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TOPIC: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 03 (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 23.01.29 The Unconfounded Part 4
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Testimony of the Holy Ambrosius, bishop of Milan.
In his Exposition of the Faith:-
"We confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, was begotten before all ages, without beginning, of the Father, and that in these last days the same was made flesh of the holy Virgin Mary, assumed the manhood, in its perfection, of a reasonable soul and body, of one substance with the Father as touching His Godhead and of one substance with us as touching His manhood. For union of two perfect natures hath been after an ineffable manner. Wherefore we acknowledge one Christ, one Son, our Lord Jesus Christ; knowing that being coeternal with His own Father as touching His Godhead, by virtue of which also He is creator of all, He deigned, after the assent of the Holy Virgin, when she said to the angel `Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word'hyperlink to build after an ineffable fashion a temple out of her for Himself, and to unite this temple to Himself by her conception, not taking and uniting with Himself a body coeternal with His own substance, and brought from heaven, but of the matter of our substance, that is of the Virgin. God the Word was not turned into flesh; His appearance was not unreal; keeping ever His own substance immutably and invariably He took the first fruits of our nature, and united them to Himself. God the Word did not take His beginning from the Virgin, but being coeternal with His own Father He of infinite kindness deigned to unite to Himself the first fruits of our nature, undergoing no mixture but in either substance appearing one and the same, as it is written `Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.'hyperlink For the divine Christ, as touching my substance which he took is destroyed, and the same Christ raises the destroyed temple as touching the divine substance in which also He is Creator of all things. Never at any time after the Union which He deigned to make with Himself from the moment of the conception did He depart from His own temple, nor indeed through His ineffable love for mankind could depart.
"The same Christ is both passible and impassible; as touching His manhood passible and as touching His Godhead impassible. `Behold behold me, it is I, I have undergone no change'-and when God the Word had raised His own temple and in it had wrought out the resurrection and renewal of our nature, He shewed this nature to His disciples and said `Handle me and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me,' not `be' but `have.'hyperlink So He says, referring to both the possessor and the possessed in order that you may perceive that what had taken place was not mixture, not change, not variation, but union. On this account too He shewed the prints of the nails and the wound of the spear and ate before His disciples to convince them by every means that the resurrection of our nature had been renewed in Him; and further because in accordance with the blessed substance of His Godhead unchanged, impassible, immortal, He lived in need of nought, He by concession permitted all that can be felt to be brought to His own temple, and by His own power raised it up, and by means of His own temple made perfect the renewal of our nature.
"Them therefore that assert that the Christ was mere man, that God the Word was passible, or changed into flesh, or that the body which He had was consubstantial, or that He brought it from Heaven, or that it was an unreality; or assert that God the Word being mortal needed to receive His resurrection from the Father, or that the body which He assumed was without a soul, or manhood without a mind, or that the two natures of the Christ became one nature by confusion and commixture; them that deny that our Lord Jesus Christ was two natures unconfounded, but one person, as He is one Christ and one Son, all these the catholic and apostolic Church condemns."
Of the same:hyperlink -
"If then the flesh of all was in Christ or hath been in Christ snbject to wrongs, how can it be held to be of one essence with the Godhead? For if the Word and the flesh which derives its nature from earth are of one essence, then the Word and the soul which He took in its perfection are of one essence, for the Word is of one nature with God both according to the Word of the Father, and the confession of the Son Himself in the words, `I and my Father are one.'hyperlink Thus the Father must be held to be of the same substance with the body. Why any longer are ye wroth with the Arians, who say that the Son is a creature of God, while you assert yourselves that the Father is of one substance with His creatures?"
Of the same from his letter to the Emperor Gratianus:hyperlink -
"Let us preserve a distinction between Godhead and flesh. One Son of God speaks in both, since in Him both natures exist. The same Christ speaks, yet not always in the same but sometimes in a different manner. Observe how at one time He expresses divine glory and at another human feeling. As God He utters the things of God, since He is the Word; as man He speaks with humility because He converses in my essence."
On the same from the same book:hyperlink -
"As to the passage where we read that the Lord of glory was crucified,hyperlink let us not suppose that He was crucified in His own glory. But since He is both God and man, as touching His Godhead God, and as touching the assumption of the flesh, a man, Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, is said to have been crucified. For He partakes of either nature-that is the human and the divine. In the nature of manhood He underwent the passion in order that He who suffered might be said to be without distinction both Lord of Glory and Son of Man. As it is written `He that came down from Heaven.'"hyperlink
Similarly of the same:hyperlink -
"Let then vain questions about words be silent, as it is written, the kingdom of God is not in `enticing words' but in `demonstration of the spirit.'hyperlink For there is one Son of God who speaks in both ways, since both natures exist in Him; but although He Himself speaks He does not speak always in the same way; for you see in Him at one time God's glory, at another time man's feeling. As God He utters divine things, being the Word; as man He utters human things, since in this nature He spoke."
Of the same from his work on the Incarnation of the Lord against the Apollinarians:hyperlink -
"But while we are confuting these, another set spring up who assert the body of the Christ and His godhead to be of one nature. What hell hath vomited forth so terrible a blasphemy? Really Arians are more tolerable, whose infidelity, on account of these men, is strengthened, so that with greater opposition they deny Father, Son and Holy Ghost to be of one substance, for they did at least endeavour to maintain the Godhead of the Lord and His flesh to be of one nature."
