CONCERNING TEE TRINITY. 351 because He is the Son of God? And if by the apostle Christ is called"the first-bornof every creature,"1how could He be the first-bornof every creature,unlessbecause according to His divinitythe Word proceeded from the Father before every creature? And unlessthe hereticsre ceive it thus,they willbe constrainedto show that Christ the man was the first-bornof every creature;which they willnot be ableto do. Either,therefore,He isbeforeevery creature,thatHe may be the first-bornof everycreature,and He isnot man only,becauseman isaftereverycreature; or He is man only,and He isafterevery creature. And how is He the first-bornof every creature,except becausebeing thatWord which isbeforeeverycreature; and therefore,the first-bornof every creature,He becomes fleshand dwellsin us, that is,assumes that man's naturewhich isafterevery creature,and so dwells with him and in him, in us, that neitherishumanity taken away from Christ,nor His divinity denied ? For if He isonly beforeevery creature,humanity istaken away from Him ; but ifHe isonlyman, thedivinity which is beforeevery creatureis interferedwith. Both of these,therefore,are leagued togetherin Christ,and both are conjoined,and both are finkedwith one another. And rightly,as there is in Him something which excelsthe creature,the agreement of the divinityand the humanity seems to be pledged in Him : for which reason He who is declaredas made the " Mediator between God and man "3 is revealedto have associatedin Himself God and man. And if the same apostlesaysof Christ,that" having put off the flesh,He spoiledpowers,they being openly triumphed over in Himself,"3he certainlydid not without a meaning pro pound thatthe fleshwas put off,unlessbecause he wished it to be understoodthatit was again put on alsoat the resur rection. Who, therefore,isHe thatthus put offand put on [theflesh]? Let the hereticsseek out. For we know that the Word of God was investedwith the substanceof flesh, and thatHe againwas divestedof the same bodilymaterial, which again He took up in the resurrectionand resumed as 1 Col.i.15. s 1 Tim.ii.5. 3Col.ii.15.