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THE INCARNATION; 



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HIS TWENTY-EIGHTH EPISTLE, 
CALLED THE " TOME." 



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BY 



WILLIAM BRIGHT, D.D., 

REGIUS PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, CANON OF CHRIST CHURCH, 
AND EXAMINING CHAPLAIN TO THE LORD BISHOP OF LINCOLN. 



SeconU lEtritton, 

REVISED AND ENLARGED. 



LONDON : 
J. MASTERS AND CO., 78, NEW BOND STREET. 



MDCCCLXXXVI. 




MAR 2 1954 



LONDON : 

J. MASTERS AND CO., PRINTERS, 
ALBION BUILDINGS, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE, B.C. 



PREFACE 

TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



FOR a general survey of the career of Pope Leo the 
Great, and for an estimate of his character and of his 
place in ecclesiastical history, the reader may be re- 
ferred to the article on " Leo I." in the " Dictionary of 
Christian Biography," by the Rev. C. Gore, Principal 
of Pusey House, Oxford ; with which may be compared 
the volume entitled " Leo the Great," contributed by 
the same author to the S. P. C. K. series of " The 
Fathers for English Readers." 

Something, however, may here be said, by way of 
introduction to the consideration of S. Leo's posi- 
tion as a preacher and as a controversial theolo- 
gian, in reference to that commanding personality 
which Cardinal Newman has aptly characterised by 
the word " majestic." Leo is the first of four Popes 
who, even if their lot had been cast in secular life, 
would have made their mark as great men : the three 
others, it need not be said, being the first and seventh 
Gregories and the third Innocent. It is significant \ 
that when, on the vacancy of the Roman see in 440, 

a 2 



iv Preface. 

he was absent in Gaul on a high political mission, 
there was no question of a contested election ; the 
Roman clergy and laity waited tranquilly through 
forty days for the return of the only ecclesiastic who 
could be seriously thought of as successor to Sixtus 
III. There is something of the Aristotelian jotsyaXo- 
x|/u^/a in Leo, as he ascends the throne which was 
called " par excellence," Apostolical ; he does not 
think of evading the task imposed upon him ; he has 
a grave confidence that it is the task for him, that he 
is the man for it, and that he will be divinely enabled 
to satisfy its requirements. Authority, so to speak, 
comes natural to him ; his temperament, for instance, 
is the very opposite to that of Gregory of Nazianzus ; 
it has a certain affinity to that of Basil, but there is 
in it much more of the simply imperial element, in 
contrast to that sensitiveness and tenderness which 
lends so pathetic a charm to the story of the great 
primate of Cappadocia. If we think of comparing 
Leo with Athanasius, we find that while he lacked those 
opportunities of confessorship which were so splen- 
didly used by him who stood " against the world," he 
was also less fully and conspicuously " royal-hearted" 1 
in many-sidedness and far-reaching insight, in depth 
and massiveness of thought, in balance and harmony 
of various excellences, in the qualities of a moral 
centre of union, in the noble affectionateness which 
kindles and perpetuates loyalty. We think of Leo 
as of a public personage always ; he does not seem 
to have needed an " interior ;" he is absorbed in the 
work of government, and of government as carried 
on by the application of a few simple methods. 

1 Newman, in Lyra Apostolica, p. 118. 



Preface. v 

Unity, discipline, obedience to ecclesiastical rule, con- 
formity to orthodox standards, are dominant ideas 
with him ; he does not care, apparently, to balance 
them by other considerations ; it is not much in his 
line to appreciate difficulties, or to place himself at 
other persons' standpoints ; he has little of that 
Pauline spirit which can become all things to all men, 
and even weak with the weak ; his character is of y 
the type which secures admiration and reverence, but 
fails, on the whole, to call forth actual love. The 
faults which cannot but be discerned in what we may 
call his Papal policy, the hasty injustice and abso- 
lutism with which he treated so eminent a bishop as 
Hilary of Aries, 1 the employment of a worthless 
Western emperor as the instrument for enforcing his 
own supremacy throughout the West, 2 the persist- 
ence with which, in spite of evidence which must have 
been familiar to one who had been in the service of 
the Roman Church from the time of Pope Zosimus, 3 



1 Tillemont repeatedly says that he was " prevent! centre S. Hilaire," 
"less of a judge than of a partisan." "It would be difficult," he 
adds, "to excuse this holy Pope for the charges which he brings 
against a bishop whose sanctity is so well acknowledged, if we did not 
every day feel in ourselves the effects of that unfortunate weakness 
which makes us take our suspicions for proved facts, and believe too 
easily the evil which is reported to us of others, especially when they 
have wounded us in regard to pretensions which we think just and 
wellfounded," (xv. 7887.) Tillemont indicates clearly enough that, 
in his opinion, S. Leo had " overstepped the bounds of the canons." 

2 " Epist." xi. (July 8, 445.) Tillemont speaks of this rescript with 
measured severity, xv. 83, 441. Its language presupposes the corrupt 
Roman reading of the sixth Nicene canon, which Leo's legate pro- 
duced at Chalcedon, whereupon the true text was read. 

3 S. Augustine mentions "Leo the Acolyth" as the bearer of a letter 
from Rome in 418, Ep. cxci. I. 



vi Preface. 

he went On claiming the warrant of the Nicene 
Council for an appellate jurisdiction in his own see, 1 
such things are too clear proofs that he did not rise 
above the temptations which beset men born to rule, 
and that the spirit of that lordly verse, 

"Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento," 2 

was mingled in his mind with a sincere acceptance of 
that traditionary Roman belief in the rights of the 
" Cathedra Petri," to which he gave an emphasised ex- 
pression and a considerably extended scope. 3 

It would be most unjust to ignore the moral emi- 
nence which the inchoate Papacy of that age attained 
through its high-souled representative.' Dean Milman 
may somewhat overstate the case when he says that 
" on the throne of Rome alone, of all the greater sees, 
did religion maintain its majesty, its sanctity, its 
piety;" for Flavian of Constantinople was undoubtedly 
a pious prelate, who had shown at his accession that 
he would not buy support by base means. But Mil- 
man adds that " the world would not be inclined rigidly 
to question pretensions supported," in Leo's case, " by 
such conscious power or by such singular and unim- 

1 True copies of the Nicene canons, containing nothing about ap- 
peals to Rome, were sent to Rome in November of 419. The Sardican 
canons on such appeals could not, then, after this, be honestly adduced 
by any Roman ecclesiastic as Nicene. Yet Leo does, in effect, so adduce 
them in a synodical letter to Theodosius, Oct. 13, 449, Epist. xliv. 3. 

2 See Milman, Hist, of Latin Christianity, i. 230, " Leo was a Ro- 
man in sentiment," &c. Compare Gore's Leo the Great, p. 101. 

3 This will appear to be the case if his language is compared with 
that of Innocent I., who had " Papal ideas" in his mind, and in whose 
language Hallam sees the germ of " the system of Bellarmine," Middle 
Ages, ii. 228. 



Preface. vii 

peachable virtue, and by such inestimable benefits 
conferred on Rome, on the empire, on civilisation. 
Once" (i.e. in 452) " Leo was supposed to have saved 
Rome from the most terrible of barbarian conquerors ; 
a second time" (in 455) "he mitigated the horrors of 
her fall before the king of the Vandals. During his 
pontificate" (440 461) " Leo is the only great name , 
in the empire ; it might seem also in the Christian 
world." 1 

II. 

The following specimens of his Sermons 2 for the 
sacred seasons of Christmas, Epiphany, Passion-tide, 
Easter, Ascension, and Whitsuntide which may with 
sufficient accuracy be described as " on the Incarna- 
tion"- -will be best introduced by another quotation 
from the same vivid and vigorous writer. 

" He was the first of the Roman Pontiffs whose y 
popular sermons have come down to posterity. The 
bishops of Constantinople seem to have been the 
great preachers of their city. ... Leo, no doubt, felt 
his strength : he could cope with the minds of the 
people, and make the pulpit what the rostrum had 
been of old. His sermons singularly contrast with 
the florid, desultory, and often imaginative and im- 
passioned style of the Greek preachers. They are 
brief, simple, severe ; without fancy, without meta- 
physic subtlety, without passion : it is the Roman 

1 Milman, i. 228. 

' 2 Sozomen's statement (vii. 19,) that in his own time there was no public 
preaching at Rome, must be a gross exaggeration. Tillemont says that 
Leo in his sermons speaks as if preaching were a recognised duty of 
" popes, as well as of other bishops," xv. 417. 



viii Preface. 

\ 

Censor animadverting with nervous majesty on the 
vices of the people ; the Roman Praetor dictating the 
law, and delivering with authority the doctrine of the 
faith. They are singularly Christian Christian as 
dwelling almost exclusively on Christ, His birth, His 
Passion, His Resurrection : only polemic so far as 
called upon by the prevailing controversies to assert 
with especial emphasis the perfect Deity and the per- 
fect Manhood of Christ." 1 

Dean Milman adds that there is nothing of a 
" cultus sanctorum" in these discourses ; and it has 
been well remarked that although he ascribes great 
efficacy to " the patronage, prayers, or merits of the 
saints," yet he says nothing about " invoking" them, 
and " he very zealously guards the prerogative of Christ 
as the real source of merit." 2 The practical bent of 
his mind, alike as pastor and as Church ruler, appears 
in those earnest exhortations to moral watchfulness 
and active piety which repeatedly occur in his preach- 
ing on the events of our Lord's earthly life, but 
naturally take a more urgent tone in the series of his 
twelve Lenten Sermons. Again and again he seems 
to say, " If you call yourselves Christians, take care 
to act out your Christianity : do not rest until your 
faith has become a transforming principle in your 
lives. 3 The Eternal Son of God really became man 
for you, died for you, rose again for you, went up on 

1 Milman, i. 233. 

2 Diet. Chr. Biogr. iii. 670. 

3 "As in faith lies the motive of works, so in works lies the strength 
of faith," Serm. de Collect, v. 2. See de Collect, iv. I, that God can 
be denied by deeds as well as by words, and that many who retain be- 
lief have lost charity. 



Preface. ix 

high to intercede for you : do you be real in your devo- 
tion to His service. You have been admitted to the 
highest spiritual privileges i 1 remember the grave re- 
sponsibilities which they involve. You are constantly 
exposed to the crafts of the Tempter : 2 take care not 
to be overcome for want of vigilance. Forewarned, 
forearmed : the time is short, the work to be done 
in it is momentous : 3 keep clear of seducing influences ; 
be strict in self-examination, 4 diligent in prayer, ob- 
servant of fasts, open-handed in almsdeeds ; 5 but 
amid all these good activities, beware of a self-com- 
placency which would forfeit grace, 6 and of the self- 
confidence which goes before a fall ; 7 hold fast to the 
true faith in a Divine and human Saviour, but see to 
it that your faith is active through love ; 8 and never 
lose heart in your efforts to acquire that purity 

1 Leo's "sacerdotalism" is quite consistent with a pointed comment 
on I S. Peter ii. 9, " Utprseter istam specialem nostri ministerii servi- 
tutem, universi spiritales et rationabiles christiani agnoscant se .... 
sacerdotalis officii esse consortes," de Natal, ips. iv. i; cp. de Quadr. 
x. c. I, that not only the clergy, but " omne corpus ecclesise," ought to be 
holy, so that God's temple ' ' in omnibus lapidibus speciosum, et in tota 
sui parte sit lucidum." 

' Ille cui sanctificatio nostra supplicium est, " de Jej. x. mensis, vii. 
c. 2 ; cp. de Quadr. xi. c. 3. 

:< Non enim dormientibus provenit regnum ccelorum," in Epiph. v. 
c. 3. 

u Circumspiciat se omnis anima Christiana, et severe examine 
cordis sui interna discutiat." De Quadr. i. c. 5 ; cp. de Quadr. 
iii. c. I, "Scrutetur quisque conscientiam suam." 

' See Sermon xvi. in this volume, c. 5, and de Quadr. vi. c. 2, de 
Collectis, vi. c. 2, de Jej. x. mensis, i. c. 2. In the latter passages he 
dwells on the common humanity of all men, ' ' una est divitum paupe- 
rumque natura" .... " unus enim nos Conditor finxit. " 

5 Serm. in Epiph. viii. c. 3, de Quadr. iv. c. 3. 

7 De Quadr. v. c. 3. 

8 De Quadr. vii. c. 2. 



x Preface. 

which, as long as it is sought for, will assuredly be 
obtained." 1 

Leo's exhortations may be said to revolve in a 
narrow circle ;~ there are certain things which he is 
bent on bringing home to the consciences of his 
flock ; he is quite indifferent as to repeating himself, 
if thereby he can deepen the impression. The general 
brevity of his sermons may indicate this practical de- 
termination ; their style is terse, succinct, antithetical, 
hardly ever diffuse, for he means to say what will 
stick and be remembered ; their condensation has a 
peculiar energy and intensity, and their stately 
rhythm a masterful impressiveness ; we feel that the 
great Pope's voice, as it rang through the pillared 
naves of the patriarchal basilicas, must have been 
fraught with solemn power for Roman auditors, who 
might hardly have appreciated the homely confiden- 
tial simplicity and the versatile sympathetic self-adap- 
tation with which S. Augustine had poured forth his 
stores of thought and knowledge, and feeling and 
experience, into the minds of the Church-people of 
Hippo. 




III. 

The work of Leo as a controversial theologian was 
to guard against the Knfvrhiaji reaction from Nes- 
torianism ; in other words, to vindicate the reality 

1 A sentence well worth remembering, in Serm. de Quadr. xii. c. I. 
After quoting "Blessed are the pure in heart," he adds, "Quamvis 
enim scriptum sit, ' Quis gloriabitur castum se habere cor, aut mundum 
se esse peccato?' (Prov. xx. 9,) non tamen desperanda est apprehensio 
puritatis, quse dum semper petitur semper accipitur." 



Preface. xi 

and permanence of the human nature in Christ, as 
altogether consistent with the singleness of His Di- 
vine personality. Herein consists the value of Leo's 
" Christological " writings. Modern tendencies, in- 
deed, run sometimes into a Nestorian, sometimes into 
a purely Humanitarian direction ; they have little 
affinity to Apollinarianism or to Eutychianism. It is, 
therefore, all the more opportune for us to have our 
attention directed to a canonised Doctor, who, while 
insisting, in accordance with the needs of his time, 
on the truth of our Lord's Manhood, never for a 
moment forgot the higher aspect of the " mystery of 
godliness," or failed to contend for His original Di- 
vinity. Hence it is that Leo has been called " the 
final defender of the truth of our Lord's Person against 
both its assailants j" 1 and there was a substantial 
warrant for the acclamations of the Council of Chal- 
cedon, which united his name with that of the great 
opponent of Nestorius: " Leo and Cyril have taught 
alike !" 2 And in days when a mysticism which would 
disintegrate Christianity is too often mistaken for " spi- 
ritual theology," it is well to be reminded by such 
teaching as Leo's that the spirit and power of the Faith 
are bound up with the literal and bodily human life, 
the death, and the resurrection, of the Incarnate Son 
of God. 

It must be owned that Leo's tone with regard to 
heretics in general is severe and unconciliatory : it 

Wilberforce on the Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, p. 246. Com- 
pare Serm. iv. in this volume, c. 4. 

' Mansi, Concil. vi. 792. In the year before, he had proposed as a 
test of Anatolius' orthodoxy, either Cyril's second letter to Nestorius, 
or his own Tome ; Ep. Ixx. 



xii Preface. 

\ 

unites the sternness of the ecclesiastical magistrate 
with the warmth of the polemic theologian. He does 
not sufficiently distinguish between the heretic and 
the heresy. We cannot imagine him as qualifying 
his denunciations of the Manichean sect, whose pro- 
pagandism in Rome excited with too good cause his 
alarm and indignation, by such a touching disclaimer 
as S. Augustine prefixes to a criticism of the Mani- 
chean " Epistle of the Foundation :" it was not in 
him to say, " I Hi in vos saeviant qui nesciunt cum 
quanta difficultate sanetur oculus interioris hominis, 
ut posset intueri solem suum I" 1 In one of his 
Lenten discourses he breaks forth against the Euty- 
chians in general as " filii diaboli atque discipuli, re- 
pleti inspiratione viperea :" 2 in another, for Passion- 
tide, he refers to the " viperea haereticorum colloquia," 
and adds, " tot species habent diaboli, quot simulacra 
mendacii." 3 And although he usually speaks of Eu- 
tyches himself with some degree of indulgence, as of 
one who had erred through " ignorance" or " inex- 
perience," rather than through "craftiness," 4 yet oc- 
casionally he seems to think that the " inconsiderate 
old man" had actually contemplated, and committed 
himself to, this or that inference from his denial of 
the Two Natures : and perhaps the most telling pas- 
sage on the logical results of Eutychianism is that in 
which he contends that if our Lord had not a human 
nature, then either His humiliations and sufferings 
must be regarded as illusory, which is Docetism, or 
they must be attributed to an inferior Godhead, which 



1 S. Aug. c. Epist. Manich. c. 2. 2 Serm. de Quadr. ii. c. 3. 

3 De Pass, xviii. c. 5. 4 Epist. xxx. c. I. 



Preface. xiii 

is the theory of Arius, " whose perversity is greatly 
assisted by this" (Eutychian) " impiety." 1 

In all that Leo writes upon the momentous issue 
raised by this controversy, we see how intensely he 
feels that it is not " some little bit (portiuncula) of our 
faith, some comparatively obscure point, which is 
being assailed :" 2 it is " the peerless mystery (singu- 
lare sacramentum) of man's Salvation" which is at 
stake, wKen the Christ is not recognised as a Second 
Adam. It is this intense conviction which gives such 
glow and energy to the famous 28th Epistle, or 
" Tome of S. Leo," which should be compared with 
the 59th, to the clergy and people of Constantinople, 
written in the March of 450; the I24th, to the 
monks of Palestine, who were being drawn into an 
Eutychianising movement, in the summer of 453 ; the 
1 39th, to Juvenal, Patriarch of Jerusalem, on Sept. 4, 
454; and the i65th, sometimes called "the Second 
Tome," in which Leo exhorts his imperial namesake 
not to let the Eutychian question be reopened, Aug. 
17, 458, i.e., nine years and two months after the 
first or principal Tome. In these letters he borrows 
matter, sometimes from the Tome, sometimes from 
Sermons, by way of enforcing and illustrating the 
doctrine of the " Two Natures :" he repeatedly, and as 
it were in the same breath, lays stress on that unity 
of our Lord's Person, the " solidity" of which " cannot 
be broken up by any division :" 3 he explains that " it 
matters not from which substance Christ is named, 
since, all separation being excluded, and the unity of 
person remaining, the selfsame is both whole Son of 

1 Epist. lix. c. 3. 2 Epist. xxx. c. 2. 

3 Epist. cxxiv. c. 7. 



xiv Preface. 

\ 

man because of the flesh, and whole Son of God be- 
cause His Godhead is one with the Father :' J1 he 
insists that "whosoever questions the real assumption 
of our humanity by the Son of God, in the womb of 
a Virgin of David's lineage, neither acknowledges the 
Bridegroom nor understands the bride" (the Church) ; 2 
and that to assign to each of Christ's natures the at- 
tributes belonging to it is not to " double the Person" 
in Whom both are combined. 3 He could adduce 
in the appendix to Ep. 165 a number of Fathers 
who supported his contention, beginning with S. 
Hilary, who in his second book on the Trinity had 
set forth the principle of the sanctification and " en- 
nobling" of man through the self-humiliation of Him 
" at Whose voice archangels and angels tremble :" 
had declared that he who did not own Christ as 
true Man, no less than true God, knew nothing 
of his own spiritual life ; and, further on, that while 
the selfsame was God and Man, the sayings relat- 
ing to Deity must be discriminated from those relat- 
ing to Manhood. If, in one or two passages from 
S. Gregory Nazianzen, Leo relied (for he knew no 
Greek) on an inexact Latin translation, he might have 
borrowed more than he did both from this Father 
and from S. Athanasius. He quotes a few words 
from the latter's Epistle to Epictetus, which he sent 
in 452 to Julian of Cos with the well-merited eulogy, 
" He set forth the Incarnation so luminously and care- 
fully, that even in the persons of the heretics of that 
age he has defeated Nestorius and Eutyches." 4 Five 
passages are cited from S. Ambrose, and five as from 

1 Epist. cxxiv. c. 7. 2 Epist. lix. c. 4. 

3 Epist. cxxiv. c. 6. 4 Epist. cix. c. 3. 



Preface. xv 

S. Augustine, including one from the retractation of 
the Gallic monk Leporius : the fourth from Augustine 
begins explicitly enough ; " Let us acknowledge gemi- 
nam substantiam Christi, the Divine, wherein He is 
equal to the Father, the human, wherein the Father is 
greater : but Christ is both (utrumque) at once, not 
two, but one." 1 S. Chrysostom's homilies on "the 
Cross and the Robber," and on the Ascension, are laid 
under contribution ; but it was specially to Leo's pur- 
pose to quote Cyril of Alexandria. The last of his 
four Cyrilline extracts is a " locus aureus" indeed : it 
includes nearly the whole of the second Epistle to 
Nestorius, which had been so expressly sanctioned 
at Ephesus, and afterwards at Chalcedon. He does 
not here quote any ante-Nicene writer; but in a 
famous passage of the Tome he had almost repro- 
duced the very words of Tertullian, 2 and he might 
well have appealed to the authority of S. Irenaeus, 
whose language repeatedly anticipates the require- 
ments of later controversy when he excludes a Docetic 
view of Christ's manhood, or a quasi-Cerinthian divi- 
sion of His personality, and insists (as, indeed, Justin 
had done before him,) that Christ is the Word, or Son 
of the Father, Who " became the Son of Man, that 
through Him we might receive the adoption, huma- 
nity 3 carrying, and holding, and embracing the Son of 

1 S. Aug. in Jo. Evan. Tract. Ixxviii. 3. 

! " Salva igitur proprietate utriusque naturae et substantise," &c., 
Ep. xxviii. c. 3; compare Tertull. adv. Praxeam, 27, "Et adeo salva 
est utriusque proprietas substantise, " &c. Tertullian goes on to speak of 
Christ's flesh as "sitiens sub Samaritide, flens Lazarum," &c.j comp. 
Ep. xxviii. c. 4. 

