論三位一體與詩篇釋義 第 3 章

A. FROM THE BOOK AGAINST CONSTANTIUS. Hilary too, a man of keen genius, writing to the Emperor Constantius concerning the incarnation of the Lord, speaks thus: The Son, he says, of God, having become man, is God. And reversing the order he repeats: God, having become the Son of man, is God—for man was made God, God was not made man—and the Son of man was made the Son of God. For the greatness of Christ the Lord overcame the smallness of the servile form, so that the very servile form which he assumed ceased to be servile through him, the Lord, who assumed it.

For if those who by nature are not sons of God are made sons of God through him, how much more did he himself, who by nature is the Son of God—him with whom, of his own will, he was conceived in the virginal womb and born—so exalt into God, that at his name every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father. B. FROM THE TREATISES ON JOB.

But in a certain homily on the book of holy Job, mark what he says, how he asserts that from this the devil's incessant war against us arises, when he stirs up against us the evils that are within us—which he wishes to teach is done for our benefit, since the divine mercy turns the malice of the devil to our purification: For so great and so wondrous, he says, is the goodness of God's mercy toward us, that through the same by whom, in Adam's offence, we lost the nobility of that first and blessed creation, through him again, he says, we may deserve to obtain what we lost. For then the devil harmed us out of envy, but now, when he strives to harm, he is overcome.

For through the weakness of our flesh he moves all the weapons of his power, when he kindles us to wantonness, when he entices to drunkenness, when he goads to hatreds, when he provokes to avarice, when he equips for slaughter, when he exasperates to cursing. But when through firmness of soul the creeping incitements of all these are repressed, we are cleansed from sin through the glory of this victory; for it is thus written: 'Or how shall one born of woman cleanse himself?' Since if there be no enemy at hand there will be no war, and then, the war having ceased, victory will be wanting. But the victory over the vices that clash against us not being attained, there will be no cleansing of the vices; for by these ambushes of our body, the pirate being conquered, we are purified through the struggle of the passions contending against us.

Mindful therefore, he says, and aware that these very bodies of ours are the matter of all vices, through which, being polluted and defiled, we obtain nothing clean, nothing innocent in ourselves, let us rejoice that we have an enemy, in whose struggle we may fight in a certain war of our own contest. Likewise, that which he records him to have said: What letters had Job read, that he should abstain from every wicked thing? Because he worships God with a mind alone, unmixed with vices; and to worship God is the proper office of righteousness. What Job would have done, he says, not what he would have accomplished in this world, or would have done or accomplished without the grace of the Saviour, whom also he prophesied. Saint Hilary says: Give us this day our daily bread.

For what does God so will as that Christ should daily dwell in us, who is the bread of life and the bread from heaven? And because the prayer is daily, so too it is prayed that it be given daily. C. FROM THE COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW. Likewise, from the same author, in the preface of his exposition of the Gospel according to Matthew: For it was first necessary for us that the only-begotten God, born man for our sake, should be made known. Likewise in what follows: That to that which was God, man—that which he then was not—should be begotten. Likewise in the same place: The third point that followed was fitting: that, since God was begotten man in the world, and so forth. D. ON THE EXPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. Saint Hilary therefore, in his exposition of the epistle to Timothy, speaks thus: For when Scripture also says:

'the man Christ,' and when it says: 'Christ died,' and when it says: 'the Word was made flesh,' the discourse is not to be despoiled of its own expositions through the fraud of the reader. For where it is 'the man Christ,' there precedes: 'the mediator of God and men'—from God, man, both being one, and midway between man and God by the confession in himself of each nature. Where it is 'Christ died,' there is subjoined: 'who rose again, who is at the right hand of God.' In his death is the weakness of our flesh; in his resurrection, his power; in his session with God, his dignity. E. FROM AN UNCERTAIN WORK. Who could be ignorant of the venerable Hilary, bishop of Gaul, that keenest defender of the catholic Church against the heretics? Who, when he was treating of the flesh of Christ, mark what he said:

Therefore when he was sent, he says, in the likeness of the flesh of sin, he did not, just as he had flesh, likewise have sin also. But because all flesh is from sin, being derived, that is, from Adam its parent, he was sent in the likeness of the flesh of sin, there being in him not sin, but the likeness of the flesh of sin.