resurrection of the Flesh, ch. 31). For he will command the fishes and the rivers of the sea, and the beasts of the earth, and the birds of the sky; and they will disgorge the bones and flesh of all the dead; that they may rise, some to eternal life, others to reproach and everlasting confusion. Then the just will see the punishments and torments of the impious; because their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be in the sight of all flesh.

Since, therefore, we most truly hold this hope, just as we have presented our members to serve uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity, so let us present them to serve righteousness unto the sanctification of life: that, rising from the dead, we may walk in newness of life, that the life of the name of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh, on account of his Spirit dwelling in us. It is right, therefore, and truly right, that we, who have always carried about the mortification of Christ in our body, should also have his life manifested in our body. Stripping ourselves, then, as the Apostle says, of the old man with his deeds, let us not seek again the tunic of error and of sin; that we may put on the new man, which is Christ, imitating his bride who says by night: I have put off my tunic, how shall I put it on again? I have washed my feet, how shall I soil them?

This art of majesty and power, that is, the resurrection, that potter performs, who through the prophet Jeremiah speaks to the sinning people, saying: Cannot I, as this potter, reform and restore again the house of Israel? Who also showed this marvelous work of his majesty in the hand of Moses, which, having been changed to whiteness, he afterward restored to its original color. But the very word "resurrection" plainly signifies that what dies and what is raised again are not different things. What, then, dies in man, that also is brought to life. Thus, then, according to the resurrection of the dead, one does not err even when he is in error. Finally, that man wounded near Jericho is entirely referred to the inn, and the wounds of his sins are healed by the immortality of the mercy-giver, as we are transformed from glory to glory into the same image.

Prophecy, then, which was hanging in suspense, was truly fulfilled in the flesh of the Lord Christ, which the Holy Spirit, wishing to teach us, spoke; for he says: Who is this that comes up made white, leaning upon her kinsman, and abounding in delights? And again: My kinsman is white and ruddy. Ruddy, therefore, from the incarnation, but white from the divinity. That this is so is proved by the blessed John the Evangelist, when he says that the horse on which the Lord sat was red, namely the holy body, which he took from the holy Virgin. To him, ascending into heaven, it is said: Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra; and: Why is your apparel red, and your garments as of one who treads in the wine press? And the sense is: Who is this that ascends from the earth, whose garments are sprinkled with blood?

But that which is said in the prophet Zechariah, that horses of various colors followed him, that is, they are shown as either red in martyrdom, or speckled in flight, that is, varied in virtues, or white in virginity. But that this same horse is again described by St. John as red, then white, shows his divinity, immortality, and incorruption. And therefore all who follow him not only wear white garments, but also sit on horses, namely incorrupt and immortal bodies. And therefore all the saints, with his help, imitate this; because they do not defile their garments, and, by the grace he grants, they remain virgins. And therefore, as has been said, in white robes will they follow the Lamb who took away the sin of the world.

—The whole man, therefore, as has been said, the Son of God took up from the Virgin, and will raise up whole and entire, that is, soul and body, fulfilling his own statement, in which he says: All that the Father has given me, I shall lose none of it; but I will raise it up on the last day: which saying we understand the Lord Christ to have spoken of himself rather than of his members, who by his own mouth and that of his members speaks in all the sacred books. Therefore both the head cries out to God in the body, and the body in the head, that is, both the Church in Christ, and Christ in the Church; because in nothing are the members separated from the head, nor the head from the members. Then, therefore, his adversaries who pierced him will see him, and who cried out: Away with him, away with him, crucify him.

Then the prophecy of the angels will be confirmed, who said to the astonished apostles: Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? He will come in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven. And indeed this must be inquired into, whether after the resurrection we shall eat (Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh, ch. 60) and drink in the kingdom of heaven, just as the Lord also, after the resurrection, to show his true body, ate and drank, and as did Lazarus, and the others whom he raised up. The Lord ate, then, to show the truth of the body, and to confirm the doubting apostles, who thought him a spirit and a phantasm; he ate the honeycomb, that he might fulfill the prophecy that speaks in his person, saying: I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; eat, friends, and drink deeply, O beloved.

On account of this prophecy, then, and to manifest his true body after the resurrection, the Lord ate and drank, as blessed Peter the apostle attests, saying: But to us he was manifested, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. For us, then, after the resurrection there will be the food of the Word, and the vision of God, and his praises, and alleluia, and those things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him. After the resurrection, then, we shall not need to eat and drink, nor will incorrupt and immortal bodies need to be sustained by earthly nourishment; otherwise, where there is food, there follow also diseases, and the other things which we suffer in this age.

