Chapter XIV. Argument.—The Author Prosecutes the Same Argument.

And yet the heretic still shrinks from urging that Christ is God, whom he perceives to be proved God by so many words as well as facts. If Christ is only man, how, when He came into this world, did He come unto His own, since a man could have made no world? If Christ was only man, how is the world said to have been made by Him, when the world was not by man, but man was ordained after the world? If Christ was only man, how was it that Christ was not only of the seed of David; but He was the Word made flesh and dwelt among us? For although the Protoplast was not born of seed, yet neither was the Protoplast formed of the conjunction of the Word and the flesh. For He is not the Word made flesh, nor dwelt in us. If Christ was only man, how does He “who cometh from heaven testify what He hath seen and heard,”95    John iii. 31. when it is plain that man cannot come from heaven, because he cannot be born there? If Christ be only man, how are “visible things and invisible, thrones, powers, and dominions,” said to be created by Him and in Him; when the heavenly powers could not have been made by man, since they must needs have been prior to man? If Christ is only man, how is He present wherever He is called upon; when it is not the nature of man, but of God, that it can be present in every place? If Christ is only man, why is a man invoked in prayers as a Mediator, when the invocation of a man to afford salvation is condemned as ineffectual? If Christ is only man, why is hope rested upon Him, when hope in man is declared to be accursed? If Christ is only man, why may not Christ be denied without destruction of the soul, when it is said that a sin committed against man may be forgiven? If Christ is only man, how comes John the Baptist to testify and say, “He who cometh after me has become before me, because He was prior to me;”96    John i. 15. when, if Christ were only man, being born after John, He could not be before John, unless because He preceded him, in that He is God? If Christ is only man, how is it that “what things the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise,”97    John v. 19. when man cannot do works like to the heavenly operations of God? If Christ is only man, how is it that “even as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself,”98    John v. 26. when man cannot have life in him after the example of God the Father, because he is not glorious in eternity, but made with the materials of mortality? If Christ is only man, how does He say, “I am the bread of eternal life which came down from heaven,”99    John vi. 51. when man can neither be the bread of life, he himself being mortal, nor could he have come down from heaven, since no perishable material is established in heaven? If Christ is only man, how does He say that “no man hath seen God at any time, save He which is of God; He hath seen God?”100    John vi. 46. Because if Christ is only man, He could not see God, because no man has seen God; but if, being of God, He has seen God, He wishes it to be understood that He is more than man, in that He has seen God. If Christ is only man, why does He say, “What if ye shall see the Son of man ascending thither where He was before?”101    John vi. 62. But He ascended into heaven, therefore He was there, in that He returned thither where He was before. But if He was sent from heaven by the Father, He certainly is not man only; for man, as we have said, could not come from heaven. Therefore as man He was not there before, but ascended thither where He was not. But the Word of God descended which was there,—the Word of God, I say, and God by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made. It was not therefore man that thus came thence from heaven, but the Word of God; that is, God descended thence.

CAPUT XIV. Idem argumentum persequitur auctor.

0909A

Et tamen adhuc dubitat haereticus Christum dicere esse Deum: quem Deum tot et rebus animadverti et vocibus approbatum. Si homo tantummodo Christus, quomodo veniens in hunc mundum in sua venit, cum homo nullum fecerit mundum? Si homo tantummodo Christus; quomodo mundus per ipsum factus esse refertur, cum non per hominem mundus, sed post mundum homo institutus referatur? Si homo tantummodo Christus, quomodo non ex semine tantum David Christus, sed Verbum caro facttum est et habitavit in nobis? Nam etsi protoplastus non ex semine, sed tamen protoplastus non est ex Verbi et carnis conjunctione concretus: non est enim Verbum 0909B caro factum et habitavit in nobis. Si homo tantummodo Christus, quomodo qui de coelo venit, quae vidit et audiit testificatur (Joan. III, 31, 32), cum constet hominem de coelo, quia ibi nasci non possit, venire non posse? Si homo tantummodo Christus, quomodo (Col. I, 16) visibilia et invisibilia, Throni, Virtutes et Dominationes per ipsum et in ipso creata esse referuntur, cum Virtutes coelestes per hominem fieri non potuerint, quae ante hominem ipsum esse debuerint? Si homo tantummodo Christus, quomodo (Matth. XVIII, 20) adest ubique invocatus, cum haec hominis natura non sit, sed Dei, ut adesse omni loco possit? Si homo tantummodo Christus, cur homo in orationibus Mediator invocatur, 0909C cum invocatio hominis ad praestandam salutem inefficax judicetur? Si homo tantummodo Christus, cur (I Tim. I, 1) spes in illum ponitur, cum (Jer. XVII, 5) spes in homine maledicta referatur? Si homo tantummodo Christus, cur (Matth. X, 33) non licet Christum sine exitio animae negari, cum in hominem 0910A commissum delictum referatur posse dimitti? Si homo tantummodo Christus, quomodo Joannes Baptista testatur et dicit (Joan. I, 15): Qui post me venit, ante me factus est, quia prior me fuit; cum, si homo tantummodo Christus, post Joannem natus, ante Joannem esse non possit, nisi quoniam illum, qua Deus est, ante praecessit? Si homo tantummodo Christus, quomodo (Joan. V, 19) quae Pater facit, et Filius facit similiter, cum homo coelestibus operibus Dei similia opera facere non possit? Si homo tantummodo Christus, quomodo sicut Pater in se vitam habet, ita dedit Filio vitam habere in semetipso (Joan. V, 26); cum exemplo Patris Dei, homo in se vitam habere non possit, cum non in aeternitate sit gloriosus, sed in materia mortalitatis effectus? Si homo 0910B tantummodo Christus; quomodo refert, Ego sum panis vitae aeternae qui de coelo descendi (Joan. VI, 51); cum neque panis vitae homo esse possit ipse mortalis, nec de coelo descenderit, nulla in coelo constituta materia fragilitatis? Si homo tantummodo Christus, quomodo dicit, quia Patrem Deum nemo vidit umquam, nisi qui est a Deo, hic vidit Deum? (Ibid. 46.) Quoniam, si homo tantummodo Christus, Deum videre non potuit, quia Deum nemo hominum vidit: si autem dum ex Deo est, Deum vidit, plus se quam hominem, dum Deum vidit, intelligi voluit. Si homo tantummodo Christus, cur dicit: Quid, si videritis Filium hominis ascendentem illuc ubi ante erat? (Ibid. 62.) Ascendit autem in coelum: ibi ergo fuit, dum illuc redit ubi prius fuit . Quod si 0910C de coelo missus a Patre est, non utique homo tantum est: homo enim, ut diximus, de coelo venire non potuit. Non igitur ibi ante homo fuit, sed illuc ascendit ubi non fuit. Descendit autem Dei Verbum, quod ibi fuit. Verbum, inquam, Dei et Deus per quem facta sunt omnia, et sine quo factum est nihil 0911A (Joan. I, 3). Non igitur homo inde sic de coelis venit; sed Dei Sermo, id est Deus, inde descendit.