Chapter 2 (30): 1. Whether Christ Is An Adoptive Son According To His Being Man
42 | THE SENTENCES, BOOK 3
even now the soul of Christ is a rational substance, and yet not a person because it does not speak by itself,' and, indeed, is joined to another thing. But that description of person is not given for those three persons
[of the Trinity].
5. ANOTHER PROOF THAT CHRIST IS A PERSON. But they strive to prove in yet another way that Christ, according to his being man, is a person: because Christ, according to his being man, was predestined to be Son of God.' But he is that which he was predestined to be; and so, if according to his being man, he was predestined to be Son of God, then he is Son of God according to his being man.—RESPONSE. To which it can be said that Christ is that which was predestined to be: for he was predestined to be
Son of God, and he truly is Son of God. But according to his being man, he was predestined to be Son of God, because he has this through grace according to his being man; and yet he is not Son of God according to his being man, unless perhaps 'according' is expressive of the unity of person, so that the sense is: he who is a man is the Son of God; but he has it through grace that, being a man, he be Son of God. But if cause is denoted, it is false; for it is not by reason of his being a man that he is Son of God.
Chapter 2 (30)
1. WHETHER CHRIST IS AN ADOPTIVE SON ACCORDING TO HIS BEING MAN
OR IN SOME OTHER MANNER. But if it is asked whether Christ is an adoptive son according to his being man or in another manner, we answer that Christ is not an adoptive son in any manner, but only a natural one, because he is son by nature, not by grace of adoption.—But he is not called son by nature in the same way in which he is called God by nature: for he is not son by the same reason by which he is God, because he is son by the property of birth, God by the nature of divinity. And yet he is called son by nature or of nature because he is naturally a son, oe having the same nature as the one who begot him.!
2. WHY HE IS NOT AN ADOPTIVE SON. But he is not an adoptive son because he did not first exist and was afterwards adopted as a son, as we are called adoptive children because, although we were born children of wrath," we were made children of God' through grace. But Christ was never not a son, and so he is not an adoptive son.
*Peter is punning here, in his definition of person (persona) as that which speaks by itself (per se sonans).
*Rom. 1, 4.
'Cf. Hilary, De Trinitate, bk 5 n37.
2Cf. Eph. 2, 3.
°Ge dnl,
Distinction X | 43 3. OBJECTION THAT HE IS AN ADOPTIVE SON. But the following objection is made to this: Christ is the son of man, that is, of the Virgin, either by grace, or by nature, or in both manners. But if by nature, then either by the divine or the human one; but not by the divine one: and so he is son of man either by human nature, or not by nature [at all]. If not by nature, then by grace alone; and even if by human nature, then no less by grace.
But if he is son of the Virgin by grace, then he appears to be an adoptive son: so that the same one is the natural Son of the Father and the adoptive son of the Virgin—RESPONSE. To which it can be said that Christ is the son of the Virgin by nature or naturally and by grace; and yet he is not the adoptive son of the Virgin because he is said to be son of the Virgin not by adoption, but by union. For he is called son of the Virgin because in the Virgin he took on human form into the unity of person; and this was a matter of grace, not of nature—Hence Augustine, in On John: "That the only-begotten is equal to the Father is not a matter of grace, but of nature; but that a man was taken up in the unity of the person of the only-begotten is a matter of grace, not of nature."* And so Christ is the adoptive son neither of God, nor of man; he is naturally the Son of God, and he is son of man naturally and by grace.
4. Augustine, in the book On Faith to Peter, shows that he is naturally son of man: "He, namely God, was naturally made son of man who is naturally the only-begotten son of God the Father.""
5. But that he is not an adoptive son, and yet is a son by grace, is proved by the following testimonies. Jerome, in On the Epistle to the Ephesians, says: "It was written of Christ Jesus that he was ever with the Father, and the Father's will that he exist never preceded him. And what is more, he is son by nature; but we are sons by adoption. He was never not son; before being such, we were predestined, and then we received the spirit of adoption, when we believed in the Son of God."'—Hilary too, in On the Trinity, book 3, says: "By saying, Glorify your Son,' the Lord attested that he was son not only in name, but also in property. We are sons of God, but not as he is son: for he is a true and proper son: by origin, not adoption; in truth, not in name only; by birth, not by creation."'—Augustine too, in On John, says: "We are sons by grace, not by nature; but the only-begotten is son by nature, not by grace. Is this also to be referred to the human form in the Son himself? Assuredly so."!°—Ambrose also, in On the Trinity,
"Augustine, /n loannem, tr. 74 n3.
*Fulgentius, De fide ad Petrum, c2 n14.
SCr Rom. 6: 15, Jerome, In quattuor Epistolas Paulinas, Eph. 1, 5.
Sie tecle *Hilary, De Trinitate, bk 3 n11.
'° Augustine, /n Joannem, tr. 82 n4.