it
might be said, Know ye not that ye are God's temple, and the Spirit
of God dwelleth in you? For when the Lord, as man, was washed in
Jordan, it was we who were washed in him and by him. And when he
received the Spirit, we it was who, by him, were made recipients of
it. And, moreover, for this reason, not as Aaron, or David, or the
rest, was he anointed with oil, but in another way, above all his
fellows, "with the oil of gladness," which he himself interprets to
be the Spirit, saying by the prophet, "The Spirit of the Lord is
upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me"; as also the Apostle has
said, "How God anointed him with the Holy Ghost." When, then, were
these things spoken of him, but when he came in the flesh, and was
baptized in Jordan, and the spirit descended on him? And, indeed,
the Lord himself said, "The Spirit shall take of mine," and "I will
send him"; and to his Disciples, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." And,
notwithstanding, he who, as the word and radiance of the Father,
gives to others, now is said to be sanctified, because now he has
become Man, and the Body that is sanctified is his. From him, then,
we have begun to receive the unction and the seal, John saying, "And
ye have an unction from the Holy One"; and the Apostle, "And ye were
sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." Therefore, because of us,
and for us, are these words. What advance, then, of promotion, and
reward of virtue, or generally of conduct, is proved from this in
our Lord's instance? For if he was not God, and then had become
God--if, not being king, he was preferred to the kingdom, your
reasoning would have had some faint plausibility. But if he is God,
and the throne of his kingdom is everlasting, in what way could God
advance? Or what was there wanting to him who was sitting on his
Father's throne? And if, as the Lord himself has said, the Spirit
is his, and takes of his, and he sends it, it is not the Word,
considered as the Word and Wisdom, who is anointed with the Spirit,
which he himself gives, but the flesh assumed by him, which is
anointed in him and by him; that the sanctification coming to the
Lord as man, may come to all men from him. For, not of itself,
saith he, doth the Spirit speak, but the word is he who gives it to
the worthy. For this is like the passage considered above; for, as
the Apostle hath written, "Who, existing in form of God, thought it
not robbery to be equal with God, but humbled himsel