Of the same (from the same chapter):-
"He has frequently told me that he maintains the exposition of the Nicene Council, but in that examination our Fathers laid down that the Word of God, not the flesh, was of one substance with the Father, and they confessed that the Word came from the substance of the Father but that the flesh is of the Virgin. Why then do they hold out to us the name of the Nicene Council, while in reality they are introducing innovations of which our forefathers never entertained the thought?"
Of the same against Apollinarius:hyperlink -
"Refuse thou to allow that the body is by nature on a par with the Godhead. Even though thou believe the body of the Christ to be real and bring it to the altar for transformation,hyperlink and fail to distinguish the nature of the body and of the Godhead we shall say to thee, `If thou offer rightly and fail to distinguish rightly, thou sinnest; hold thy peace.'hyperlink Distinguish what belongs naturally to us, and what is peculiar to the Word. For I had not what was naturally His, and He had not what was naturally mine, but He took what was naturally mine in order to make us partakers of what was His. And He received this not for confusion but for completion."
Of the same, a little further on:hyperlink -
"Let them who say that the nature of the Word has been changed into nature of the body say so no more, lest by the same interpretation the nature of the Word seem to have been changed into the corruption of sin. For there is a distinction between what took, and what was taken. Power came over the Virgin, as in the words of the angel to her, `The power of the highest shall overshadow thee.'hyperlink But what was born was of the body of the Virgin, and on this account the descent was divine but the conception human. Therefore the nature of the flesh and of the godhead could not be the same."hyperlink
The testimony of St. Basil, Bishop of Coesarea.
From his homily on Thanksgiving:-
"Wherefore when He wept over His friend He shewed His participation in human nature and set us free from two extremes, suffering us neither to grow over soft in suffering nor to be insensible to pain. As then the Lord suffered hunger after solid food had been digested, and thirst when the moisture in His body was exhausted; and was aweary when His nerves and sinews were strained by His journeying, it was not that His divinity was weighed down with toil, but that His body showed the wonted symptoms of its nature. Thus too when He allowed Himself to weep He permitted the flesh to take is natural course."
From the same against Eunomius:-
"I say that being in the form of God has the same force as being in God's substance for as to have taken the form of a servant shews our Lord to have been of the substance of the manhood, so the statement that He was in the form of God attributes to Him the peculiar qualities of the divine substance."hyperlink
The testimony of the holy Gregorius, bishop of Nazianzus.
From his discourse De nova dominica:hyperlink -
"Believe that He will come again at His glorious advent judging quick and dead,hyperlink no longer flesh but not without a body."
"In order that He may be seen by them that pierced Himhyperlink and remain God without grossness."
Of the same from his Epistle to Cledonius:-
"God and man are two natures, as soul and body are two; but there are not two sons, nor yet are there here two men although Paul thus speaks of the outward man and the inward man.hyperlink In a word the sources of the Saviour's being are of two kinds, since the visible is distinct from the invisible and the timeless from that which is of time, but He is not two beings. God forbid."
Of the same from the same Exposition to Cledonius:-
"If any one says that the flesh has now been laid aside, and that the Godhead is bare of body, and that it is not and will not come with that which was assumed, let him be deprived of the vision of the glory of the advent! For where is the body now, save with Him that assumed it? For it assuredly has not been, as the Manichees fable, swallowed up by the Son, that it may be honoured through dishonour; it has not been poured out and dissolved in the air like a voice and stream of perfume or flash of unsubstantial lightning. And where is the capacity of being handled after the resurrection, wherein one day it shall be seen by them that pierced Him? For Godhead of itself is in visible."
Of the same from the second discourse about the Son:-
"As the Word He was neither obedient nor disobedient, for these qualities belong to them that are in subjection and to inferiors; the former of the more tractable and the latter of them that deserve condemnation. But in the form of a servant He accommodates Himself to his fellowservants and puts on a form that was not His own, bearing in Himself all of me with all that is mine, that in Himself He may waste and destroy the baser parts as wax is wasted by fire or the mist of the earth by the sun."
Of the same from his discourse on the Theophany:-
"Since He came forth from the Virgin with the assumption of two things mutually opposed to one another, flesh and spirit, whereof the one was taken into God and the other exhibited the grace of the Godhead."
Of the same a little further on:-
"He was sent, but as Man. For His nature was twofold, for without doubt He thenceforth was aweary and hungered and thirsted and suffered agony and shed tears after the custom of a human body."
Of the same from his second discourse about the Son:-
"He would be called God not of the Word, but of the visible creation, for how could He be God of Him that is absolutely God? Just so He is called Father, not of the visible creation, but of the Word. For He was of two-fold nature. Wherefore the one belongs absolutely to both, but the other not absolutely.hyperlink For He is absolutely our God, but not absolutely our Father. And it is this conjunction of names which gives rise to the error of heretics. A proof of this lies in the fact that when natures are distinguished in thought, there is a distinction in names. Listen to the words of Paul. `The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, The Father of Glory,'hyperlink -of Christ He is God, of glory Father, and if both are one this is so not by nature but by conjunction. What can be plainer than this? Fifthly let it be said that He receives life, authority, inheritance of nations, power over all flesh, glory, disciples or what you will; all these belong to the manhood."
