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AND how was it the same Person before the origin of the world, who was
but recently born? Because it was the same Person, who was recently born in
human nature, who was God before the rise of all things. And so the name of
Christ includes everything that the name of God does; for so close is the
union between Christ and God that no one, when he uses the name of Christ
can help speaking of God under the name of Christ, nor, when he speaks of
God, can he help speaking of Christ under the name of God. And as through
the glory of His holy nativity the mystery of each substance is joined
together in Him, whatever was in existence--I mean both human and Divine--
all is regarded as God. And hence the Apostle Paul seeing with unveiled
eyes of faith the whole mystery of the ineffable glory in Christ, spoke as
follows, in inviting the peoples who were ignorant of God's goodness to
give thanksgiving to God: "Giving thanks to the Father, who hath made us
worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light, who hath
delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the
kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His
blood, the remission of sins; who is the image of the invisible God, the
first-born of every creature: for in Him were all things created in heaven
and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominations, or
powers: all things were created by Him and in Him. And He is before all,
and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body the Church,
who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things He
may hold the primacy. Because it pleased the Father that in Him should all
fulness dwell; and through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, making
peace through the blood of His cross, both as to the things on earth, and
the things that are in heaven." Surely this does not need the aid of any
further explanation, as it is so fully and clearly expressed that in itself
it contains not merely the substance of the faith, but a clear exposition
of it. For he bids us give thanks to the Father: and adds a weighty reason
for thus giving thanks; viz., because He hath made us worthy to be
partakers with the saints, and hath delivered us from the power of
darkness, hath translated us unto the kingdom of the Son of His love, in
whom we have redemption and remission of sins: who is the image of the
invisible God, the first-born of every creature; for in Him and through Him
were all things created; of which He is both the Creator and the ruler: and
what follows after this? "He is" he says, "the head of the body the Church:
who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead." Scripture speaks of
the resurrection as a birth: because as birth is the beginning of life, so
resurrection gives birth unto life. Whence also the resurrection is
actually spoken of as regeneration, according to the words of the Lord:
"Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration
when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit
upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Therefore he
calls Him the first-born from the dead, whom he had previously declared to
be the invisible Son and image of God. But who is the image of the
invisible God, except the only-begotten, the Word of God? And how can we
say that He rose from the dead, who is termed the image and word of the
invisible God? And what is it that follows afterwards? "That in all things
He may hold the primacy: for it pleased the Father that in Him should all
fulness dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, making peace
through the blood of His cross, both as to things on earth and the things
that are in heaven." Surely the Creator of all things has no need of the
primacy in all things? Nor He who made them, of the primacy of those things
which were made by Him? And how can we say of the Word, that it pleased God
that all fulness should dwell in Him who was the first-born from the dead,
when He was Himself the only-begotten Son of God and the Word of God,
before the origin of all things, and had within Him the invisible Father,
and so first had within Him all fulness, that He might Himself be the
fulness of all things? And what next? "Bringing all things to peace through
the blood of His cross, both things on earth, and the things which are in
heaven." Certainly he has made it as clear as possible of whom he was
speaking, when he called Him the first-born from the dead. For are all
things reconciled and brought into peace through the blood of the Word or
Spirit? Most certainly not. For no sort of passion can happen to nature
that is impassible, nor can the blood of any but a man be shed, nor any but
a man die: and yet the same Person who is spoken of in the following verses
as dead, was above called the image of the invisible God. How then can this
be? Because the apostles took every possible precaution that it might not
be thought that there was any division in Christ, or that the Son of God
being joined to a Son of man, might come by wild interpretations to be made
into two Persons, and thus He who is in Himself but one might by wrongful
and wicked notions of ours, be made into a double Person in one nature. And
so most excellently and admirably does the apostle's preaching pass from
the only begotten Son of God to the Son of man united to the Son of God,
that the exposition of the doctrine might follow the actual course of the
things that happened. And so he continues with an unbroken connexion, and
makes as it were a sort of bridge, that without any gap or separation you
might find at the end of time Him whom we read of as in the beginning of
the world; and that you might not by admitting. some division and erroneous
separation imagine that the Son of God was one person in the flesh and
another in the Spirit; When the teaching of the apostle had so linked
together God and man through the mystery of His birth in the body, so as to
show that it was the same Person reconciling to Himself all things on the
Cross, who had been proclaimed the image of the invisible God before the
foundation of the world.
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