[72] [Greek: O tou Theou Logos enênthrhôpêsen H hina hêmeis theopoiêthômen.] St. Athan. de Incarn. Factus est Deus homo, ut homo fieret deus. St. Aug. Serm. 13, de Temp.
[73] S. Chrys. Tom. vii. 786. Hom. 82, in Matt.
[74] Tom. viii. 525. Hom. 88, in Joan.
[75] Hom. 3, de Pœnitentia. Tom. ii. 300.
[76] Passaglia, p. 48, 9.
CHAPTER II.
EDUCATION AND FINAL DESIGNATION OF PETER TO BE THE RULER WHO SHOULD CONFIRM HIS BRETHREN.
Having promised[1] and bestowed on Simon a new name, prophetic of the peculiar position which he was to occupy in the Church, and having set forth the meaning contained in that name in terms so large and magnificent, that, as we have seen, the greatest saints and fathers have felt it impossible to exhaust their force, our Lord proceeded to educate Peter, so to say, for his especial charge of supreme ruler. He bestowed upon him, in the course of His ministry, tokens of preference which agree with the title thus solemnly conferred; and He instructed him with all the care which we should expect to be given to one who was to become the chief doctor of Christians. Such instruction may be said to consist in two things, a more complete knowledge of the Christian revelation, and a singular apprehension of its divine proofs.
Now, innumerable as are the particulars in which the Christian revelation consists, they may yet be gathered up mainly into two points, which meet in the Person of our Lord, and are termed by the ancient fathers who have followed this division, the Theology, and the Economy. There is the Divine Nature, that "form of God," which our Lord had from the beginning in the bosom of the Father; and there is the human nature, that "form of a servant," which "in the economy or dispensation of the fulness of times" He assumed, in order that He might purchase the Church with His blood, and[2] "re-establish all things in heaven and on earth." All, therefore, in the Christian faith which concerns "the form of God" is termed the Theology; all which contemplates "the form of a servant," the Economy.