352 NOV ATI AN THE ROMAN PRESBYTER a garment. And yet Christcouldneitherhave been divested of nor investedwith manhood, had He been only man : for man is never eitherdeprivedof nor investedwith himself. For thatmust be something else,whatever it may be,wbich by any other is eithertaken away or put on. Whence, reasonably,itwas the Word of God who put off the flesh, and again in the resurrectionput it on, sinceHe put it off becauseat His birthHe had been investedwith it. There forein Christit isGod who is invested,and moreover must be divested,becauseHe who isinvestedmust alsolikewisebe He who isdivested; whereas, as man, He is investedwith and divestedof,as itwere,a certaintunicof the compacted body.1 And thereforeby consequence He was, as we have said,the Word of God, who is revealedto be at one time invested,at anothertime divested[of the flesh].For this, moreover,He beforepredictedin blessings: " He shallwash His garment in wine,and His clothingin the blood of the grape."2 If the garment in Christbe the flesh,and the clothingitselfbe the body, letitbe asked who is He whose body isclothing,and garment flesh? For to us itisevident that the fleshis the garment, and the body the clothingof theWord ; and He washed His bodilysubstance,and purified the materialof the fleshin blood,that is,in wine, by His passion,in the human characterthat He had undertaken. Whence, if indeed He is washed, He is man, because the garment which is washed is the flesh; but He who washes isthe Word of God, who, in orderthatHe might wash the garment,was made the taker up of the garment. Rightly, from thatsubstancewhich istaken thatitmight be washed, He isrevealedas a man, even as from the authorityof the Word who washed itHe ismanifestedto be God. 1Perhapsthe emendationhomineinsteadof homo isright. " He putson and putsoffhumanity,as ifitwerea kindof tunicfora compactedbody." *Gen.xlix.11.