—Just as therefore the Lord took up true flesh, and truly suffered, and truly rose again, and truly after the resurrection showed his hands and side to the disciples; so also he truly ate, truly walked with feet, and with a true tongue spoke with all the apostles, and with Cleophas, and reclined with them at supper with a true elbow, and with true hands received bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. But that he suddenly vanished from their eyes was of divine power, not of a shadow or a phantasm: otherwise, even before the passion, when they had seized him and led him out of Nazareth, that they might cast him down from the brow of the mountain upon which their city was situated; he passed through the midst of them, that is, he slipped from their hands. Or did he not have flesh, who made a scourge of cords, and drove out from the temple all his enemies and persecutors? Where the whole power of his divinity shone forth.

But that after the resurrection he entered to the disciples with the doors shut, was of the same power as that by which he also vanished from their eyes. For men of this age say that Apollonius the magician, when he stood before the emperor Domitian in the audience-chamber, suddenly disappeared from view (Philostratus of Lemnos, bk. VIII, ch. 2; Lactantius, Institutes, bk. V, ch. 3). But we have said these things not that we should compare a magician filled with a demon to the Lord Christ, but that we might refute the madness of the heretics. What then is permitted to a magician, if indeed it be true, is it not permitted to the Lord? Lynceus, as the fables tell, could see through a wall (Pliny, Natural History, bk. VII, ch. 8): could the Lord not have entered through closed doors, unless he had been a phantasm?

He who certainly even before the resurrection walked with poised step upon the sea, and granted this very thing to the apostle Peter, who by faith walked upon the waters, but afterward through unbelief began to sink, had not the right hand of the Lord swiftly held him up (Jerome, on Isaiah, near the end. Also on Matt. Ch. 24). Eagles and vultures perceive carcasses across the sea: shall the Savior not see his apostles, unless he opens the doors? At the last, I would have you say, which is greater, to weigh so great a magnitude of the earth with three fingers (Isaiah XL, 12), and to be poised upon uncertain waters; or for God to pass through a closed creature? To the Creator you attribute the greater, and you slander the lesser. The apostle Peter, as has already been said, walked upon the waters, and the yielding wave would not have given way to a heavy and solid body, had he not doubted a little: and do you slander God, because he entered through closed doors?

So then Peter’s faith doubted a little, and immediately his body recognized its own nature; that we might know that it was not the body that walked upon the waters, but faith.

Do not, by your own judgment, either equate the power of the Lord to the tricks of magicians, or make it inferior; so that it might seem to have been what it was not, that he be thought to have eaten without teeth, to have broken bread without hands, to have walked without feet, to have spoken without a tongue or head, or to have shown his side without a body. And how, one asks, did they not recognize him on the road if he had the very body he had before? You err, and greatly err, who do not hear the Evangelist saying: Because their eyes were held, that they might not recognize him; and a little after: Their eyes, he says, were opened, and they recognized him. Will you be so foolish as to say that he was one person when he was recognized, and another when he was not recognized? And surely he was one and the same.

To recognize and not to recognize, then, belonged to the eyes of those who saw, not to him who was seen, that the prophecy of holy Jeremiah might be fulfilled, where he says: Why shall he be like a sojourner in the land, and like a wayfarer turning aside to lodge? Finally, that you may know that the error which lay in the midst was not of the Lord’s body, but of closed eyes: Their eyes were opened, and immediately they recognized him. For Mary Magdalene too, as long as she sought the living among the dead, did not recognize Jesus; but when she recognized him, she at once confesses him Lord. Also when all the disciples were together in a boat, Jesus stood on the shore; and while the others did not recognize him, John recognized him first, and said: It is the Lord. It was indeed fitting, and quite proper, that virginity should first recognize the virginal body. He was therefore the same, and yet was not seen as the same by all.

And immediately adding, the Evangelist says: And no one dared any further to ask him, Who art thou? Because eating and drinking together with him, they saw a true man and God; not, however, as though one were God and another man: but that he was one and the same, the Son of God and the Son of man; for he was recognized as man, he was adored as God, fulfilling that which the Lord himself had prayed for them, saying to the Father: Now this is eternal life, that they may know thee the one true God, and him whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ. It is fitting, then, and quite fitting, that the flesh of man should be brought into the heavens, of which God has deigned to be the inhabitant: nor can it seem that man has been made beyond his desert a dweller of heaven, whose sheath the Spirit, who is God, did not disdain.

It was just, therefore, that the body, in which God, by dwelling, deigned to visit the earth, through which he became a partaker of our nature, should be led to immortality, and be set among the heavenly things. Where then ought the dwelling of God to be, if not in the kingdom of God?

