Chapter 3 (19)
26 | THE SENTENCES, BOOK 3
Son of God."'—Also: "Any man is made Christian by grace as that man by grace was made the Christ from the beginning."*
7. The same, in On the Trinity, book 13: "The grace of God is commended to us in the man Christ because it was not by any preceding merits that he deserved to be joined to God by such unity that the Son of God became one person with him. But as soon as he began to be man, he was also God. And so it is said: The Word was made flesh."
8. HILARY. Hilary too, in On the Trinity, book 10, says: "We do not doubt that Christ is God the Word; and neither are we unaware that the son of man was composed of soul and body.""'!
9. Those who say that some man, composed of a rational soul and flesh, was made God use these and other authorities. But it was by grace, not by nature. For it was by grace alone, and not by merits or nature, that that man had it to be God or Son of God, and to have all the knowledge and power which the Word has, with whom he is one person. In the foregoing, not only do we read that that man is one person with the Word and is the Word itself, but also that the same person is a rational soul and flesh and is both Christ and God.
Chapter 3 (19) 1. THE VIEW OF OTHERS. But there are also others who in part agree with the former, but they say that that man was not composed only of a rational soul and flesh, but also of a divine and human nature, that is, of three substances: divinity, flesh, and soul. They profess this Christ to be only one person; however, that person was simple only before the incarnation, but in the incarnation he was made into a person composed of divinity and humanity. Nor is he therefore another person than before, but what was before only a person of God, in the incarnation was also made a person of man: not so as to be two persons, but that the person of God and of man be one and the same. And so the person which before was simple and existed only in one nature, then subsists in and from two natures. And the person which was only God has also become true man, subsisting not only from soul and flesh, but also from divinity. And yet that person should not be said to have been made a person, although it is said to have been made a person of man. And so, as some would have it, that person was made into something subsisting from soul and flesh, but was not 7Augustine, De praedestinatione sanctorum, 15 n30.
'Tbid., cl5 n31.
"Ine 1, 14, 'Augustine, De Trinitate, bk 13 c17 n22.
''Hilary, De Trinitate, bk 10 n57.
Distinction VI | DAT made a person or substance or nature. And insofar as he is subsistent, the person 1s composite; but insofar as he is the Word, the person is simple.
2. HE ALSO SETS OUT THE AUTHORITIES WHICH PROVE THIS VIEW. Con-
cerning this, Augustine, in the book of the Sentences of Prosper, says: "In all possible ways, we strive to prove that the Church's sacrifice consists of two things and is made from two things: the visible form of the elements, and the invisible flesh and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, the sacrament and the thing of the sacrament, that is, the body of Christ.
Similarly, the person of Christ consists in and is made from God and man, since Christ himself is true God and true man; because each thing contains in itself the nature and truth of the things from which it is made."
3. On this same subject, John of Damascus: "In our Lord Jesus Christ, we acknowledge two natures, but one hypostasis composed from both."
—*And so Christ became flesh, taking the first-fruits of our mass from the Virgin,® so that the hypostasis itself, which is the hypostasis of God's
Word, existed in the flesh, and the hypostasis of the Word, which had formerly been simple, was made composite: composed of two perfect natures, divinity and humanity, bearing both the characteristic and determining property of the divine filiation of the Word of God, according to which he is distinguished from Father and Holy Spirit, and the characteristic and determining property of the flesh, according to which he differs from his Mother and the rest of humankind."*
4. Also: "We confess the one hypostasis of the Son of God in the two complete natures of divinity and humanity, and that the same hypostasis became flesh; and that these two natures are preserved and remain in it after their union; nor do we hold that each of them is by itself and a part, but that they are mutually united in the one composite hypostasis. For we call this union substantial, that is, true, and not imaginary; but we say substantial not because the two natures produce something else, namely one composite nature, but that they are mutually united into the one composite hypostasis of the Son of God; and we determine that the difference of substance remains. For what was created remained created, and what was uncreated uncreated, and what was mortal mortal, and what was immortal immortal, and what was circumscribable circumscribable, and what was uncircumscribable uncircumscribable. And this shines out with wonders.""
5. On this Augustine, too, in the book On the Trinity, says: "In as much as the nature of Father and Son is one according to divinity, so also the 'These words are Lanfranc's, partially taken from Berengar, De sacramento corporis et sanguinis Christi, c10.
John of Damascus, De fide orthodoxa, bk 3 c4.
3Cf. Rom. 11, 16.
'John of Damascus, De fide orthodoxa, bk 3 c7.
*Ibid., bk 3 c3.