3 Iren. iii. 16. 3 ; " Homine," used for manhood. See below, 
Note 36. 



xvi Preface. 

\ 

God ;" that " His only-begotten Word .... Who be- 
came flesh, is Himself Jesus Christ our Lord, Who 
suffered for us, and rose again .... and in all re- 
spects is man .... and therefore is 'summing up' 
man into Himself, the invisible being made visible, 
and .... the Word man ;" J " the Son of God .... 
Who is also the Word of the Father, having become 
incarnate in man, and fulfilling all the dispensation 
in regard to man" 2 . ..." for it was necessary that 
the Mediator between God and men should, by His 
proper relationship to both, bring both together into 
friendship and concord, and present man to God, 
while He made God known to men :" 3 or again, " If 
He did not receive the substance of flesh from a 
human being, He neither was made man nor the Son 

of man If He had taken nothing from Mary, 

He would not have availed Himself of food .... 
nor have hungered after fasting .... nor have wept 
over Lazarus, nor sweated great drops of blood ; nor 
have said, ' My soul is exceeding sorrowful ;' nor, when 
His side was pierced, could there have come forth 
blood and water ; for all these are tokens of the 
flesh." 4 Any one who may be so disposed to ask 
whether the language of the Tome, with its " tech- 
nical" precision as to the " one Person in two Natures," 
does not represent an absolute growth in the sub- 
stance of the idea which it professes to exhibit, would 
do well to consider what the typical theologian of 
the second century, in these and similar passages, 
lays down as " de fide," or, indeed, what the martyr- 
bishop of the beginning of that century asserts in a 

1 Iren. iii. 16. 6. 2 Ib. iii. 17. 4. 

3 Ib. iii. 18. 7. 4 Ib. iii. 22. i, 2. 



Preface. xvii 

single letter as to " our God, Jesus the Christ, Who 
was conceived in the womb by Mary, and is God in 
man, Son of man and Son of God," 1 and whether the 
natural sense of their words falls short of implying 
what is affirmed by Leo, or by Theodoret, whose Dia- 
logues, especially the second, may well be studied 
together with the Tome. 2 

The circumstances under which the Tome was 
written, and under which it was received at Chalce- 
don, are sufficiently explained in the Notes. It was 
practically suppressed by Dioscorus at the Council of 
the " Latrocinium/' 3 but soon afterwards it was widely 
circulated, and cordially accepted in the East; 4 and the 
68th Epistle in the Leonine series is a letter from three 
Gallic bishops, who in the summer of 450 acknow- 
ledged that " special embodiment of his teaching," 
and sent their own copy to receive corrections or ad- 
ditions from his hand. A few weeks before the Coun- 
cil of Chalcedon, Eusebius, Archbishop of Milan, 
writing to Leo in the name of his synod, welcomed 
the Tome as " shining with the full simplicity of the 
faith, irradiated with the declarations of Prophets, 
the authority of Evangelists, and the testimonies of 
Apostolic teaching," and in complete accordance with 
the meaning of their own S. Ambrose in his book on 
the mystery of the Incarnation ; 5 and soon afterwards 

1 S. Ignatius, ad Eph. 18, 7, 20. See also Trail. 9, Smyrn. i. 

2 See a summary of the Dialogues in Later Treatises of S. Athana- 
sius (Lib. Fath.) pp. 177227. 

3 Mansi, vi. 972. Leo applies the term " latrocinium" not to this 
.council itself, but to its proceedings: "in illo Ephesino non judicio, 

sed latrocinio," Ep. xcv. 2, (July 20, 451.) 

4 Leo, Epist. Ixxxviii. 3 ; Mansi, vi. 953. 

5 Ep. xcvii. 2. 



xviii Preface. 

\ 

forty-four Gallic bishops assured Leo that through- 
out Gaul the Tome had been received "just like 
a creed." 1 A Council at Rome under Pope Gela- 
sius anathematised every one who questioned " a 
single iota" in the Tome, 2 which was naturally 
adopted as a test of orthodoxy by all who, in the 
East or in the West, adhered to the dogmatic 
standard of the Fourth (Ecumenical Council. It did 
not, indeed, disarm the objections of the Monophy- 
sites. Photius describes the replies made by Catholic 
divines to their objections. 3 The Ecclesiastical His- 
tory of John of Ephesus shows that on one occasion 
their bishops protested that while the breath was in 
their nostrils, their lips should never cease to anathe- 
matise "the Synod" (of Chalcedon) "and Leo's letter:" 4 
and Gibbon tells us how, when a patriarch imposed by 
Justinian on the Alexandrians began "to read the 
Tome of S. Leo," he was interrupted by " a volley of 
curses, invectives, and stones." 5 A touching contrast 
to such wild scenes was presented for centuries by 
many a church in Italy and Gaul, where the Tome 
supplied lessons for the services of Advent. 

It is hoped that the present translation, which has 
in this edition been substituted for the Latin text, and 
illustrated, like the Sermons, with notes, designed 
specially for theological students, may be found use- 
ful for private reading, especially in seasons which 

1 Ep. xcix. 2. 

2 Mansi, viii. 148. 

3 Biblioth. 225, 228. Leo complains that the Tome had been mis- 
translated. Ep. cxxiv. I. 

4 John of Eph., Eccl. Hist. E. Tr. by Dean Payne Smith, p. 39. 

5 Gibbon, vi. 60. 



Preface. xix 

commemorate the Incarnation of our Lord. Part of 
the Epistle was translated in the writer's " History of 
the Church from the Edict of Milan to the Council of 
Chalcedon :" and a version of the whole of it, except- 
ing the last chapter, had previously been embodied in 
Dr. Neale's " History of the Alexandrian Patriar- 
chate." This version, however, is somewhat too literal 
to be satisfactory. In some instances, I have followed 
the rendering in Dr. Heurtley's recently published 
translation. To conclude with the simple and im- 
pressive words of Tillemont : " Je pense que rien 
n'a rendu S. Leon si celebre, et n'a tant contribue a 
lui attirer la veneration de toute PEglise." 1 



CHRIST CHURCH, 
Dec. 3, 1885. 



1 Tillemont, xv. 541. 



CONTENTS. 



SERM. /-'J PAGE 

I. CHRISTMAS > ' . . . . . i 



II. CHRISTMAS 7v ..... 5 

- III. CHRISTMAS \ . . . . . . " 

' IV. CHRISTMAS ^ ..... 19 

V. EPIPHANY "V 26 

VI. EPIPHANY ^.U . . . .29 

VII. PASSION-TIDES^* . . . . . 35 

VIII. PASSION-TIDE ...... 4 

IX. PASSION-TIDE Q,?> . . . 45 

X. PASSION-TIDE . .\Jf ..... 5 2 

XI. PASSION-TIDE f.^j 5& 

XII. PASSION-TIDE . ^PJ . . . . .65 

XIII. EASTER C\' . . . . 73 

XIV. EASTER A^ . . . . . -79 
XV. ASCENSION \ . . . . . .87 

XVI. ASCENSION :MJ ..... 91 



XVII. WHITSUNTIDE . . . . .97 

XVIII. WHITSUNTIDE ~"^~~]. . . . .103 

THE TWENTY-EIGHTH EPISTLE, OR THE "TOME" . 109 
NOTES ...... 125 

INDEX ....... 244 



SERMONS ON THE INCARNATION. 



SERMON I. 

CHRISTMAS. 
SERM./21?) In Nativitate Domini, I. Salvator noster. 

OUR Saviour, dearly beloved, was born to-day : let 
us rejoice ! For it is not right that sadness should 
find a place among those who are keeping the birth- 
day of Life, which swallows up the fear of mortality, 
and bestows on us gladness on account of the promise 
of eternity. No one is shut out from the participation 
of this cheerfulness ; all have one common cause of 
gladness. For as our Lord, the destroyer of sin and 
death, finds no one free from guilt, so is He come to 
set all free. Let the saint exult, for he draws nigh to 
the palm ; let the sinner rejoice, for he is invited to 
forgiveness ; let the Gentile be inspirited, for he is 
called unto life. For, according to that fulness of 
time which the Divine counsel in its inscrutable depth 
ordained, the Son of God took on Him the nature of 
mankind in order to reconcile it to its Maker, that 
the devil, the inventor of death, might be conquered 

B 



2 The spotless Nativity. [SERM. 

* 

through that very nature which had been conquered 
by him. And this conflict, which He entered upon 
for our sakes, He waged upon a principle of great 
and wondrous equity ; inasmuch as the Almighty 
Lord does battle with our cruel enemy not in His 
own Majesty, but in our lowliness, opposing him by 
the very same form and the very same nature, as 
sharing indeed in our mortality, but free from every 
kind of sin. For this Nativity has no concern with 
what we read in regard to all men, " No one is clean 
from defilement, not even an infant, whose life on 
earth is but one day old." 1 And thus, no element 
derived from carnal passion or from the " law of 
sin" passed or flowed into this peerless Nativity. A 
Virgin of the royal stock of David is chosen to 
become with child of a sacred seed, and to conceive 
a divine and human Offspring, first in soul and then 
in body. 2 And lest, in ignorance of the Divine coun- 
sel, she should tremble at the unwonted result, she 
learns by conversing with an Angel what is to be 
wrought in her by the Holy Spirit. Nor does she, 
who is soon to be the Mother of God, 3 believe that she 
is losing her honour. For why should she be hope- 
less of becoming a Mother in a new way, when she 
has a promise that "the power of the Highest" 4 will 
effect it ? She believes, and her faith is confirmed by 
the further evidence of a miracle which comes first ; 
Elizabeth is endowed with unexpected fruitfulness, 
that as God had given conception to a barren woman, 
there might be no doubt that He would give it to a 
Virgin. 

1 Job xiv. 4, LXX. See Note 1. 2 See Note 2. 

3 See Note 3. 4 S. Luke i. 35. 



I.] The One Christ in Two Natures. 3 

2. Accordingly, God, the Word of God, the Son 
of God, Who " in the beginning was with God, by 
Whom all things were made, and without Whom 
was nothing made," 1 in order to deliver man from 
eternal death, became Man ; in such wise humbling 
Himself to assume our lowliness without lessening 
His own Majesty, that, remaining what He was, and 
putting on what He was not, 2 He united the true 
" form of a servant" 3 to that form in which He was 
equal to God the Father, and combined both natures 
in a league so close, that the lower was not consumed 
by receiving glory, 4 nor the higher lessened by as- 
suming lowliness. Accordingly, while the distinct- 
ness_of _ both substances is preserved, 5 and both meet 
in one Person, lowliness is assumed by majesty, weak- 
ness by strength, mortality by eternity ; and in order 
to discharge the debt of our condition, the invio- 
lable nature is united to the passible, and very God 
and very Man are combined in our one Lord : so 
thaty as the appropriate remedy for our ills, one and 
the same " Mediator between God and men" might 
from j2H-element be able to die, and from the other 
to rise again. With good reason, then, did virginal 
purity receive no damage from giving birth to Sal- 
vation ; for honour was preserved while fruit was 
brought forth. Therefore, dearly beloved, for " Christ, 
the Power of God and the Wisdom of God," 6 such a 
Nativity as this was befitting, whereby He might at 
once concur with us in Manhood, and excel us in 
Godhead. For unless He were very God, He would 

1 S. John i. I, 3. - See Note 4. 

3 Phil. ii. 7. 4 See Ep. xxviii. 4, below. 

5 See Note 5. 6 I Cor. i. 24. 



4 The Incarnation a call to Holiness. [SERM. 

i 

not bring us healing ; a unless He were very Man, He 
would not supply an example. Therefore do the 
Angels at our Lord's birth exult, as they sing, " Glory 
be to God on high," and proclaim " peace on earth to 
men of good will." 2 For they see the Heavenly 
Jerusalem being constructed out of all the nations of 
the world ; and how greatly ought men in their low 
estate to be gladdened by this ineffable work of 
Divine loving-kindness, when it affords such joy to 
Angels in their high dignity ? 

3. Let us, then, dearly beloved, render thanks to God 
the Father, through His Son, in the Holy Spirit, 3 
to Him Who on account of His great mercy where- 
with He loved us, has had pity upon us, and " when 
we were dead in sins has quickened us together with 
Christ," 4 that in Him we might be a new creation and 
a new handywork. Let us therefore " put off the old 
man with his deeds," 5 and having obtained a share in 
Christ's birth, let us renounce " the works of the 
flesh." Acknowledge, O Christian, thine own dignity ; 
and having been " made partaker of the Divine na- 
ture," 6 do not by degeneracy of conduct return to 
thine old meanness. Bethink thee of what a Head 
and of what a body thou art a member. Remember 
that thou hast been " rescued from the power of dark- 
ness,'" 7 and translated into the light and kingdom of 
God. By the Sacrament of Baptism thou wast made 
" a temple of the Holy Spirit ;" 8 do not by evil deeds 
drive away from thyself so great an inmate, and sub- 
ject thyself again to the service of the devil. For thy 

1 See Note 6. Cf. Serm. iv. c. 3. 2 S. Luke ii. 14. 

3 See Note 7. 4 Eph. ii. 5. 5 Col. iii. 9. 

6 2. S. Pet. i. 4. 7 Col. i. 13, 8 I Cor. vi. 19. 



II.] The Divinity of the Virgin-born. 5 

ransom 1 is the Blood of Christ : for He will judge 
thee in truth Who redeemed thee in mercy, Who with 
the Father and the Holy Spirit reigneth for ever and 
ever. Amen. 



SERMON II. 

CHRISTMAS. 
SERM. 23. In Nativitate Domini, III. Nota quidem. 

YOU well know, dearly beloved, and have frequently 
heard, the things which belong to the sacred observ- 
ance 2 of this day's solemnity ; but as this visible light 
affords pleasure to uninjured eyes, so do sound hearts 
receive perpetual joy from the Nativity of the Saviour, 
on which we must never be silent, though we cannot 
set it forth as it deserves. For we believe that text, 
" Who shall declare His generation ?" 3 to refer not 
only to that mystery wherein the Son of God is co- 
eternal with the Father, but also to this birth whereby 
< the Word was made flesh." Accordingly, God, the 
Son of God, equal and of the same nature from the 
Father and with the Father, Creator and Lord of the 
universe, in His entireness present everywhere, and in 
His entireness transcending all things, did, in the order 
of the times which run their course by His own ap- 
pointment, choose to Himself this day whereon to be 
born, of the Blessed Virgin Mary for the world's sal- 
vation ; His Mother's honour being preserved through- 

1 See Serm. viii. 4. 2 See Note 8. 3 Isa. liii. 8. 



6 The Personal Union [SERM. 

out, who, as she ceased not to be a Virgin by bringing 
forth, so had not ceased to be a Virgin by conceiving j 1 
" That it might be fulfilled," as the Evangelist says, 
" which was spoken by the Lord through" Isaiah " the 
Prophet ; Behold, a Virgin shall conceive in her womb, 
and bear a Son, and they shall call His Name Em- 
manuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." 2 
For this wondrous child-bearing of the Holy Virgin 
did bring forth as her offspring one Person, truly 
human and truly Divine ; 3 because both substances 
did not in any such sense retain their properties, as 
that there could be in them a difference of persons ; 
nor was the creature in such wise taken into fellow- 
ship with the Creator, that He should be the Inhabi- 
tant and it the habitation ; but in this way, that the 
one nature should be united to the other. 4 And 
although the nature which is assumed is one, and that 
which assumes is another, yet both these diverse ones 
meet 5 in so close an union, that it is one and the same 
Son Who calls Himself inferior to the Father in that 
He is very Man, and declares Himself equal to the 
Father in that He is very God. 

2. This union, dearly beloved, whereby the Creator 
and the creature are combined, could not be discerned 
and understood by the blinded Arians, 6 who, not be- 
lieving the only-begotten Son of God to be of the 
same glory and substance with the Father, called the 
Son's Godhead inferior, deriving their arguments from 
those words which are to be referred to that " form of 
a servant" which the same Son of God would show us 
not to exist in Him as belonging to another and a 

1 See Note 9. 2 S. Matt. i. 22. 3 See Note 10. 

4 See Note 11. 6 " Convenit." 6 See Note 12. 



II.] of God and Man in Christ. J 

different person, and therefore with the same " form" 
says, " The Father is greater than I," as with the same 
He says, " I and the Father are one." 1 For in the 
form of a servant, which He assumed at the close of 
ages for our restoration, He is inferior to the Father ; 
but in the form of God, in which He existed before 
the ages, He is equal to the Father. In human low- 
liness He was " made of a woman, made under the 
law ;" 2 remaining, in Divine Majesty, the Word of God, 
" by Whom all things were made." Therefore He Who 
in the form of God made man, in the form of a ser- 
vant was made Man ; but both acts belonged to God 
in regard to the power of that which assumed, both 
to Man in regard to the lowliness of that which was 
assumed. 3 For both natures retain their own proper- 
ties without defect ; 4 and as the form of God does 
not annul the form of a servant, so the form of a ser- 
vant does not lessen the form of God. Accordingly, 
this sacred fact of strength united with weakness per- 
mits us to call the Son inferior to the Father, in that 
He has the same nature of man with ourselves ; but 
the Godhead, which in the Trinity of the Father, and 
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is One, excludes all 
notion of inequality. For in the Trinity the external 
existence has nothing temporary, the nature nothing 
dissimilar ; the will therein is one, the substance is the 
same, the power is equal, and there are not three 
Gods, but one God ; 5 because, where no diversity can 
exist, the unity is true and inseparable. Accordingly, 
in the entire and perfect nature of very Man was born 

1 S. John xiv. 28 ; x. 30. See Note 13. 2 Gal. iv. 4. 

1 See Serm. viii. I. 4 In Ep. xxviii. 3. 

5 See Note 14, and Serm. xviii. I. 



8 What was needed for man's recovery. [SERM. 

very God, entire in what was His own, entire in what 
was ours. Now we call those things our own which 
the Creator formed in us from the beginning, and 
which He took on Himself in order to repair them. 
For of those things which the deceiver brought in, 
and which man, being deceived, admitted, there was 
not a vestige in the Saviour j 1 nor did it follow from 
His submitting to a fellowship in human infirmities, 
that He became a partaker in our transgressions. He 
took on Him the form of a servant without the defile- 
ment of sin, exalting what was human, not lessening 
what was Divine ; for that " emptying of Himself," 2 
whereby the Invisible made Himself visible, was the 
condescension of pity, and not the defect of power. 

