St Cyril of Alexandria On the incarnation of the Only-Begotten

Translated by P.E. Pusey

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Page 15

18. Ideas or thoughts [18].

God says somewhere of us, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be to them a God and they shall be to Me a people. And our Lord Jesus Christ Himself too saith, Lo I am coming and if any man open to Me, I will enter both I and the Father and we will dwell with him and sup with him. We are also called temples of God, for Ye (he says) are the Temples of the Living God, and again, Know ye not that your bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost Which is in you Which ye have of God? But if they say that He is Emmanuel, as each one of us has had God indwelling in him, let them confess it openly, that when they see Him worshipped as well by us as by the Angels, in Heaven alike and upon earth, they may blush as thinking otherwise, and ignorant of the drift of the holy Scriptures, and not having in them the faith which they delivered to us, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word.

But if they say that He is therefore God and glorified as God because the Word of God the Father merely dwelt in Him, and not because He was made Man, let them hear again from us, If to them who had God indwelling in them, it suffices that they might therefore be truly gods and adored by all, all are gods and to be adored, for He dwelleth in the holy Angels, and we have Him ourselves too in us through the Spirit; but this is not enough to shew that they are by nature gods and to be adored who have the Spirit in them. Not therefore for this is Emmanuel. God and to be worshipped because the Word of God dwelt in Him as in a mere man, to be considered by himself and apart, but because He was made flesh, i. e. Man, for He remained therefore God who is to be worshipped.

19. Apostolic sayings wherein Christ is called God.

Speaking of the Mystery Christward, he says, Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His saints, unto whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory, Whom we preach. If [19] therefore He is God-clad and not truly God, how is Himself the riches of the glory of the Mystery which is proclaimed to the Gentiles? or how is God at all proclaimed?  

18. [r] The Syriac gives a very similar title, Cogitationes ad fidem aptae.

19. [s] see de recta fide to the Princesses, p. 71 fin.

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