But though distinctions may be drawn, and though
for the sake of emphasis and brevity Christ may be called by the name
of one only of His two natures, the essential fact is never forgotten
that He is God and man, one Person in two forms, God’s and the
servant’s. And these two natures do not stand isolated and
apart, merely contained within the limits of one personality.
Just as we saw that Hilary recognises a complete mutual indwelling and
interpenetration of Father and Son, so he teaches that in the narrower
sphere of the Incarnation there is an equally exact and comprehensive
union of the Godhead and Manhood in Christ. Jesus is Christ, and
Christ is Jesus Trin. x.
52. We must remember not only that heretical distinctions had
been made, but that Christ is the name of the Son in pretemporal
relation to the world (see p. lxvii.), as well as in the world.. Not merely
is the one Christ perfect Man and perfect God, but the whole Son of Man
is the whole Son of God Ib. 22, 52.. So far is His
manhood from being merged and lost in His Divinity, that the extent of
the one is the measure of the other. We must not imagine that,
simultaneously with the incarnate, there existed a non-incarnate
Christ, respectively submitting to humiliation and ruling the worlds;
nor yet must we conceive of one Christ in two unconnected states of
being, as though the assumption of humanity were merely a function
analogous to the guiding of the stars. On the contrary, the one
Person is co-extensive with all infinity, and all action lies within
His scope. Whatever He does, whether it be, or be not, in
relation to humanity, and in the former case whether it be the
exaltation of man-hood or the self-emptying of Godhead, is done
‘within the sphere of the Incarnation Cf. Gore,
Dissertations, p. 211. It is in relation to the
self-emptying that Hilary uses such definite language:
Trin. xi. 48, intra suam ipse vacuefactus
potestatem.…Se ipsum intra se vacuefaciens continuit; xii. 6,
se evacuavit in sese.,’ the sphere which embraces His whole
being and His whole action. The self-emptying itself was not a
self-determination, instant and complete, made before the Incarnation,
but, as we saw, a process which continued throughout Christ’s
life on earth and was active to the end. For as He hung,
deliberately self-emptied of His glory, on the Cross, He manifested His
normal powers by the earthquake shock. His submission to death
was the last of a consistent series of exertions of His will, which
began with the Annunciation and culminated in the
Crucifixion.