indeed, were promoted, as rescued from sin; but he is the same, nor did he alter when he became man (to repeat what I have said), but, as has been written, “The word of God abideth forever.”  Surely as, before his becoming man, he, the Word, dispensed to the saints the Spirit as his own; so also, when made man, be sanctifies all by the Spirit, and says to his Disciples, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.”  And he gave to Moses and the other seventy; and through him David prayed to the Father, saying, “Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.”  On the other hand, when made man, he said, “I will send to you the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth”; and he sent him, he, the Word of God, as being faithful.

Therefore “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever,” remaining unalterable, and at once gives and receives, giving as God’s Word, receiving as man.  It is not the Word then, viewed as the Word, that is promoted,—­for he had all things and has had them always,—­but men, who have in him and through him their origin of receiving them.  For, when he is now said to be anointed in a human respect, we it is who in him are anointed; since also, when he is baptized, we it is who in him are baptized.  But on all these things the Savior throws much light, when he says to the Father, “And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one.”  Because of us, then, he asked for glory, and the words occur, “took” and “gave” and “highly exalted,” that we might take, and to us might be given, and we might be exalted, in him; as also for us he sanctifies himself, that we might be sanctified in him.

But if they take advantage of the word “wherefore,” as connected with the passage in the Psalm, “Wherefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee,” for their own purposes, let these novices in Scripture and masters in irreligion know that, as before, the word “wherefore” does not imply reward of virtue or conduct in the Word, but the reason why he came down to us, and of the Spirit’s anointing, which took place in him for our sakes.  For he says not, “Wherefore he anointed thee in order to thy being God or King or Son or Word,”—­for so he was before, and is forever, as has been shown,—­but rather, “Since thou art God and king, therefore thou wast anointed, since none but thou couldst unite man to the Holy Ghost, thou the image of the Father, in which we were made in the beginning; for thine is even the Spirit,” For the nature of things generate could give no warranty for this, angels having transgressed, and men disobeyed.  Wherefore there was need of God; and the Word is God; that those who had become under a curse, he himself might set free.  If then he was of nothing, he would not have been the Christ or Anointed, being one among others and having fellowship as the rest.  But, whereas he is God, as being the Son of God, and is everlasting King, and exists as radiance and expression of the Father, wherefore fitly is he the expected Christ,