{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Accordingly, when we speak of God, we do not affirm two\r\nor three principles, no more than we are at liberty to affirm\r\ntwo or three gods; although, speaking of each, of the Father,\r\nor of the Son, or of the Holy Ghost, we confess that each is\r\nGod: and yet we do not say, as the Sabellian heretics say,\r\nthat the Father is the same as the Son, and the Holy Spirit\r\nthe same as the Father and the Son; but we say that the\r\nFather is the Father of the Son, and the Son the Son of the\r\nFather, and that the Holy Spirit of the Father and the Son\r\nis neither the Father nor the Son. It was therefore truly\r\nsaid that man is cleansed only by a Principle, although the\r\nPlatonists erred in speaking in the plural of <i>principles</i>. But\r\nPorphyry, being under the dominion of these envious powers,\r\nwhose influence he was at once ashamed of and afraid to\r\nthrow off, refused to recognise that Christ is the Principle by\r\nwhose incarnation we are purified. Indeed he despised Him,\r\nbecause of the flesh itself which He assumed, that He might\r\noffer a sacrifice for our purification,—a great mystery, unintelligible\r\nto Porphyry's pride, which that true and benignant\r\nRedeemer brought low by His humility, manifesting Himself\r\nto mortals by the mortality which He assumed, and which<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_415\">[Pg 415]</a></span>\r\nthe malignant and deceitful mediators are proud of wanting,\r\npromising, as the boon of immortals, a deceptive assistance to\r\nwretched men. Thus the good and true Mediator showed\r\nthat it is sin which is evil, and not the substance or nature\r\nof flesh; for this, together with the human soul, could without\r\nsin be both assumed and retained, and laid down in death,\r\nand changed to something better by resurrection. He showed\r\nalso that death itself, although the punishment of sin, was\r\nsubmitted to by Him for our sakes without sin, and must\r\nnot be evaded by sin on our part, but rather, if opportunity\r\nserves, be borne for righteousness' sake. For he was able\r\nto expiate sins by dying, because He both died, and not for\r\nsin of His own. But He has not been recognised by Porphyry\r\nas the Principle, otherwise he would have recognised\r\nHim as the Purifier. The Principle is neither the flesh nor\r\nthe human soul in Christ, but the Word by which all things\r\nwere made. The flesh, therefore, does not by its own virtue\r\npurify, but by virtue of the Word by which it was assumed,\r\nwhen \"the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_415_415\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_415_415\">[415]</a> For,\r\nspeaking mystically of eating His flesh, when those who did\r\nnot understand Him were offended and went away, saying,\r\n\"This is an hard saying, who can hear it?\" He answered to\r\nthe rest who remained, \"It is the Spirit that quickeneth;\r\nthe flesh profiteth nothing.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_416_416\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_416_416\">[416]</a> The Principle, therefore, having\r\nassumed a human soul and flesh, cleanses the soul and flesh\r\nof believers. Therefore, when the Jews asked Him who He\r\nwas, He answered that He was the <i>Principle</i>.<a id=\"FNanchor_417_417\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_417_417\">[417]</a> And this we\r\ncarnal and feeble men, liable to sin, and involved in the darkness\r\nof ignorance, could not possibly understand, unless we\r\nwere cleansed and healed by Him, both by means of what we\r\nwere, and of what we were not. For we were men, but we\r\nwere not righteous; whereas in His incarnation there was a\r\nhuman nature, but it was righteous, and not sinful. This\r\nis the mediation whereby a hand is stretched to the lapsed\r\nand fallen; this is the seed \"ordained by angels,\" by whose\r\nministry the law also was given enjoining the worship of one\r\nGod, and promising that this Mediator should come.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK TENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-731"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"209202d75d00c47b2cc49efc0c33425ff8a26c08a59c7ca00f92066e6dce5c3b","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume I","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Book IV)","J. J. Smith (Books V-VIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"JHN","chapter":1,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"John i. 14","verse":14,"verse_end":14}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45304-Footnote_415_415","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_415_415","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_415_415\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_415_415\"><span class=\"label\">[415]</span></a> John i. 14.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_415_415","text_sha256":"153a0cc1db22432cc9d7c9891f93b7f4996686a8dc04a4d1f622e755bf14af26","verified":false,"work_id":null}