|
What is common and general is predicated of the included particulars.
Essence, then, is common as being a form, while subsistence is
particular. It is particular not as though it had part of the nature
and had not the rest, but particular in a numerical sense, as being
individual. For it is in number and not in nature that the difference
between subsistences is said to lie. Essence, therefore, is
predicated of subsistence, because in each subsistence of the same form
the essence is perfect. Wherefore subsistences do not differ from each
other in essence but in the accidents which indeed are the
characteristic properties, but characteristic of subsistence and not of
nature. For indeed they define subsistence as essence along with
accidents. So that the subsistence contains both the general and the
particular, and has an independent existence, while essence has not an
independent existence but is contemplated in the subsistences.
Accordingly when one of the subsistences suffers, the whole essence,
being capable of suffering, is held to have suffered in one of its
subsistences as much as the subsistence suffered, but it does not
necessarily follow, however, that all the subsistences of the same
class should suffer along with the suffering subsistence.
Thus, therefore, we confess that the nature of the Godhead is wholly
and perfectly in each of its subsistences, wholly in the Father,
wholly in the Son, and wholly in the Holy Spirit. Wherefore also
the Father is perfect God, the Son is perfect God, and the Holy
Spirit is perfect God. In like manner, too, in the Incarnation of
the Trinity of the One God the Word of the Holy Trinity, we hold
that in one of its subsistences the nature of the Godhead is wholly and
perfectly united with the whole nature of humanity, and not part united
to part. The divine Apostle in truth says that in Him dwelleth all
the fulness of the Godhead bodily, that is to say in His flesh. And
His divinely-inspired disciple, Dionysius, who had so deep a
knowledge of things divine, said that the Godhead as a whole had
fellowship with us in one of its own subsistences. But we shall not be
driven to hold that all the subsistences of the Holy Godhead, to wit
the three, are made one in subsistence with all the subsistences of
humanity. For in no other respect did the Father and the Holy
Spirit take part in the incarnation of God the Word than according to
good will and pleasure But we hold that to the whole of human nature
the whole essence of the Godhead was united. For God the Word
omitted none of the things which He implanted in our nature when He
formed us in the beginning, but took them all upon Himself, body and
soul both intelligent and rational, and all their properties. For the
creature that is devoid of one of these is not man. But He in His
fulness took upon Himself me in my fulness, and was united whole to
whole that He might in His grace bestow salvation on the whole man.
For what has not been taken cannot be healed.
The Word of God, then, was united to flesh through the medium of
mind which is intermediate between the purity of God and the grossness
of flesh. For the mind holds sway over soul and body, but while the
mind is the purest part of the soul God is that of the mind. And when
it is allowed by that which is more excellent, the mind of Christ
gives proof of its own authority, but it is under the dominion of and
obedient to that which is more excellent, and does those things which
the divine will purposes.
Further the mind has become the seat of the divinity united with it in
subsistence, just as is evidently the case with the body too, not as
an inmate, which is the impious error into which the heretics fall when
they say that one bushel cannot contain two bushels, for they are
judging what is immaterial by material standards. How indeed could
Christ be called perfect God and perfect man, and be said to be of
like essence with the Father and with us, if only part of the divine
nature is joined in Him to part of the human nature?
We hold, moreover, that our nature has been raised from the dead and
has ascended to the heavens and taken its seat at the right hand of the
Father: not that all the persons of men have risen from the dead and
taken their seat at the right hand of the Father, but that this has
happened to the whole of our nature in the subsistence of Christ.
Verily the divine Apostle says, God hath raised us up together and
made us sit together in Christ.
And this further we hold, that the union took place through common
essences. For every essence is common to the subsistences contained in
it, and there cannot be found a partial and particular nature, that is
to say, essence: for otherwise we would have to hold that the same
subsistences are at once the same and different in essence, and that
the Holy Trinity in respect of the divinity is at once the same and
different in essence. So then the same nature is to be observed in
each of the subsistences, and when we said that the nature of the word
became flesh, as did the blessed Athanasius and Cyrillus, we mean
that the divinity was joined to the flesh. Hence we cannot say "The
nature of the Word suffered;" for the divinity in it did not suffer,
but we say that the human nature, not by any means, however, meaning
all the subsistences of men, suffered in Christ, and we confess
further that Christ suffered in His human nature. So that when we
speak of the nature of the Word we mean the Word Himself. And the
Word has both the general element of essence and the particular element
of subsistence.
|
|
