Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series • VOLUME 11
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins & John Cassian
SECTION 481
Chapter XX.
Chapter XX. He shows from what has been said that we do not mean that God was mortal or of flesh before the worlds, although Christ, who is God from eternity and was made man in time, is but one Person. But perhaps you will say: If I admit that the same Person was in the end of time born of a Virgin, who was begotten before al…
1,372 wordsSECTION 482Chapter XXIII.
Chapter XXIII. That the figure Synecdoche, in which the part stands for the whole, is very familiar to the Holy Scripture. Whatever then you say of the Lord Jesus Christ, you say of the whole person, and in mentioning the Son of God you mention the Son of man, and in mentioning the Son of man you mention the Son of God: by the…
856 wordsSECTION 483Book VII.
Book VII. Chapter I. As he is going to reply to the slanders of his opponents he implores the aid of Divine grace to teach a prayer to be used by those who undertake to dispute with heretics. As it happens to those who having escaped the perils of the sea, are in terror of the sands that stretch before the harbour, or the roc…
782 wordsSECTION 484Chapter II.
Chapter II. He meets the objection taken from these words: No one gave birth to one who had existed before her. And before I begin to speak of those things of which I have given no foretaste in the earlier books, I think it right to try to carry out what I have already promised, that when I have thoroughly redeemed my pledge, …
745 wordsSECTION 485Chapter III.
Chapter III. He replies to the cavil that the one who is born must be of one substance with the one who bears. The second blasphemous slander or slanderous blasphemy of your heresy is when you say that the one who is born must be of one substance with the one who bears. It is not very different from the previous one, for it di…
774 wordsSECTION 486Chapter IV.
Chapter IV. How God has shown His Omnipotence in His birth in time as well as in everything else. Confess then the same truth in respect of the actual nativity of the Lord, as in respect of everything else. Believe that God was born when He would, for you do not deny that He could do what He would; unless possibly you think th…
1,491 wordsSECTION 487Chapter VI.
Chapter VI. He refutes another argument of Nestorius, in which he tried to make out that Christ was like Adam in every point. But since we cannot (as we should much prefer) ignore them, it is now time to expose the rest of your more subtle and insidious blasphemies that at least they may not deceive ignorant folk. In one of yo…
1,017 wordsSECTION 488Chapter VIII.
Chapter VIII. The heretics attribute to Christ only the shadow of Divinity, and so assert that he is to be worshipped together with God but not as God. But still in order to avoid thinking of the Lord Jesus as one of the whole mass of people, you have given to Him some glory, by attributing to Him honour as a saint, but not De…
1,140 wordsSECTION 489Chapter X.
Chapter X. He collects more witnesses of the same fact. But why am I lingering so long over one instance, as if many were wanting? For even then how could the fact that God was to come in the flesh escape the knowledge of men, when the Prophet said openly as if to all mankind of Him: "Behold your God;" and elsewhere: "Behold o…
824 wordsSECTION 490Chapter XIII.
Chapter XIII. How the devil always retained this notion of Christ's Divinity (because of His secret working which he experienced) even up to His Cross and Death. But perhaps he afterwards ceased and rested, and when his temptations were vanquished laid aside his suspicion because he found no result? Nay, it rather remained alw…
1,297 wordsSECTION 491Chapter XV.
Chapter XV. How Christ could be said by the Apostle to be without genealogy. How does he say that the Lord was "without genealogy," when the Gospel of the Evangelist Matthew begins with the Saviour's genealogy, saying: "The book of the generations of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham"? [2626] Therefore accordi…
1,674 wordsSECTION 492Chapter XVIII.
Chapter XVIII. How we are to understand the Apostle's words: "He appeared in the flesh, was justified in the Spirit," etc. For to begin with this assertion of yours that the Spirit filled with righteousness (justitia) what was created, and your attempts to prove this by the evidence of the Apostle, where he says that "He appea…
1,108 wordsSECTION 493Chapter XX.
Chapter XX. He tries by stronger and weightier arguments to destroy that notion. But why are we so long dealing with your wild blasphemy, with arguments that are plain indeed but still slight? Let us hear God Himself speaking to His disciples: "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils." [2648] And aga…
854 wordsSECTION 494Chapter XXII.
Chapter XXII. That the raising up of Christ into heaven is not to be ascribed to the Spirit alone. But you add this also to those impieties of yours mentioned above; viz., that the Spirit granted to the Lord His ascension into heaven: showing by this blasphemous notion of yours that you believe that the Lord Jesus Christ was s…
992 wordsSECTION 495Chapter XXIV.
Chapter XXIV. He supports this doctrine by the authority of the blessed Hilary. But it is quite time to finish the book, aye and the whole work, if I may however add the sayings of a few saintly men and illustrious priests, to support by the faith of the present day what we have already proved by the authority of holy Scriptur…
936 wordsSECTION 496Chapter XXVI.
Chapter XXVI. He adds to the foregoing the testimony of S. Jerome. Jerome, the Teacher of the Catholics, whose writings shine like divine lamps throughout the whole world, says in his book to Eustochium: "The Son of God for our salvation was made the Son of man. He waits ten months in the womb to be born: and He, in whose hand…
1,263 wordsSECTION 497Chapter XXIX.
Chapter XXIX. In the next place he puts the authority of S. Athanasius. Athanasius also, priest of the city of Alexandria, a splendid instance of constancy and virtue, whom the storm of heretical persecution tested without crushing him: whose life was always like a clear glass, and who had almost obtained the reward of martyrd…
918 wordsSECTION 498Chapter XXXI.
Chapter XXXI. He bemoans the unhappy lot of Constantinople, owing to the misfortune which has overtaken it from that heretic; and at the same time he urges the citizens to stand fast in the ancient Catholic and ancestral faith. Wherefore I also, humble and insignificant as I am in name as in desert, and although I cannot claim…
2,258 wordsSECTION 499Acts
Acts [1375]1:1 [1376]1:1 [1377]1:2 [1378]1:2 [1379]2:14-18 [1380]2:45 [1381]3:1 [1382]3:6 [1383]3:6 [1384]3:12 [1385]3:15 [1386]3:19 [1387]4:13 [1388]4:32 [1389]4:32 [1390]4:32 [1391]4:32-34 [1392]4:34-35 [1393]5 [1394]5:3 [1395]6:5 [1396]7:39-40 [1397]7:51 [1398]8:22-23 [1399]9:6 [1400]9:34 [1401]10:11 [1402]11:28 [1403]11:29 …
2,262 wordsSECTION 500This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College, http://www.ccel.org, generated on demand from ThML source.
This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College, http://www.ccel.org, generated on demand from ThML source. References 1. file:///ccel/s/schaff/npnf211/cache/npnf211.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=1&scrV=26#iv.iv.xi.iii-p3.1 2. file:///ccel/s/schaff/npnf211/cache/npnf211.html3?scrBook=Gen&scrCh=1&scrV=…
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