3. In order, therefore, that we might be recalled to* 
eternal bliss from the bonds in which we were born, 
and from our wanderings in the paths of this world, 
He Himself descended to us, unto Whom we could 



not ascend ; for although there was in many men a 
love of truth, yet amid the variety of uncertain opin- 
ions men were cheated by the craft of deceitful de- 
mons, and human ignorance was drawn by a falsely- 
called science into diverse and contrary conclusions. 
But to end this mocking sport, wherein captive souls 
were at the beck of the insulting enemy, the Law's 
teaching sufficed not, nor could our nature be restored 
by the Prophets' exhortations alone ; but a real re- 
demption had to be superadded to moral instructions, 
and a stock tainted from the beginning required to 
pass through a new birth, and start afresh. For those 
who had to be reconciled a Victim had to be offered, 
which should be both associated to our race and un- 

1 See Note 15. 2 Phil. ii. 7, eat/rbi/ 



II.] The Gospel fulfils older economies. g 

touched by our contamination ; that this purpose of 
God, whereby it was His pleasure that the sin of the 
whole world should be effaced by Jesus Christ's Na- 
tivity and Passion, might extend itself to the ages of 
all generations, and that we might not be unsettled, 
but rather confirmed, by ordinances varying accord- 
ing to the character of the times, since in no age has 
there been any alteration in the faith whereby we 
live. 1 

4. Let us, then, hear no more of the complaints of 
those who, carping with profane murmurs at the Di- 
vine dispensations, cavil at the lateness of our Lord's 
Nativity, as though that which was effected in the 
last age of the world had no beneficial effect on 
former times. For the Incarnation of the Word 
caused that to be done which was done ; and the 
mystery of man's salvation was never at a standstill 
in any remote period. What the Apostles proclaimed, 
the Prophets heralded ; nor was that too late in being 
accomplished which was always believed. In fact, 
by this delay 2 of the work of our salvation, God's 
wisdom and benignity made us more capable of re- 
ceiving His call ; that so what had for so many ages 
been fore-announced by many signs, many voices, 
and many mysteries, might not be misapprehended 
in these days of the Gospel ; and that the Nativity 
of a Saviour, which was to exceed all miracles and 
all the measure of man's understanding, might pro- 
duce in us a faith all the more steadfast, in proportion 
as its antecedent proclamation had been of older date 
and greater frequency. It was not, then, by a new- 
made plan, nor by a tardy compassion, that God 
1 See Note 16. 2 See Note 17> 



io How to honour the Nativity [SERM. 

took thought for human interests ; but from the foun- 
dation of the world it was one and the same cause of 
salvation which He established for all men. For the 
grace of God, by which the whole body of the Saints 
has always been justified, was not begun by the birth 
of Christ, but enlarged ; and this mystery of great 
loving-kindness, with which the whole world has now 
been filled, was so effective in its types, that they who 
believed in it as promised have not attained to less 
than they who received it as bestowed. 

5. Wherefore, dearly beloved, since it is by mani- 
fest loving-kindness that such great riches of Divine 
goodness have been poured out upon us, so that, in 
order to invite us to life eternal, not only have the 
beneficial examples of those who went before lent 
their aid, but also the Truth Itself has appeared in 
visible bodily presence, it is with no dull or carnal 
gladness that we ought to celebrate the day of our 
Lord's Nativity. And we shall each of us celebrate 
it worthily and heartily, if every one recollects of 
what body he is a member, and to what a Head he 
is joined, lest .as an ill-fitting joint he adhere not to 
the sacred building. Consider, dearly beloved, and 
thoughtfully ponder, according to the light given by 
the Holy Spirit, Who it is Who_has taken us intci 
Himself, and Whom we have taken to ourselves ; for 
as the Lord Jesus was made oii flesh Jbyjbeing^ born, 
so have we too been made His Body by being born 
again. Therefore are we both members of Christ, 
and the temple of the Holy Spirit ; and on this ac- 
count the blessed Apostle says, " Glorifyand carry 
God in your body :' 51 Who, while presenting to us the 

1 I Cor. vi. 20. See Note 18. 



III.] by living as members of Christ. 1 1 

pattern of His own gentleness and lowliness, infuses 
intous- the same power wherewith He redeemed us, 
as He Himself, our Lord, promises : " Come unto Me, 
all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and J__wilL 
refresh you. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of 
Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and^ejshall 
finji_rest unto your souls." 1 Let us, then, take on us 
that yoke not a heavy nor painful one of the Truth 
which guides us, and be like to His lowliness, to 
Whose glory we desire to be conformed ; while He 
assists and leads us on to His promises, Who accord- 
ing to His great mercy is able to efface our sins, and 
to perfect His own gifts in us, even Jesus Christ our 
Lord, Who liveth and reign eth for ever and ever. 
Amen. 



SERMON III. 

CHRISTMAS. 

SERM. 26. In Nativitate Domini, VI. Omnibus quidem. 
\J 

THERE are certainly no days nor times, dearly 
beloved, in which the birth of our Lord and Saviour 
from a Virgin Mother does not present itself to the 
minds of the faithful, while meditating on the things 
of God ; so that, when the soul is lifted up to do 
homage to its Maker, whether it be employed in the 
sighs of supplication, or in joyful bursts of praise, or 
in the offering of sacrifice, 2 its spiritual insight takes 

1 S. Matt. xi. 28. 2 See Note 19. 



12 The Glories of Christmas. [SERM. 

hold of nothing more frequently or more trustfully 
than the fact that God, the Son of God, begotten of 
the co-eternal Father, was also Himself born of a 
human birth. But this Nativity, adorable in heaven 
and on earth, is brought before us by no day more 
clearly than by this, which, while a fresh light is 
beaming in the natural world, brings home to our 
perceptions 1 the brightness of the wondrous mystery. 
For not only into our remembrance, but in some sense 
into our very sight, returns that conversation of the 
Angel Gabriel with the awe-struck Mary, and that 
conception from the Holy Spirit, as marvellous in 
being promised as in being believed. For to-day the 
Maker of the world was brought forth from the 
Virgin's womb, and He Who formed all natures be- 
came the Son of her whom He created. To-day the 
Word of God has appeared in the garb of flesh, and 
that which was never visible to men's eyes begins to 
be even subject to the touch of their hands. To-day 
the shepherds learned from Angelic voices that a 
Saviour was born in the essence of our flesh and soul ; 
and among the prelates of the Lord's flock a form 
has been arranged for proclaiming the good tidings 
on this day, so that we too say with the host of the 
heavenly army, 2 " Glory be to God on high, and on 
earth peace to men of good will !" 

2. Although therefore that infancy, to which the ma- 
jesty of the Son of God refused not to stoop, advanced 
with increasing years to full-grown manhood ; and, 
since the triumph of the Passion and Resurrection 
was completed, all the acts of that lowliness, which 
was put on for our sakes, have passed away ; yet 
1 "Ingerit." 2 See Note 20. 



III.] Hoiv Christ's Birthday is ours. 1 3 

does this__day's festival renew for us the sacred be- 
ginnings of the life of Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary ; 
and while we adore our Saviour's birth, _we are found 
to be celebrating our own origin. For the generation 
of Christ is the starting point of the Christian people, 
and the birthday of the Head is the birthday of the 
body. Although each of those whom He has called 
has his own sphere, and all the children of the Church 
are distinguished by succession of times, yet the 
whole number of the faithful, sprung from the font of 
Baptism, 1 as they are crucified with Christ in His 
Passion, and raised to life in His Resurrection, and 
placed at the Father's right hand in His Ascension, 
so are born with Him in His Nativity. For every 
one of the believers in any part of the world who is 
regenerated in Christ has the line of that old nature 
in which he was born, cut short, and passes by a 
second birth into a new man ; nor is he nowjeckoned 
as belonging to the stock of his natural father, but 
as an offshoot of the Saviour, Who became the Son 
of Man for this end, that we might be able to be sons 
of God. For unless He had come down to us by 
His condescension, no man by any merits of his own 
could have attained to Him. On this point, therefore, 
let not earthly wisdom bring any darkness over the 
hearts of those who are called ; nor let the dust of 
earthly thoughts, which is soon to return to the 
depths, lift up itself against the loftiness of the grace 
of God. That which was arranged before the endless 
ages was accomplished in the world's closing period ; 
prefigurative signs came to an end, and in the presence 
of realities law and prophecy became truth : that 
1 See Note 21. Comp. Serm. ix. c. 6. 



14 Christ to be welcomed by faith. [SERM. 

, 

Abraham might become a father of all nations, and 
in his seed might be given to the world the promised 
blessing; and the character of Israelites might not 
belong only to those whom flesh and blood had be- 
gotten, but the whole body of the adopted ones might 
come into possession of the inheritance prepared for 
the children of faith. 1 Let no idle questionings pro- 
duce clamorous misrepresentation ; nor let human 
reason criticise the carrying out of a Divine work. 
With Abraham we believe God, and "stagger not 
through unbelief," but " know with full assurance that 
what the Lord has promised, He is able also to per- 
form." 2 

3. Therefore, dearly beloved, there is born, not 
from fleshly seed, but from the Holy Spirit, a Saviour 
Who could not be held under condemnation for the 
primaeval transgression. 3 Whence the very greatness 
of the gift bestowed exacts from us a reverence worthy 
of its own splendour. For to this end, as the blessed 
Apostle teaches, " have we received, not the spirit of 
this world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we 
may know the things which have been freely given 
to us by God ;" 4 Whom we cannot otherwise devoutly 
worship than by offering to Him that which He be- 
stows. But in the treasury of the Lord's bounty 
what can we find so appropriate, in honour of the 
present festival, as that peace which was the first thing 
proclaimed by the choir of Angels at the Lord's Na- 
tivity ? For it is peace which brings forth the chil- 
dren of God, which is the nurse of affection and the 
mother of unity, the repose of the blessed and the 

1 See Note 22. 2 Rom. iv. 20, 21. 

3 See Serm. i. c. I. 4 I Cor. ii. 12. 



III.] Christ calls us to Peace with God. 1 5 

home of eternity ; of which the peculiar work and 
special benefit is, that it joins to God those whom it 
separates from the world. Whence the Apostle stirs 
us up to seek for this blessing, when he says, " Being 
therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God." 1 
In this brief sentence is comprehended the effect of 
nearly all the commandments ; because where true 
peace shall be found, no virtue can be absent. But 
what is it, dearly beloved, to have peace with God, 
except to say " I will" to what He commands, and 
" I will not" to what He forbids ? For if human 
friendships require likemindedness, and demand simi- 
larity of wills, and opposite characters can never at- 
tain to a lasting concord, how will he be a partaker 
of Divine peace who is pleased with what displeases 
God, and longs to delight himself in things whereby 
he knows that God is offended ? This is not the 
mind of the children of God, nor is such the wisdom 
that is received by those whom His adoption has 
ennobled. Let the chosen and royal race correspond 
to the dignity of their regeneration. 2 Let them love 
what their Father loves, and have no feelings out of 
harmony with their Maker ; lest the Lord say once 
more, " I have begotten and raised up children, but 
they have spurned Me. The ox has recognised his 
owner, and the ass his master's crib ; but Israel hath 
not known Me, and My people hath not under- 
stood Me." 3 

4. Great is the sacredness of this gift, dearly be- 
loved ; and this grant exceeds all others, that God 
calls man His son, and man calls God his Father : 
for by these names we feel and learn what the affec- 

1 Rom. v. I. 2 Serm. i. c. 3. 3 Isa. i. 3. 



1 6 Christian Peace described. [SERM. 

\ 

tion is that ascends to so great a height. For if, in 
the case of a natural descent and an earthly stock, 
the sons of noble parents are degraded by evil and 
vicious conduct, and unworthy descendants are put 
to shame by the very illustriousness of their ancestors ; 
to what end will they come who do not fear, out of 
love for this world, to be struck off the roll of the 
lineage of Christ ? But if it is a matter for praise 
among men that the honour of the fathers should re- 
ceive new splendour in the offspring, how much more 
glorious is it that those who are born of God should 
shine forth after their Maker's image, and exhibit in 
themselves Him Who gave them birth, as our Lord 
says, " Let your light so shine before men, that they 
may see your good works, and glorify your Father 
Who is in heaven." 1 We know indeed, as John the 
Apostle says, that " the whole world is placed under 
the malignant one ;" 2 and the devil and his angels in 
their plottings strive by numberless temptations to 
effect this object ; that man, while striving after 
things heavenly, may be either terrified by adversity 
or corrupted by prosperity. But greater is He Who 
is within us than he who is against us ; and those 
who have peace with God, and are always saying to 
their Father, with their whole hearts, " Thy will be 
done," can be overcome in no struggles and harmed 
by no conflicts. For when we by our own confes- 
sions accuse ourselves, and refuse the assent of our 
mind to carnal appetites, we do indeed stir up against 
ourselves the hostility of him who is the author of 
sin ; but inasmuch as we are submissive to God's 
grace, we establish an indestructible peace with Him, 

1 S. Matt. v. 16. 2 I S. John v. 19, eV T<j5 irovypy Ke?Tc. 



III.] Christian Peace described. 17 

so that we are not only subjected to our King by 
obedience, but united to Him by our own determina- 
tion. For if we think as He thinks, if we will what 
He wills, and condemn what He condemns, then, as 
He has enabled us to will, 1 He will also enable us to 
act, that so we may be co-operators in His works, and 
with exulting faith take up the prophet's word, 
" The Lord is my light and my salvation ; whom 
then shall I fear ? The Lord is the defender of my 
life ; of whom shall I be afraid ?" 

5. Let those then, who " have been born, not of 
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
man, but of God," 2 offer up to their Father the 
concord of " peace-making children ;" 3 and let all the 
members of the adopted family meet in the First-born 
of the new creation, Who " came not to do His own 
will, but the will of Him that sent Him." 4 For it is 
not those who are unlike and discordant, but those 
who think the same things and love the same things, 
that the Father in His favour has adopted as His 
heirs. Those who have been refashioned after one 
likeness ought to have a conformity of soul. Our 
Lord's birthday is the birthday of peace, for so says 
the Apostle : " He Himself is our Peace, Who has 
made both one ;" for " whether we be Jews or Gen- 
tiles," " through Him we have access by one Spirit 
unto the Father ;" 5 through Him Who before that day 
of His Passion, which He chose beforehand by a 
voluntary appointment, instructed His disciples by 
this lesson above all others, in that He said : " My 
peace I give to you, My peace I leave to you." And 

1 See Note 23. 2 S. John i. 13. 3 S. Matt. v. 9. 

4 S. John vi. 38. 6 Eph. ii. 14 18 ; I Cor. xii. 13. 

C 



1 8 Christian Peace described. [SERM. 

lest, under a general phrase, it should not be clear 
what kind of peace He calls His, He added, " Not as 
the world giveth, give I unto you." 1 The world, He 
means, has friendships of its own, and brings many 
hearts together by a perverted love. Even in vicious 
courses there are congenial spirits, and likeness of 
desires produces harmony of feelings. And if some 
persons happen to be found who take no pleasure in 
what is wicked and base, and exclude from the bond 
of their love associations which are unlawful, yet 
even they, if they are Jews, or heretics, or Pagans, 2 
do not belong to God's peace, but to the world's. 
Whereas the peace of spiritual and Catholic persons, 
which comes from heaven, and leads to heaven, will 
not have us to be united in any sort of fellowship 
with the lovers of this world, but to resist all hin- 
drances, and wing our way from pernicious pleasures 
to true joys, as our Lord says : " Where thy treasure 
is, there will thy heart be also." 3 That is, if what 
thou lovest is beneath, thou wilt descend to the 
depths ; if above, thou wilt attain the heights ; and 
thither may we, being one in will and mind, and 
united in faith, hope, and love, be carried and led 
onward by the Spirit of peace ; for " whosoever are 
led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God," 4 
Who reigneth with the Son and the Holy Spirit, for 
ever and ever. Amen. 

1 S. John xiv. 27. 2 See Note 24. 

3 S. Matt. vi. 21. 4 Rom. viii. 14. 



IV.] Christmas. 19 



SERMON IV. 

CHRISTMAS. 
SERM.(2& In Nativitate Domini, VIII. Cum semper. 

WHILE we are exhorted, dearly beloved, by all the 
Divine oracles, to be always rejoicing in the Lord, 
yet are we beyond doubt more abundantly excited to 
spiritual gladness on this day, when the mystery of 
our Lord's Nativity is gleaming more brightly over 
us ; so that, recurring to that ineffable condescension 
of the Divine mercy, wherein the Creator of men was 
pleased to become Man, we may be found in His 
nature Whom we adore as in our own. For God, 
the Son of God, the Only-begotten from the ever- 
lasting and unbegotten Father, everlastingly remain- 
ing in the form of God, and possessing, apart from 
all change and all time, the privilege of being nothing 



else than the Father is, 1 
without any detriment to His own majesty, that He 
might advance us to what was His, not degrade Him- 
self into whaTwas ours. 2 Wherefore both the natures, 
retaining their own properties, have been brought into 
so close a fellowship of union, that whatever therein 
belonged to God is not disjoined from Manhood, while 
whatever belonged to Man is not divided from Godhead. 
2. Accordingly, dearly beloved, now that we are 
celebrating the birthday of our Lord and Saviour, let 
us have thoroughly true ideas as to the child-bearing 
of the Blessed Virgin, so as to believe that at no 
point of time was the power of the Word absent from 

1 ' See Note 25. 2 Ep. xxviii. 3. 



2O What the Incarnation was. [SERM. 

the flesh and soul which she conceived ; l and that the 
temple of Christ's bo^ly was not first formed and 
animated, to be afterwards claimed for Himself by 
its Inhabitant on His arrival, but it was through Him 
and in Him that a beginning was given to a new 
Man, so that in one and the same Son of God and 
man, there was Godhead " without mother" and Man- 
hood " without father." 2 For the Virgin, having been 
made fruitful by the Holy Spirit, brought forth, with- 
out a trace of corruption, at once the offspring of her 
race and the Maker of her stock. Wherefore also 
the same Lord, as the Evangelist mentions, asked the 
Jews " whose Son" they had learned from the authority 
of Scripture that " the Christ" should be : and when 
they replied that the tradition was that He was to 
come of David's seed, He said, " How then doth 
David in spirit call Him his Lord, saying, The Lord 
said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand, until 
I make Thy foes Thy footstool?" 3 Nor could the 
Jews solve the question proposed to them, because 
they understood not that in the one Christ, accord- 
ing to prophecy, were both the blood of David and 
the Divine nature. 

3. But the majesty of the Son of God, Who is 
equal to the Father, when clothing itself with the 
lowliness of a servant, neither feared diminution nor 
needed increase ; and by the sole power of Godhead 
could effect that operation of its own mercy, which it 
was bestowing 4 on the restoration of man, so as to 
rescue from the yoke of a dreadful tyrant the creature 
formed after God's image. But since the devil had 

1 See Note 26. " Heb. vii. 3. 

3 S. Matt. xxii. 42, ff. 4 " Impendebat." 



IV.] Why it was necessary. 

not so proceeded by sheer force against the first man, 
as to draw him over to his own side without consent 
of his free-will, therefore in such sort were that volun- 
tary sin and that hostile design to be destroyed, as 
that the gift of grace should not clash with the rule 
of justice. Accordingly, amid the universal ruin of 
the whole human race, there was but one remedy 
which, under the mysterious law of the Divine pro- 
cedure, could come to the aid of the prostrate ; and 
that was, if some son of Adam could be born, uncon- 
nected with original transgression, 1 and innocent, who 
could benefit the rest both by his example and by 
his merit. But as natural generation did not allow 
of this, and the offshoot of a vitiated root could not be 
without that seed of which Scripture says, " Who can 
make him clean who was conceived of impure seed ? 
is it not Thou Who art alone ?" 2 the Lord of David 
became the Son of David, and from the fruit of the 
promised sprout arose an unvitiated offspring, by the 
combination 3 of two natures into one Person ; so that 
by the same conception and the same child-bearing 
was born our Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom were pre- 
sent both very Godhead for the performance of mi- 
racles, and very Manhood for the endurance of suf- 
ferings. 4 

4. Let the Catholic Faith, therefore, dearly beloved, 
contemn the vagaries of noisy heretics, who, deceived 
by the vanity of this world's wisdom, have departed 
from the Gospel of truth, and, being unable to appre- 
hend the Incarnation of the Word, have made to 
themselves matter for blindness out of the very cause 

1 " Praevaricationis." Cp. Serm. i. c. I. 2 Job xiv. 4, Vulg. 
3 " Conveniente ;" so Serm. ii. c. I. * Ep. xxviii. 4. 