Of the same from the same work:-
"`For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus.'hyperlink As man He still pleads for my salvation, because He keeps with Him the body which He took, till he made me God by the power of the incarnation-though He be no longer known according to the flesh that is by affections of the flesh and though He be without sin."
Of the same from the same work:-
"Is it not plain to all that as God He knows, and is ignorant, He says, as man? If that is, any one distinguish the apparent from that which is an object of intellectual perception. For what gives rise to this opinion is the fact that the appellation of the Son is absolute without relation, it not being added of whom He is the Son; so to give the most pious sense to this ignorance we hold it to belong to the human, and not to the divine."
Testimony of the Holy Gregorius, bishop of Nyssa.
From his catechetical discourse:-
"And who says this that the infinity of the Godhead is comprehended by the limitation of the flesh, as by some vessel?"
Of the same from the same work:-
"But if man's soul by necessity of its nature commingled with the body, is everywhere in authority, what need is there of asserting that the Godhead is limited by the nature of the flesh?"
Of the same from the same work:-
"What hinders us then, while recognising a certain unity and approximation of a divine nature in relation to the human, from retaining the divine intelligence even in this approximation, believing that the divine even when it exists in men is beyond all limitation?"
Of the same from his work against Eunomius:-
"The Son of Mary converses with brothers, but the only begotten has no brothers, for how could the name of only begotten be preserved among brothers? And the same Christ that said `God is a spirit'hyperlink says to His disciples `Handle me,'hyperlink to shew that the human nature only can be handled and that the divine is intangible; and He that said `I go'hyperlink indicates removal from place to place, while He that comprehends all things and `by Whom,' as says the Apostle, `all things were created and by Whom all things consist,'hyperlink had among all existing things nothing without and beyond Himself which can stand to Him in the relation of motion or removal."
Of the same from the same work:-
"`Being by the right hand of God exalted.'hyperlink Who then was exalted? The lowly or the most high? And what is the lowly if it be not the human? And what is the most high save the divine? But God being most high needs no exaltation, and so the Apostle says that the human is exalted, exalted that is in being `made both Lord and Christ.'hyperlink Therefore the Apostle does not mean by this term `He made' the everlasting existence of the Lord, but the change of the lowly to the exalted which took place on the right hand of God. By this word he declares the mystery of piety, for when he says `by the right hand of God exalted' he plainly reveals the ineffable oeconomy of the mystery that the right hand of God which created all things, which is the Lord by whom all things were made and without whom nothing consists of things that were made,hyperlink through the union lifted up to Its own exaltation the manhood united to It."
Testimony of St. Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium.
From his discourse on "My Father is greater than I":hyperlink -
"Henceforth distinguish the natures; that of God and that of man. For He was not made man by falling away from God, nor God by increase and advance from man."
Of the same from his discourse on "the Son can do nothing of Himself":hyperlink -
"For after the resurrection the Lord shews both-both that the body is not of this nature, and that the body rises, for remember the history. After the passion and the resurrection the disciples were gathered together, and when the doors were shut the Lord stood in the midst of them. Never at any time before the passion did He do this. Could not then the Christ have done this even long before? For all things are possible to God.hyperlink But before the passion He did not do so lest you should suppose the incarnation an unreality or appearance, and think of the flesh of the Christ as spiritual, or that it came down from heaven and is of another substance than our flesh. Some have invented all these theories with the idea that thereby they reverence the Lord, forgetful that through their thanksgiving they blaspheme themselves, and accuse the truth of a lie: for I say nothing of the lie being altogether absurd. For if He took another body how does that affect mine, which stands in need of salvation? If He brought down flesh from heaven, how does this affect my flesh which was derived from earth?"
Of the same from the same work:-
"Wherefore not before the passion, but after the passion, the Lord stood in the midst of the disciples when the doors were shut, that thou mayest know that thy natural body after being sown is `raised a spiritual body,'hyperlink and that thou mayest not suppose the body that is raised to be a different body. When Thomas after the resurrection doubted, He shews him the prints of the nails, He shews him the marks of the spears. But had He not power to heal Himself after the resurrection too, when even before the resurrection He had healed all men? But by shewing the prints of the nails He shews that it is this very body; by coming in when the doors were shut He shews that it has not the same qualities; the same body to fulfil the work of the incarnation by raising that which had become a corpse, but a changed body that it fall not again under corruption nor be subject again to death."
Testimony of the blessed Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria.
From his work against Origen:-
"Our likeness which He assumed is not changed into the nature of Godhead nor is His Godhead turned into our likeness. For He remains what He was from the beginning God, and He so remains preserving our subsistence in Himself."