And where is the kingdom of God, if not in the heavens, where we all also, by his gift and help, shall then be, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality; that all flesh may see the salvation of God (Isaiah XL, 5), and may recognize that he is that redeemer and savior, who wrestled with Jacob, who was strength and helper to Jacob himself, who, in his voluntary passion, being overcome—which that wrestling prefigured—blessed those who crucified him, and prayed for them, saying: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, confirming also that which he had before foretold through David: While they that ate my flesh drew near to me, I prayed. Therefore it is the flesh of the Word, not the Word, that is eaten: the flesh, not God, who is spirit, that is consumed.

You, he says, persecuting me, scourged me, you spat upon my face, you crucified me: yet I call you to repentance: For I do not wish the death of the sinner, but only that he turn back, and live. That this is so, the blessed Apostle proves, saying: And you, when you were once alienated and enemies in mind by your evil works, he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death.

But as to that objection which they raise, that the Apostle said: But they that are in the flesh cannot please God; this was said, not that the nature of the flesh is condemned, of which God is the maker, and in which very many of the saints have pleased God, and reign with Christ: but that the sense and works of the flesh are rejected. When, then, the clay of our flesh, as has already been said, shall have flown to heaven on spiritual wings with the carrying of angels, there it has forever a true and peaceable hostage of its salvation, to whom we shall be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ in the air, as the prophet Isaiah testifies, saying: They shall be borne upon shoulders, and shall be carried to their places; and again: Who are these, that fly as clouds, and as doves to their windows?

That is, to the dwellings of their merits, of which the Lord says: There are many mansions with my Father; and again: And they shall bring all your brethren out of all nations to Jerusalem upon horses, and mules, and chariots, and litters, and coaches, saith the Lord God.

And lest it should perhaps seem doubtful to anyone that a man placed in this body could fly through the air, the Apostle himself confirms this very thing, saying: By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death: for Elijah too, placed in this body, in which he remains even to this day, was caught up, as it were, even to heaven in a fiery chariot, that is, by the carrying of angels, who are spirits and a flame of fire, who do the will of God; and the prophet Habakkuk was led by an angel from Judea into Chaldea and led back in a moment of time; and the Apostle Paul himself was caught up even to the third heaven, and into paradise; and thence was brought back into the world.

But that it may be more clearly manifest that these vehicles of the saints are spirits, that is, the angels of God, the example of Saint Philip, one of the seven, teaches us, whom the Spirit of the Lord, catching him up from Gaza, suddenly set down in Azotus. Let these things, examined somewhat more thoroughly, part by part and joint by joint, so far as the Lord has deigned to help my endeavor, suffice as said. Yet lest we seem to have omitted anything, these things must be proved by the words of our Lord and Savior himself; for he says, when speaking of the field and the wheat and the tares: For in the consummation of the age my Father shall send angels, who shall separate the tares, that is, the sinners, from the wheat, that is, from the just. These are the angels who bore Lazarus, tried in the agony of poverty together with sickness, into the bosom and rest of Abraham. Truly, as it is written, I have tried thee in the furnace of poverty.

Men, then, are tried in various ways: one through want and bodily infirmity, another through riches and bodily health. Yet all these things are neither the highest goods nor the highest evils; for the highest evil is eternal death, and the highest good is eternal life. All these things, then, which the life of mortals has, are intermediate; for in either there is temptation: for very many whom neither want nor infirmity has broken, health has broken, and riches have extinguished. This the most wise Solomon confirms, saying to the Lord: Give me neither riches nor poverty; give me only things necessary for my sustenance; namely, lest he should be either puffed up in the former, or, driven by need, forswear himself or blaspheme in the latter. But that these things, which we have called intermediate, are foreign to us, the Lord proves, saying: If you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?

Riches, then, are foreign to us, because they are outside our nature; for they are neither born with us, nor do they pass away with us. And therefore, knowing this, let us not be slaves to things belonging to another, we who ought to have no God but Christ. We are, then, guests of our own possessions; for whatever is of the world remains in the world: and whatever we gather for our heirs, we lose; because we carry with us nothing but either good or evil works. Riches, then, are not evil, but are evil to those who use them evilly; for the things which God made are very good. And therefore the philosophers of this world call nothing the highest good except peace, honesty, and virtue; and they set down nothing as the highest evil except malice, dishonesty, avarice, and baseness. The promise and reward, then, of all good things is eternal life: and the threat and reward of all evils is the second death.