22 Review of various Heresies. [SERM. 

of illumination. For, having reviewed the opinions 
of well-nigh all misbelievers opinions which even 
rush into a denial of the Holy Spirit 1 we are assured 
that hardly any one has gone astray unless he has 
failed to believe the reality of two natures in Christ, 
and at the same time to acknowledge one Person. 
For some have ascribed to our Lord mere manhood ; 2 
others, mere Godhead. Some have said that there 
was in Him, indeed, true Godhead, but only the sem- 
blance of flesh. 3 Others have declared that He took 
on Him true flesh, but had not the nature of God 
the Father ; and, attributing to His Godhead what 
belonged to the human essence, have invented for 
themselves a greater and a lesser God, whereas in 
true Godhead there can be no gradation, because 
whatever is less than God is not God. 4 Others, know- 
ing that there is no interval between the Father and 
the Son, have yet, from inability to understand the 
unity of Godhead except in the sense of unity of 
Person, asserted that the Father was the same as the 
Son, so that to be born and bred up, to suffer and 
die, to be buried and rise again, belonged to the self- 
same (Father,) Who sustained throughout the cha- 
racters both of the Man and of the Word. 5 Some 
have thought that the Lord Jesus Christ had a body 
not of our substance, but composed of higher and 
subtler elements. 6 Some, again, have supposed that 
in Christ's flesh there was no human soul, but that 
the functions of a soul were discharged by the Word's 
Godhead itself. And their folly passed into this 
form, that they admitted the existence of a soul in 

1 See Serm. xvii. c. 4. 2 See Note 27. 3 See Note 28. 

4 See Note 29. 5 See Note 30. 6 See Note 31. 



IV.] Heresy of Nestorius. 23 

our Lord, but said that His soul was without a mind, 
because Godhead alone was sufficient to the Man for 
all purposes of reason. At last these same men dared 
to aver, that a certain part of the Word had been con- 
verted into flesh ; so that amid the manifold variations 
of one dogma, not only was the nature of the flesh 
and soul dissolved, but even the essence of the Word 
Himself. 1 

5. There are also many other portentous falsities, 
with the enumeration of which I must not fatigue the 
attention of your Charity. But after diverse impieties, 
which have been mutually connected by the affinity 
which exists between manifold blasphemies, 2 these 
following are the errors which I warn your dutiful and 
devout minds most especially to avoid. One, invented 
by Nestorius, attempted some time ago to raise its 
head, but not with impunity. Another, asserted by 
Eutyches, has lately broken out, and deserves to be 
condemned with similar abhorrence. For Nestorius 
dared to call the Blessed Virgin Mary the Mother of 
a man only, so that no union of the Word and the 
flesh should be believed to have been effected in her 
conception and child-bearing, on the ground that the 
Son of God did not Himself become Son of Man, 
but, purely of His good pleasure, took a created man 
as His associate. 3 This statement could nowise be 
tolerated by Catholic ears, which were so possessed 
with the true Gospel as to be absolutely assured that 
there was no hope of salvation for mankind, unless 
He Himself were the Virgin's Son Who was the 
Creator of His Mother. But Eutyches, the profane 
assertor of the more recent impiety, did indeed 

1 See Note 32. 2 See Note 33. 3 See Note 34. 



24 Heresy of Eutyches. [SERM. 

fess an union of two natures in Christ, but affirmed 
that union to have had this effect, that of the two 
there remained but one, while the essence of the other 
ceased to exist ; which annihilation, 1 in fact, could only 
take place either by destruction or by separation. 2 
Now this is so inimical to sound faith, that it cannot 
be received without ruin to the Christian name. For 
if the Word's Incarnation consists in a union of 
the Divine and human natures, but by this very 
combination what was twofold became single, then 
Godhead alone was born of the Virgin's womb, and 
alone, under an illusory semblance, underwent bodily 
nourishment and growth ; and, to pass over all the 
changes of human life, Godhead alone was crucified, 
Godhead alone died, Godhead alone was buried ; so 
that, according to those who think thus, there is no 
reason to hope for a resurrection, and Christ is not 
" the firstborn from the dead ;" 3 for if there had not 
been one who could be put to death, there was none 
who had a right to be raised to life. 

6. Far from your hearts, dearly beloved, be the pes- 
tilent falsehoods inspired by the devil ! and while you 
know that the Son's everlasting Godhead did not, 
while with the Father, go through any process of in- 
crease, consider thoughtfully that to the same nature 
to which in Adam it was said, " Earth thou art, and 
to earth shalt thou go," in Christ it is said, " Sit Thou 
on My right hand." According to that nature where- 
in Christ is equal to the Father, the Only-begotten 
was never inferior to the Father in majesty : nor is it 
a temporary glory which He possesses with the Fa- 
ther, seeing that He is on that very right hand of the 

1 "Finiri." 2 See Note 35. 3 Col. i. 18, 



IV.] The Personal Union. 25 

Father, of which it is said in Exodus, " Thy right 
hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power j" 1 and in 
Isaiah, " Lord, who hath believed our report ? and to 
whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed ?" 2 
Therefore the Manhood, 3 taken into the Son of God, 
was so received from the very outset of its bodily ex- 
istence into the unity of Christ's Person, that it was 
neither conceived without the Godhead, nor brought 
forth without the Godhead, nor nourished without the 
Godhead. He was one and the same, both in working 
miracles and in suffering insults ; through human in- 
firmity He was crucified, dead, and buried ; through 
Divine power He was raised up on the third day, as- 
cended into heaven, sat down on the right hand of 
God the Father, and in the nature of Manhood re- 
ceived from the Father what in the nature of Godhead 
He Himself also bestowed. 

7. While you meditate on these things, dearly be- 
loved, with devout hearts, be ever mindful of the pre- 
cept of the Apostle, who admonishes us all when he 
says, " Beware lest any spoil you through philosophy 
and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, and not 
after Christ : for in Him dwelleth all the fulness of 
the Godhead bodily, and ye have been filled up in 
Him." 4 He said not " spiritually," but " bodily," that 
we may understand the substance of the flesh to be 
real, where the indwelling of the fulness of Godhead 
is bodily ; by which indwelling, in truth, is the whole 
Church also filled, which, cleaving to the Head, is the 
body of Christ, Who liveth and reignethwith the Father 
and the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen. 

1 Exod. xv. 6. 2 Isa. liii. I. 

3 See Note 36. Cp. Ep. xxviii. 3. Col. ii. 8, ff. 



26 The Epiphany. [SERM. 



SERMON V. 

EPIPHANY. 
SERM. 31. In Solemnitate Epiphaniae, I. Celebrate. 

THE last holy day which we celebrated was the 
day on which a pure Virgin brought forth the Saviour 
of mankind. And now, dearly beloved, the vene- 
rable festival of the Epiphany 1 gives us a continuation 
of joys, so that among these kindred solemnities, 
with their holy rites 2 in close proximity, our heartiness 
of rejoicing and fervour of faith may be kept from 
becoming languid. For the salvation of all men is 
interested in the fact, that the infancy of the Me- 
diator between God and men was already manifested 
to the whole world while it was still detained in an 
insignificant little town. For, although He had chosen 
out the Israelitish nation, and one family of that nation, 
from which to take on Him the nature of universal 



humanity, yet it was not His will that the beginnings 
of His early life should be concealed within the nar- 
row limits of His Mother's abode ; but as He was 
pleased to be born for all, He willed to be speedily 
recognised by all. Accordingly, there appeared to 
three 3 Magi a star of unparalleled brilliancy, that, 
being brighter and lovelier than the other stars, it 
might easily attract to itself the eyes and minds of 
those who gazed at it, and so they might at once ob- 
serve that what seemed so strange was not without a 
meaning. Therefore He Who vouchsafed the sign 
1 See Note 37. 2 " Sacramenta." 3 See Note 38. 



V.] The Magi and Herod. 27 

gave intelligence to those who saw it ; and that which 
He made them understand He made them seek 
after ; and He, when sought, presented Himself to be 
found. 

2. The three men follow the leading of the heavenly 
light, and accompanying with fixed gaze the indications 
given by its guiding brightness, are led by the splen- 
dour of grace to the recognition of the truth, after 
having supposed that the birth of a King, which was 
signified to them by their natural thoughts, 1 must be 
inquired for in a royal city. But He Who had taken 
on Him the form of a servant, and had come not to 
judge, but to be judged, chose beforehand Bethlehem 
for His Nativity, Jerusalem for His Passion. Herod, 
indeed, hearing that a prince of the Jews was born, 
suspected a successor, and was terror-struck ; and hav- 
ing plotted the death of the Author of salvation, He 
falsely engaged to do Him homage. How happy 
would he have been if he had imitated the faith of the 
Magi, and turned into a religious act what he was 
designing as a fraud ! O blind impiety of foolish 
jealousy, that thinkest that a Divine plan is to be dis- 
turbed by thy madness ! The Lord of the world, Who 
bestows an eternal kingdom, is not seeking a temporal 
one. 2 Why dost thou attempt to overturn the immu- 
table order of things appointed, and to anticipate the 
deed of other men ? Not to thy time does Christ's 
death belong. First must the Gospel be founded ; 
first must the kingdom of God be preached ; first 
must healings be vouchsafed ; first must miracles be 
done. Why wouldest thou have that for thine own 
crime, which is to be the work of others ? and while 
1 See Note 39. 2 See Note 40. 



28 The Magi and Herod. [SERM. 

* 

thou art not to have the perpetrating of this wicked- 
ness, why precipitate on thyself alone the guilt of de- 
siring it ? By this design thou gainest nothing, per- 
formest nothing. He Who by His own will was born, 
will die by the power of His own fiat. Therefore the 
Magi accomplish their desire, and being guided by 
the same star, reach a Child, the Lord Jesus Christ. 
In the flesh they adore the Word ; in infancy, Wis- 
dom ; in weakness, Power ; in man's true nature, the 
Lord of Majesty. And to manifest the sacred import 
of their faith and intelligence, they bear witness by 
gifts to what they believe in their hearts. They offer 
frankincense to the God, myrrh to the Man, gold to 
the King, 1 consciously venerating the Divine and the 
human nature brought into unity ; because, while 
the substances had their own properties, there was no 
diversity in power. 2 

3. But after the Magi had returned to their own 
country, and Jesus had been removed into Egypt in 
consequence of a Divine warning, while Herod thinks 
over the matter, his frenzy blazes forth ; yet all in 
vain. He commands all the infants in Bethlehem to 
be killed, and as he knows not which infant to dread, 
he directs a general sentence against the age which 
he suspects. But what the impious king takes out of 
the world, Christ places in heaven ; and to those on 
whom as yet He bestows not His redeeming blood, 
He even now grants the dignity of martyrdom. 3 
Lift up, then, dearly beloved, your faithful minds to 
the radiant grace of the everlasting light, and, ve- 
nerating the sacred acts done in order to man's 

1 See Note 41. 2 See Note 42. 

3 See Note 43. 



VI.] Lessons of Epiphany. 29 

salvation, 1 apply your earnest heed to the things 
which took place in your behalf. Love pure chastity, 
for Christ is a Son of virginity. " Abstain from 
fleshly lusts, which war against the soul," as the 
blessed Apostle, present by his words, as we read, 
exhorts us. 2 " In malice be children," 3 for the Lord 
of glory conformed Himself to mortal infancy. Fol- 
low after that humility which the Son of God was 
pleased to teach His disciples. Clothe yourselves 
with the strength of patience, that in it you may be 
able to " make your souls your own ;" 4 for He Who 
is the redemption of all is Himself the courage of all. 
" Set your affection on things above, not on things 
on the earth." 5 Walk on firmly in the path of truth 
and life. Let not earthly things be a hindrance to 
you for whom heavenly things have been prepared ; 
through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who with the Father 
and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth for ever and 
ever. Amen. 



SERMON VI. 

EPIPHANY. 
SERM. ..36. In Solemnitate Epiphanise, VI. Dies. 

THE day on which Christ, the Saviour of the world, 
first appeared to the Gentiles is to be reverenced by 
us, dearly beloved, with sacred honour ; and we ought 

1 See Note 44. 2 I S. Pet. ii. II. 3 I Cor. xiv. 20. 

4 See Note 45. 6 Col. iii. 2. 



3O The Epiphany mystically renewed. [SERM. 

to feel this day in our hearts those joys which were 
in the breasts of the three Magi, when, being urged 
onwards by the sign and leading of a new star, they 
adored the visible presence of that King of heaven 
and earth, in the promise of Whom they had believed. 
For that day has not in such a sense run its course, 
as that the mighty work which was then revealed has 
passed away, and nothing has come down to us but 
the report of what was done, for faith to receive and 
memory to celebrate ; since, through the multiplied 
bounty of God, even our own times have daily ex- 
perience of whatever belonged to those earliest days. 
Therefore, although the narrative of the Gospel read- 
ings 1 does specially review those days in which three 
men, who had been neither taught by the preaching 
of Prophets nor instructed by the testimony of the 
Law, came from the remotest part of the East in 
order to know God, yet do we see this same event 
even now taking place, both more manifestly and to 
a wider extent, in the illumination of all who are 
called. For the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, 
who says, " The Lord hath made bare His holy arm 
in the sight of all nations, and all nations of the 
earth have seen the salvation which is from the Lord 
our God." And again : " And they who were not 
told of Him shall see, and they who have not heard 
shall understand." 2 Wherefore, when we see men 
given to worldly wisdom, and far away from the 
confession of Jesus Christ, being led out of the depth 
of their error, and called to acknowledge the true 
light, it is beyond doubt the splendour of Divine 
grace which is at work ; and whatever of new light 
1 See Note 46. 2 Isa. Hi. 10, 15. 



VI.] The Epiphany mystically renewed. 31 

appears in darkened hearts isjgleaming from the rays 
of that same star, that, having touched souls by its 
own brightness, it may both impress them by the 
miracle, and by its guidance bring them on to wor- 
ship God. But if we would fain see, with careful 
intelligence, how even that triple kind of gifts is 
offered by all who come to Christ with the steps of 
faith, is not the same offering being performed in the 
hearts of true believers ? For he brings forth gold 
from the treasury of his soul, who owns Christ as 
King_oLall things ; he offers myrrh, who believes that 
God's Only-begotten Son united to Himself man's 
true nature ; and he venerates Him with a kind of 
frankincense, who confesses Him to be in no wise in- 
ferior to the Father's majesty. 

2. When we have thoughtfully looked at these 
points of comparison, dearly beloved, we find that 
Herod's character also is not absent. For the devil 
himself, as he was then Herod's secret instigator, so 
is now too his unwearied imitator. For he is tor- 
tured by the calling of all Gentiles, and agonized by 
the daily destruction of his own power ; grieving that 
he is everywhere forsaken, and the true King in all 
places adored. He prepares deceits, he feigns agree- 
ments, he breaks forth into slaughter ; and in order 
to make use of that remnant of men whom he still 
deceives, he burns with envy in Jews, 1 he plots by 
craft in heretics, he is kindled with ferocity in Pa- 
gans. 2 For he sees how invincible is the power of 
the eternal King, Whose own death has extinguished 
the power of death ; and therefore he has put in force 
his whole art of doing mischief against those who 
1 See Note 47. See Note 48. 



32 Retrospect of Persecutions. [SERM. 

4 

serve the true King, hardening some by their inflated 
pride in knowledge of the law, depraving others into 
a frenzy of persecution. But this madness of this 
Herod is being overcome and crushed by Him Who 
crowned even little ones with the glory of martyrdom, 
and infused into His faithful ones so unconquerable 
a love, that they are bold to say in the Apostle's 
words, 1 "Who shall separate us from the love of 
Christ ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, 
or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword ? As it is 
written, For Thy sake are we killed all the day long ; 
we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. But in 
all these things we overcome 2 by reason of Him that 
loved us." 

3. We do not believe, dearly beloved, that this for- 
titude was necessary for those times alone, in which 
the kings of the world, and all secular powers, used 
to rage with bloodthirsty impiety against the people 
of God, because they thought that it would conduce 
to their chiefest glory, if they could take away from 
the earth the Christian name : not knowing that the 
Church of God was being enlarged by their frantic 
cruelty, because amid the punishments and deaths 
of blessed martyrs, those who were thought to be 
diminished in number were multiplied by their ex- 
ample. 3 At length, so greatly has our faith been 
indebted to the onslaughts of persecutors, that the 
royal sovereignty has no greater adornment than that 
the lords of the world are the members of Christ ; 
nor do they glory so much in having been born in 
imperial dignity, as they rejoice in having been born 

1 Rom. viii. 35. 2 " Superamus." 

3 See Note 49. 






VI.] Perils of Quiet Times. 33 

again in baptism. 1 But seeing that the storm of 
those former whirlwinds has sunk to rest, and our 
conflicts have long ago ceased, and a kind of tran- 
quillity seems to smile upon us, we must watchfully 
guard against those dangers which spring from the 
repose of peace itself. 2 For the adversary, who in 
open persecutions was ineffective, is venting his fury 
by hidden arts of mischief, in the hope that, as he has 
not crushed us by the stroke of affliction, he may cast 
us down by a fall through pleasure. Accordingly, as 
he sees that the faith of princes withstands him, and 
that the indivisible Trinity of the One Godhead is 
not less heartily worshipped in palaces than in 
churches, he grieves that the shedding of Christian 
blood is forbidden ; and as he cannot obtain our 
death, he attacks our manner of life. For the terror 
of proscriptions he substitutes the fire of avarice, and 
corrupts by covetousness those whom he failed to 
break down by losses. For that malice which is 
habituated to a long exercise of its own wickedness 
has not laid aside its hate, but turned its ability to 
the object of subduing to itself the minds of the 
faithful by allurements. It inflames those with ap- 
petites whom it cannot distress by tortures ; it sows 
discord, kindles anger, sharpens tongues, and, lest the 
more cautious spirits should withdraw themselves 
from unlawful knaveries, it presents opportunities for 
the perpetration of misdeeds. For this is what it 
aims at as the fruit of all its treachery that he who 
is not honoured by the sacrificing of sheep and rams, 
and by the burning of incense, 3 should get homage 
done him by means of any crime. 

1 See Note 50. 2 See Note 51. 3 See Note 52. 

D 



34 Resist seductive influences. [SERM. 



4. Our peace then, dearly beloved, Jia^L_its_own 
perils ; and in vain do men make themselves com- 
fortable on the score of their religious liberty, while 
they make no stand against vicious desires. It is 
the quality of men's deeds that shows their hearts ; 
it is the character of their acts which exposes the 
form of their minds. For there are certain men, as 
the Apostle says, who "profess that they know God, but 
who in works deny Him." 1 For the guilt of denying 
Him is really incurred, when that good thing which the 
voice is heard to speak of is not retained in the 
conscience. It is true that the frailty of man's nature 
does easily glide on into transgression ; and as there 
is no sin without enjoyment, men quickly acquiesce in 
deceitful pleasure. But let us have recourse, against 
carnal desires, to spiritual protection ; and let the 
mind which has a knowledge of its God, turn away 
from the foe's counsels, who would persuade it to its 
ruin. Let it profit by God's long-suffering ; and let 
not a persistency in doing wrong be cherished, just 
because vengeance is delayed. Let not the sinner be 
at ease on the score of impunity ; for if he shall have 
lost the time of repentance, he will have no place of 
forgiveness, as the Prophet says : " For in death no 
man remembereth Thee, and who shall give Thee 
thanks in the pit?" 2 But if a man finds by ex- 
perience that it is hard to correct and recover himself, 
let him flee to the clemency of God his Helper, and 
entreat that the bonds of. evil habit may be broken by 
Him Who " raises up all those that fall, and lifts up 
all who are crushed." 3 The prayer of one who makes 
his confession will not be void, for God will in mercy 

1 Titus i. 1 6. 2 Ps. vi. 5. See Note 53. 3 Ps. cxlv. 14. 



VII.] The Passion our ground of Hope. 35 

" fulfil the desire of them that fear Him j" 1 and as 
He has given the source from which we were to seek, 
He will give what is sought ; through our Lord 
Jesus Christ, Who liveth and reigneth with the Fa- 
ther and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen. 



SERMON VII. 

PASSION-TIDE. 

SERM. 56. De Passione Domini, V. Preached on Sunday. Creator. 

CHRIST, the Creator and Lord of all things, after 
His unparalleled birth from the holy Virgin, after the 
homage done to His. cradle by the confession of the 
Magi, and after the manifold teaching of His heavenly 
speech, and the various healings of disease effected 
by the mandate of His powerful word, consummates 
the economy of all sacred events 2 and of all mighty 
works by the Passion through which we are saved. 
And so it is, dearly beloved, that the true ground and 
principal cause of Christian hope is the Cross of Christ, 
which, although it be "to the Jews a stumbling-block, 
and to the Greeks foolishness," is yet "to us the 
power of God, and the wisdom of God." 3 Wherefore 
at all times, indeed, ought (this supreme and mightiest 
mystery of the Divine mercy to be retained in all its 
dignity in our hearts ; but at this time it demands to 
be more vividly felt in the heart, and more clearly 
discerned by the mind, seeing that all the work of 

Ps. cxlv. 19. 2 " Sacramentorum." 3 i Cor. i. 23, 24. 