Of the same from the same treatise:-
"But you persist continually in your blasphemies attacking the Son of God, and using these words `as the Son and the Father are one, so also are the soul which the Son took and the Son Himself one.' You are ignorant that the Son and the Father are one on account of their one substance and the same Godhead; but the soul and the Son are each of a different substance and different nature. For if the soul of the Son and the Son Himself are one in the same sense in which the Father and the Son are one, then the Father and the Soul will be one and the soul of the Son shall one day say `He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father;'hyperlink but this is not so; God forbid. For the Son and the Father are one because there is no distinction between their qualities, but the soul and the Son are distinguished alike in nature and substance, in that the soul which is naturally of one substance with us was made by Him. For if the soul and the Son are one in the same manner in which the Father anti the Son are one, as Origen would have it, then the soul equally with the Son will be `the brightness of God's glory and express image of His person.'hyperlink But this is impossible; impossible that the Son and the soul should be one as He and the Father are one. And what will Origen do when again he attacks himself? For he writes, never could the soul distressed and `exceeding sorrowful'hyperlink be the `firstborn of every creature.'hyperlink For God the Word, as being stronger than the soul, the Son Himself, says `I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again.'hyperlink If then the Son is stronger than His own soul, as is agreed, how can His soul be equal to God and in the form of God? For we say that `He emptied Himself and took upon Him the form of a servant.'hyperlink In the extravagance of his impieties Origen surpasses all other heretics, as we have shewn, for if the Word exists in the form of God and is equal to God and if he supposes thus daring to write the soul of the Saviour to be in the form of God and equal with God, how can the equal be greater, when the inferior in nature testifies to the superiority of what is beyond it?"
Testimony of the Holy John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople.
From the Discourse held in the Great Church:-
"Thy Lord exalted man to heaven, and thou wilt not even give him a share of the agora. But why do I say `to heaven'? He seated man on a kingly throne. Thou expellest him from the city."
Of the same, on the beginning of Ps. xlii.:-
"Up to this day Paul does not cease to say `We are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.'hyperlink Nor did He stand here, but taking the first fruits of thy nature He sat down `above all principality and power and might, and every name that is named not only in this world but in the world to come.'hyperlink What could be equal to this honour? The first fruits of our race which has so much offended and is so dishonoured sits so high and enjoys honour so vast."
Of the same about the division of tongues:-
"For bethink thee what it is to see our nature riding on the Cherubim and all the power of heaven mustered round about it. Consider too Paul's wisdom and how many terms he searches for that he may set forth the love of Christ to men, for he does not say simply the grace, nor yet simply the riches, but the `exceeding great riches of His grace in His kindness.'"hyperlink
Of the same from his Dogmatic Oration, on the theme that the word spoken and deeds done in humility by Christ were not so spoken and done on account of infirmity, but on account of differences of dispensation:-
"And after His resurrection, when He saw His disciple disbelieving, He did not shrink from shewing him both wound and print of nails, and letting him lay his hand upon the scars, and said `Examine and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones.'hyperlink The reason of His not assuming the manhood of full age from the beginning, and of His deigning to be conceived, to be born, to be suckled, and to live so long upon the earth, was that by the long period of the time and all the other circumstances, He might give a warranty for this very thing."
Of the same against those who assert that demons rule human affairs:-
"Nothing was more worthless than man and than man nothing has become more precious. He was the last part of the reasonable creation, but the feet have been made the head, and through the firstfruits have been borne up to the kingly throne. Just as some man noble and bountiful, on seeing a wretch escaped from shipwreck who has saved nothing but his bare body from the waves, welcomes him with open hands, clothes him in a radiant robe, and exalts him to the highest honour, so too hath God done towards our nature. Man had lost all that he had, his freedom, his intercourse with God, his abode in Paradise, his painless life, whence he came forth like a man all naked from a wreck, but God received him and straightway clothed him, and, taking him by the hand, led him onward step by step and brought him up to heaven."
Of the same from the same work:-
"But God made the gain greater than the loss, and exalted our nature to the royal throne. So Paul exclaims `And have raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places'hyperlink at His right hand."
Of the same from his IIIrd oration against the Jews:-
"He opened the heavens; of foes he made friends; He introduced them into heaven; He seated our nature on the right hand of the throne; He gave us countless other good things."
Of the same from his discourse on the Ascension:-
"To this distance and height did He exalt our nature. Look where low it lay, and where it mounted up. Lower it was impossible to descend than where man descended; higher it was impossible to rise than where He exalted him."
Of the same from his interpretation of the Epistle to the Ephesians:-
"According to His good pleasure, which He had proposed in himself, that is which He earnestly desired, He was as it were in labour to tell us the mystery. And what is this mystery? That He wishes to seat man on high; as in truth came to pass."
Of the same from the same interpretation:-
"God of our Lord Jesus Christ speaks of this and not of God the Word."
Of the same from the same interpretation:-
"`And when we were dead in sins He quickened us together in Christ;'hyperlink again Christ stands in the midst, and the work is wonderful. If the first fruits live we live also. He quickened both Him and us. Seest thou that all these things are spoken according to the flesh?"
Of the same from the gospel according to St. John:-
"Why does he add `and dwelt among us'?hyperlink It is as though he said: Imagine nothing absurd from the phrase `was made.' For I have not mentioned any change in that unchangeable nature, but of tabernaclinghyperlink and of inhabiting. Now that which tabernacles is not identical with the tabernacle, but one thing tabernacles in another; otherwise there would be no tabernacling. Nothing inhabits itself. I spoke of a distinction of substance. For by the union and the conjunction God the Word and the flesh are one without confusion or destruction of the substances, but by ineffable and indescribable union."
Of the same from the gospel according to St. Matthew:-
"Just as one standing in the space between two that are separated from one another, stretches out both his hands and joins them, so too did He, joining the old and the new, the divine nature and the human, His own with ours."
