On the Trinity 13

And so John too, describing the birth of Christ, says: “The Word became flesh and dwelt in us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” For his name is also called the Word of God, and not without reason. “My heart,” it says, “has uttered a good word”; and this Word it then calls by the name of King, adding, “I speak my works to the King.” For through him all works were made, and without him nothing was made. “For whether Thrones,” says the Apostle, “or Dominions, or Virtues, or Powers, visible and invisible, all things consist through him.” And this Word is he who came to his own, and his own did not receive him. For the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. And this Word was in the beginning with God, and the Word was God. Who then would hesitate, when it is said at the end, “The Word became flesh and dwelt in us”, to declare without hesitation that Christ, whose birth it is, is man because he became flesh, and God because he is the Word of God; especially when he observes that the Gospel Scripture has joined both these substances in the one concord of Christ's birth?

For he it is who “as a bridegroom comes forth from his chamber; he has exulted as a giant to run his course; his going forth is from the height of heaven, and his return even to its height.” Since it is even to the height, “no one has ascended into heaven except he who came down from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven.” Repeating this very thing he says: “Father, glorify me with that honor which I had with you before the world was.” And if this Word came down from heaven as a bridegroom to the flesh, so that, by taking up flesh, the Son of man might be able to ascend to the place from which the Son of God, the Word, had come down, then rightly, since by mutual connection both the flesh bears the Word of God and the Son of God takes up the frailty of the flesh, going up with the flesh, his bride, to the place from which he had come down without the flesh, he now receives that glory which he is shown to have had before the founding of the world, and so he is most plainly proved to be God. And nonetheless, since the world itself is reported to have been established after him, he is found to have created it through himself; and by this very fact both the glory and the authority of divinity are proved in him through whom the world was made.

If, when it belongs to none but God to know the secrets of the heart, Christ beholds the secrets of the heart; if, when it belongs to none but God to forgive sins, the same Christ forgives sins; if, when it belongs to no man to come from heaven, he came down by coming from heaven; if, when this saying can belong to no man, “I and the Father are one”, Christ alone utters this saying from the consciousness of his divinity; if, finally, the apostle Thomas, instructed by all the proofs and facts of Christ's divinity, says in answer to Christ, “My Lord and my God”; if the apostle Paul also writes in his letters, “of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed forever”; if the same man declares that he was appointed an apostle not by men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ; if the same contends that he did not learn the Gospel from men or through man, but received it through Jesus Christ: then rightly Christ is God.

Therefore in this matter one of two things must hold. For since it is plain that all things were made through Christ, either he is before all things, since all things are through him, and so rightly he is also God; or, because he is man, he is after all things, and so rightly nothing was made through him. But we cannot say that nothing was made through him, since we observe it written that all things were made through him. He is not, then, after all things; that is, he is not only man, who is after all things, but also God, since God is before all things. For he is before all things because all things are through him; lest, if he were only man, nothing would be through him; or, if all things are through him, he is not only man: since if he were only man, not all things would be through him, indeed nothing would be through him. What then do they answer? That nothing is through him, so that he may be only man? How then are all things through him? Therefore he is not only man, but also God, since all things are through him; so that we must rightly understand that Christ is not only man, who is after all things, but also God, since all things were made through him. For how could you call him either only man, when you see him also [as God], or [only God,] when you see him also in the flesh? Except that, since both are observed, both are rightly to be believed.