36 Our Redeemer must be God-Man. [SERM. 

our salvation is being brought home to us, not only 
by the recurrence of the time, but also by the course 
of Gospel readings. Let then the imaginations of 
impious men have no place among us ; let not our 
healthy and sound intelligence be so corrupted either 
by Jewish stumbling or Gentile scoffing, as that what 
was done for us, not only in lowliness but in majesty, 
should seem either impossible in regard to man, or 
unworthy in regard to God. It befits us to receive 
both truths, to believe both ; for, except by means of 
both, no one can be saved. For God, being righteous 
and merciful, did not make such use of the rights of 
His own will as to exert for our restoration the mere 
power of His benignity ; but since the consequence 
of man's committing sin had been that he became 
" the slave of sin," 1 therefore in suchrwise was healing 
bestowed on the sick, in such wise reconciliation on 
the guilty, 2 in such wise redemption on the captives, 
that a righteous sentence of condemnation should be 
annulled by a righteous work on the part of a De- 
liverer. For if Godhead by itself were to stand forth 
in behalf of sinners, the devil would be overcome 
rather by power than with reason. And again, if the 
mortal, nature by itself were to undertake the cause 
of the fallen, it would not be released from its con- 
dition, because it would not be free from its stock. 
Therefore it was necessary that both the Divine and 
human substances should meet in our Lord Jesus_ 
Christ, that our mortal nature might, through the 
Word made flesh, receive aid alike from the birth 
and passion of a new Man. 

2. So, while the blindness of the Jews does not see 

1 S. John viii. 34. 2 See Note 54. Compare Serm. iv. c. 3. 



VII.] Faith in the Cross. 37 

what is Divine in Christ Jesus, and the wisdom of 
the Gentiles contemns what is human ; while the 
former speak depreciatingly of the Lord's glory, and 
the latter put on airs of pride about His lowliness j 1 
we adore the Son of God, alike in His own might 
and in our infirmity; nor are we ashamed of the 
Cross of Christ ; nor do we, amid the voices of gain- 
sayers, doubt either as to His Death or His Resur- 
rection. For that which draws the scorners into un- 
belief is the very thing which guides us into faith ; 
and that which in their case is the occasion of con- 
fusion, is in ours the very cause of piety. So, after 
our Lord had warned His disciples to contend by 
watchful prayer against the force of urgent tempta- 
tion, He prayed to the Father, saying, " Father, if it 
be possible, let this cup pass from Me ; nevertheless, 
not as I will, but as Thou wilt." 2 The first petition 
belongs to weakness, the last to strength. From 
what belonged to us, He wished for one thing ; from 
what belonged to Himself, He chose another. For 
the Son, equal to the Father, was not ignorant that 
all things are possible to God ; nor had He descended 
into the world to take up the Cross without His own 
will, so that some disturbance of His design should 
make Him suffer this collision of opposite feelings. 3 
But that the distinction between the nature which 
was taken up and that which took it up might be 
manifest, in regard to what was human, He longed 
for the exertion of Divine power ; in regard to what 
was Divine, He had respect to man's case. Accord- 
ingly, the lower will gave way to the higher ; and it 

1 See Note 55. 2 S. Matt. xxvi. 39. 

3 See Note 56. 



38 The Seizure of Christ. [SERM. 

was soon shown what can be prayed for by one in 
distress, and what ought not to be granted by the 
Healer. For since "we know not what to pray for 
as we ought," 1 and it is good for us that what we 
wish should, for the most part, not take place, when 
we seek for what will hurt us, our good and righteous 
God is merciful in refusing it. 2 Therefore, when our 
Lord had by a threefold prayer settled the mode of 
putting right our own will, He said to His disciples, 
still weighed down by sorrow, " Sleep on now, and 
take your rest. Behold, the hour is at hand, and the 
Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of sin- 
ners. Rise up, let us go. Behold, he is at hand who 
will betray Me." 3 ^ 

3. But while our Lord was actually uttering these 
words, those whom He had referred to rushed upon 
Him, and a band came together with swords and 
staves to seize Christ, following as their leader Judas 
Iscariot, who, by the distinction of his perfidy, had 
won the pre-eminence in this deed. From this man 
was withheld no condescension, lest some vexation 
should give him a motive for crime ; but he was in- 
flamed by the fiery breath of him to whom he had 
voluntarily offered his services, and he found a chief 
corresponding in character to his own mind. De- 
servedly, as the prophet also had foretold, was " his 
prayer turned into sin ;" 4 for when the enormity was 
consummated, his very conversion was so perverse 
that he sinned even in repenting. Thus the Son of 
God allows impious hands to be laid upon Him, 
and that which is wrought by the fury of savage 

1 Rom. viii. 26. 2 See Note 57. 

3 S. Matt. xxvi. 45, 46. 4 Ps. cix. 7. 



VII.] The Efficacy of His Sufferings. 39 

men is completed by the power of the Sufferer. For 
this was that sacred work 1 of great loving-kindness, 
which Christ was pursuing amid those injuries ; for 
if He had repelled them by a display of power and 
by manifest strength, He would have only been per- 
forming what was Divine, not curing what was 
human. But amid all the outrages contumeliously 
and wantonly offered to Him by the frenzy of people 
and of priests, our stains were being washed out, 
our offences expiated. For the nature which in us 
was ever guilty and captive, in Him suffered as inno- 
cent and free ; that in order to " take away the sin 
of the world," that Lamb might offer Himself as a 
Sacrifice, Who might both be united to all men by 
bodily substance, and distinguished from all by 
spiritual origin. Let this be enough, dearly beloved, 
to be imparted to your ears to-day. Let the rest 
be deferred to Wednesday ; 2 your prayers being 
aided by the Lord, Who will deign to grant that 
what we promise we may fulfil ; through the same 
our Lord, Whose are honour and glory for ever and 
ever. Amen. 

1 " Sacramentum." 2 See Note 58. 



4O The Passion an inexhaustible subject. [SERM. 



SERMON VIII. 

PASSION-TIDE. 

SERM.L62.) De Passione Domini, XI. Preached on Sunday. 

Desiderata. 

LONGED for by us, dearly beloved, and an object 
of desire to the whole world, the festival of our Lord's 
Passion 1 has come, and suffers us not to be silent, 
amid our exulting bursts of spiritual joy. For al- 
though it is difficult to discourse often on the same 
subject worthily and appropriately, yet in regard to 
so great a mystery of the Divine mercy, a priest is 
not free to withhold from the ears of the faithful 
people the sermon which is their due. For the sub- 
ject itself, from the very fact of its being unspeakable, 
supplies the ability to speak : nor can we be at a loss 
for something to say on a matter for which what is 
said can never be sufficient. 2 Well, then, may our 
human weakness sink under God's glory, and ever 
find itself inadequate to the exposition of the works 
of His mercy. Well may our thoughts be oppressed, 
our capacity come to a stand, our utterance fail ; 
good is it that we should feel how imperfect are 
even our right thoughts about the majesty of the 
Lord. For since the Prophet says, " seek the Lord 
and be strengthened, seek His face evermore," 3 no 
one ought to presume that he has found the whole of 
what he is seeking, lest by ceasing to advance he fail 
to come near. And apisnggajy. the works of God, by 
which man's admiratif^yfcepTlN^ke stretch, is wearied, 
1 See Note 59. Imfl $f> ^W3Q\ 3 Ps. cv. 4. 




Viii.] The Personal Union. 41 

what is there which so greatly at once delights and 
transcends our mental gaze, as the Passion of our 
Saviour ? As often as we think, to the best of our 
power, about His omnipotence, which belongs to Him 
as of one co-equal essence with the Father, the lowli- 
ness which we see in God amazes us more than the 
power ; and we find it harder to grasp the " empty- 
ing" of the Divine majesty 1 than the carrying up on 
high of the "form of a servant." But it helps us 
greatly in understanding, if we remember that although 
the Creator is one, and the creature another, the in- 
violable Godhead one, and the passible flesh another, 
-yet the two distinct substances concur in one Per- 
son, 2 so that, alike in infirmities and in mighty acts, 
the contumely and the glory belong to One and the 
same. 3 

2. By this rule of faith, dearly beloved, which we 
have received in the very opening of the Creed by 
the authority of Apostolic teaching, 4 while we call 
our Lord Jesus Christ the only Son of God the Fa- 
ther Almighty, we also confess Him, the self-same, as 
born, from the Holy Spirit, of the Virgin Mary ; 5 nor 
do we go astray from His majesty when we believe 
Him to have been crucified, dead, and raised again 
the third day. For all acts which belong to the God 
or the Man, were at once accomplished by manhood 
and Godhead ; 6 so that, while the impassible is present 
in the passible, neither can strength be affected amid 

1 See Serm. ii. c. 2. 

2 "Concurrat." See Serm. i. c. 2, and Ep. xxviii. 3, "coeunte:" 
Serm. ii. c. I, "convenit." 

3 See Serm. ii. c. 2 ; Ep. xxviii. 3. 4 See Note 61. 
5 See Note 62. 6 See Note 63. 



42 The Incarnation revealed to S. Peter, [SERM. 



weakness, nor weakness overcome amid strength. De- 
servedly was the blessed Apostle Peter praised on his 
confession of this union ; who, when our Lord asked 
what His disciples understood concerning Him, with 
all speed anticipated the voices of them all, saying, 
" Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." 
Which indeed he saw, not by flesh and blood explain- 
ing it (for their interposition might have been a hin- 
drance to the inward eyes,) but by the very Spirit of 
the Father working in his believing heart ; so that, 
being prepared for the government of the whole 
Church, 1 he might first learn what he had to teach, 
and on account of the firmness of that faith which he 
was to proclaim, might hear it said, " Thou art Peter, 
and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the 
gates of hell shall not prevail against it." 2 Accord- 
ingly, the strength of Christian faith, which, being 
built on an impregnable rock, fears not the gates of 
death, confesses one Lord Jesus Christ, both very God 
and very Man : believing the same to be the Virgin's 
Son Who is the Maker of His Mother ; 3 the same to 
have been born in the close of ages, Who is the Creator 
of times ; the same to be Lord of all power, and one 
of the race of mortals ; the same to have " known no 
sin," and to have been sacrificed for sinners " in the 
likeness of sinful flesh." 4 

3. And that He might loose mankind from the 
bonds of deadly transgression, He concealed from the 
devil's fury the power of His own Majesty, and op- 
posed him in the infirmity of our lowliness. For if 
the cruel and proud enemy could have known the 

1 See Note 64. 2 S. Matt. xvi. 16. 

3 See Ep. xxviii. 4. 4 2 Cor. v. 21 ; Rom. viii. 3. 



viii.] but hidden from Satan. 43 

plan of God's mercy, he would rather have set him- 
self to soften the minds of the Jews into gentleness, 
than to kindle them into unrighteous hatred ; lest he 
should lose the dominion over all his captives, while 
attacking the freedom of One Who owed him nought. 1 
So was he cheated by his own malice : he brought on 
the Son of God a punishment which was to be turned 
to the healing of all the sons of men. He shed righ- 
teous blood, which was to be both a ransom and a 
cup 2 for the reconciliation of the world. What the 
Lord chose according to the purpose of His own will, 
that He took upon Him. He submitted Himself to 
the impious hands of infuriate men, who, while busy 
with their own wickedness, were doing the behest of 
the Redeemer. And even towards His slayers so 
strong was His feeling of tenderness, that in His 
prayer to the Father from the Cross, He asked not 
that He should be avenged, but that they should be 
pardoned, saying, " Father, forgive them, for they know 
not what they do." 3 And the might of that prayer 
had this result, that the hearts of many of those who 
said, " His blood be on us and on our children," were 
converted to repentance by the preaching of Peter 
the Apostle, and in one day " about three thousand" 
Jews were baptized ; and they all became " of one 
heart and of one soul," 4 prepared already to die for 
Him Whose crucifixion they had demanded. 

4. To this pardon the traitor Judas could not attain. 
For the son of perdition, at whose " right hand the 
devil stood," passed away into despair, before Christ 
fulfilled the mystery of general redemption. For after 

1 See Note 65. 2 See Note 66. 

J S. Luke xxiii. 34. 4 Acts ii. 41 ; iv. 32. 



44 The Death of Judas. [SERM. 

the Lord had died for all 1 the ungodly, perhaps even 
this man might have obtained healing, if he had not 
hurried to the halter. 2 But in that malignant heart, 
now given to thievish fraud, now busy with a parri- 
cidal bargain, there had never settled down any of the 
proofs of the Saviour's mercy. He had received with 
his impious ears the words of the Lord, when He 
said, " I came not to call the righteous, but sinners," 3 
and, " The Son of Man is come to seek and save that 
which was lost :" 4 but he had not understood the 
clemency of Christ, Who was not only wont to heal 
bodily infirmities, but also to cure the wounds of sickly 
souls, saying to the paralytic, " Son, be of good cheer, 
thy sins are forgiven thee ;" 5 and saying also to the 
adulteress who was brought before Him, " Neither 
will I condemn thee ; go, and sin no more ;" 6 so as to 
show through all His acts that in that Advent of His 
He came as Saviour of the world, not as Judge. But 
the impious traitor, far from understanding this, rose 
up against himself, not with the just sentence 7 of a 
penitent, but with the frenzy of a lost man : so that 
having sold the Author of life to murderers, he in- 
creased his own damnation by sinning even in his 
death. 

5. Therefore has that which was done against our 
Lord Jesus Christ by false witnesses, by cruel rulers, 
by impious priests, using the ministry of a cowardly 
governor, 8 and the attendance of an ignorant cohort, 
been in all ages a matter to be at once detested and 
embraced. For as the Cross of our Lord, in regard 

1 See Note 67. 2 See Note 68. 3 S. Matt. ix. 13. 

4 S. Luke xix. 10. 5 S. Matt. ix. 2. 6 See Note 69. 

7 Cp. 2 Cor. vii. II. 8 See Note 70. 



IX.] Maris crime overruled by God. 45 

to the mind of the Jews, was cruel, so in regard to the 
power of the Crucified it is marvellous. The people 
rages against One, and Christ has mercy on all. What 
is inflicted by ferocity is welcomed by free will, so that 
the audacity of the crime accomplishes the work of 
the eternal Will. Wherefore the whole order of events, 
which the Gospel narrative goes through so fully, is 
in such a manner to be received by the ears of the 
faithful, that while we entirely believe in the acts 
which were performed at the time of our Lord's Pas- 
sion, we are to understand that in Christ was not only 
remission of sins accomplished, but also a pattern of 
righteousness displayed. But, that this may by the 
Lord's help be more carefully discussed, let this part 
of the discourse be reserved for Wednesday. God's 
grace, we hope, will be present, to enable us, by your 
prayers, to fulfil our promise ; through our Lord Jesus 
Christ, Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit 
reigneth for ever and ever. Amen. 



SERMON IX. 

PASSION-TIDE. 

SERM. V 63^ De Passione Dom. XII. Preached on Wednesday. 

Gloria. 

THE glory of our Lord's Passion, dearly beloved, 
on which we promised to speak further to you to-day, 
is pre-eminently wonderful in regard to that mys- 
terious humiliation which has both redeemed and 



46 The Passion a Ransom and a Model. [SERM. 

taught us all ; so that from the same quarter whence 
a ransom was given, might righteousness also be re- 
ceived. For the omnipotence of jthe Son of God, 
wherein through identity of essence He is equal to 
the Father, could have rescued . mankind from the 
devil's tyranny by the simple mandate of His._owji 
will, had it not been in the highest degree Consonant 
to the Divine operations that the hostility of our 
wicked foe should be conquered by that which it 
had conquered, and our natural freedom be restored^ 
through that very nature through which our general 
captivity had been brought about. 1 Now, by the 
Evangelist's language, " the Word was made flesh 
and dwelt among us," and the Apostle's, " God was 
in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself," 2 it has 
been shown that the Only-begotten Son of the most 
high Father entered into so close a fellowship with 
human lowliness, that having taken upon Him the 
substance of our flesh "and soul, He remained one and 
the same Son of God, exalting what was ours, not 
what was His ; 3 for it was weakness that was uplifted, 
not strength ; so that when the creature was united 
to its Creator, nothing Divine should be wanting to 
the assumed element, nothing human to the assuming 
one. 

2. This design of God's mercy and justice, though 
overshadowed in previous ages by certain veils, was 
yet not so much hidden as to be closed to the under- 
standing of holy men, who lived praiseworthy lives 
from the beginning even to our Lord's Advent. For 
the salvation which was to come in Christ was pro- 

1 See Serm. vii. c. I. 2 2 Cor. v. 19. 

3 See Note 71. 



IX.] Christ the Hope of Old Testament Worthies. 47 

mised both by the words of prophets and the signi- 
ficancy of events, and was obtained not only by those 
who preached it, but by all those who believed the 
preachers. For it is one faith which justifies the 
Saints of all times j 1 and to the self-same hope of the 
faithful pertains all that either we acknowledge to 
have been done, or our fathers hailed as to be done, 
by the Mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ. 
Nor is there any distinction between Jews and 
Gentiles ; for, as the Apostle says, " circumcision 
is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the 
keeping of the commandments of God ;" 2 which, 
if we keep them with integrity of faith, make us 
true sons of Abraham, 3 that is, complete Christians, 
as the same Apostle says : " For whosoever of you 
have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. 
There is no Jew nor Greek, there is no bond- 
man nor free, there is no male nor female, for ye 
are all one in Christ. And i % f ye are Christ's, then 
are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the 
promise." 4 

3. There is therefore no doubt, dearly beloved, that 
the human nature was taken by the Son of God into 
so close a connection, that not only in that Man Who 
is " the First-born of the whole creation," but also in 
all His Saints, Christ is one and the same ; 5 and as 
the Head cannot be disjoined from the members, so 
neither can the members from the Head. For al- 
though it belongs not to this life, but to the life 
eternal, that God should be "all in all," 6 yet even 

1 See Serm. ii. c. 4. 2 I Cor. vii. 19. 

3 See Serm. iii. c. 2. 4 Gal. iii. 27 29. 

5 See Note 72. 6 I Cor. xv. 28. 



48 Chris fs Work the basis of our Renewal. [SERM. 

now is He the inseparable Inhabitant of His Temple, 
which is the Church, according to His own express 
promise, " Lo, I am with you all days, even unto 
the end of the world." 1 In conformity with which 
the Apostle says, " He is the Head of the body, the 
Church; Who is the .beginning, the First-born from 
the dead, that in all things He might be holding the 
pre-eminence ; for it seemed good that in Him should 
all fulness dwell, and that through Him should all 
things be reconciled in Him." 2 

4. Now what else is conveyed to our hearts by 
these and by more testimonies besides, than that we 
should be thoroughly renewed after the image of 
Him Who, abiding in the " form of God," was pleased 
to be the form of " sinful flesh ?" 3 For He, without any 
fellowship with sin, took on Him all the infirmities 
which come from sin, so that He lacked not the sen- 
sations 4 of hunger and thirst, of sleep and weariness, 
of sorrow and weeping, and endured the cruellest 
pains, even to the extremity of death. For no one 
could be loosed from the nets of mortality, unless He 
in Whom alone 5 the nature of all men was innocent 
allowed Himself to be put to death by the hands of 
the ungodly. Wherefore the Son of God, our Sa- 
viour, ordained for all who should believe in Him 
both a mystery and an example ; 6 that they might 
take hold of the former by new birth, and follow the 
latter by imitation. For this is what the blessed 
Apostle Peter teaches us, saying, " Christ suffered 
for us, leaving you an example that you should follow 

1 S. Matt, xxviii. 20. * Col. i. 1 8 20. 

3 Cp. Rom. viii. 3. 4 See Note 73. 

5 See Serm. i. c. i. 6 See Note 74. 



IX.] The Law fulfilled in Him. 49 

in His steps, Who did no sin, neither was guile found 
in His mouth ; Who, when He was reviled, reviled 
not again ; when He suffered, He threatened not, but 
gave Himself up to him that judged Him unjustly ; l 
Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the 
tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto 
righteousness." 

