When, then, we
speak of His divinity we do not ascribe to it the properties of
humanity. For we do not say that His divinity is subject to
passion or created. Nor, again, do we predicate of His flesh or
of His humanity the properties of divinity: for we do not say
that His flesh or His humanity is uncreated. But when we speak of
His subsistence, whether we give it a name implying both natures, or
one that refers to only one of them, we still attribute to it the
properties of both natures. For Christ, which name implies both
natures, is spoken of as at once God and man, created and uncreated,
subject to suffering and incapable of suffering: and when He is
named Son of God and God, in reference to only one of His natures, He
still keeps the properties of the co-existing nature, that is, the
flesh, being spoken of as God who suffers, and as the Lord of Glory
crucified 1 Cor. ii. 8., not in respect
of His being God but in respect of His being at the same time
man. Likewise also when He is called Man and Son of Man, He still
keeps the properties and glories of the divine nature, a child before
the ages, and man who knew no beginning; it is not, however, as child
or man but as God that He is before the ages, and became a child in the
end. And this is the manner of the mutual communication, either
nature giving in exchange to the other its own properties through the
identity of the subsistence and the interpenetration of the parts with
one another. Accordingly we can say of Christ: This our
God was seen upon the earth and lived amongst men Baruch iii. 38: these words are absent in
many mss., and This man is uncreated and
impossible and uncircumscribed.