and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. The Father and the Holy Ghost assisted in the divine work of the Incarnation, but it was the Son of God alone who invested Himself with our humanity. The Person of the Son became incarnate, and not the Person of the Father, nor the Person of the Holy Ghost. But, as the Son of God is God, it is God who became incarnate. And in that Incarnation He assumed a human soul. In the order of reason, though not in the order of time, the Word of God assumed a human soul, and thereby a human body; a human soul like ours and a human body like ours in all its sinless infirmities; and therein He assumed the whole nature of man.2

2 ' In which wonderful conception Wisdom built herself a house, and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and yet the Word was not converted or changed into flesh, that He should cease to be God who willed to be man; but the Word was so made flesh, that not only the Word of God and the flesh of man were there, but also the rational soul of man: and this Whole should be called God because of Godhead, and man because of manhood. In whom, the Son of God, we believe that there were two natures, one of Godhead, another of manhood, which the one person of Christ so united in Himself, that the divinity could never be separate from the humanity, nor the humanity from the divinity: nor in saying that there are two natures in the Son do we make in Him two Persons, lest, which God forbid, a quaternity should seem to enter into the Trinity. For God the Word did not assume the Person of a man, but the nature, and into the Eternal Person of His Godhead He assumed in time the substance of flesh; so although we believe the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost to be of one substance,

2. The Word of God, then, so became man or incarnate, that the Person of the Eternal Son was clothed in our humanity. The countenance that gazed upon the faces of men while He dwelt amongst them' was the face of God; and the hands that cleansed the leper were the hands of God; the finger that opened the ear of the deaf was the finger of God; the feet that Mary kissed in her repentance were the feet of God; the hands that were bound with cords were the hands of God; the hands and the feet that were nailed upon the cross were the hands and feet of God; the Blood that was shed for the redemption of the world was the Blood of God; and the heart that was pierced upon the cross was the heart of God; because the whole humanity which the Eternal Word assumed was the humanity of God. In that sacred humanity dwelt

the Person of the Eternal Son of God in all the

we yet do not say that the Virgin Mary bore the unity of this Trinity, but the Son alone, who alone assumed our nature into the unity of His Person. It is to be believed also that the whole Trinity wrought the incarnation of the Son of God, because the works of the Trinity are inseparable. Yet it was the Son alone who assumed the form of a servant in the singularity of His Person, not in the unity of the Divine nature, in that which is proper to the Son, not in that which is common to the Trinity: which form was fitted to Him in the unity of His Person, that is, that the Son of God and the Son of man should be one Christ.' Symbolum Fidei Concilii Toletani, II., A.D. 675.

fulness of His Godhead.

The Son of God was not united to our manhood as the Holy Spirit of God was united to the prophets. S. Paul, in the first verse of the first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, expressly says, that 'God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, last of all in these days hath spoken to us by His Son; that is, by His Incarnate Son. Neither was the Godhead of the Son united to His manhood like as God is united to us. God is united to the soul and dwells in the soul by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, but we are not God Incarnate. The Saints of God are perfectly united to Him and He dwells in them, but they are not the Incarnation of God. The first Adam before the fall was a man united with God, but not God manifest in the flesh. His Blessed and Immaculate Mother, though she was more closely united to Him than any other creature, because of her very substance the Son of God took the substance of our humanity and united it to His own Divine Person, yet she is not incarnate God. The hypostatic union, as it is called-the union of Godhead and manhood in one person-is distinct from this and beyond all this. The whole Godhead dwelt in Jesus, as S. Paul says, in all its fulness

3 Heb. i. 1.

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corporally,' that is, in the body.

The plenitude of Godhead dwells in the body of His humanity.

3. But, once more, there were in Jesus two distinct and perfect natures-neither changed nor confounded. It is impossible that the divine nature. should become the human, or that the human should become the divine: for eternity and infinity cannot be communicated to the creature; neither can eternity or infinity be put off or circumscribed to the outline and stature of the creature. The two natures were perfectly distinct, without diminution or confusion. They were so united that in Christ there were two intelligences. There was the divine intelligence of the Son of God, which adequately contemplates Himself and all things possible to His almighty power. There was also a human intelligence, in which was all knowledge of which the finite intelligence of man is capable. And, as there were two intelligences, so I may say there were also two hearts; for the Holy Ghost, writing of the perfections of God, has used the language of man. In the book of Genesis we read: 'That when the Lord beheld the wickedness of man upon earth He was touched with sorrow of heart;' and when the Holy Ghost would describe the perfections of David, and the love 5 Gen. vi. 5, 6.

4 Col. ii. 9, σωματικῶς.

that God had for him, He described him as a man after God's own heart." The love and the sanctity of God are here spoken of under the symbol of a heart. And this, I may say, is the eternal heart of God. But the heart of Jesus is a heart of flesh-a heart taken from the substance of His Blessed Mother -a symbol, indeed, because it best symbolises and manifests the eternal love of God; but it is more than this, it is also a reality. And that human heart of Jesus was, in the hypostatic union, united with the eternal charity and sanctity of God-all the ardour of the eternal love was there, and all the fervour and all the tenderness of our humanity was there. And as He had two hearts, He had also two wills. There was in Him from all eternity the divine will, which is the love and wisdom of God acting in the absolute harmony of their perfections. And there was also a human will like our own-the spring and origin of all our actions. And these two wills were so perfectly conformed to each other-like two notes in harmony-so identical and yet so distinct, that there

6 Acts xiii. 22.

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7' Wherefore, as we confess Him to have two natures, that is Godhead and Manhood, neither confounded, nor divided, nor interchanged; so the rule of piety teaches us that He, one and the same, our Lord Jesus Christ, had also two natural wills and two natural operations, as being perfect God and perfect man.' Epistola Agathonis et Romanæ Synodi ad Concil. Ecum. VI.