5. As then there is no one among believers, dearly 
beloved, to whom the gifts of grace are denied, so 
there is no one who does not owe obedience to Chris- 
tian discipline. For although the harshness of the 
symbolic law has been abolished, yet the benefits of 
voluntary obedience have increased, as John the 
Evangelist says, " The law was given by Moses, but 
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." 2 For every- 
thing connected with the law in the earlier times, in 
respect either to the circumcision of the flesh, or the 
diversities of victims, or the observance of the Sab- 
bath, bore witness to Christ, and spoke of Christ's 
grace beforehand. And He " is the end of the law," 3 
not by making void its significances, but by fulfilling 
them. And although He Himself is the Author 
alike of old things and of new, yet He changed the 
ordinances connected with prefigurative promises, be- 
cause He brought the things promised to effect, and 
caused the announcements to cease, since He, so 
announced, had come. But in regard to moral pre- 
cepts, no decrees of the older Testament were set 
aside, 4 but many were enlarged by the Gospel teach- 
ing, that they might be more perfect and luminous, 



1 See Note 75. 2 S. John i. 17. 

3 Rom. x. 4. 4 See Note 76. 



5O Christ's present agency in the Church. [SERM. 



as giving salvation, than they had been as promising 
a Saviour. 1 

6. So then, all those things which the Son of God 
both did and taught for the reconciliation of the 
world, we do not simply know of by the history of 
past events, but feel even now by the power of pre- 
sent operations. He it is Who, having been brought 
forth by the Holy Spirit from a Virgin Mother, by 
the same inspiration makes fruitful His undefiled 
Church, so that through the baptismal child-bearing 2 
is produced an innumerable multitude of children of 
God, of whom it is said, "who were born, not of 
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
man, but of God." He it is in Whom the seed of 
Abraham is blessed by the adoption of the whole 
world to sonship, and the patriarch becomes " a father 
of nations," 3 while the promised sons are born, not 
carnally, but by faith. He it is Who, making no 
exception of any nation, forms out of every people 
under heaven one flock of holy sheep, and daily per- 
forms what He had promised in the words, " And 
other sheep I have, which are not of this fold ; them 
also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and 
there shall be one flock 4 and one Shepherd." For 
although it is to blessed Peter in the first instance 5 
that He says " Feed My sheep," yet the care (of the 
sheep) actually belonging to all shepherds is under 
the direction of the one Lord ; and those who 
come to the Rock He nourishes in such pleasant 
and well-watered pastures, that numberless sheep, 

1 See Note 77. 2 See Serm. iii. c. 2., 

3 Gen. xvii. 5. 4 "Grex." S. John x. 16. 

5 " Principaliter. " See Serm. viii. c. 2. 



IX.] His working in and after Baptism. 51 

strengthened with the fatness of love, hesitate not 
themselves to die for the Name of the Shepherd, even 
as the good Shepherd was pleased to lay down His 
life for the sheep. He it is in Whose suffering not 
only the glorious courage of martyrs has a share, but 
also the faith of all who are new-born in their actual 
regeneration. For while they renounce 1 the devil, 
and believe in God ; while they pass from the old 
life into the new ; while the image of the earthly man 
is laid aside, and the form of the Heavenly taken up ; 
there takes place a certain appearance of death, and 
a certain likeness of resurrection ; so that he who is 
taken up by Christ and " takes up Christ" is not the 
same after the laver as he was before Baptism, but 
the body of the regenerate becomes the flesh of the 
Crucified. 2 

7. This, dearly beloved, is " the change from the 
right hand of the Highest," 3 "Who worketh all in 
all," so that in the case of every faithful man we may, 
through the character of a good life, understand Him 
to be the author of pious works : giving thanks to the 
mercy of God, Who so adorns the whole body of 
the Church by innumerable bestowals of spiritual 
gifts, that by the rays of one light the same splendour 
is everywhere manifest, nor can the good desert 4 of 
any Christian be aught else than the glory of Christ. 
This is that " true light which" justifies and " en- 
lightens every man." 5 This is that which "rescues 
us from the power of darkness, and translates us into 
the kingdom of the Son of God." 6 This is that which 

1 See Note 78. 2 See Note 79. 

3 Psalm Ixxvii. (or Ixxvi.) 10 ; LXX. Vulg. 4 See Note 80. 

5 S. John i. 9. 6 Col. i. 13. 



52 Effects of Holy Communion. [SERM; 

through newness of life elevates the desires of the 
soul, and quenches the appetites of the flesh. This 
is that whereby the Lord's Passover is legitimately 
celebrated " in the unleavened bread of sincerity and 
truth j" 1 while, after the leaven of the old malice has 
been cast away, the new creature is exhilarated 2 and 
fed from the Lord Himself. For the participation of 
the Body and Blood of Christ effects nothing else 
than this, that we pass into That which we receive, 3 
and, as we have died with Him, and been buried with 
Him, and raised up with Him, so we bear Him through- 
out, both in spirit and in flesh, as the Apostle says : 
" For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in 
God ; for when Christ, your life, shall appear, then 
shall ye also appear with Him in glory ;" 4 Who, with 
the Father and the Holy Spirit, liveth and reigneth 
for ever and ever. Amen. 



SERMON X. 

PASSION-TIDE. 

SBRM. 64. De Passione Dom. XIII. Preached on Sunday. Omnia. 

TRUE it is, dearly beloved, that all times give to 
Christian minds opportunity for meditating on the 
mystery of our Lord's Passion and Resurrection ; nor 
is there any duty of our religion whereby we do not 

1 i Cor. v. 8. 2 " Inebriatur." Cf. Psalm xxii. 5, Vulg. 

3 See Note 81. 4 Col. iii. 3. 



x.] Christ really took our flesh. 53 

celebrate alike the reconciliation of the world and the 
assumption of human nature in Christ. But now it 
is right that the universal Church should be instructed 
by a fuller understanding, and enkindled with a more 
fervent hope, at a time when the dignity of these 
events is so brought out by the recurrence of the hal- 
lowed days, and by the pages of Gospel truth, that 
we ought rather to honour the Lord's Passover as 
present than remember it as past. Let not then the 
gaze of our faith go astray in any point from those 
things which belong to the Cross of Jesus Christ, and 
let us not receive with listless ears any one of these 
facts which are brought to mind by the Gospel narra- 
tive : so that, whereas there have not been wanting, 
and are not now wanting, those who attack the reality 
of our Lord's Incarnation, and affirm that when in 
the womb of the Virgin Mother Mary the Word was 
made flesh, and was born as an Infant, and advanced 
by bodily growth to the age of full manhood, and 
was crucified, dead, and buried, and rose again the 
third day, all this was indeed done in the form of our 
likeness, but not in the nature of our flesh i 1 we, in no 
point departing from the testimonies of Evangelists 
and Apostles, may be confirmed by the intelligence 
of those whose assured experience 2 has informed us, 
and may be able piously and firmly to say that we 
ourselves have in them been instructed, that what 
they saw we have seen, what they learned we have 
learned, and what they touched we have handled. 
And just because we are not deceived as to our Lord's 
birth, we are not disturbed as to His Passion. 

2. For we know, dearly beloved, and confess with 

1 See Serm. iv. c. 4, 5. 2 See Note 82. 



54 Why the Son became Incarnate. [SERM. 

our whole heart, that the Godhead of the Father, and 
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is one, 1 and the essence 
of the everlasting Trinity is consubstantial, in no wise 
divided, in no wise diverse, because it is at once apart 
from all time, at once immutable, at once never ceas- 
ing to be what it is. Now, in this ineffable Unity of 
the Trinity, whose works and judgments are in all 
points done in common, 2 it was the Person of the 
Son in particular Who undertook the restoration of 
mankind ; that since it is He by Whom " all things 
were made, and without Whom nothing was made," 
and Who animated with the breath of rational life 
man formed from the earth's clay, He, the selfsame, 
might restore to its lost dignity our nature which 
had been cast down from the citadel of immortality, 
and as He had been its founder, might be also its 
restorer, in such a way directing His design to its 
accomplishment, as to employ rather just reason than 
forcible power for the destruction of the devil's sove- 
reignty. 3 Since then the universal posterity of the 
first man had fallen down pierced at once by the 
same wound, 4 nor could any good deserts of saints 
overcome the law whereby death was brought upon 
it, there came from heaven the one only Physician, 
often heralded by many signs, and long promised by 
prophetic assurances, who, remaining in " the form of 
God," and losing nought of His own majesty, was to 
be born in the nature of our flesh and soul, without 
the contagion of the primeval offence. For the Son 
of the Blessed Virgin was the only one born without 
sin ; not external to mankind, but unconnected with 

1 See Serm. ii. c. 2. 2 See Note 83. 

3 See Serm. vii. c. I. 4 See Serm. i. c. I. 



X.] Redemption implies His true Manhood. 55 

their guilt ; in Whom there could be both the per- 
fect innocence and the true nature of the man made 
after God's image and likeness, since of Adam's pro- 
geny there was but one in whom the devil had nothing 
that he could call his own. And while venting his 
fury against Him Whom he held not under the law 
of sin, he lost the rights of his impious sovereignty. 1 

3. For the shedding of righteous blood for the 
unrighteous was so potent in the way of privilege, so 
the way of ransom, that if the whole body of 



the captives had believed in their Redeemer, not one 
would have been detained in the tyrant's bonds. For, 
as the Apostle says, " where sin abounded, grace did 
much more abound." 2 And when those who were 
born under a pre-existing law of sin received the 
power of being born again unto righteousness, Jthe 
grant of freedom became more valid than the debt of 
Servitude. What hope, then, do they leave to them- 
selves in the protecting power of this mystery, who 
deny the reality of human substance in the body of 
our Saviour ? Let them say by what sacrifice they 
have been reconciled, by what blood redeemed ! 3 
Who is it that " offered Himself for us, an offering 
and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour ?" 
Or what sacrifice was ever more sacred than that 
which the true High Priest, by the immolation of 
His own flesh, laid on the altar of the Cross ? 4 For 
although "in the sight of the Lord the death" of 
many a saint was " precious," 5 yet in no case was the 
slaughter of an innocent man the propitiation for a 

1 See Serm. viii. c. 3. 2 Rom. v. 20. 

J See Ep. xxviii. 5. 4 See Note 84. 

5 Ps. cxvi. 15. 



56 Christ draws us to Him by Faith. [SERM. 

world. Righteous men did not give crowns, but re- 
ceived them ; and from the endurance of the faithful 
sprang, not gifts of righteousness, but examples of 
patience. For in each case, each man's death stood 
alone, nor did any one by his death pay the debt of 
another ; for among the sons of men our Lord Jesus 
was the only one in Whom all were crucified, all died, 
all were buried, and all raised ; of Whom He Himself 
said, " When I shall be lifted up, I will draw all things 
unto Me." 1 For true faith, which justifies ungodly 
men, and creates righteous ones, being attracted to 
One Who shares its nature, obtains salvation in Him 
in Whom alone man finds himself innocent : and as 
"there is one Mediator between God and men, the 
Man Christ Jesus," 2 by His sharing man's nature 
man attained to the peace of God, having a full right 
to glory in His power, Who having done battle with 
the proud foe in the infirmity of our flesh, bestQwed 
His victory on those in whose body He triumphed. 

4. Since, then, in our Lord Jesus Christ, the true 
Son of God and man, we acknowledge a Divine na- 
ture from His Father, and a human substance from 
His Mother ; although there is but one Person of 
God the Word and of the flesh, and both essences 
have acts in common, 3 yet must we take notice of 
the character of the works themselves, and discern, by 
the gaze of a pure faith, to what heights the lowliness 
of infirmity is promoted, and to what depths the lofti- 
ness of power stoops down : what it is which the 
flesh does not without the Word, and what it is which 
the Word effects not without the flesh. 4 For without 

1 See Note 85, 2 I Tim. ii. 5. 

3 See Serm. viii. c. 2. 4 See Note 86. 



X.] Tokens of His Two Natures. 57 

the power of the Word, the Virgin would neither con- 
ceive nor bear ; and without the reality of the flesh, 
the Infant would not He wrapt in swathing bands. 
Without the power of the Word, the Magi would not 
adore a Child made known to them by a new star ; 
and without the reality of the flesh, there would be 
no command to remove into Egypt the Child Whom 
Herod was desiring to kill. Without the power of 
the Word, the Father's voice sent forth from heaven 
would not say, " This is My beloved Son, in Whom I 
am well pleased : J>1 and without the reality of the 
flesh, John would not bear witness, " Behold the Lamb 
of God, behold Him Who taketh away the sins of 
the world." 2 Without the power of the Word, there 
would not take place the recovery of the weakly and 
the revival of the dead ; and without the reality of 
the flesh, He would not need food after fasting, nor 
sleep after weariness. Lastly, without the power of 
the Word, the Lord would not declare Himself equal 
to the Father ; 3 and without the reality of the flesh 
the Selfsame would not call the Father greater than 
Himself.; 4 while the Catholic Faith 5 accepts both 
statements and defends both, believing the one Son 
of God to be both Man and the Word, according to 
the distinctness of the Divine and the human sub- 
stance. Much is there, dearly beloved, which we 
might take out of the whole body of the Scriptures in 
order to expound this faith which we preach : for 
nothing is oftener presented to us in the Divine 

1 S. Matt. iii. 17. 2 S. John i. 29. 

3 S. John x. 30. See Serm. ii. c. I . 

4 S. John xiv. 28. See Note 13. 

5 See Note 87. 



The Story of the Passion familiar. [SERM. 

oracles, than the Son of God, as touching His God- 
head, everlasting from the Father, and the Selfsame, 
as touching the flesh, born in time from His Mother. 
But lest the attention of your Charity be wearied, we 
must put an end to this day's sermon, that we may 
reserve for Wednesday what has to be added ; by the 
aid of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who with the Father 
and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth for ever and 
ever. Amen. 



SERMON XL 



PASSION-TIDE. 



SERM. .66, De Passione Domini, XV. Evangelica. 

\_/ 

THE course of Gospel-readings, dearly beloved, 
which has laid open the history of our Lord's Pas- 
sion, is so well known to the universal Church by 
general and frequent listening, that each of you can 
recall the order of events as if it had passed under 
your own eyes. And they are to be regarded as 
having made no slight progress, who entertain no 
doubt as to what they have heard, so that even if 
they cannot, as yet, clearly apprehend some Scrip- 
tural mystery, they still most firmly believe that in 
the Divine books there is no falsehood. 1 Since, then, 
it is to a pure faith that the fulness of understanding 
has been promised, let vigorous and illuminated 

1 See Note 88. 






XL] No mere man could be a Saviour. 59 

minds lift themselves up to obtain the teaching of 
the Holy Spirit, and not be content to know the 
order of what was done, without also looking into 
the actual ground of the f loving-kindness bestowed 
upon them : so that human nature may love its 
Maker the more for knowing how much He has 
loved it. For God had no reason, save His own 
goodness, for showing us mercy ; and the second 
birth of men is more wonderful than their first 
estate. For it is a greater thing that in the last 
ages God restored what had perished, than that in 
the beginning He made what was not. 1 And so, after 
we had lost, by our first parents' transgression, the 
freedom of natural innocence, no good deserts of the 
saints who lived before Christ could of themselves 
regain it. For the doom pronounced against the 
transgressors held in its gripe the whole race of their 
captive posterity ; and no one was exempt from con- 
demnation, because no one was free from sin. But 
the Saviour's redeeming grace, while "destroying the 
work of the devil," 2 and breaking the bonds of sin, 
arranged in such sort the mystery of its great loving- 
kindness, that while the pre-ordained full number of 
generations should run its course to the end of the 
world, the renewal of man's origin should reach back- 
ward to all ages by the justifying power of a common 
faith. 3 For the Incarnation of the Word, and the 
putting to death of Christ, and His resurrection, 
became the salvation of all the faithful : and the 
blood of one Righteous Man has bestowed on us, 
who believe that it has been shed for the reconcilia- 
tion of the world, that very thing which it conferred 

1 See Note 89. 2 I S. John iii. 8. 3 See Serm. ii. c. 4. 



60 Types and Antitypes. [SERM. 

on the fathers, who believed that in like manner it was 
to be shed. 

2. There is nothing, therefore, dearly beloved, in 
the Christian religion which contradicts the ancient 
types ; nor did the righteous men of the earlier 
times ever hope for salvation save in the Lord Jesus 
Christ. Varied, indeed, were the Divine arrangements, 
according to the counsel of the Divine will; but 
both the testimonies of the Law, and the oracles of 
prophecy, and the offerings of victims, shed their light 
on the self-same point. For such was the fitting mode 
of instructing that people, that they should receive 
those things as overshadowed which they could not 
apprehend if unveiled ; and that thus the Gospel 
should have greater authority with them, after it had 
been ministered to by those pages of the Old Testa- 
ment, with all their signs and mysteries, .of which our 
Lord declared that He was "not come to destroy the 
Law, but to fulfil it." 1 Let not, then, the Jew think 
that he gains anything by his carnal lingering on the 
surface of the letter, and by being convicted of oppo- 
sition to those Scriptures which with us enjoy their 
true dignity ; while we are both instructed by predic- 
tions and enriched by fulfilments. For, since the 
Lord says, " When I shall be lifted up, I will draw all 
things unto Me," there remained nought of the teach- 
ings of the Law, nought of the prophetic types, which 
did not wholly pass over into the ordinances of Christ. 2 
With us is the seal of circumcision, the hallowing of 
chrism, 3 the consecration of priests ; with us the purity 
of sacrifice, the reality of baptism, the dignity of the 
temple ; so that the heralds rightly ceased to speak 

1 S. Matt. v. 17. 2 See Serm. ix. c. 5. 3 See Note 90. 



XL] True Faith a condition of true Peace. 61 

on the arrival of what they heralded. Nor is rever- 
ence for the promises made void, because the fulness 
of grace has been manifested. But since, as the 
Apostle says, 1 " blindness in part has taken place in 
Israel, nor are they the children of the promise who 
are children of the flesh," the ineffable mercy of God 
has made for itself a people of Israel out of all 
nations, and, softening the stony hardness of Gentile 
hearts, has raised up " out of stones" true children of 
Abraham : 2 so that, when all are " concluded under 
sin," 3 those who were born carnally may be born again 
spiritually ; and it matters not whom any one had 
for his father, since, through the common confession 
of our faith, the font of Baptism makes all innocent, 
and the election of adoption confirms them as heirs. 

3. For what else has the Cross of Christ done, and 
is doing, than this that by the abolition of enmities 
the world is reconciled to God, and through the sa- 
crifice of an immolated Lamb all things are recalled 
to true peace ? But he is not in concord with God, 
who dissents from that profession which he uttered at 
his regeneration ; 4 and being unmindful of his com- 
pact with God, is shown to cling to what he renounced, 
while he is found to go back from what he believed. 
For vainly does he take to himself the name of Chris- 
tian, and to no purpose does he think that he is cele- 
brating the Lord's Paschal feast, who does not believe 
that Jesus Christ rose again in that flesh wherein He 
was born, and suffered, and died, and was buried; 
and who does not confess that the first-fruits of our 
nature were raised to life in Him. Let him, then, 

1 See Rom. xi. 25 ; ix. 8. 2 S. Matt. iii. 9. 

3 Gal. iii. 22. 4 See Serm. ix. c. 6. 



62 The Crucified mighty to save. [SERM. 

who truly venerates our Lord's Passion so look at the 
Crucified Jesus with the eyes of his heart, as to be 
assured that his own flesh is the flesh of Jesus. Let 
the earthly nature " tremble" when its Redeemer is 
put to death ; let the "rocks" of unbelieving minds 
be burst open ; and let those who were weighed 
down by the "sepulchres" of mortality shake off the 
mass of obstacles, and leap forth. Let there now 
appear in "the holy city," 1 that is, in the Church 
of God, tokens of the coming resurrection ; and 
let that which is to be wrought on bodies take place 
in hearts. To none of the weak has the victory of 
the Cross been denied, nor is there any one to 
whom the prayer of Christ cannot bring help. If that 
prayer was beneficial to so many who raged against 
Him, how much more helpful is it to those who are 
being converted to Him ? Ignorance has been re- 
moved, difficulty modified, and that " fiery sword" by 
which the land of life was shut in has been quenched 
by the sacred blood of Christ. Before the true Light 
the gloom of the old night has given way. The 
Christian people is invited to the riches of Paradisej 
and to all the regenerate has been laid open a path of 
.xeturn to the lost Country, if only no one causes that 
way to be closed against himself, which could be 
opened to the faith of the robber. 2 

4. While, then, dearly beloved, we are celebrating 
the ineffable mystery of the Paschal festival, let us 
acknowledge, by the teaching of God's Spirit, of what 
a glory we have been called to partake, and into 
what a hope we have entered. Nor let us be so en- 
grossed, either in the way of anxiety or of pride, with 
1 See S. Matt, xxvii. 5153. 2 See Note 91. 