Of the same from the Ascension of Christ:-
"For so when two champions stand ready for the fight, some other intervening between them, at once stops the struggle, and puts an end to their ill will, so too did Christ. As God He was wroth, but we made light of His wrath, and turned away our faces from our loving Lord. Then Christ flung Himself in the midst, and restored both natures to mutual love, and Himself took on Him the weight of the punishment laid by the Father on us."
Of the same froth the same work:-
"Lo He brought the first fruits of our nature to the Father and the Father Himself approved the gift, alike on account of the high dignity of Him that bought it and of the faultlessness of the offering. He received it in His own hands, He made a chair of His own throne; nay more He seated it on His own right hand, let us then recognise who it was to whom it was said `Sit thou on my right hand'hyperlink and what was that nature to which God said `Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return.'"hyperlink
Of the same a little further on:-
"What arguments to use, what words to utter I cannot tell; the nature which was rotten, worthless, declared lowest of all, vanquished everything and overcame the world. To-day it hath been thought worthy to be made higher than all, to-day it hath received what from old time angels havedesired; to-day it is possible for archangels to be made spectators of what has been for ages longed for, and they contemplate our nature, shining on the throne of the King in the glory of His immortality."
Testimony of St. Flavianus, bishop of Antioch.
From the Gospel according to St. Luke:-
"In all of us the Lord writes the express image of His holiness, and in various ways shows our nature the way of salvation. Many and clear proofs does He give us both of His bodily advent and of His Godhead working by a body's means. For He wished to give us assurance of both His natures."
Of the same on the Theophany:-
"`Who can express the noble acts of the Lord, or shew forth all His praise?'hyperlink who could express in words the greatness of His goodness toward us? Human nature is joined to Godhead, while both natures remain independent."
Testimony of Cyril, bishop Jerusalem.
From his fourth catechetical oration concerning the ten dogmas.
Of the birth from a virgin:-
"Believe thou that this only begotten Son of God, on account of our sins, came down from heaven to earth, having taken on Him this manhood of like passions with us, and being born of holy Virgin and of Holy Ghost. This incarnation was effected, not in seeming and unreality, but in reality. He did not only pass through the Virgin, as through a channel, but was verily made flesh of her. Like us He really ate, and of the Virgin was really suckled. For if the incarnation was an unreality, then our salvation is a delusion. The Christ was twofold-the visible man, the invisible God. He ate as man, verily like ourselves, for the flesh that He wore was of like passions with us; He fed the five thousand with five loaveshyperlink as God. As man He really died. As God He raised the dead on the fourth day.hyperlink As man He slept in the boat. As God He walked upon the waters."hyperlink
Testimony of Antiochus, bishop of Ptolemais:hyperlink -
"Do not confound the natures and you will have a lively apprehension of the incarnation."
Testimony of the holy Hilarius, bishop and confessor,hyperlink in his ninth book, "de Fide":
"He who knoweth not Jesus the Christ as very God and as very man, knoweth not in reality his own life, for we incur the same peril if we deny Christ Jesus or God the spirit, or the flesh of our own body. `Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men him will I confess also before my Father which is in Heaven, but whosoever shall deny me before men him will I also deny before my Father which is in Heaven.'hyperlink These things spoke the Word made flesh; these things the man Christ Jesus, Lord of Glory, taught, being made Mediator for the salvation of the Church in the very mystery whereby He mediated between God and men. Both being made one out of the natures united for this very purpose, He was one and the same through either nature, but so that in both He fell short in neither, lest haply by being born as man He should cease to be God, or by remaining God should not be man. Therefore this is the blessedness of the true faith among men to preach both God and man, to confess both word and flesh, to recognise that God was also man, and not to be ignorant that the flesh is also Word."
Of the same from the same book:hyperlink -
"So the only begotten God being born man of a Virgin and in the fulness of the time, being Himself ordained to work out the advance of man to God, observed this order of things, through all the words of the gospels, that He might teach belief in Himself, as Son of God, and keep us in mind to preach Him as Son of Man. As being man He always spoke and acted as is proper to man, but in such a manner as never to speak in this same mode of speech as touching both save with the intention of signifying both God and Man. But hence the heretics derive a pretext for catching in their traps simple and ignorant men: what was spoken by our Lord in accordance with His manhood they falsely assert to have been uttered in the weakness of His divine nature, and since one and the same person spake all the words He used they urged that all He uttered He uttered about Himself. Now even we do not deny that all His extant words are of His own nature. But granted that the one Christ is man and God; granted that when man He was not then first God; granted that when man He was then also God, granted that after the assumption of the manhood in the Lord, the Word was man and the Word was God, it follows of necessity that there is one and the same mystery of His words as there is of His generation. Whenever in Him, as occasion may require, you distinguish the manhood from the Godhead, then also endeavour to separate the words of God from the words of man. And whenever you confess God and man, then discern the words of God and man. And when the words are spoken of God and man, and again of man wholly and wholly of God, consider carefully the occasion. If anything was spoken to signify what was appropriate to a particular occasion, apply the words to the occasion. A distinction must be observed between God before the manhood, man and God, man wholly and God wholly after the union of the manhood and Godhead. Take heed therefore not to confuse the mystery of the incarnation in the words and acts. For it must needs be that according to the quality of the kinds of natures a distinction lies in the manner of speech, before the manhood was born, in accordance with the mystery when it was still approaching death, and again when it was everlasting. `For if in His birth and in His passion and in His death He acted in accordance with our nature He nevertheless effected all this by the power of His own nature.'"