Although these things may seem to have been said outside our subject, yet they are necessary and useful to us: and therefore we must now return to the order of our discourse. When, then, the clay of our flesh, as has already been said, shall have been baked into an earthen vessel; so that what was before pressed down to the earth by a heavy weight, having received the wings of spiritual grace, may fly to heaven with the carrying of angels, there it has forever a true and peaceable hostage of its salvation. What truer, what more manifest, what clearer thing can be found? Yet lest we seem to have omitted anything, receive the fullest and firmest example of this our hope, that bird of the East which is called the phoenix, peculiar, famed for its uniqueness, and monstrous in its manner of posterity: which, willingly burying itself, splitting and cutting itself apart by a natural end, becomes again the phoenix, is again itself, and no other.

As a testimony to this thing, for the confirmation of our hope, the Holy Spirit himself, who is God, has set it down in the sacred Scriptures, saying: And they shall flourish like the phoenix, that is, they shall flourish out of death, out of their own funeral, just as the phoenix rises again from its own ashes. If, then, the flesh of a bird rises again from its ashes, shall not the flesh of man rise from its ashes? And where is that which the Lord Christ pronounced, that we are better than many sparrows? And where is that also which he promised us through the prophet, saying: Thy youth shall be renewed like the eagle's?

The nature of this bird is said to be this: when it has come to extreme old age, it is said to be lifted up so long into the air, that it reaches even to the clouds and to fire: touched by this fire, it soon plunges itself headlong into a most secret spring, and dips itself three times; and soon it is restored to the strength and appearance of its former youth. That this shall likewise be for us the blessed Apostle promised, saying: The fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is. For various birds swallow the grape, the olive, and other fruits; and after excessive heat, digesting the seeds thereof through their dung, vines again, trees again are born anew. If, then, birds do this for your sake, at God's command, shall God not do this for you, for the sake of faith and his own reward?

Believe me, he will do it because of his promise; for when we were once nothing, by the command of the Lord God of all creatures himself, we were made. He, then, who made out of nothing that which was not, will be able again to make that which he had before made out of nothing.

—For if the flesh of man, as blind heretics falsely claim, shall not rise again, how does Isaiah, full of the Spirit of God, who should be called not so much a prophet as an evangelist, say: All flesh shall come, which shall worship in the sight of the Lord, in Jerusalem; that they may see the carcasses of the dead men who have transgressed against God (that is, either the Jews, or the impious, or sinners), their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched. By which worm or fire many wish to understand the conscience of sins, which torments those placed in punishments, because through their own fault and sin they have lacked so great a good, according to that which is written: Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame which you have kindled for yourselves; and again: As the moth eats the garment, and the worm the wood, so grief eats away the heart of a man.

For just as gladness of soul sometimes mitigates the pains of the body, so grief of soul weighs down and torments the body, as the prophet says: A joyful mind makes a flourishing age, a sorrowful spirit dries up the bones. If, then, it should happen that sickness of soul be added to sickness of body, the infirmity is doubled. Yet these things have been said in such a way that it is not thereby denied that the punishments of transgressors and of those who deny God are eternal, as Scripture says: The Lord Almighty will take vengeance on them in the day of judgment, to put fire and worms into their flesh; and they shall burn, that they may feel it forever.

That this shall so come to pass our Lord and Savior confirms, saying: And all who have done good shall rise from the dust of the earth, unto the resurrection of judgment; and again: Go into the everlasting fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels; and again, of him who had not on a wedding garment it is said: Take him, and bind his hands and his feet, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Since, then, both hands and feet, and weeping, and outer darkness, which pertain to the eyes, and the gnashing of teeth are most truly pronounced by the Lord to belong to the flesh in the future resurrection, I marvel at certain heretics who attempt to introduce an airy body, gradually to be dissolved into thin air after the resurrection.

As, then, the saint is the garment of God, and is clothed with the tunic of salvation and gladness; so on the contrary the sinner, who bears the image of the old and earthly man, deserves to hear: Behold, all of you shall be devoured by the moth like an old garment. The diversity of manners, then, is signified by various names in the sacred Scriptures. Just as, then, the diversity of trees and of musical instruments in the divine Scriptures signifies the diversity of spiritual grace; so too the diversity of wild beasts and serpents signifies the diversity of sins. Yet these diverse kinds of musical instruments God of majesty willed to be named and used in the divine books, in order that he might draw the people of the Jews away from carnal sacrifices, and invite them to spiritual and praiseworthy offerings.

But let these things which have been said now suffice; although, given the greatness of the matter, nothing can ever be said sufficiently about the causes and things named above. And therefore, holy, venerable, perfect, and inseparable Trinity, who art wholly worshipped and adored by us in faith, this work is thine, which I, with thy help and enlightenment, have gathered from the books of the Fathers, thy servants, for my own edification; and thy perfection be unto the glory and praise of thy name through all ages of ages. Amen.