XL] Our interest in the Incarnate. 63 

the business of this present life, as not to be con- 
formecLwith all our hearts' affections to our Redeemer, 
and to press on by means of His example. For He 
neither did nor suffered anything but with a view to 
our salvation ; that the strength which was present in 
the Head might also be present in the body. For, 
first of all, that assumption of our nature into God- 
head, whereby the Word was made flesh and dwelt 
among us, what man, save the unbeliever, did it leave 
outside its merciful operation ? And who is there who 
has not a common nature with Christ, if 1 he has re- 
ceived Him Who assumed that nature, and is regene- 
rate_byjthat Spirit by Whose agency Christ was born ? 
Further, who cannot recognise in Christ his own in- 
firmities ? 2 Who cannot see that the taking of food, 
the reposing in sleep, the anxiety of sorrow, the tears 
of pity, belonged to the " form of a servant ?" And 
since that form had to be healed of its old wounds, 
and cleansed from the filth of sin, in such a way did 
the only-begotten Son of God become also Son of 
Man, as to lack neither all the reality of Manhood, 
nor the fulness of Godhead. As, therefore, that is 
ours which the Virgin Mother brought forth in union 
with Godhead, so is that which the impious Jews 
crucified. Ours is that which lay lifeless in the 
sepulchre, and which rose again the third day, and 
which ascended above all the heights of the heavens 
to the right hand of the Father's majesty ; so that 
if we walk in the way of His commandments, and 
are not ashamed to confess what He, in the low- 
liness of a bodily form, bestowed on the work of our 
salvation, we too may be prompted to a fellowship in 

1 See Note 92. 2 See Serm. ix., c. 4. 



64 Eutychianism defeated. [SERM. 

His glory ; for that which He gave notice of will be 
manifestly fulfilled, " Whosoever shall confess Me be- 
fore men, him will I also confess before My Father 
Who is in heaven." 1 

5. And this exhortation of ours is aided and fur- 
thered by God's grace, which, by the revelation of the 
truth throughout all churches, has crushed 2 the ene- 
mies of the Incarnation of Christ, and of His death 
and resurrection : so that the faithful in the whole 
world, being in unity with the authority of the Apos- 
tolic faith, might rejoice with us in one burst of 
gladness, as the blessed Apostle Paul says, " Know ye 
not, that as many of us as have been baptized in 3 
Christ Jesus have been baptized in His death ? For 
we have been buried together with Him, through 
baptism, in death ; that like as Christ rose from the 
dead through the glory of the Father, so should we 
also walk in newness of life. For if we have been 
planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall 
be also in the likeness of His resurrection ; knowing 
that our old man has been crucified with Him, that 
the body of sin might be destroyed, and henceforth 
we might not serve sin. For he who is dead has been 
justified from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, 
we believe that we shall also live with Him," 4 Who 
liveth and reigneth with the Father and the Holy 
Spirit for ever and ever. Amen. 

1 S. Matt. x. 32. 2 See Note 93. 

3 " In Christo Jesu," &c. 4 Rom. vi. 38. 



xii.] Realising the Passion. 65 



SERMON XII. 

PASSION-TIDE. 
SERM. 70. De Passione Domini, XIX. Sacram. 

THE sacred history of our Lord's Passion, dearly 
beloved, which we have gone through, as usual, in the 
Gospel narrative, has, I suppose, so fixed itself in the 
minds of you all, that to every one who has listened 
the very reading has become a kind of seeing. For 
true faith has this power, that it is mentally not ab- 
sejntj^qm_things in which the body's presence cannot 
join ; and whether the heart of the believer is returning 
to the past, or reaching onward to the future, his cog- 
nizance_of the truth is unconscious of intervals of time. 
So it is that there is present to our thoughts an image 
_of the things done for our salvation; and everything 
that in those days wrung the disciples' hearts, touches 
our feelings too. Not that we are either depressed by 
sadness, or scared by the ferocity of the raging Jews ; 
for even those who were shaken by the greatness of 
that storm were borne onwards into an unshaken con- 
stancy by our Lord's Resurrection and Ascension ; 
but that when we consider what sort of men the people 
of Jerusalem and the priests were at that time, it is 
with great mental agitation that we apprehend so 
dark a deed of impious men. For although our Sa- 
viour's Passion had reference to the salvation of man- 
kind, and the bonds of eternal death were broken by 
our Lord's temporal death, yet what the patience of 

F 



66 Prayer for the Jews. [SERM. 

\ 

the Crucified wrought is one thing, what the frenzy of 
the crucifiers wrought is another. Nor did the com- 
passion and the wrath tend to the same results, inas- 
much as by the effusion of the same blood Christ 
released the world from captivity, and the Jews 
slaughtered the Redeemer of all. 

2. Thus the carnal Israel was hardened by its own 
malice ; and got no benefit from the testimony of the 
law, nor from the symbolism of mystic rites, nor from 
the oracles of Prophets, when John declared that the 
Lord's Passover, which had been kept for so many 
ages, was fulfilled in Him of Whom he said, with a 
public attestation, " Behold the Lamb of God, behold 
Him Who taketh away the sins of the world." 1 Ini- 
quity makes a fight against righteousness, blindness 
against light, falsehood against truth. But by means 
of the fierceness of opponents, and of the wickedness 
of cruel men, Jesus secured the carrying out of an 
eternal appointment, and so well provided for men by 
His own death, as not to deny even to His very per- 
secutors the sacred gift 2 of salvation. For He Who 
had come to give to all believers pardon of all sins, 
willed not to exclude even Jewish guilt 3 from that 
universal forgiveness. And therefore while we de- 
test their perfidy, we welcome their faith if they are 
converted ; and, imitating the mercy of our Lord, 
Who prayed for those by whom He had been cruci- 
fied, we also join our prayers with blessed Paul the 
Apostle, and desire that mercy may be obtained by 
that people, on account of whose " stumbling" we have 
received the grace of reconciliation : for, as the same 

1 S. John i. 29. 3 " Sacramentum." 

3 See Note 94. 



A 
XII.] Christian Faith not "irrational" l\ 67 

" teacher of the Gentiles" says, " God hath concluded 
all things in unbelief, that He may have mercy 
upon all." 1 

3. But what was that which both took away under- 
standing from the Jews, and perturbed the hearts of 
the wise men of this world, save the Cross of Christ, 
which caused both the wisdom of philosophers to 
vanish, and the Israelitish teaching to become dark ? 
For all the thoughts of the human mind were sur- 
passed by the depth of the Divine counsel, when " it 
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save 
them that believed :" 2 that the very difficulty of be- 
lieving might make a steadfast faith all the more 
marvellous. For it was thought illogical and irra- 
tional 3 to accept with one's mind the propositions, 
That the Creator of all natures had been brought forth 
in the substance of a true Man by a spotless Virgin ; 
that the Son of God, equal to the Father, He Who 
filled all things, and held the universe in His grasp, 
had suffered Himself to be seized by the hands of in- 
furiate men, to be condemned by the judgment of 
unjust men, and after shameful mockeries to be af- 
fixed to a Cross. But in all these events are present 
together the lowliness of man and the loftiness of 
Godhead ; nor does this plan of mercy obscure the 
majesty of Him Who shows mercy ; for ineffable 
power brought this to pass, that while true Man is in 
the inviolable God, and true God in the passible flesh, 
there should be bestowed on man glory through con- 
tumely, immortality through capital punishment, life 
through death. For unless the Word were made flesh, 
and so firm an union established between the two na- 

1 Rom. xi. 32. - I Cor. i. 21. 3 See Note 95. 



68 Professed followers of the Crucified [SERM. 

tures, that not even the brief space of death could 
sever the ^assumed nature from the assuming one, 1 
our mortal being would never have been able to re- 
turn to life eternal. But in Christ we received a 
signal assistance indeed ; in that the mortal condition 
was not permanent in that passible nature which the 
impassible essence had taken to itself; and through 
that which could not die, that which was dead could 
be raised to life. 

4. In order that we may adhere immovably, dearly 
beloved, to this sacred fact, 2 we must strive with a 
great effort both of body and mind ; seeing that while 
it is a very grievous offence to neglect the Paschal 
festival, it is more dangerous to take our place in 
Church assemblies while we are not numbered in_the 
fellowship of our Lord's Passion. For since our Lord 
says, " He that taketh not up his cross, and followeth 
Me not, is not worthy of Me ;" 3 and the Apostle, " If 
we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him ;" 4 
who does really honour Christ as having suffered, 
died, and been raised, save he who both suffers, and 
dies, and rises again with Christ ? 5 And indeed in all 
the children of the Church, these events have already 
been begun in the very mystery of regeneration, 
wherein the death of sin is the life of the new-born, 
and the three days' death of the Lord is imitated by 
trine immersion ; 6 so that, as if by the removal of a 
burial mound, those whom the bosom of the font re- 
ceived in their old state are brought forth in a new 
condition by the Baptismal water. But nevertheless, 

1 See Note 96. 2 "Sacramento." 

3 S. Matt. x. 38. 4 2 Tim. ii. 12. 

5 See Serm. xiv. c. 3. 6 See Note 97. 



Xii.] must in act take up the Cross. 69 

that which has been celebrated in a Sacrament must 
be fulfilled in practice j 1 and those who have been 
born of the Holy Spirit must not spend whatever re- 
mains to them of bodily life without a taking up 
of the Cross. For although the strong and cruel 
tyrant has had the vessels of his ancient plunder torn 
away from him, 2 through the power of the Cross of 
Christ, and the sovereignty of the prince of this world 
has been ejected from the bodies of the redeemed, yet 
does the same malignant one persist in plotting even 
against the justified, and in many ways attacks those 
in whom he does not reign : so that, if he finds any 
souls negligent and careless, he again entangles them 
in crueller snares, snatches them out of the paradise 
of the Church, and brings them into the partnership 
of his own condemnation. Therefore, when any one 
feels that he is overpassing the bounds fixed by Chris- 
tian duty, and that his appetites are tending to what 
may make him go astray from the straight path, let 
him have recourse to the Cross of our Lord, and nail 
to the wood of life the motions of a pernicious will : 
let him cry out in the prophet's words to the Lord, 
and say, " Pierce my flesh with nails from the fear of 
Thee, for I have been afraid of Thy judgments." 3 

5. But what is it to have our flesh pierced with 
the nails of the fear of God, except to restrain our 
bodily senses from the allurements of unlawful desire 
under the fear of the Divine judgment ? So that he 
who resists sin, and mortifies his lusts, that he may 
not do anything worthy of death, may venture to say 
with the Apostle, " But God forbid that I should 

1 See Note 98. 2 See S. Luke xi. 21. 

3 Ps. cxviii. (our cxix.) 120, LXX. 



7O Christian life always a struggle. [SERM. 

glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by 
Whom the world has been crucified unto me, and I 
unto the world." 1 There, then, let the Christian station 
himself, where Christ lifted him up with Himself; 
and to that point let him direct all his life, where he 
knows that human nature was saved. For the Pas- 
sion of our Lord is prolonged even to the end of the 
^orld : and as in His Saints He is honoured, He is 
loved, and in the poor He is fed, He is clothed, 2 so 
in all who suffer for righteousness' sake, He suffers 
too. Unless indeed we are to think that, since faith 
has been multiplied all over the world, and the num- 
ber of the ungodly is diminishing, all persecutions, 
and all the conflicts which raged against the blessed 
Martyrs have come to an end ; as though the neces- 
sity of taking up the Cross had been incumbent on 
those only, on whom the most atrocious punishments 
were inflicted in order to overcome their love for 
Christ. But very different is the experience of pious 
men who are serving God, and very different the wit- 
ness borne by the Apostle's declaration, who says, 
" All who resolve to live piously in Christ Jesus, suffer 
persecution." 3 By which sentence, he is proved to 
be sadly lukewarm and indolent who is attacked by 
no persecution. For none but they who love the 
world can have peace with it ; and there is no fellow- 
ship at any time between iniquity and righteousness, 
no concord of falsehood with truth, no agreement of 
darkness with light. For although the piety of good 
men desires bad men to be corrected, and obtains the 
conversion of many through the grace of a compas- 

1 Gal. vi. 14. 2 See Note 99. 

3 2 Tim. iii. 12. 



XII.] Neither fear nor court evil spirits. 71 

sionate God, yet the plottings of malignant spirits 
against holy men are not at rest, and either by secret 
craft or open war they assail the purpose of a good 
will in all the faithful. 1 For to them everything is 
hostile which is right, everything which is holy ; and 
while they are not free to do more against any one 
than is permitted by the Divine justice, which is 
pleased either to rebuke its servants by discipline or 
to train them by endurance, yet are they at work with 
the subtlest skill in deceiving, that they may seem to 
be hurting or sparing men at the good pleasure of 
their own power. And many more is the pity are 
so befooled by their wicked pretences, that certain 
persons are both afraid of encountering the hostility 
of the evil ones, and desirous of enjoying their favour ; 
whereas the good offices of demons are more hurtful 
to all men than wounds, because it is safer for a man 
to have earned the devil's enmity than his friendship. 2 
Therefore the wise souls, which have learned to fear 
one Lord, to love one, and to hope in one, have mor- 
tified their lusts and crucified their bodily senses, and 
do not stoop either to dread their foes, or to do 
them homage. For they prefer God's will even to 
themselves, and love themselves all the better inas- 
much as for the love of God they love themselves not. 
And when they hear it said to them from God, " Go 
not after thy lusts, and turn away from thy will," 3 they 
make a division of their feelings, and distinguish be- 
tween " the law of the mind" 4 and the law of the body ; 
that they may in certain points x deny themselves, los- 
ing themselves in regard to what they desire accord- 

1 See Serm. vi. c. 2. 2 See Note 100. 

3 Ecclus. xviii. 30. 4 Rom. vii. 23. 



72 Self-denial is victory through Christ. [SERM. 

ing to the flesh, and finding themselves in regard to 
what they long for in the spirit. 

6. It is, then, dearly beloved, in such members of 
Christ's body that the holy Pascfi is lawfully cele- 
brated : and nothing is wanting to those triumphs 
which our Saviour's Passion has obtained. For Jn 
those who, after the Apostle's example, " chastise their 
body, and subject it to servitude," 2 the same enemies 
are being crushed by the same courage, and even now 
is the world being overcome by Christ. For when 
the incentives to any vices whatever are conquered 
by His servants, the strength and the victory belong 
to Himself. 

These things, dearly beloved, which pertain to our 
fellowship in the Cross, have been, I think, sufficiently 
imparted to your ears to-day ; that the sacred Paschal 
rite may be lawfully celebrated even in the members 
of Christ's body. It remains for us to discourse on 
the mode of gaining a share in the Resurrection. 
But, lest a prolongation of my sermon should be 
onerous both to myself and to you, we will defer what 
we have promised until the Sabbath day. 3 God's 
grace, we believe, will be present, that our debt may 
be discharged by His own assistance, Who liveth and 
reigneth with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for 
ever and ever. Amen. 

1 See Note 101. " I Cor. ix. 27. 3 See Note 102. 



xiii.] The Gains of Lent. 73 



SERMON XIII. 

EASTER. 

SERM. 71. De Resurrectione Domini, I. Preached on Holy Satur- 
day, in the Vigil of Easter. Sermone. 

IN our last sermon, dearly beloved, we brought be- 
fore you not inappropriately, I think the duty of 
partaking in the Cross of Christ ; that the actual life 
of believers may have within itself a Paschal solem- 
nity, 1 and that what is honoured in the festival may be 
celebrated in the conduct. And you yourselves have 
found on trial how useful this is, and have learned 
from your own devotion how much good is done to 
minds and bodies by lengthened fasts, more frequent 
prayers, and more abundant almsgiving. For there 
is hardly any one who has not made progress in this 
exercise, and laid up in the secret chamber of his con- 
science something in which he can rightfully rejoice. 
But these gains have to be kept by persevering 
watchfulness, lest, after effort has subsided into in- 
dolence, the devil's envy should steal away what the 
grace of God has bestowed. Since, then, this was 
what we wished to effect by the observance of the 
forty days, that we might feel somewhat of the Cross 
at the time of our Lord's Passion, 2 we must exert 
ourselves, that we jilsp may be partakers of Christ's 
Resurrection, and even while we are in this body may 
pass from death unto life. For to every man who by 

1 "Sacramentum." 2 See Note 103. 



74 Practical lessons of Easter. [SERM. 

some kind of conversion is changed from one thing to 
another, not to be what he was is an ending, and to 
be what he was not is a beginning. But it makes a 
difference, to what a man either dies or lives ; for there 
is a death which is a cause of living, and there is a life 
which is a cause of dying. And nowhere but in this 
transitory world are both these things sought after ; 
and on the character of acts done in time depend the 
differences of eternal retributions. We must, then, 
die to the devil and live to God ; we must have no 
strength left for iniquity, that we may rise again unto 
righteousness. Let old things sink down, that new 
may spring up. And since, as the Truth says, " No 
man can serve two masters/' 1 let our master be, not 
he that has hurled to ruin those who were standing 
up, but He that raised up to glory those who were 
cast down. 

2. Since, then, the Apostle says, " The first man is 
of the earth, earthy ; the second man is from heaven, 
heavenly ; as is the earthy, such are they also that 
are earthy ; and as is the heavenly, such are they also 
that are heavenly ; as we have borne the image of 
the earthy, let us also bear the image of Him Who is 
from heaven :" 2 we ought greatly to rejoice in this 
change, whereby we are transferred from earthly 
meanness to heavenly dignity, through the ineffable 
mercy of Him Who, in order to advance us to what 
was His, descended into what was ours ; that He might 
assume, not only the substance, but even the liability 
of the sinning nature, and Divine impassibility might 
allow those things to be inflicted on itself, of which 
human mortality has such miserable experience. 
1 S. Matt. vi. 24. 2 See Note 104. 



XIII.] Manifestation of the Risen Lord. 75 

Wherefore, lest the troubled minds of the disciples 
should be tortured by a lengthened grief, He short- 
ened with such wonderful quickness the predicted 
waiting-time of three days, that by a combination of 
the last part of the first day and the first part of the 
third with the whole of the second, some little time 
might be taken out of the period, while the number 
of the days remained the same. Accordingly, the 
Resurrection of our Saviour kept neither His soul 
waiting long in Hades, nor His flesh in the sepul- 
chre ; for the Godhead, which departed not from 
either portion of the substance of the assumed Man- 
hood, 1 united by its power what by its power it had 
divided. 

3. There followed, therefore, many proofs on which 
was to be founded the authority of the faith that was 
to be preached throughout the whole world. And 
although the rolling away of the stone, the evacuation 
of the sepulchre, the laying aside of the linen, and 
the angelic narrators of the whole fact, did abun- 
dantly establish the reality of our Lord's Resurrec- 
tion, yet He manifestly appeared to the sight of the 
women, and frequently to the eyes of the Apostles ; 
not only talking with them, but also abiding and eat- 
ing with them, and suffering Himself to be handled 
with careful and inquisitive touch by those of whom 
doubt was taking hold. For it was with this intent 
that He entered in to His disciples when the doors 
were shut, 2 and gave the Holy Spirit by His breath ; 
and having given them the light of intelligence, 
opened to them the secrets of Holy Scripture, and 
again Himself showed the wound in the side, the 

1 See Serm. xii. c. 3. 2 See Note 105. 



76 "Not knowing Christ after the flesh'' [SERM. 

t 

prints of the nails, and all the signs of His most 
recent Passion, that the natures of God and Man 
might be acknowledged to remain in Him distinct, 
yet without division, 1 and we might in such sense 
know that the Word is not the same as the flesh, as to 
confess that the One Son of God is both the Word 
and the flesh. 2 

4. The Apostle Paul, the " teacher of the Gentiles," 
dearly beloved, is not out of harmony with this faith, 
when he says, " Although we have known Christ after 
the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more." 3 
For our Lord's Resurrection was not the end of His 
flesh, but its change ; nor was its essence consumed 
by the increase of its power. It was the quality that 
passed away, not the nature that failed ; and that 
Body which could be crucified became impassible, 
that which could be killed became immortal, that 
which could be wounded became incorruptible. And 
with good reason is Christ's flesh said not to be known 
in that state in which it had been known ; for there 
remained in it nothing passible, nothing weak, so that 
it might be itself in respect to its essence, and not be 
itself by means of glory. And what wonder if he 
declares this concerning the Body of Christ, since he 
says of all spiritual Christians, " Therefore henceforth 
we know no man after the flesh." To us, he says, a 
beginning was made of resurrection in Christ from 
the moment at which, in Him Who died for all, the 
type of all our hopes passed on before. We do not 
hesitate in distrust ; we are not in suspense through 
doubtful expectation ; but, having received the be- 
ginning of the promise, we see already by the eyes of 

1 See Note 106. 2 Ep. xxviii. 5. 3 See Note 107. 



XIII. ] How " not to provide for the flesh'' 77 

faith what is to come ; and, rejoicing in the pro- 
motion of our nature, we already have possession of 
what we believe. 