Of the same in the same book:-
"Do you then see that thus God and man are confessed, so that death is predicated of man, and the resurrection of the flesh, of God; for consider the nature of God and the power of the resurrections, and recognise in the death the oeconomy as touching man. And since both death and resurrection have been brought about in their own natures, bear in mind, I beg you, the one Christ Jesus, who was of both. I have shortly demonstrated these points to you to the end that we may remember both natures to have been in our Lord Jesus Christ `for being in the form of God He took the form of a servant.'"hyperlink
Testimony of the very holy bishop Augustinus.
From his letter to Volusianus. Epistle III:
"But now He appeared as Mediator between God and man, so as in the unity of His person to conjoin both natures, by combining the wonted with the unwonted, and the unwonted with the wonted."
Of the same from his exposition of the Gospel according to John:hyperlink -
"What then, O heretic? Since Christ is also man, He speaks as man; and dost thou slander God? He in Himself lifts man's nature on high, and thou hast the hardihood to cheapen His divine nature."
Of the same from his book on the Exposition at the Faith:-
"It is ours to believe, but His to know, and so let God the Word Himself, after receiving all that is proper to man, be man, and let man after His assumption and reception of all that is God, be no other than God. It must not be supposed because He is said to have been incarnate and mixed that therefore His substance was diminished. God knows that He mixes Himself without the natural corruption, and He is mixed in reality. He knows also that He so received in Himself as that no addition of increment accrues to Himself, as also He knows He infused His whole self so as to incur no diminution. Let us not then, in accordance with our weak intelligence, and forming conjectures on the teaching of experience and the senses, suppose that God and man are mixed after the manner of things created and equal mixed together, and that from such a confusion as this of the Word and of the flesh a body as it were was made. God forbid thatthis should be our belief, test we should suppose that after the manner of things which are confounded together two natures were brought into one hypostasis.hyperlink For a mention of this kind implies destruction of both parts; but Christ Himself, containing butnot contained, who examines us but is Himself beyond examination, making full but not made full, everywhere at one and the same time being Himself whole and pervading the universe, through His pouring out His own power, as being moved with mercy, was mingled with the nature of man, though the nature of man was not mingled with the divine."
Testimony of Severianus, bishop of Gabala.hyperlink
From "the Nativity of Christ":-
"O mystery truly heavenly and yet on earth-mystery seen and not apparent for so was the Christ after His birth; heavenly and yet on earth; holding and not held; seen and invisible; of Heaven as touching the nature of the Godhead, on earth as touching the nature of the manhood; seen in the flesh, invisible in the spirit; held as to the body not to be holden as to the Word."
Testimony of Atticus,hyperlink bishop of Constantinople.
From his letter to Eupsychius:-
"How then did it behave the Most Wise to act? By mediation of the flesh assumed, and by union of God the Word with man born of Mary, He is made of either nature, so that the Christ made one of both, as constituted in Godhead, abides in the proper dignity of His impassible nature, but in flesh. being brought near to death, at one and the same time shews the kindred nature of the flesh how through death to despise death, and by His death confirms the righteousness of the new covenant."
Testimony of Cyril, bishop of Alexandria.
From his letter to Nestorius:hyperlink -
"The natures which have been brought together in the true unity are distinct, and of both there is one God and Son, but the difference of the natures has not been removed in consequence of the union."
Of the same from his letter against the Orientals:hyperlink -
"There is an union of two natures, wherefore we acknowledge one Christ, one Son, one Lord. In accordance with this perception of the unconfounded union we acknowledge the Holy Virgin as Mother of Godhyperlink because the Word of God was made flesh and was made man, and from the very conception united to Himself the temper taken from her."hyperlink
Of the same:-
"There is one Lord Jesus Christ, even if the difference be recognised of the natures of which we assert the ineffable union to have been made."
Of the same:-
"Therefore, as I said, while praising the manner of the incarnation, we see that two natures came together in inseparable union without confusion and without division,hyperlink for the flesh is flesh and no kind of Godhead, although it was made flesh of God; in like manner the Word is God, and not flesh, although He made the flesh His own according to the oeconomy."
Of the same from his interpretation of the Epistle to the Hebrews:-
"For although the natures which came together in unity are regarded as different and unequal with one another, I mean of flesh and of God, nevertheless the Son, Who was made of both, is one."
Of the same from his interpretation of the same Epistle:-
"Yet though the only begotten Word of God is said to be united in hypostasis to flesh, we deny there was any confusion of the natures with one another, and declare each to remain what it is."
Of the same from his commentaries:-
"The Father's Word, born of the Virgin, is named man, though being by nature God as partaking of flesh and blood like ushyperlink for thus He was seen by men upon earth, without getting rid of His own nature, but assuming our Manhood perfect according to its own reason."
Of the same concerning the Incarnation (Schol. c. 13):-
"Then before the incarnation there is one Very God, and in manhood He remains what He was and is and will be; the one Lord Jesus Christ then must not be separated into man apart and into God apart, but recognising the difference of the natures and preserving them unconfounded with one another, we assert that there is one and the same Christ Jesus."
