Chapter 1 (32)
44 | THE SENTENCES, BOOK 3
book 1, says: "Christ is son not by adoption, but by nature; we are called sons by adoption; he is such by the truth of nature."''—From these testimonies, it is clearly shown that Christ is not son by the grace of adoption.
For it is the grace of adoption which is meant when Augustine asserts that he is not son by grace:'* for the Son of God is son of man, and vice versa, by the grace of union and not by that of adoption.
Chapter 3 (31) WHETHER THE PERSON OR THE NATURE WAS PREDESTINED. If it is then asked whether the predestination which the Apostle recalls' is of the person or of the nature, it can truly be said that the person of the Son, which existed always, was predestined according to the human form taken, namely that the same person, being man, be Son of God; and the human nature was predestined that it be united personally to the Word of the Father.
DISTINCTION XI
Chapter 1 (32) 1. WHETHER CHRIST IS A CREATURE, OR CREATED, OR MADE. It is also usual to ask whether it ought simply to be said and granted that Christ was made, or created, or is a creature.—To which it can be said that this is said less than suitably, if it is asserted simply and without determination; and if it happens that, for the sake of brevity, this is simply stated, yet it is never to be simply understood because, as Augustine shows, in On the Trinity, book 1, "when we speak of Christ, the prudent, diligent, and pious reader must understand what is being said, according to what, and on account of what."
2. In On the Trinity, book 1, he also shows that Christ or the Son of God was not made and is not a creature; he speaks as follows: "Jn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was made flesh, and all things were made through him.' Now all things refers to the things that were made, that is, every creature. From this, it is clearly apparent that he himself was not made through whom all things were made. And if he was not made, he is not a creature. But if he is not a creature, he is of the same substance with the Father. For any substance which is not God is a creature; and ''Ambrose, De fide, bk 1 c19 n126.
"Just above, Jn loannem.
'Rom. 1, 4.
'Augustine, De Trinitate, bk 1 c13 n28.
"Jo, Ie ielasand: 3: