Eran.--The Fathers said that the Son of God, Light of Light, of the substance of the Father, suffered and was crucified.
Orth.--I have observed more than once that both the Divine and the human are ascribed to the one Person. It is in accordance with this position that the thrice blessed Fathers, after teaching how we should believe in the Father, and then passing on to the person of the Son, did not immediately add "and in the Son of God," although it would have very naturally followed that after defining what touches God the Father they should straightway have introduced the name of Son. But their object was to give us at one and the same time instruction on the theology and on the oeconomy, [1511] lest there should be supposed to be any distinction between the Person of the Godhead and the Person of the Manhood. On this account they added to their statement concerning the Father that we must believe also in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Now after the incarnation God the Word is called Christ, for this name includes alike all that is proper to the Godhead and to the manhood. We recognise nevertheless that some properties belong to the one nature and some to the others, and this may at once be understood from the actual terms of the Creed. For tell me: to what do you apply the phrase "of the substance of the Father"? to the Godhead, or to the nature that was fashioned of the seed of David?
Eran.--To the Godhead, as is plain.
Orth.--And the clause "Very God of very God"; to which do you hold this belongs, to the Godhead or to the manhood?
Eran.--To the Godhead.
Orth.--Therefore neither the flesh nor the soul is of one substance with the Father, for they are created, but the Godhead which formed all things.
Eran.--True.
Orth.--Very well, then. And when we are told of passion and of the cross we must recognise the nature which submitted to the passion; we must avoid attributing it to the impassible, and must attribute it to that nature which was assumed for the distinct purpose of suffering. The acknowledgment on the part of the most excellent Fathers that the divine nature was impassible; and their attribution of the passion to the flesh is proved by the conclusion of the creed, which runs "But they who state there was a time when He was not, and before He was begotten He was not, and He was made out of the non-existent, or who allege that the Son of God was of another essence or substance mutable or variable, these the holy catholic and apostolic Church anathematizes." See then what penalties are denounced against them that attribute the passion to the divine nature. [1512]
Eran.--They are speaking in this place of mutation and variation.
Orth.--But what is the passion but mutation and variation? For if, being impassible before His incarnation, He suffered after His incarnation, He assuredly suffered by undergoing mutation; and if being immortal before He became man, He tasted death, as you say, after being made man, He underwent a complete alteration by being made mortal after being immortal. But expressions of this kind, and their authors with them, have all been expelled by the illustrious Fathers from the bounds of the Church, and cut off like rotten limbs from the sound body. We therefore exhort you to fear the punishment and abhor the blasphemy.
Now I will show you that in their own writings the holy Fathers have held the opinions we have expressed. Of the witnesses I shall bring forward some took part in that great Council; some flourished in the Church after their time; some illuminated the world long before. But their harmony is broken neither by difference of periods nor by diversity of language; like the harp their strings are several and separate but like the harp they make one harmonious music.
Eran.--I was anxious for and shall be delighted at such citations. Instruction of this kind cannot be gainsaid, and is most useful.
Orth.--Now; open your ears and receive the streams that flow from the spiritual springs.
Testimony of the holy Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, and martyr.
From his Epistle to the Smyrnæans:--
"They do not admit Eucharists and oblations, because they do not confess the Eucharist to be flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ which suffered for our sins and which of His goodness the Father raised."
Testimony of Irenæus, bishop of Lyons.
From his third book against heresies (Chap. xx.):--
"It is clear then that Paul knew no other Christ save Him that suffered and was buried and rose and was born, whom he calls man, for after saying, If Christ be preached that He rose from the dead,' [1514] he adds, giving the reason of His incarnation, For since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead,' [1515] and on all occasions in reference to the passion, the manhood and the dissolution of the Lord, he uses the name of Christ as in the text, Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died,' [1516] and again, But now in Christ ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ,' [1517] and again, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.'" [1518]
Of the same from the same work. (Chapter xxi.):--
"For as He was Man that He might be tempted, so was He Word that He might be glorified. In His temptation, His crucifixion and His dying, the Word was inoperative; but in His victory, His patience, His goodness, His resurrection and His assumption it was co-operative with the manhood."
Of the same from the fifth book of the same work:--
"When with His own blood the Lord had ransomed us, and given His soul on behalf of our souls, and His flesh instead of our flesh."
The testimony of the holy Hippolytus, bishop and martyr.
From his letter to a certain Queen:--
"So he calls Him The firstfruits of them that slept,' [1519] and The first born of the dead.' [1520] When He had risen and was wishful to show that what had risen was the same body which died, when the Apostles doubted, He called to Him Thomas and said Handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have.'" [1521]
Of the same from the same letter:--
"By calling Him firstfruits He bore witness to what we have said, that the Saviour, after taking the flesh of the same material, raised it, making it firstfruits of the flesh of the just, in order that all we that believe might have expectation of our resurrection through trust in Him that is risen."
