Bishop Forbes cites Photius and Johannes Damas- cenus aptly on Eutj'chianism as follows, viz. : '■ If there be one nature in Christ, it is either the divine or the human nature ; if it be only the divine nature, ■where is the human .' and if thare be only the human, you cannot escape from denying the divine. But if it be something different from these (for this is the only other alternative they have, and they seem to lean that wa3'), how shall not in that case Christ be of a different nature, both from his Father and from us.' Can anything be more impious or absurd to say that the Word of God, who is God, became man, to the cor- ruption of his own deity, and to the annihilation of the humanity he assumed ? For this absolutely follows ■with those ■who have dared to speak of Christ as of neither nature, but of one besides these" (Photius, Epist. i, cont. Eutych. cit. Suicer). " The two natures ■were without conversion or alteration joined together, and tlie divine nature did not depart from its own sim- plicity, nor did the nature of man turn into the nature of God, nor was it deprived of existence, nor was one composite nature made out of two ; for a composite nature cannot be consubstantial with either of those natures from whence it is compounded. If, therefore, according to the heretics, Christ exist in one com- pounded nature after the imion, he is changed from a simple into a compounded nature, and is not consub- stantial with his Father, who is of a simple nature, nor with his mother, for she is not made up of the Godhead and manhood. And he will be neither in the Godhead nor in the manhood, nor will he be called God or man, but Christ only ; and Christ will be the name not of his person, but of his own nature, as they deem. But we do not hold Christ to be of a composite nature, as the body and soul make the man, but we believe and confess that he is of the Godhead and manhood ; perfect God and perfect man from and in two natures. "Were he of one nature, the same nature would be at once created and increate, simple and composite, mo;tal and immortal. And the union of two natures in Jesus Christ has taken place neither by disorder ((pvo/^ioQ) nor liy mixture (syncrasis or ana- crasis), as Eutyches, Dioscorus (of Alexandria), and Severus say ; neither is it personal (Trnom-jTrKcni') nor relative, nor Kar' a'^iaiJ, nor from identit}' of will, nor from equality of honor, nor from the same name, as Nestorius, Diodorus (of Tarsus), and Theodorus (of Mopsuestia) said ; but by synthesis ; or personalh'
(Ka^' vTToaramv), immutably, inconfusedly, unaltera- bly, inherently, inseparably, in two perfect natures in one person. And we term this union essential (ohai- wctj), that is, true and not fantastic ; essential, not in that one nature is made of the two, but that they are mutually united in truth into one composite person of the Son of God. And their substantial diflerences are preserved, for that which is created remains created, and that which is increate remains increate ; the mor- tal remains mortal, the immortal abides immortal. The one shines forth in miracles, the other submits to injuries ; and the Word appropriates to itself that which is of man. For its are the things that pertain to the Sacred Flesh, and it gives its own properties to the flesh, according to the law of the communication of properties and tlie unity of person, for he is the same who performs both the God-like and the man- like actions in either form with the communion of the other. Wherefore tiic Lord of glory is said to be cru- cified, although the divine nature did not suffer, and the Son of man, even before his passion, is confessed to be in heaven, as the Lord himself said (John iii). For there is one and the same Lord of glory, who is naturalh' and in truth the Son of man, that is, made man. We acknowledge both his miracles and his suf- ferings, though the first were performed according to one nature, the latter endured according to the other. Thus we know that his one person and his two natures are preserved. By the difference of the natures he is, on the one hand, one with the Father and the Holy Ghost ; on the other hand, he is one ■with his mother and with us. And these two natures are joined in one composite person, in which he differs as from the Fa- ther and the Hoh' Ghost, so from his mother and us also" (Joh. Damascenus, Fid. Orlh. iii, 3, abr.). Bishop Forbes adds : '• Now we have all a great tendency to Eutj'chianism. It gets over a great difficulty in the- reception of truth to believe the humanit}' of our Lord destroj'ed. For faith now requires of us to believe that the human body of Jesus Christ still is, and that to it the Word is hypostatically joined, and that be- j'ond the spheres and systems of which -we are cogni- zant, it, partaking of our nature, is at the right hand of God" {Oh the Nicene Creed, Oxford, 1852, p. 201 sq.).