Of the same after other commentaries:-
"There is plain perception of one thing dwelling in another, namely the divine nature in manhood, without undergoing commixture or any confusion, or any change into what it was not. For what is said to dwell in another does not become the same as that in which it dwells, but is rather regarded as one thing in another. But in the nature of the Word and of the manhood the difference points out to us a difference of natures alone, for of both is perceived one Christ. Therefore he says that the Word `Tabernacled among us,'hyperlink carefully observing the freedom from confusion, for he recognises one only begotten Son who was made flesh and became man."
Now, my dear sir, you have heard the great lights of the world; you have seen the beams of their teaching, and you have received exact instruction how, not only after the nativity, but after the passion which wrought salvation, and the resurrection, and the ascension, they have shewn the union of the Godhead and of the manhood to be without confusion.
Eran.-I did not suppose that they distinguished the natures after the union, but Ihave found an infinite amount of distinction.
Orth.-It is mad and rash against those noble champions of the faith so much as to wag your tongue. But I will adduce for you the words of Apollinarius, in order that you may know that he too asserts the union to be without confusion. Now hear his words.
Testimony of Apollinarius.
From his summary:-
"There is an union between what is of God and what is of the body. On the one side is the adorable Creator Who is wisdom and power eternal; these are of the Godhead. On the other hand is the Son of Mary, born at the last time, worshipping God, advancing in wisdom, strengthened in power; these are of the body. The suffering on behalf of sin and the curse came and will not pass away nor yet be changed into the incorporeal."
And again a little further on:-
"Men are consubstantial with the unreasoning animals as far as the unreasoning body is concerned; they are of another substance in so far forth as they are reasonable. Just so God who is consubstantial with men according to the flesh is of another substance in so far forth as He is Word and Man."
And in another place he says:-
"Of things which are mingled together the qualities are mixed and not destroyed. Thus it comes to pass that some are separate from the mixed parts as wine from water, nor yet is there mingling with a body, nor yet as of bodies with bodies, but the mingling preserves also the unmixed, so that, as each occasion may require, the energy of the Godhead either acts independently or in conjunction, as was the case when the Lord fasted, for the Godhead being in conjunction in proportion to its being above need, hunger was hindered, but when it no longer opposed to the craving its superiority to need, then hunger arose, to the undoing of the devil. But if the mixture of the bodies suffered no change, how much more that of the Godhead?"
And in another place he says:-
"If the mixture with iron which makes the iron itself fire does not change its nature, so too the union of God with the body implies no change of the body, even though the body extend its divine energies to what is within its reach."
To this he immediately adds:-
"If a man has both soul and body, and these remain in unity, much more does the Christ, who has Godhead and body, keep both secure and unconfounded."
And again a little further on:-
"For human nature is partaker of the divine energy, as far as it is capable, but it is as distinct as the least from the greatest. Man is a servant of God, but God is not servant of man, nor even of Himself. Man is a creature of God, but God is not a creature of man, nor even of Himself."
And again:-
"If any one takes in reference to Godhead and not in reference to flesh the passage the `Son doeth what He seeth the Father do,'hyperlink wherein He Who was made flesh is distinct from the Father Who was not made flesh, divides two divine energies. But there is no division. So He does not speak in reference to Godhead."
Again he says:-
"As man is not an unreasoning being, on account of the contact of the reasoning and the unreasoning, just so the Saviour is not a creature on account of the contact of the creature with God uncreate."
To this he also adds:-
"The invisible which is united to a visible body and thereby is beheld, remains invisible, and it remains without composition because it is not circumscribed with the body, and the body, remaining in its own measure, accepts the union with God in accordance with its being quickened, nor is it that which is quickened which quickens."
And a little further on he says:-
"If the mixture with soul and body, although from the beginning they coalesce, does not make the soul visible on account of the body, nor change it into the other properties of the body, so as to allow of its being cut or lessened, how much rather God, who is not of the same nature as the body, is united to the body without undergoing change, if the body of man remains in its own nature, and this when it is animated by a soul, then in the case of Christ the commingling does not so change the body as that it is not a body."
And further on he says again:-
"He who confesses that soul and body are constituted one by the Scripture, is inconsistent with himself when he asserts that this union of the Word with the body is a change, such change being not even beheld in the case of a soul."
Listen to him again exclaiming clearly:-
"If they are impious who deny that the flesh of the Lord abides, much more are they who refuse wholly to accept His incarnation."
And in his little book about the Incarnation he has written:-
"The words `Sit thou on my right hand'hyperlink He speaks as to man, for they are not spoken to Him that sits ever on the throne of glory, as God the Word after His ascension from earth, but they are said to Him who hath now been exalted to the heavenly glory as man, as the Apostles say `for David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith himself the Lord said unto my Lord sit thou on my right hand.'hyperlink The order is human, giving a beginning to the sitting; but it is a divine dignity to sit together with God `to whom thousand thousands minister and before whom ten thousand times ten thousand stand.'"hyperlink
And again a little further on:-
"He does not put His enemies under Himas God but as man, but so that the God who is seen and man are the same. Paul too teaches us that the words `until I make thy foes thy footstool'hyperlink are spoken to men, describing the success as His own of course in accordance with His divinity `According to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.'hyperlink Behold Godhead and manhood existing inseparably in One Person."
And again:-
"`Glorify me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.'hyperlink The word `glorify' He uses as man, but His having this glory before the ages He reveals as God."