Of the same from his discourse on the two thieves:--
"The body of the Lord gave both to the world,--the holy blood and the sacred water."
Of the same from the same discourse:--
"And the body being, humanly speaking, a corpse, has in itself great power of life, for there flowed from it what does not flow from dead bodies--blood and water,--that we might know what vital force lies in the indwelling power in the body, so that it is a corpse evidently unlike others, and is able to pour forth for us causes of life." [1522]
Of the same from the same discourse:--
"Not a bone of the holy Lamb is broken. The type shews that the passion cannot touch the power, for the bones are the power of the body."
Testimony of the holy Eustathius, bishop of Antioch, and confessor.
From his book on the soul:--
"Their impious calumny can be refuted in a few words; they may be right, unless He voluntarily gave up His own body to the destruction of death for the sake of the salvation of men. First of all they attribute to Him extraordinary infirmity in not being able to repel His enemies assault."
Of the same from the same book:--
"Why do they, in the concoction of their earth-born deceits, make much of proving that the Christ assumed a body without a soul? In order that if they could seduce any to lay down that this is the case, then, by attributing to the divine Spirit variations of affection, they might easily persuade them that the mutable is not begotten of the immutable nature."
Of the same from his discourse on "the Lord created me in the beginning of His ways": [1523] --
"The man Who died rose on the third day, and, when Mary was eager to lay hold of His holy limbs, He objected and cried Touch me not. [1524] For I am not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God.' [1525] Now the words I am not yet ascended to my Father,' were not spoken by the Word and God, who came down from heaven, and was in the bosom of the Father, nor by the Wisdom which contains all created things, but were uttered by the man who was compacted of various limbs, who had risen from the dead, who had not yet after His death gone back to the Father, and was reserving for Himself the first fruits of His progress."
Of the same from the same work:--
"As he writes he expressly describes the man who was crucified as Lord of Glory, declaring Him to be Lord and Christ, just as the Apostles with one voice when speaking to Israel in the flesh say Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, Whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.' [1526] He so made Jesus Christ who suffered. He did not so make the Wisdom nor yet the Word who has the might of dominion from the beginning, but Him who was lifted up on high and stretched out His hands upon the Cross."
Of the same from the same work:--
"For if He is incorporeal and not subject to manual contact, nor apprehended by eyes of flesh, He undergoes no wound, He is not nailed by nails, He has no part in death, He is not hidden in the ground, He is not shut in a grave, He does not rise from a tomb."
Of the same from the same book:--
"No man taketh it from me....I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again.' [1527] If as God He had the double power, He yet yielded to them who were striving of evil counsel to destroy the temple, but by His resurrection He restored it in greater splendour. It is proved by incontrovertible evidence that He of Himself rose and renewed His own house, and the great work of the Son is to be ascribed to the divine Father; for the Son does not work without the Father, as is declared in the unimpeachable utterances of the holy Scriptures. Wherefore at one time the divine Parent is described as having raised the Christ from the dead, at another time the Son promises to raise His own temple. If then from what has previously been laid down the divine spirit of the Christ is proved to be impassible, in vain do the accursed assail the apostolic definitions. If Paul says that the Lord of Glory was crucified, clearly referring to the manhood, we must not on this account refer suffering to the divine. Why then do they put these two things together, saying that the Christ was crucified from infirmity?"
Of the same from the same work:--
"But had it been becoming to attribute to Him any kind of infirmity, any one might have said that it was natural to attach these qualities to the manhood, though not to the fulness of the Godhead, or to the dignity of the highest wisdom, or to Him who according to Paul is described as God over all." [1528]
Of the same from the same book:--
"This then is the manner of the infirmity according to which He is described by Paul as coming to death, for the man lives by God's power when plainly associated with God's spirit, since from the preceding statements He who is believed to be in Him is proved to be also the power of the Most High."
Of the same from the same:--
"As by entering the Virgin's womb He did not lessen His power, so neither by the fastening of His body to the wood of the cross is His spirit defiled. For when the body was crucified on high the divine Spirit of wisdom dwelt even within the body, trod in heavenly places, filled all the earth, reigned over the depths, visited and judged the soul of every man, and continued to do all that God continually does, for the wisdom that is on high is not prisoned and contained within bodily matter, just as moist and dry material are contained within their vessels and are contained by but do not contain them. But this wisdom, being a divine and ineffable power, embraces and confirms alike all that is within and all that is without the temple, and thence proceeding beyond comprehends and sways at once all matter."