HOMILY VII.] HOMILIES ON PHILIPPIANS. 21 divinity, we no longer find " He became," " He took," but " He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men " ; here concerning his humanity we find " He took, He became." He became the latter, He took the latter ; He was the former. Let us not then confound nor divide the natures. There is one God, there is one Christ, the Son of God ; when I say " One," I mean a union, not a con fusion ; the one Nature did not degenerate into the other, but was united with it. " He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross." See, says one, He voluntarily became obedient ; he was not equal to Him whom He obeyed. O ye obstinate ones and unwise ! This doth not at all lower Him. For we too become obedient to our friends, yet this has no effect. He became obedient as a Son to His Father ; He fell not thus into a servile state, but by this very act above all others guarded his wondrous Sonship, by thus greatly honoring the Father. He hon ored the Father, not that thou shouldest dis honor Him, but that thou shouldest the rather admire Him, and learn from this act, that He is a true Son, in honoring His Father more than all besides. No one hath thus honored God. As was His height, such was the correspondent humiliation which He underwent. As He is greater than all, and no one is equal to Him, so in honoring His Father, He surpassed all, not by necessity, nor unwillingly, but this too is part of His excellence ; yea, words fail me. Truly it is a great and unspeakable thing, that He became a servant ; that He underwent death, is far greater ; but there is something still greater, and more strange; why? All deaths are not alike ; His death seemed to be the most igno minious of all, to be full ofshame, to be accursed ; for it is written, " Cursed is every one that hang- eth on a tree." (Deut. xxi. 23 ; Gal. iii. 13.) For this cause the Jews also eagerly desired to slay Him in this manner, to make Him a re proach, that if no one fell away from Him by reason ofHis death, yet they might from the man ner ofHis death. For this cause two robbers were crucified with Him, and He in the midst, that He might share their ill repute, and that the Scrip ture might be fulfilled, " And he was numbered with the transgressors." (Isa. liii. 12.) Yet so much the more doth truth shine forth, so much the more doth it become bright ; for when His enemies plot such things against His glory, and it yet shines forth, so much the greater does the matter seem. Not by slaying Him, but by slay ing Him in such sort did they think to make Him abominable, to prove Him more abomina ble than all men, but they availed nothing. And both the robbers also were such impious ones, (for it was afterward that the one repented,) that, even when on the cross, they reviled Him ; neither the consciousness of their own sins, nor their present punishment, nor their suffering thesame things themselves, restrained their mad ness. Wherefore the one spake to the other, and silenced him by saying, " Dost thou not even fear God, seeing thou art in the same con demnation?" (Luke xxiii. 40.) So great was their wickedness. Wherefore it is written, " God also highly exalted Him, and gave Him the Name which is above every name." When the blessed Paul hath made mention of the flesh, he fearlessly speaks of all His humiliation. For until he had mentioned that He took the form of a servant, and while he was speaking of His Divinity, behold how loftily he doth it, (loftily, I say, according to his power; for he speaks not according to His own worthiness, seeing that he is not able). "Being in the form of God, He counted it not a prize to be equal with God." But when he had said, that He became Man, henceforth he fearlessly discourseth of His low estate, being confident that the mention of His low estate would not harm His Divinity, since His flesh admitted this. Ver. 9-11. "Wherefore also God highly ex alted Him, and gave Him the Name which is above every name : that in the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth ; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory ofGod the Father." Let us say against the heretics, If this is spoken of one who was not incarnate, if of God the Word, how did He highly exalt Him? Was it as if He gave Him something more than He had before? He would then have been imper fect in this point, and would have been made perfect for our sakes. For ifHe had not done good deeds to us, He would not have obtained that honor ! "And gave Him the Name." See, He had not even a name, as you say ! But how, ifHe received it as His due, is He found here to have received it by grace, and as a gift ? And that " the Name which is above every name " : and of what kind, let us see, is the Name ? "That at the Name of Jesus," saith He, " every knee should bow." They (the heretics) explain name by glory. This glory then is above all glory, and this glory is in short that all worship Him ! But ye hold yourselves far off from the greatness of God, who think that ye know God, as He knoweth Himself, and from this it is plain, how far off ye are from right thoughts of God. And this is plain from hence. Is this, tell me, glory? Therefore before men were created, before the angels or the archangels, He was not in glory. If this be the glory which is above every glory, (for this is the name that is "above every name,") though He were in glory before, yet