According, then, to this extraordinary regulation the august name of our God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, ought to be omitted from the mystic writings. But it is unnecessary to say more on this point. The opening of every one of his letters is distinguished by the divine Apostle with this address. At one time it is "Paul a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle." [2053] At another "Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ." [2054] At another "Paul a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ." [2055] And suiting his benediction to his exordium he deduces it from the same source and links the title of the Son with God the Father, saying "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." [2056] And he graces the conclusion of his letters with the blessing "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, amen." [2057]
Copious additional evidence may be found whereby it may be learnt without difficulty that our Lord Jesus Christ is no other person than the Son which completes the Trinity. For the same before the ages was only begotten Son and God the Word, and after the resurrection He was called Jesus and Christ, receiving the names from the facts. Jesus means Saviour; "Thou shalt call His name Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins." [2058]
He is named Christ from being as man anointed with the Holy Ghost, and called our High Priest, Apostle, Prophet and King. Long ago the divine Moses exclaimed "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet, from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me." [2059] And the divine David cries "The Lord hath sworn and will not repent, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchisedek." [2060] This prophecy is confirmed by the divine Apostle. [2061] And again "seeing then that we have a great High Priest that has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession." [2062]
That as God, He is king before the ages that prophetic minstrelsy teaches us in the words "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; the sceptre of Thy kingdom is a right sceptre." [2063]
His majesty as man is also shown us. For having the sovereignty of all things as God and Creator, He assumes this majesty as man, wherefore it is added "Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness, therefore God thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." [2064] And in the second psalm the anointed one himself says "Yet was I set as king by Him upon the holy hill of Sion, I will declare the decree of the Lord. The Lord hath said unto me Thou art my Son this day have I begotten Thee; ask of me and I shall give Thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.'" [2065] This He said as man, for as man He receives what as God He possesses. And at the very beginning of the psalm the gift of prophecy ranks Him with God the Father in the words "Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing. The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed." [2066]
Let no one then foolishly suppose that the Christ is any other than the only begotten Son. Let us not imagine ourselves wiser than the gift of the Spirit. Let us hear the words of the great Peter, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." [2067] Let us hear the Lord Christ confirming this confession, for "On this rock," He says, "I will build my church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it." [2068] Wherefore too the wise Paul, most excellent master builder of the churches, fixed no other foundation than this. "I," he says, "as a wise master builder have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." [2069] How then can they think of any other foundation, when they are bidden not to fix a foundation, but to build on that which is laid? The divine writer recognises Christ as the foundation, and glories in this title, as when he says, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I but Christ liveth in me." [2070] And again "To me to live is Christ and to die is gain," [2071] and again "For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." [2072] And a little before he says, "But we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." [2073] And in his Epistle to the Galatians he writes, "But when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him among the heathen." [2074] But when writing to the Corinthians he does not say we preach "the Son" but "Christ crucified," herein doing no violence to his commission, but recognising the same to be Jesus, Christ, Lord, only begotten, and God the Word. For the same reason too at the beginning of his letter to the Romans he calls himself "servant of Jesus Christ" and describes himself as "separated unto the gospel of God, which He had promised afore by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power" [2075] and so on. He calls the same both Jesus Christ, and Son of David, and Son of God, as God and Lord of all, and yet in the middle of his epistle, after making mention of the Jews, he adds, "whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all God blessed for ever, amen." [2076] Here he says that He who according to the flesh derived His descent from the Jews is eternal God and is praised by the right minded as Lord of all created things. The same teaching is given us in the Apostle's words to the excellent Titus "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." [2077] Here he calls the same both Saviour, and great God, and Jesus Christ. And in another place he writes, "In the kingdom of Christ and of God." [2078] Moreover the chorus of the angels announced to the shepherds "Unto you is born this day in the city of David...Christ the Lord." [2079]
