wrath certainly of God, which is nothing else
ON THE TRINITY. 179
Cuap. XVIL.]
death which was due? The devil was holding fast our sins, and through them was fixing us deservedly in death. He discharged them, who had none of His own, and who was led by him to death undeservedly. That blood was of such price, that he who even slew Christ for a time by a death which was not due, can as his due detain no one, who has put on Christ, in the eternal death which was due. Therefore '*God commendeth His love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified in His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him." Justified, he says, in His blood,—justified plainly, in that we are freed from all sin; and freed from all sin, because the Son of God, who knew no men, in whom all have sinned;"? etc.: in which he disputes at some length concerning the two men; the one the first Adam, through whose sin and death we, his descendants, are bound by, as it were, hereditary evils; and the other the second Adam, who is not only man, but also God, by whose payment for us of what He owed not, we are freed from the debts both of our first father and of ourselves, Further, since on account of that one the devil held all who were begotten through his corrupted carnal concupiscence, it is just that on account of this one he should loose all who are regenerated through His immaculate spiritual grace.
CHAP. 17.—OTHER ADVANTAGES OF THE INCARNATION.
sin, was slain for us. Therefore '' we shall be saved from wrath through Him;'' from the wrath certainly of God, which is nothing else but just retribution. For the wrath of God is not, as is that of man, a perturbation of the mind; but it is the wrath of Him to whom Holy Scripture says in another place, '* But Thou, O Lord, mastering Thy power, judgest with calmness.''* If, therefore, the just retribution of God has received such a name, what can be the right understanding also of the reconciliation of God, unless that then such wrath comes to anend? Neither were we enemies to God, except as sins are enemies
22. There are many other things also in the incarnation of Christ, displeasing as it is to the proud, that are to be observed and thought of advantageously. And one of them is, that it has been demonstrated to man what place he has in the things which God has created; since human nature could so be joined to God, that one person could be made of two substances, and thereby indeed of three—God, soul, and flesh: so that those proud malignant spirits, who interpose themselves as mediators to deceive, although as if to help, do not therefore dare to place themselves above man because they have not flesh; and chiefly because the Son of God deigned to die also in the same flesh, lest they, because they seem to be immortal, should therefore succeed in getting themselves worshipped as gods. Further, that the grace of God might be commended to us in the man Christ without any precedent merits; because not even He Himself obtained by any precedent merits that He should be joined in such great unity with the true God, and should become the Son of God, one Person with Him; but from the time when He began to be man, from that time He is also God; whence it is said, ''The Word was made flesh.'?3 Then, again, there is this, that the pride of man, which is the chief hindrance against his cleaving to God, can be confuted and healed through such great humility of God. Man learns also how far he has gone away from God; and what it is worth to him aS a pain to cure him, when he returns through such a Mediator, who both as God assists men by His divinity, and as man agrees with men by His weakness. For what greater example of obedience could be given to us, who had perished through disobedience, to righteousness; which being forgiven, such enmities come to an end, and they whom He
Himself justifies are reconciled to the Just One. And yet certainly He loved them even
- while still enemies, since *' He spared not His
own Son, but delivered Him up for us all," when we were still enemies. And therefore the apostle has rightly added: '' For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,'"' by which that remission of sins was made, '* much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved in His life."'
Saved in life, who were reconciled by death. _ For who can doubt that He will give His life for His friends, for whom, when enemies, He gave His death? ''And not only so," he says, '' but we also joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." '' Not only," he says, ''shall we be saved," but ''we also joy;'' and not in ourselves, but ''in God;"' nor through ourselves, ''but through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement," as we have argued above. Then the apostle adds, '' Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all
2 Rom, v. 8, 12. 3 John i. 14.
t Wisd. xii. 18.