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Translated by P.E. Pusey
St Cyril of Alexandria Resources Online and in Print
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31 Pages
Page 5
Once for all in the last ages is God the Word said to have been made Man, and (as Paul saith) was manifested by the Sacrifice of Himself . And what is the Sacrifice? He offered His own Body for us for an odour of a sweet savour to God the Father, and entered in once into the holy place not by the blood of goats and hulls, but by His own Blood, for so to them who believe on Him obtained He eternal redemption. Therefore very many before Him were saints but no one of them was called Emmanuel. Why? For not yet had the time come, when He was to be with us, i.e., to come in our nature through flesh, Who is superior to every creature. One therefore is Emmanuel, for once was the Only-Begotten made Man, when He underwent fleshly Birth through the holy Virgin. For it was said to Jesus too, I will be with thee, yet was he not Emmanuel; He was also with Moses, yet neither was he called Emmanuel. As often therefore as we hear the name, With us is God, given to the Son, let us wisely conceive that not so was He with us in the last times, as He is sometimes said to have been with the saints, for with them He was as a helper only: but with us He was, because He was made like us, not losing His own nature, for He is unchangeable as God.
Union is arrived at in many ways: for some severed in disposition and mind and at variance one with another are said to be united in friendly agreement, laying aside their differences. And we say that things are united which are joined to one another or brought together in other ways, either by juxta-position or mixture or composition. When therefore we say that the Word of God was united to our nature, the mode of union is clearly above man's understanding; for it is not like one of those mentioned, but wholly ineffable and known to no one of those who are, save only to God Who knoweth all things.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/cyril-alexandria/incarnation-only-begotten.asp?pg=5
