Not simply so set Him above them as to be honored above them, nor by way of compar- ison with them, but so that He should sit over them as His slaves. Amazing! Awful indeed are these things; every created power hath been made the slave of man by reason of God the Word dwelling in Him.205 For it is possible for a man to be above others, without having others in subjection, but only as preferred before them. But here it is not so. No, “He put all things in subjection under His feet.” And not simply put them in subjection, but in the 62 most abject subjection, that below which there can be none. Therefore he adds, “under His feet.” “And gave Him to be Head over all things to the Church.” Amazing again, whither hath He raised the Church? as though he were lifting it up by some engine, he hath raised it up to a vast height, and set it on yonder throne; for where the Head is, there is the body also. There is no interval to separate between the Head and the body; for were there a separation, then were it no longer a body, then were it no longer a head. “Over all things,” he says. What is meant by “over all things?” He hath suffered neither Angel nor Archangel nor any other being to be above Him. But not only in this way hath He honored us, in exalting that which is of ourselves, but also in that He hath prepared the whole race in common to follow Him, to cling to Him, to accompany His train. “Which is His body.” In order then that when you hear of the Head you may not conceive the notion of su- premacy only, but also of consolidation, and that you may behold Him not as supreme Ruler only, but as Head of a body. “The fulness of Him that filleth all in all” he says. As though this were not sufficient to show the close connection and relationship, what does he add? “The fullness of Christ is the Church.” And rightly, for the complement of the head is the body, and the complement of the body is the head. Mark what great arrangement Paul observes, how he spares not a single word, that he may represent the glory of God. “The, complement,” he says, i.e., the head is, as it were, filled up by the body, because the body is composed and made up of all its several parts, and he introduces Him as having need of each single one and not only of all in common and together; for unless we be many, and one be the hand, and another the foot, and another some other member, the whole body is not filled up. It is by all then that His body is filled up. Then is the head filled up, then is the body rendered perfect, when we are all knit together and united. Perceivest thou 205 Διὰ τὸν ἐνοικοῦντα Θεὸν Λόγον. The ‘inhabitation’ of the Word in our flesh, was a favorite form of speech with the Nestorians, who thereby insinuated that the Word dwelt in ‘a’ man, or denied Christ’s unity of person. Yet the phrase is strictly orthodox, as being derived from John i. 14, and is especially maintained by Cyril, the antagonist of Nestorius, in order to denote that God was in human ‘nature,’ vid. Cyril in Schol. 25. Theodor. Eran. ii. Ephræm. Antioch. apud Phot. 229. 119 Ephesians 1:15-20