But to men who meditate on God's law day and night, it is indeed needless to write all the proofs of this kind; the above are sufficient to persuade even the most obstinate opponents not to divide the divine titles. One point, however, I cannot endure to omit. He is alleged to have said that there are many Christs but one Son. Into this error I suppose he fell through ignorance. For if he had read the divine Scripture, he would have known that the title of the Son has also been bestowed by our bountiful Lord on many. The lawgiver Moses, the writer of the ancient history, says "And the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair and they took them wives of them," [2080] and the God of all Himself said to this Prophet "Thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Israel is my son even my first-born." [2081] In the great song he says "Rejoice O ye nations with His people and let all the sons of God be strong in Him;" [2082] and by the mouth of the prophet Isaiah He says "I have nourished and brought up sons (children) and they have rebelled against me;" [2083] and through the thrice blessed David "I have said ye are gods and all of you are children of the Most High," [2084] and to the Romans the wise Paul wrote in this manner, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. For the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer with Him that we may be also glorified together;" [2085] and to the Galatians he writes "And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son; and if a son then an heir of God through Jesus Christ." [2086] The lesson he gives to the Ephesians is "in love having predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself." [2087]
If then, because the name of the Christ is common, we ought not to glorify the Christ as God, we shall equally shrink from worshipping Him as Son, since this also is a name which has been bestowed upon many. And why do I say the Son? The very name of God itself has been given by God to many. "The Lord the God of gods hath spoken and called the earth." [2088] And "I have said Ye are gods," [2089] and "Thou shalt not revile the gods." [2090] Many too have appropriated this name to themselves. The dæmons who have deceived mankind have given this title to idols; whence Jeremiah exclaims, "The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth even they shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens;" [2091] and again "They made to themselves gods of silver and gods of gold;" [2092] and the prophet Isaiah when he had mocked the making of the idols, and said "He burneth part thereof in the fire with part thereof he eateth flesh he warmeth himself and saith Aha I am warm I have seen the fire," [2093] went on "and the residue thereof he maketh a god and falleth down unto it and saith Deliver me for thou art my god'" [2094] and so the prophet laments over them and says "Know that their heart is ashes." [2095] And the Psalmist David has taught us to sing "For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens." [2096]
But this common use of titles gives no offence to men who are instructed in true religion. We are aware that the dæmons have falsely bestowed upon themselves and on idols the divine name, while the saints have received this honour of free grace.
In reality and by nature it is the God of all, and His only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit which are God. This is distinctly taught us by the admirable Paul in the words "For though there be that are called gods whether in heaven or in earth, as there are gods many and lords many, but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord by whom are all things and we by Him." [2097] And the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of God and so also is the soul of man, for, it is written, "His breath goeth forth," [2098] and "O ye spirits and souls of the righteous bless ye the Lord," [2099] and the Psalmist David called the angels spirits. "Who maketh His angels spirits and His ministers a flame of fire." [2100] Why indeed do I mention the angels and the souls of men? Even the dæmons are so called by the Lord "He shall take unto him seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they shall enter in, and the last state of that man shall be worse than the first." [2101] But even this application of the name does not offend the pious reader, for the Father and His only begotten Son and His Holy Spirit are one God by nature; and the divine Word made man, our Lord Jesus Christ, is by nature one Son, only begotten of the Father; and the Comforter who completes the number of the Trinity is one Holy Ghost. Thus though many are named fathers, we worship one Father, the Father before the ages, who Himself gave this title to men, as the Apostle says, "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom every fatherhood in heaven and earth is named." [2102] Let us not then, because others are called christs, rob ourselves of the worship of our Lord Jesus Christ. For just as though many are called gods and fathers, there is one God and Father over all and before the ages; and though many are called sons, there is one real and natural Son; and though many are styled spirits there is one Holy Ghost; just so though many are called christs there is one Lord Jesus Christ by Whom are all things. And very properly does the Church cling to this name; for she has heard Paul, escorter of the Bride, exclaiming "I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ," [2103] and again "Husbands love your wives as Christ also loved the Church," [2104] and again "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and the Church." [2105] Listen to him as he says "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us," [2106] and elsewhere "Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized unto Jesus Christ were baptized into His death," [2107] and in another place, "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ," [2108] and again "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lust thereof." [2109]