Chapter 6 (22)
Distinction VI | 29 Chapter 5 (21)
HE BRINGS FORTH AUTHORITIES BY WHICH THIS VIEW IS STRENGTHENED.
Lest they appear to be expressing merely their own view, they also confirm what they say by the submission of authorities. For Augustine says, in the book On the Grace of the New Testament: "Just as the number of persons is not increased when flesh is joined to soul so that there be one man, so the number of persons is not increased when the man is joined to the Word so that there be one Christ. And so we read 'God man' in order to understand the singularity of this person, not to suspect a divinity changed into flesh."!
Chapter 6 (22) 1. FOUR KINDS OF HABIT ARE DISTINGUISHED. The same [Augustine], treating that statement of the Apostle: He was found in the habit of a man,' manifestly shows that God is said to have been made man or to be man according to habit; in the book of 84 Questions, he says as follows: "We say 'habit' in many senses: a habit of the mind, as the mental grasp of a discipline established by usage; or a habit of the body, as when we say that one is more vigorous than another; or the habit of those things which are externally fitted to our limbs, as when we say that someone is clothed, shod, and suchlike. In all these kinds, it is manifest that habit is said with reference to a thing which is added to someone, so that he may also not have it. And this term is derived from the verb 'to have.' And so habit is said with reference to a thing which is added to us so that we may have it.""
2. FIRST KIND OF HABIT. "And yet what matters here is that some of those things which are added in order to produce a habit are not themselves changed, but they cause change while they remain whole and unassailable in themselves: and so wisdom, coming to a man, is not itself changed, but changes the man and, from a fool, makes him into a wise man."*—SECOND. "But some things are added so that they both change and are changed: like food which, losing its form, is changed into the body, and we, refreshed by the food, are changed from weakness and languor to strength and power.'*—THIRD. "A third kind concerns those things which, on being added, neither change the things to which they are added, nor are they changed by them: like a ring placed on a finger; but this kind occurs very rarely."°—FOuURTH. "A fourth kind is when those
'Augustine, Epistola 140 (ad Honoratum), c4 n12.
Pil) 2, 7:
*Augustine, De diversis quaestionibus 83, q73 n1.
*Tbid.
"Ibid.
°Cf. ibid.
30 | THE SENTENCES, BOOK 3
things which, on being added, are not changed from their nature, but take on another shape and form. Such is the case with clothing which, once taken off and cast aside, does not have the same form which it had when it was worn, for when it is worn over the limbs, it takes on a form which it does not have when it is taken off.'
3. THE FOURTH KIND FITS THE COMPARISON HERE. This [last] kind fits the comparison here. For God the Son "emptied himself, not by changing his form, but by taking the form of a servant; nor was he changed or transmuted into a man, thereby losing his unchangeable stability, but the taker himself was made in the likeness of men, by taking a true man, and he was found in the habit of a man,' that is, by having human form, he was found as a man: not for himself, but for those to whom he appeared in his human form."* And in saying of a man, the text expresses the truth. "And so, by this term habit, the Apostle sufficiently signified what he meant by saying made in the likeness of man, because he was made a man not by way of transfiguration, but by habit when he was clothed with a human form. Uniting and conforming such form in some manner to himself, he made it a partaker of immortality and eternity. And so it is not fitting that the Word be understood to have changed by taking on human form, just as the limbs are not changed when they put on clothing, even though that taking has ineffably joined the one taken to the taker."°—By these words,
Augustine appears to indicate clearly that God is said to have been made man according to habit.
4. AUGUSTINE: ON THE MANNER OF THE INCARNATION. Wishing to explain to questioners the manner of the incarnation itself, Augustine also says, in On the Trinity, book 4: "If it is asked how was the incarnation done: I say that the Word of God himself was made flesh,'° that is, was made man; and yet, he was not changed or transformed into that which was made,"'' "but he was clothed in flesh so that he might suitably appear to fleshly people."'* "But certainly made, so that there is not only the Word of God and the flesh of man there, but also the rational soul of man; and all this is called both God because of God, and man because of man. And if this is difficult to understand, let the mind be cleansed by faith, by abstaining from sins and doing good works; for these are difficult things."!?
*Augustine, De diversis quaestionibus 83, q73 nl.
Phil 2.7.
"Augustine, De diversis quaestionibus 83, q73 n2.
Ibid.
(Ct. Jiteie 14, '' Augustine, De Trinitate, bk 4 c21 n31.
'* Augustine, Epistolae ad Romanos inchoata expositio, n4.
Augustine, De Trinitate, bk 4 c21 n31.