Chapter 3 (52): 1. Concerning That Text: He Gave To Him The Name Which Is Above
74 | THE SENTENCES, BOOK 3
makes progress every day."'—And so Christ did not merit more for himself through his suffering on the cross than he had merited through the grace of his virtues from his conception. Therefore he did not make progress in regard to the merit of the soul as to the power of the merit. But he did make progress as to the number of merits. For he had more merits in his passion than in his conception; but the more were not of greater power to merit than the fewer had been before.
2. And so from his conception he merited not only the glory of impassibility and bodily immortality, but also impassibility of soul. By what means? By his perfect obedience and will, which he did not begin to have, or to have to a greater extent, only when he began to suffer and die; indeed, as man, he was perfectly obedient and good from the moment when he became man.
3. That soul, then, had some good in it after death which it had not had before. Was it not better or more blessed than before? Let us not say that it would have been better because it was not holier, nor more full of grace. Nor was it more blessed in the contemplation of God, in which blessedness principally consists. Nevertheless it may be said that it was more blessed in this: that it was now immune from all misery; it cannot be simply inferred from this that it would have been more blessed.
Chapter 3 (52)
1. CONCERNING THAT TEXT: HE GAVE TO HIM THE NAME WHICH IS ABOVE
ALL OTHER NAMES.' Nor did he merit only the glory of impassibility and immortality, but also that to him should be given the name which is above all other names,' namely the honour that he is called God. Yet he had this name before his death: for the Son of God, insofar as he is God, had this name by nature from all eternity; but insofar as he was made man, he had it in time through grace.
2. AUGUSTINE, IN THE BOOK AGAINST MAXIMINUS: THAT THAT NAME
WAS GIVEN TO A MAN, AND NOT TO GOD. Augustine says, however, that "that name was given to a man, and not to God, because he already had that name when he was only in the form of God. But when it is said: Because of this, God exalted him, and gave him a name which is above all other names,' it is sufficiently apparent for what reason he exalted him, namely because of obedience; and in what form he was exalted: for the form in which he was crucified was the form in which he was exalted,
'Ordinary gloss, on Ex. 25, 31; from Gregory, Jn Ezechielem 1, hom. 6 n8.
'Phil. 2, 8-9.
"Ibid.
Phil 209,