The course of this elevation is represented by Hilary as a succession of births, in continuation of the majestic series. First there had been the eternal generation of the Son; then His creation for the ways and for the works of God, His appointment, which Hilary regards as equivalent in importance to another birth, to the office of Creator; next the Incarnation, the birth in time which makes Him what He was not before, namely Man Tr. in Ps. ii. 27.. This is followed by the birth of Baptism, of which Hilary speaks thrice Comm. in Matt. ii. 6; Tr. in Ps. ii. 29; Trin. viii. 25. Yet he twice (Trin. vi. 23; Tr. in Ps. cxxxviii. 6) gives the ordinary text, without any hint that he knew of an important variant.. He read in St. Matthew iii. 17, instead of the familiar words of the Voice from heaven, ‘Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee.’ This was in his judgment the institution of the sacrament of Baptism; because Christ was baptized, we must follow His example. It was a new birth to Him, and therefore to us. He had been the Son; He became through Baptism the perfect Son by this fresh birth Tr. in Ps. ii. 29, ipse Deo renascebatur in filium perfectum. Trin. viii. 25, perfecta nativitas.. It is difficult to see what Hilary’s thought was; perhaps he had not defined it to himself. But, with this reading in his copy of the Gospel, it was necessary that he should be ready with an explanation; and though there remained a higher perfection to be reached, this birth in Baptism might well be regarded as a stage in the return of Christ to His glory, an elevation of His humanity to a more perfect congruity with His Godhead. This birth is followed by another, the effect and importance of which is more obvious, that of the Resurrection, ‘the birthday of His humanity to glory Dorner, I. ii. 417. Dorner overlooks the birth in Baptism..’ By the Incarnation He had lost unity with the Father; but the created nature, by the assumption of which He had disturbed the unity both within Himself and in relation to the Father, is now raised to the level on which that unity is again possible. In the Resurrection, therefore, it is restored; and this stage of Christ’s achievement is regarded as a New birth Tr. in Ps. ii. 27, liii. 14., by which His glory becomes, as it had been before, the same as that of the Father. But now the glory is shared by His humanity; the servant’s form is promoted to the glory of God Ib. cxxxviii. 19. and the discordance comes to an end. Christ, God and Man, stands where the Word before the Incarnation stood. In this Resurrection, the only step in this Divine work which is caused by sin, His full humanity partakes. In order to satisfy all the conditions of actual human life, He died and visited the lower world Ib. liii. 14.; and also, as man shall do, He rose again with the same body in which He had died Ib. lv. 12.. Then comes that final state, of which something has already been said, when God shall be all in all. No further change will be possible within the Person of Christ, for his humanity, already in harmony with the Godhead, will now be transmuted. The whole Christ, Man as well as God, will become wholly God. Yet the humanity will still exist, for it is inseparable from the Divinity, and will consist, as before, of body and soul. But there will be nothing earthly or fleshly left in the body; its nature will be purely spiritual Trin. xi. 40, 49.. The only form in which Hilary can express this result is the seeming paradox that Christ will, by virtue of the final subjection, ‘be and continue what He is not Ib. 40, habens in sacramento subiectionis esse ac manere quod non est..’ By this return of the whole Christ into perfect union with God, humanity attains the purpose of its creation. He was the archetype after Whose likeness man was fashioned, and in His Person all the possibilities of mankind are attained. And this great consummation not only fulfils the destinies of humanity; it brings also an augmentation of the glory of Him Who is glorified in Christ Trin. xi. 42, incrementum glorificati in eo Dei..