A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

385and more accurate than the said phrases, and that for the futurethey would prefer to be content to use its language.§ 7. But since, also, certain seemed to be contending togetherconcerning the fleshly economy of the Saviour, we inquired ofboth parties. And what the one confessed the others also agreedto: that not as when the word of the Lord came to the prophets,did it dwell in a holy man at the consummation of the ages, butthat the Word himself was made flesh; and being in the formof God, He took the form of a servant, and from Mary afterthe flesh became man for us, and that thus in Him the humanrace is perfectly and wholly delivered from sin and made alive [352]from the dead, and led into the kingdom of heaven. For theyalso confess that the Saviour had not a body without a soul, norwithout sense or intelligence; 122 for it was not possible, when theLord had become man for us, that His body should be withoutintelligence; nor was the salvation, effected in the Word himself,a salvation of the body only, but of the soul also. And being Sonof God in truth, He became also Son of Man; and being God'sonly begotten Son, He became also at the same time “first-bornamong many brethren.” Wherefore neither was there one Son ofGod before Abraham, another after Abraham: nor was there onethat raised up Lazarus, another that asked concerning him; butthe same it was that said as man, “Where does Lazarus lie?” andas God raised him up; the same that as man and in the body spat,but divinely as Son of God opened the eyes of the man blind fromhis birth; and while, as Peter says, in the flesh He suffered, asGod He opened the tomb and raised the dead. For which reasons,thus understanding all that is said in the Gospel, they assured usthat they held the same truth about the Word's incarnation andbecoming man.122 The Apollinarian heresy.