The Witness of Hilary

But it is high time to finish the book, and indeed the whole work, once I have added the sayings of a few holy men and illustrious priests, to support by the faith of the present day what we have already proved by the authority of Holy Scripture. Hilary was a man endowed with every virtue and grace, famous for his life as well as for his eloquence. As a teacher of the churches and a priest, he advanced not only by his own merits but also by the progress of others. He stood so firm through the storms of persecution that, by the courage of his unconquered faith, he reached the rank of a Confessor. In the first book on the faith he testifies that the Lord Jesus Christ, true God from true God, was both begotten before the world and afterward born as man. [a]

Again, in the second book: “The one only Son, who is God, grew in the womb of the holy Virgin into the form of a human body. He who contains all things, and in whose power all things are, is brought forth according to the law of human birth.” Again, in the same book: “An angel is witness that he who is born is God with us.” Again, in the tenth book: “We have taught the mystery of God born as man by his birth from the Virgin.” Again, in the same book: “For when God was born as man, he was not born in order not to remain God.” Again, in the same writer’s preface to his explanation of the Gospel according to Matthew: “For first of all it was necessary for us that the only Son, who is God, should be known to have been born as man for our sakes.” Again, in what follows: “that besides being God, he should be born as man, which he was not yet.” Again, in the same place: “Then this third thing was fitting: that as God was born as man in the world,” and so on.

These are a few passages out of a great many. Yet you see even from those we have quoted how clearly and plainly he asserts that God was born of Mary. Where, then, is that saying of yours: “The creature could not bring forth the Creator, and what is born of the flesh is flesh”? It would take too long to quote the passages from each separate writer that bear on this point. I must try to list them rather than explain them, for they will explain themselves well enough.