79 It is a very beautiful doctrine of the Fathers that Christ submitted to the condition* and experiences of our life in order to restore and sanctify and endue them with the virtue of His merit. Hence Thomassini, after the Fathers, thus discourses in his treatise on the Incarnation: "The Fathers have been careful to attribute to the Word of God" (incarnate) "not only the physical parts-body and soul-out even the smallest and most particular things: grief, fear, tears; and all the emotions: conception, birth, babyhood; all the stages of life and growth: hunger, thirst, fatigue, and sadness, in order that a remedy might be applied at every place where sin had crept in, and that, as death had corrupted all, so upon all might the water of life be sprinkled." Gregory of Nazianzus strikingly ob serves (Or. 37): "Perchance indeed He sleeps, in order to bless sleep: perchance, again, He is weary, in order to sanctify weariness: and perchance weeps, to give dignity to tears?" Hurter ad loc., who also cites Cyril of Alexandria on S. John xii. 27-" You will find each and every human experience duly represented in Christ, and that the affections of the flesh were called out into energy, not that, as in us, they might gain the upper hand, but that, by the might of the Word dwelling in flesh, they might be tamed and kept within bounds, and our nature transformed into a better state."
80 Such as Aristotle enumerates in the Ethics, II. ch. 4 (5).
81 Ps. xxii. 1; S. Matt. xxviii. 46; S. Mark xv. 34.
82 Gal. v. 24. (St. Ambrose has made a curious use of this text).
99 For if that were so, God might cease to be God.
101 "In respect of age only does a father take precedence of his son amongst men, for in regard to generic nature the father is on a level with the son, and in other respects the son may even excel his father. But where the Persons are eternal, there is no difference constituted by age. Still, as St. Ambrose acutely remarks, the names `Father0' and `Son0' indicate indeed a distinction of Persons and mutual relations of those Persons, yet not diversity of nature-rather, in fact, suppose equality and unity of nature."-Hurter in loc.
105 Phil. ii. 6. Here and in §62 I have rendered "rapinam" in accordance with Lightfoot's rendering of the original "arpagmoj."
106 "Surely it is clear that the Son, in respect of His Godhead, is not inferior to the Father, for there is, in the Father and the Son, one and the same Godhead. Still, the Greek Fathers allow that the Father is not only greater than the Son in respect of the latter's human nature, but also in regard to personal properties, or a certain `personal dignity0'-(ac wma upostatikon)."-Hurter in loc. Canon Mason, in his Faith of the Gospel, remarks that whilst it is quite right to speak of "God and His Son" or "God's Son," the converse language, "God and His Father," "God's Father," is not right. Yet S. Ambrose says, "Dubitat de Patre Deus." See §43.
109 1 John iii. 2, John iii. 3; Gen. xviii. 4.
112 That is to say, it does not follow, from the fact that the Son was sent, that He is inferior in nature.
114 Isa. lxi. 1. "Since the Holy Scriptures frequently, in plain words, teach the equality of the Son with the Father, and the Son's actual deeds likewise testify thereto, it is not permissible to call that truth in question on the strength of a single phrase, which we are compelled to make use of, in speaking of God, by reason of the limitations of human language. For in speaking of God, and the things of God, we make use of terms which we employ in treating of created natures, and which on that account convey the notion of imperfection which is found only in such natures."-Hurter in loc.
116 Isa. xlvii. 13. "Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand hath spanned the heavens."-A.V.
117 Isa. xlviii. 15, Isa. xlviii. 16.
124 S. Luke iv. 18; Isa. lxi. 1.
126 "regarding Him as man." In the original "secundum homi nem," lit. "after the way, or manner, of man." If the Jews had accepted Jesus Christ's teachings as divine, they would not have questioned it. But they acted as though they were confronted with one who was no more than man, and whose authority therefore was properly liable to be called in question.
129 "In these words attention is called to the Unity of Nature (or Substance) in distinct Persons, for in the very act of speaking arid teaching, the Son shows that He is a Person, but He Who speaks not of Himself, but as the Father hath taught Him, shows that He is distinct from the Father, and yet He has, with the Father, one and the same doctrine, and therefore one and the same nature; for, in God. being and knowing are one and the same."-Hurter.