And again:-
"But let us not be humiliated as thinking the worship of the Son of God humiliation, even in His human likeness, but as though honouring some king appearing in poor raiment with his royal glory, and above all seeing that the very garb in which He is clad is glorified, as became the body of God and of the world's Saviour which is seed of eternal life, instrument of divine deeds destroyer of all wickedness, slayer of death and prince of resurrection; for though it had its nature from man it derived its life from God, and its power and divine virtue from heaven."
And again:-
"Whence we worship the body as the Word; we partake of the body as of the spirit."
Now it has been plainly shewn you that the author who was first to introduce the mixture of the natures openly uses the argument of a distinction between them; thus he has called the body garb, creature and instrument; he even went so far as to call it slave, which none of us has ever ventured to do. He also says that it was deemed worthy of the seat on the right hand, and uses many other expressions which are rejected by your vain heresy.
Eran.-But why then did he who was the first to introduce the mixture insert so great a distinction in his arguments?
Orth.-The power of truth forces even them that vehemently fight against her to agree with what she says, but, if you will, let us now begin a discussion about the impassibility of the Lord.
Eran.-You know that musicians are accustomed to give their strings rest, and they slacken them by turning the pegs; if then things altogether void of reason and soul stand in need of some recreation, we who partake of both shall do nothing absurd if we mete out our labour in proportion to our power. Let us then put it off till tomorrow.
Orth.-The divine David charges us to give heed to the divine oracles by night and by day; but let it be as you say, and let us keep the investigation of the remainder of our subject till to-morrow.
Footnotes
158 Luke i. 38.
159 John ii. 19.
160 Luke xxiv. 39.
161 De incarnat. sacram. Chap. 6.
162 John x. 30.
163 De Fide ii. Chap. 9.
164 Chap. 7.
165 I. Cor. ii. 8.
166 John iii. 13.
167 Id. Chap. 9.
168 I. Cor. ii. 4.
169 De Incarn. Sac. 6.
170 De incarn. sacram. Chap. 4.
171 "Offeras transfigurandum altaribus." The Benedictine Editors, by a curious anachronism, see here a reference to transubstantiation. But metapoihsij, the word translated "transformation" implies no more than the being made to undergo a change, which may be a change in dignity without involving a change of substance. cf. pp. 200 and 201, where Orthodoxus distinctly asserts that the substance remains un changed. Transubstantiation, definitely declared an article of faith in 1215, seems to have been first taught early in the 9th c. Vide Bp. Harold Browne on Art. xxviii.
172 Gen. iv. 7. Sept.
173 Id. Chap. 6.
174 Luke 1. 35. The Latin of the Benedictine edition of Ambrose is:-
Desinant ergo dicere naturam Verbi in Corporis naturam esse mutatam; ne pari interpretatione videatur natura Verbi in contagium mutata peccati. Aliud est enim quod assumpsit, et aliud quod assumptum est. Virtus venit in Virginem, sicut et Angelus ad eam dixit "quia Virtus Altissimi obumbrabit te." Sed natum est corpus ex Virgine; et ideo coelestis quidem descensio, sed humana conceptio est. Non ergo eadem carnis potuit esse divinitatisque natura.
175 In the Greek text the last sentence is unintelligible and apparently corrupt. The translation follows the Latin text from which the version in the citation of Theodoret varies in important particulars. The Greek text of the quotation runs:-
Pausasqwsan toinon oi legontej wj h tou Logou fusij eij sarkoj metabeblhtai fusin: ina mh doch metablhqeisa kata thn authn ermhneian gegenhsqai kai h tou Logou fusij toij tou qwmatoj paqhmasi sumfqoroj. #Eteron gar esti to proslabon kai eteron esti to proslhfqen. Dunamij hlqen epi thn parqenon, wj o aggeloj proj authn legei oti Dunamij uyistou episkiasei soi: all ek tou swmatoj hn thj Parqenou to texqen: kai dia touto Qeia men h katabasij h de sullhyij anqrwpinh: ouk auth oun hdunato tou te swmatoj pneuma kai thj qeothtoj fusij.
176 Cf. Phil. ii. 16.
177 The passage quoted is not in the 43rd discourse de nova dominica but in the 40th on Holy Baptism.
178 Acts i. 11.
179 Zechariah xii. 10.
180 II. Cor. iv. 16.
181 Here the text is corrupt.
182 Ephes. i 17.
183 I. Tim. ii. 5.
184 John iv. 24.
185 Luke xxiv. 39.
186 John xiv. 28.
187 Coloss. i. 16, Coloss. i. 17.
188 Acts ii. 33.
189 Acts ii. 36.
190 Cf. John i. 2.
191 John xiv. 28.
192 John v. 19.
193 Matt. xix 26. Mark x. 27.
194 I. Cor. xv.
195 John xiv. 9.
196 Hebrews i. 3.
197 Matt. xxvi. 38.
198 Coloss. i. 15.
199 John x. 18.
200 Phil. ii. 7.
201 II. Cor. v. 20.
202 Ephes. i. 21.
203 Ephes. ii. 7.
204 Cf. Luke xxiv. 39. and John xx. 27. and cf. note on page 235.
205 Ephes. ii. 6.
206 Ephes. ii. 5.
207 John 1. 14. eskhnwsen.
208 skhnwsij.
209 Psalm cx. 1.
210 Gen. iii. 19.