2 118. DOCTRINE OF ADOPTIONISM. 519
as Christ has two natures, there must be in him two correspond ing Sonships. According to his divine nature, Christ is really and essentially (secundum naturam or genere) the Son of God, begotten from eternity; but according to his human nature, he is the Son of God only nominally (nuncupative) by adoption, or by divine grace. By nature he is the Only-Begotten Son of God;1 by adoption and grace he is the First- Begotten Sou of God.2
The Adoptionists quoted in their favor mainly John 14: 28 ; Luke 1: 80; 18: 19; Mark 13: 32; John 1: 14; 10: 35; Kom. 8: 29; 1 Cor. 11: 3; 1 John 3: 2; Dent. 18: 15; Ps. 2 : 8 ; 22 : 23, and other passages from the Old Testament, which they referred to the Films primogenitiis et adoptivus; while Ps. 60 : 4 (ex utero ante Lucifcrum gcnui te) ; 44 : 2 ; Is. 45 : 23 ; Prov. 8 : 25, were understood to apply to the Filius unigenitus. None of these passages, which might as well be quoted in favor of Arianism, bear them out in the point of dis pute. Christ is nowhere called the " adopted " Son of God. Felix inferred from the adoption of the children of God, that they must have an adoptive head. He made use of the illus tration, that as a son cannot have literally two fathers, but may have one by birth and the other by adoption, so Christ, accord ing to his humanity, cannot be the Son of David and the Son of God in one and the same sense ; but he may be the one by nature and the other by adoption.3
It is not clear whether he dated the adopted Sonship of Christ from his exaltation,4 or from his baptism,5 or already from his birth.6 He speaks of a double birth of Christ, compares the baptism of Christ with the baptism or regeneration of believers, and connects both with the spiritual is generatio per adoptionem ;7 but, on the other hand, he seems to trace the union of the human nature with the divine to the womb of the Virgin.8
1 Unigenitus, /novoyevfa, John 1 : 14, 18.
2 Primogenitiis, 7rp(,)-6roKoc h TTO^OI^ otfc/l^oZf, Rom. 8: 29; comp. Col. 1: 15, 8 Alcuin, Contra Felicem, I. 12, and III. 1. 4 Dorner, II. 319.
• Walch. 6 Neander. 7 1. c. II. 15. c / c. V. 1.
520 FOUETH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
The Adoptionists, as already remarked, thought themselves in harmony with the Christology of Chalcedon, and professed faith in one divine person in two full and perfect natures ; l they only wished to bring out their views of a double Sonship, as a legitimate consequence of the doctrine of two natures.
The champions of orthodoxy, among whom Alcuin, the teacher and friend of Charlemagne, was the most learned and able, next to him Paulinus of Aquileja, and Agobard of Lyons, unanimously viewed Adoptionism as a revival or modification of the Nestorian heresy, which was condemned by the third (Ecumenical Council (43 1).2
Starting from the fact of a real incarnation, the orthodox party insisted that it was the eternal, only begotten Son of God, who assumed human nature from the womb of the Virgin, and united it with his divine person, remaining the proper Son of God, notwithstanding this change.3 They quoted in their favor such passages as John 3 : 16 ; Rom. 8 : 32; Eph. 5:2; Acts 3 : 13-15.
The radical fault of this heresy is, that it shifts the whole idea of Sonship from the person to the nature. Christ is the Son of God as to his person, not as to nature. The two natures do not form two Sons, since they are inseparably united in the one Christ. The eternal Son of God did not in the act of incar-
1 " In una persona, duabus guoque naturis plenis atque perfectis." Alcuin, Opp. II. 567.
2 Alcuin, Contra Felicem, lib. I., c. 11 : " Sicut Nestoriana impietas in duas Christum divldit personas propter duas naluras; ita et vestra indocta temeritas in duos eum dividit filios, unum proprium, alterum adoptivum. Si vero Christus est proprius Filius Dei Patris et adoptivus, ergo est alter et alter," etc. Lib. IV. c. 5 : " Nonne duo sunt, qui verns est Deus, et qui nuncupativus Deus? Nonne etiam et duo sunt, qui adoptivus est Filius, et ille, qui verus est Filius f"
3 Ibid. II. 12: '* Nee in ilia assumptione alius est Deus, alms homo, vel alms Filius Dei, et alius Filius Virginis ; sed idem est Filius Dei, qui et Filius Vir~ ginis; ut sit unus Filius etiam proprius et perfectus in duabus naturis Dei et homim's." In the Confession which Felix had to sign in 799 when he abjured his error, it is said that the Son of God and the Son of man are one and the same true and proper Son of the Father, " non adoptione, non appellatione seu nuncupa tion^, sed in utraque natura unus Dei Patris verus et proprius Dei Dei Filius."