CONCERNING THE TRINITY. 319
stance? What, then,hast thou to do with the form of a
body, if thou hatesta body ? Nay, thou wiltbe refutedas
to the hatred of bearing about the substance of a body,
since thou hast been willing even to take up itsform.
For thou oughtestto have hated the imitationof a body,
if thou hatedstthe reality; because,if thou art something
else,thou oughtestto have come as something else,lestthou
shouldestbe calledthe Son of the Creator if thou hadst
even the likenessof fleshand body. Assuredly, if thou
hatedst being born because thou hatedst the Creator's
marriage union,thou oughtestto refuseeven the likenessof
a man who isborn by the marriageof the Creator. Neither,
therefore,do we acknowledge that that is a Christ of the
hereticswho was (as itis said)in appearance and not in
reality;for of those things which he did,he could have
done nothing real,if he himself was a phantasm, and not
reality.Nor him who wore nothing of our body in himself,
seeinghe receivednothingfrom Mary ; neitherdid he come
to us,sincehe appeared as a vision,not in our substance.
Nor [do we acknowledge]that[to be Christ]who chose an
etherealor starryflesh,as some hereticshave pretended.
Nor can we perceiveany salvationof ours in him, ifwe do
not even recognisethe substanceof our body [inhim] ; nor,
in short,any other who may have worn any other kind of
fabulous body of hereticaldevice. For all such fablesas
these are confuted as well by the nativityas by the death
itselfof our Lord. For John says: " The Word was made
flesh,and dwelt among us ;" 1 so that,reasonably,our body
should be in Him, because indeed the Word took on Him
our flesh. And forthisreasonblood flowedforthfrom His
hands and feet,and from His very side,so that He might
be proved to be a sharerin our body by dying accordingto
the laws of our dissolution.And thatHe was raisedagain in
the same bodilysubstancein which He died,isproved by the
wounds ofthatverybody,and thusHe showed thelawsof our
resurrectionin His flesh,in thatHe restoredthe same body
in His resurrectionwhich He had from us. For a law of
1Johni.14.