St Athanasius the Great FOUR DISCOURSES AGAINST THE ARIANS, Part II, Complete

Translated by Cardinal Newman.

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Page 68

40. Also the power which He said He received after the resurrection, that He had before He received it, and before the resurrection. For He of Himself rebuked Satan, saying, 'Get thee behind Me, Satan [3087] ;' and to the disciples He gave the power against him, when on their return He said, 'I beheld Satan, as lightning, fall from heaven [3088] .' And again, that what He said that He had received, that He possessed before receiving it, appears from His driving away the demons, and from His unbinding what Satan had bound, as He did in the case of the daughter of Abraham; and from His remitting sins, saying to the paralytic, and to the woman who washed His feet, 'Thy sins be forgiven thee [3089] ;' and from His both raising the dead, and repairing the first nature of the blind, granting to him to see. And all this He did, not waiting till He should receive, but being 'possessed of power [3090] .' From all this it is plain that what He had as Word, that when He had become man and was risen again, He says that He received humanly [3091] ; that for His sake men might henceforward upon earth have power against demons, as having become partakers of a divine nature; and in heaven, as being delivered from corruption, might reign everlastingly. Thus we must acknowledge this once for all, that nothing which He says that He received, did He receive as not possessing before; for the Word, as being God, had them always; but in these passages He is said humanly to have received, that, whereas the flesh received in Him, henceforth from it the gift might abide [3092] surely for us. For what is said by Peter, 'receiving from God honour and glory, Angels being made subject unto Him [3093] ,' has this meaning. As He inquired humanly, and raised Lazarus divinely, so 'He received' is spoken of Him humanly, but the subjection of the Angels marks the Word's Godhead.

[3087] Luke iv. 8.

[3088] Luke x. 18, 19.

[3089] Vid. ib. xiii. 16; Matt. ix. 5; Luke vii. 48.

[3090] Is. ix. 6, LXX.

[3091] Or. i. 45.

[3092] diameine, Or. ii. 69, 3.

[3093] 2 Pet. i. 17; 1 Pet. iii. 22.

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