1. Alike by the divine Scripture
and by the holy Fathers assembled at Nicæa we have been taught to
confess that the Son is of one substance with God the Father. The
impassibility of the Father is also taught by the nature and proclaimed
by the divine Scripture. We shall then further confess the Son to be
impassible, for this definition is enforced by the identity of
substance. Whenever then we hear the divine Scripture proclaiming the
cross and the death of the Master Christ we attribute the passion to
the flesh, for in no wise is the Godhead, being by nature impassible, capable of suffering.
2. “All things that the
Father hath are mine” says the Master
Christ, and one out of all is impassibility. If therefore as God He is
impassible, He suffered as man. For the divine nature does not undergo
suffering.
3. The Lord said “the
bread which I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of
the world,” and again
“I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and am known of
mine…and I lay down my life for the sheep.” So body and soul are both given by the good shepherd for the sheep who have soul and body.
4. The nature of men is
compounded of body and soul. But it sinned and stood in need of a
sacrifice free from every spot. So the Creator took a body and a soul, and keeping them clean from the stains of sin for men’s bodies gave His body and for their souls His soul. If this is true, and true it is, for these are words of truth itself, then wild and blasphemous are they who ascribe passion to the divine nature.
5. The blessed Paul called the
Christ “the first born of the dead;” and I suppose the first born has the same
nature as they of whom He is called first born. As man then He is first
born of the dead, for He first destroyed the pangs of death and gave to
all the sweet hope of another life. As He rose so He suffered. As man
then He suffered but as awful God He remained impassible.
6. The divine Apostle calls our
Saviour Christ “the firstfruits of them that slept,” but the firstfruits are related to the whole whereof they are firstfruits. He is not therefore called firstfruits as God, for what relationship is there between Godhead and manhood? The former is an immortal nature, the latter mortal. Such is the nature of them that sleep, of whom Christ is called firstfruits. To this nature belong death and resurrection, and in its resurrection we have a proof of the general resurrection.
7. When the Master Christ wished
to persuade the doubting Apostles that He had destroyed death and
risen, He shewed them parts of His body, His side, His hands, His feet
and the marks of the passion preserved therein. This body then rose, and this, I ween, was shown to the disbelievers. What rose is what was buried, and what was buried is what had died, and what had died is of course what was nailed to the cross. So the divine nature united to the body remained impassible.
8. They who describe the flesh
of the Lord as giver of life make life itself mortal by their words. They ought to have seen that it was giver of life through the life united to it. But if according to their argument the life is mortal, how could the flesh being itself by nature mortal, and made life-giving through the life, remain life-giving?
9. God the Word is by nature
immortal, and the flesh by nature mortal, but after the passion by
union with the Word the flesh itself became immortal. How then is it
not absurd to say that the giver of such immortality shared
death?
10. They who maintain that God the Word suffered in the flesh
should be asked the meaning of what they say, and should they have the
hardihood to reply that when the body was pierced with nails the divine
nature was sensible of pain, let them learn that the divine nature did
not fill the part of a soul. God the Word had assumed a soul with the
body. Should they reject this argument as blasphemous, and should they
assert that the flesh suffered by nature, and that God the Word made
the passion His own as of His own flesh, let them not propound puzzling
and murky phrases, but let them clearly propound the meaning of the ill
sounding phrase. They will have all those who wish to follow the divine
Scripture as their supporters in this interpretation.
