Scriptures, and separated Him so far from his people that He could not sympathize with them in their temptations. The effort of Herachus therefore proved abortive, and the controversy continued with unabated acrimony, until finally the sixth general council held at Constantinople, A. D. 681, authoritatively decided in favour of the doctrine that in the one person of Christ, as there are two dis- tinct natures, human and divine, there are of necessity two intelli- gences and two wills, the one fallible and finite, the other immuta- ble and infinite. Christ was tempted, and there was, therefore, the metaphysical possibility that He should have yielded. According to this Council the person of Christ was not only formed,^ ex 8vu <fiva€wv, but consists since the hypostatic union iy Bvo (fivaea-L, and it says in the name of the Church that there are Si;o <^ucrjKas ^eAi^o-ets ^ot OeXy'iixara iv auro), Koi Bvo cftvaiKa.'s evepycias dSiatpero)?, ar/aeTrraJS, d/Lie/360"Ta)?, d(Tvy)(yTOi'i Kara. Tr]V T(3v ayiiov TraTcpiov StSao-KaXtav oxraurws K7]pvTToiJiev. The Monothelites being thus condemned were perse- cuted and driven eastward, where they have perpetuated them- selves in the sect of the Maronites.
With this council the conflict on this doctrine so far ceased that there has since been no further modification of the Church doctrine. The decision against Nestorius, in which the unity of Christ's person was asserted ; that against Eutyches, affirming the distinction of natures ; and that against the Monothelites, declaring that the possession of a human nature involves of necessity the possession of a human will, have been received as the true faith by the Church universal, the Greek, Latin, and Protestant.
During the Middle Ages, although the person of Christ was the subject of diverse speculations on the part of individual writers, there was no open or organized opposition to the decisions of the above named councils.
§ 6. Doctrine of the Reformed Churches.
At the time of the Reformation the Reformed adhered strictly to the doctrine of the early Church. This is apparent from the different Confessions adopted by the several Reformed bodies, especially from the Second Helvetic Confession, which, as w-ill be seen, reviews and rejects all the ancient heresies on this subject, and repeats and adopts the language of the ancient creeds. In this Confession it is said : ^ " Credimus prseterea et docemus filium Dei Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum ab aeterno praedestinatum vel
1 Binius, Concilia Generalia, Cologne, 1618, vol. iii. part i. sect. i. pp. 330, Ml. « XI. ; Niemeyer, Colkctio Con/essionum, pp. 483-485.
406 PART m. Ch. m. — the person of CHRIST.
praeordinatum esse, a Patre, salvatorem mundi : credimusque hunc esse genitum, non tantuin, cum ex virgine Maria carnem assunisit, nee tantuin ante jacta fundamenta mundi, sed ante omnem seterni-
tatem, et quidem, a Patre, inefFabiliter Proinde Filius est
Patri juxta divinitatem coaequalis et consubstantialis, Deus verus, non nuncupatione, aut adoptione, aut ulla dignatione, sed substantia
atque natura Abominamur ergo Aril et omnium Ariano-
rum impiam contra filium Dei doctrinam Eundem quoque
SBterni Dei seternum filium credimus et docemus hominis factum esse filium, ex semine Abrahse atque Davidis, non ex viri coitu, quod Hebion dixit, sed conceptum purissime ex Spiritu Sancto, et natum ex Maria semper virgine : . . . . Caro ergo Christi, nee phantastica fuit, nee coelitus allata, sicuti Valentinus et Martion somniabant. Praeterea anima fuit Domino nostro non absque sensu et ratione, ut Apollinaris sentiebat, neque caro absque anima, ut Eunomins docebat, sed anima cum ratione sua, et caro cum sensi- bus suis, per quos sensus, veros dolores tempore passion is suae
sustinuit Agnoscimus ergo in uno atque eodem Domino
nostro Jesu Christo, duas naturas [vel substantias, as it is in sev- eral editions], divinam et humanam : et has ita dicimus conjunctas et unitas esse, ut absorptae, aut confusaB, aut immixtae non sint : sed salvis potius et permanentibus naturarum proprietatibus, in una persona, unitae et conjunctse : ita ut unum Christum Dominum, non duos veneremur: unum inquam verum Deum et hominem, juxta divinam naturam Patri, juxta humanam vero nobis homlnibus con- substantialem, et per omnia similem, peccato excepto. Etenim, ut Nestorianum dogma ex uno Christo duos faciens, et unionem per- sonae dissolvens, abominamur : ita Eutychetis et Monothelitarum vel Monophysicorum vesaniam, expungentem naturae humanse proprie- tatem execramur penitus. Ergo minime docemus naturam in Christo divinam passam esse, aut Christum secundum humanam naturam adhuc esse in hoc mundo, adeoque esse ubique. Neque enim vel sentimus, vel docemus veritatem corporis Christi a clarificatione desiisse, aut deificatam, adeoque sic deificatam esse, ut suas proprie- tates, quoad corpus et animam, deposuerit, ac prorsus in naturam
divinam abierat, unaque duntaxat substantia esse coeperit
Praeterea credimus Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, vere passum et mortuum esse pro nobis Interim non negamus et Dom- inum gloriae, juxta verba Pauli, crucifixum esse pro nobis. Nam communicationem idioniatum, ex scripturis petitam, et ab universa vetustate in explicandis componendisque scripturarum locis in spe- ciem pugnantibus usurpatam, religiose et reverenter recipimus et usurpamus."