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Fragments
St Melito of Sardis, ANF 8
III
On these accounts He came to us; on these accounts, though He was incorporeal, He formed for Himself a body after our fashion,1 -appearing as a sheep, yet still remaining the Shepherd; being esteemed a servant, yet not renouncing the Sonship; being carried in the womb of Mary, yet arrayed in the nature of His Father; treading upon the earth, yet filling heaven; appearing as an infant, yet not discarding the eternity of His nature; being invested with a body, yet not circumscribing the unmixed simplicity of His Godhead; being esteemed poor, yet not divested of His riches; needing sustenance inasmuch as He was man, yet not ceasing to feed the entire world inasmuch as He is God; putting on the likeness of a servant, yet not impairing2 the likeness of His Father. He sustained every character3 belonging to Him in an immutable nature: He was standing before Pilate, and at the same time was sitting with His Father; He was nailed upon the tree, and yet was the Lord of all things.
Notes
- Or “wove-a body from our material.”
- Lit. “changing.”
- Lit. “He was everything.”