5. Let us not, then, be occupied with the appear- 
ances of temporal things, nor let what is earthly turn 
our gaze toward itself, away from what is heavenly. 
Let those things be considered as over and done with, 
which for the most part are already no more ; and let 
the mind, intent on what is to abide, there fix its 
desire where what is offered is eternal. 1 For although 
it is " by hope that we have been saved," 2 and as yet 
we carry the corruptible and mortal flesh, yet are we 
rightly said " not to be in the flesh," if fleshly feelings 
have no dominion over us ; 3 and deservedly do we 
cease to be named after that thing, the will of which 
we do not follow. When, then, the Apostle says, 
' Make not provision for the flesh in its desires," 4 we 
do not understand that we are interdicted from those 
desires which agree with our health, and are de- 
manded by human infirmity. But because we must 
not obey all desires, nor perform everything that the 
flesh craves for, we know ourselves to be admonished 
about the duty of observing the measure of temper- 
ance, so as neither to grant what is superfluous, nor 
deny what is necessary, to that flesh over which the 
mind is set as a judge. Wherefore the same Apostle 
elsewhere says, " For no one ever hated his own flesh, 
but nourishes and cherishes it ;" 5 for in truth it is not 
for viciousness nor for luxury, but for the service 
which it owes, that it must be supported and 
cherished : that the renewed nature may keep its own 

1 See Note 108. - Rom. viii. 24. 3 Ib. 9. 

4 Rom. xiii. 14. 5 Eph. v. 29. 



78 Easter a call to newness of life. [SERM. 

% 

order ; that the lower elements may not perversely 
and shamefully predominate over the higher, nor the 
higher succumb to the lower, and through the victory 
of vices over the mind, servitude take place where 
sovereignty ought to be. 

6. Let, then, the people of God acknowledge them- 
selves to be a new creation in Christ Jesus, and, with 
souls on the watch, understand by Whom they have 
been assumed, and Whom they have assumed. Let 
not the things which have been made new return to 
the old state which abides not : and let not him " that 
has put his hand to the plough" 1 give up his work, but 
fix his attention on what he is sowing, not look back 
to what he has left. Let no one fall back into the 
condition whence he rose ; but even if through bodily 
infirmity he still lies sick of some ailments, let him 
earnestly long to be cured and relieved. For this is 
the way of salvation, and the imitation of the Resur- 
rection begun in Christ : that since, in the slippery 
path of this life, divers accidents and falls are not 
wanting, the steps of the walkers may be transferred 
from watery places to firm ground. For, as Scripture 
says, " The steps of a man are ordered by the Lord, 
and He will delight in his way. When the just man 
falls, he shall not be overthrown ; for the Lord will 
support him with His hand." 2 This thought, dearly 
beloved, is to be kept in mind, not for the Paschal 
solemnity alone, but for the sanctification of our whole 
life ; 3 and to this object ought our present exercise to 
be directed, that the things which have delighted the 
minds of the faithful by the experience of a short 
observance, may pass into habit, may remain invio- 
1 S. Luke ix. 62. 2 Ps. xxxvii. 23. 3 See Note 109. 



XIV.] Preaching a comment on Reading. 79 

late ; and that, if any fault has crept in, it may be 
destroyed by swift repentance. And since the curing 
of old diseases is a difficult and tardy process, the 
fresher our wounds are, let us be quicker in applying 
remedies ; that, continually rising up from all colli- 
sions into a sound state, we may be enabled to attain 
that incorruptible Resurrection, wherein our flesh is to 
be glorified in Christ Jesus our Lord, Who liveth and 
reigneth with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever 
and ever. Amen. 



SERMON XIV. 

EASTER. 
SERM. 72. De Resurrectione Domini, II. Totum. 

THE whole of the sacred Paschal event, dearly be- 
loved, has been presented to us by the Gospel narra- 
tive ; and our mental hearing has been so well reached 
through the ear of the flesh, that every one of us can 
picture to himself the events which occurred. For 
the context of the Divinely-inspired history has evi- 
dently shown us by what impiety our Lord Jesus 
Christ was betrayed, by what judgment He was con- 
demned, by what cruelty He was crucified, and by 
what glory He was raised. But we must also add the 
discourse which is due from us ; that as I am con- 
scious that you are asking again, in devout expecta- 
tion, for the discharge of my usual debt, so the exhor- 
tation of the priest 1 may be subjoined to that solemn 

1 See Note 110. 



8o Redemption a motive to Holiness. [SERM. 

i 

and most sacred reading. Since, therefore, there is 
no place for ignorance in faithful ears, the seed of the 
Word, which consists in the preaching of the Gospel, 
ought to grow in the soil of your heart, that the re- 
moval of those thorns and briars which would choke 
it may give freedom for the plants of devout thought 
and the shoots of right desire to spring up and bear 
their fruit. For the Cross of Christ, which was freely 
endured for the sake of mankind's salvation, is both 
a mystery and an example i 1 a mystery whereby the 
power of God is fulfilled, an example whereby the 
devotion of man is excited. For to men rescued from 
captivity their redemption grants this further boon, 
that they may be able to imitate and follow it. For 
if the wisdom of this world glories so much in its own 
wanderings, that every one follows the opinions, the 
conduct, and all the teachings of whomsoever he has 
chosen for his guide, what fellowship shall we have 
with the Name of Christ, except that of being in- 
separably united to Him Who is, as He Himself in- 
formed us, " the Way, and the Truth, and the Life," 2 
that is, the Way of holy living, the Truth of Divine 
doctrine, and the Life of everlasting blessedness ? 

2. For when the whole mass of mankind had fallen 
in its first parents, 3 the merciful God willed in such 
sort to give aid, through His only-begotten Son Jesus 
Christ, to the creatures made in His own image, that 
the restoration of their nature should not be external 
to that nature, and their second state should be ad- 
vanced beyond the dignity of their own origin. 4 Happy, 
if they had not fallen from what God made ; but 

1 See Serm. ix. c. 4. 2 See Note 111. 

3 See Serm. x. c. 2. 4 See Rom. v. 15. 



XIV.] Divine Love in the Incarnation. 8 1 

happier, if they remain in what He re-made ! It was 
much to have received a form from Christ, but it is 
more to^have a substance in Christ. 1 For we were 
taken Up into its own life by that Nature which bends 
isel-ta what measures of benignity it chooses, with- 
ouL_anywhere incurring the alteration which belongs 
to changeableness : 2 we were taken up by that Nature 
which would neither consume what was its own by 
what was ours, nor ours by its own ; which in such 
sort made, in itself, one Person of Godhead and Man- 
hood, 3 that by due arrangement of infirmities and of 
powers, neither could the flesh be inviolable by means 
of the Godhead, nor the Godhead passible by means 
of the flesh. We were taken up by that Nature which 
would not break off the shoot of our race from the 
common line, while at the same time it would bar out 
the contagion of that sin which passes into all men. 4 
Infirmity, it is true, and mortality, which were not sin, 
but the punishment of sin, were received by the Re- 
deemer of the world, with a view to punishment, that 
they might be bestowed with a view to ransom. 
Hence, that which in all men was a transmission of 
condemnation, is in Christ a mystery 5 of loving kind- 
ness. For He, being free from debt, offered Himself 
to that most cruel creditor, 6 and permitted Jewish 
hands, doing the devil's service, to torture His imma- 
culate flesh. And it was for this end that He willed 
His flesh to be mortal up to the Resurrection, that 
believers in Him might find that persecution could not 
be invincible, nor death terrible ; since, as their fellow- 

1 See Note 112. 2 See Ep. xxviii. c. 3. 

J See Serm. ii. c. I. 4 Serm. i. c. I : x. c. 2. 

5 " Sacramentum." 6 See Serm. viii. c. 3. 

G 



82 Union with the Ascended Lord [SERM. 

\ 

ship in .His nature was beyond a doubt, so should be 
their partaking of His glory. 

3. If, then, dearly beloved, we unhesitatingly believe 
in our hearts what we profess with our lips, then in 
Christ have we been crucified, have died, have been 
buried, have also been raised the third day. Whence 
the Apostle says, " If ye have risen together with 
Christ, seek those things which are above, where 
Christ is sitting on the right hand of God. Set your 
affections on things above, not on things on the earth. 
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in 
God. For when Christ, your Life, shall appear, then 
shall ye also appear with Him in glory." 1 But that^ 
the hearts of the faithful may know that they have 
that by which they can be raised up to heavenly 
wisdom, after having despised worldly lusts, our Lord__ 
pledges to us His presence, saying, "Behold, I am 
with you all days, even unto the end of the world." 2 
For not in vain had the Holy Spirit said by Isaiah, 
" Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and 
they shall call His Name Emmanuel, which is, being 
interpreted, God with us." 3 Jesus, then, is fulfilling 
what properly belongs to His own Name, and He 
Who ascended into heaven does not forsake His 
adopted ones. 4 He Who sits at the Father's right 
hand is the same Who dwells in His whole body; 
and He Himself strengthens us for patience here be- 
low, Who invites us to glory above. 

4. We must, therefore, neither play the fool's part 
among vanities, nor the coward's amid adversities. 
On one hand deceits flatter us, on the other labours 

1 Col. iii. I 4. 2 S. Matt, xxviii. 20. 

3 Isa. vii. 14 j S. Matt. i. 23. 4 See Note 113. 



XIV.] our support in earthly troubles. 83 

become heavier. But ^since " the whole earth is full 

mercy," 1 the victory of Christ is ever 



present with us, that His words may be fulfilled, 
' Fear not, for I have overcome the world." 2 Whether, 
then, we are fighting against worldly ambition, or the 
lusts of the flesh, or the darts of heretics, let us always 
be armed with the Cross of our Lord. For we do 
not at any time withdraw from the Paschal feast, if in 
the sincerity of truth 3 we abstain from the leaven of 
the old malice. For amid all the changes of this life, 
which are full of manifold sufferings, we ought to re- 
member the Apostle's exhortation, whereby he in- 
structs us, saying, " Let this mind be in you, which 
was also in Christ Jesus ; Who, being in the form of 
God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, 
but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, 
made in the likeness of men ; and found in fashion 
as a man, He humbled Himself, being made obedient 
even unto death, and that the death of the Cross. 
Wherefore God also hath exalted Him, and given 
Him a Name which is above every name, that in the 
Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in 
heaven, on earth, and under the earth ; and that every 
tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is 
in the glory of God the Father." 4 If, he means, you 
understand the mystery of great lovingkindness, and 
attend to what the only-begotten Son of God per- 
formed for the salvation of mankind, let this mind be 
in you which was also in Christ Jesus, Whose lowli- 
ness no rich man may despise, no high-born man be 
ashamed of. For no human felicity, of whatsoever 

Ps. xxxiii. 5. 2 S. John xvi. 33. 

3 See Note 114. Phil. ii. 511. 



84 Faith a condition of Cross-bearing. [SERM. 

i 

kind, can be advanced to so high a pinnacle, as to 
think that it has a right to be ashamed of Him Who, 
continuing to be God, in the form of God, did not 
think it beneath Him to assume the form of a 
servant. 

5. Do you imitate what He wrought, love what He 
loved, and, when you find the grace of God in your- 
selves, love your own nature again in Him. For as 
He lost not His riches by becoming poor, diminished 
not His glory by His humiliation, lost not His eternity 
by His death, 1 so do you also, by the same steps and 
the same footprints, despise earthly things that you 
may take hold of things heavenly. For the taking 
up of the Cross is the putting to death of lusts, the 
killing of vices, the avoidance of vanity, and the re- 
nunciation of every error. For while the immodest, 
the lustful, the proud cannot celebrate the Lord's 
Pasch, yet none are more widely separated from this 
festival than heretics, and above all, those who think 
wrongly of the Incarnation of the Word, either by 
diminishing what belongs to the Godhead, or making 
void what belongs to the flesh. For the Son of God 
is very God, having from the Father the whole of the 
Father's being, not subject to time by any beginning, 
nor to change by any variation ; 2 neither divided from 
the One, nor different from the Almighty, the ever- 
lasting Only-begotten of the everlasting Father. 3 And 
the faithful mind, believing in the Father, and the 
Son, and the Holy Spirit, must not, in regard to that 
same essence of one Godhead, either divide the Unity 
by introducing degrees, 4 or confound the Trinity by 

1 See Ep. xxviii. c. 3. 2 See Note 115. 

3 See Serm. iv. c. I. 4 See Note 116. 



XIV.] Christ) as Man, " passed over" to God, 85 

reducing it to singleness. But it is not sufficient to know 
the Son of God as in the Father's nature only, unless we 
recognise Him as in what is ours, while He departs not 
from what is His. For that " emptying," which He be- 
stowed on the work of man's restoration, was a dis- 
pensation of mercy, not a privation of power. 1 For 
since moreover, from the eternal counsel of God, 
there was " no other name under heaven given unto 
men, in which they must be saved," 2 the Invisible 
made the visible substance His own, the Timeless 
the temporal, the Impassible the passible : not that 
strength should give way amid weakness, but that 
weakness might be able to pass into strength inde- 
structible. 

6. On this account the same festival which is by us 
called Pasch, is named among the Hebrews Phase, 
that is, passing-over, as the Evangelist bears witness 
and says, " Before the feast of Pasch, Jesus knowing 
that His Jiour^was come, that He should pass 3 out of 
this_ world unto the Father." Now to what nature 
could_that future " passing-over" belong save to ours, 
since the Father was inseparably in the Son, and the 
Son in the Father? But since the Word and the 
flesh are one Person, the assumed is not divided from 
the assumer. and the honour of being promoted is 
called a dignifying of the promoter, as the Apostle 
says in the words just mentioned ; " Wherefore God 
also exalted Him, and gave Him a Name which is 
above every Name." In which place certainly it is 
the_assumed .manhood 4 whose exaltation is set before 
jis ; that the same amid whose sufferings the Godhead 

1 See Serm. ii. c. 2 ; Ep. xxviii. c. 3. " Acts iv. 12. 

3 AteTcijS??, S. John xiii. I. 4 " Hominis." 



86 Faith in the true Manhood essential. [SERM. 

remains inseparable, should be coeternal in the glory 
of the Godhead. In order to this partaking in an in- 
effable gift, our Lord was Himself preparing for His 
faithful ones a blessed " passing-over," when, being 
now close to His approaching Passion, He prayed not 
only for His Apostles and disciples, but also for the 
universal Church, and said, " But I am not asking on 
behalf of these alone, but of them jjso who shall be- 
lieve in Me through their word : that they-aILmay_be 
one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that 
they also may be one in Us.'^, 

7. Of which unity those will be unable to have any 
share, who deny the human nature to remain in the 
Son of God, Who is very God, assailants of the 
mystery of salvation, and exiles from the Paschal 
feast, which they cannot celebrate with us, because 
they dissent from the Gospel and contradict the 
Creed. 2 For although they dare to use the Christian 
name, yet are they repelled by that whole creation 
which has Christ for its Head ; whereas you are with 
good right exulting, and piously rejoicing in this 
solemnity, while you accept no falsehood amid the 
truth, nor are doubtful about Christ's Nativity in the 
flesh, nor about His Passion and Death, nor about His 
bodily Resurrection ; seeing that you recognise, with- 
out any severance of Godhead, a true Christ from the 
Virgin's womb, a true Christ on the wood of the 
Cross, a true Christ in the body's sepulchre, a true 
Christ in the glory of the Resurrection, a true Christ 
on the right hand of the Father's majesty : " from 
whence also," as the Apostle says, " we look for the 
Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who shall refashion 

1 S. John xvii. 21. . 2 See Ep. xxviii. 2. 



XV.] Apostles doubted of the Resurrection. 87 

the body of our lowliness, to become conformed to the 
body of His glory," 1 Who liveth and reigneth with 
the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. 
Amen. 



SERMON XV. 

ASCENSION. 

SERM. 72-__De Ascensione Domini, I. Postbeatam. 

AFTER the blessed and glorious Resurrection of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, wherein by Divine power He 
" raised up in three days" the true Temple of God, 
which the impious Jews had destroyed, there was this 
day fulfilled, dearly beloved, that number of forty 
holy days which had been ordained by a most sacred 
appointment, and spent in giving us profitable in- 
struction, that while the tarrying of our Lord's cor- 
poreal presence is extended by Him to this space, 
our faith in His Resurrection might be fortified by 
necessary proofs. For the death of Christ had sorely 
disturbed the hearts of the disciples, and a kind of 
torpor of distrust had crept into minds oppressed 
by sorrow on account of the punishment of the Cross, 
the yielding up of the spirit, and the burial of the 
lifeless body. For when the holy women, as the 
Gospel history has made clear, announced that the 
stone was rolled away from the tomb, that the body 
was not in the sepulchre, and that Angels bore tes- 
timony that the Lord was alive, their words seemed 

1 Phil. iii. 21. 



88 During the Great Forty Days [SERM. 

i 

to the Apostles and disciples to be like " idle tales." 
And surely this uncertainty, wherein human weak- 
ness was wavering, would in no wise have been 
allowed by the Spirit of truth to exist in the hearts 
of His preachers, unless the trembling anxiety and 
inquiring hesitation had laid the foundations of our 
faith. It was then for our perturbations and for our 
dangers that provision was being made in the case of 
the Apostles ; we, in those men, were being instructed 
against the calumnies of the impious and against the 
arguments of this world's wisdom. We have been 
taught by their seeing, we have been informed by 
their hearing, we have been confirmed by their touch- 
ing. Let us give thanks to the Divine providence, 
and to that necessary tardiness of our holy fathers. 
Doubts were felt by them, that no doubts might be 
felt by us. 1 

2. Those days, then, dearly beloved, which elapsed 
between the Resurrection and Ascension of our 
Lord, did not pass away in an inactive course : but 
in them great and sacred truths were confirmed, great 
mysteries were revealed. In them is taken away the 
fear of terrible death, and the immortality not only 
of the soul, but also of the flesh, is displayed. In 
them, by means of the Lord's breathing, the Holy 
Spirit is poured into all the Apostles ; and to the 
blessed Apostle Peter above the rest, 2 after the keys 
of the kingdom, is entrusted the care of the Lord's 
flock. In these days, when two disciples are on their 
road, the Lord associates Himself as a third with 
them ; 3 and in order to clear away all the darkness of 

1 See Note 117. 2 See Serm. viii. c. 2. 

3 S. Luke xxiv. 15. 



XV.] Christ proved Himself to be Risen. 89 

our uncertainty, the tardiness of those who are quail- 
ing and trembling is rebuked. Illuminated hearts 
receive the flame of faith, and, having been lukewarm, 
are made to burn while the Lord is "opening the 
Scriptures." Moreover, "in the breaking of bread 
the eyes" of those who sit at meat with Him are 
" opened :" and far happier for them is that opening, 
whereby the glorification of their nature was dis- 
played to them, than that which befell those first 
parents of ours, on whom was heaped the confusion 
of their own transgression. 

3. But among these and other miracles, when the 
disciples were tossed by restless thoughts, and the 
Lord had appeared in the midst of them and said, 
" Peace be unto you," 1 lest that which was floating in 
their minds should become a permanent opinion, 
for they "supposed that they saw a spirit" and not 
flesh, He confutes those thoughts which were dis- 
cordant with the truth, presents to their eyes, amid 
their doubtings, the marks of the cross abiding in 
His hands and feet, and invites them to "handle" 
Him carefully : 2 for to heal the wounds of unbeliev- 
ing hearts, the traces of the nails and spear were 
retained, that they might hold fast, not by a doubtful 
faith, but by a most assured knowledge, the truth that 
the nature which had lain in the sepulchre would be 
seated with God the Father on the throne. 

4. So, then, through all this period, dearly beloved, 
which intervened between our Lord's Resurrection 
and His Ascension, what God's providence was pro- 
viding for, what it was teaching, what it was bringing 
home to His servants' eyes as well as hearts was 

1 S. Luke xxiv. 36 ; S. John xx. 19. 2 S. Luke xxiv. 39. 



9O The Ascension our exaltation, [SERM. 

this, that the Lord Jesus Christ, Who was truly 
born, and suffered, and died, was to be acknowledged 
as truly raised again. Whence the most blessed Apos- 
tles, and all the disciples, who had been both trem- 
bling at the result of the crucifixion, and doubtful as 
to belief in the Resurrection, were so invigorated by 
the clear vision of the truth, that when the Lord was 
going up to the height of heaven, they were not only 
not affected by any sadness, but even filled with a 
"great joy." 1 And a truly great and ineffable cause 
of rejoicing it was, when in the presence of a holy 
multitude the nature of mankind was ascending above - 
the dignity of all celestial creatures, to pass above 
the Angelic ranks, and to be elevated above the 
high seats of Archangels, and not to let any degree 
of loftiness be a limit to its advancement, until it 
should be received to sit down with the Eternal 
Father, and associated in the throne with His glory, 
to Whose nature it was coupled in the Son ! Since, 
then, Christ's Ascension is our advancement, and 
whither the glory of the Head has gone before, 2 
thither is the hope of the body summoned, let us, 
dearly beloved, exult with befitting joys, and rejoice 
with devout thanksgiving. For to-day have we_not 
only been confirmed in the possession of Paradise, 
but in Christ have even penetrated _ihe_Jieights_of 
heaven, having won, through the ineffable grace of 
Christ, richer gifts than we had lost through the 
devil's envy. 3 For those whom the venomous enemy 
cast down from the happiness of their first habitation, 
has the Son of God made of one body with Himself, 

1 S. Luke xxiv. 52. 2 See Note 118. 

? Cp. Serm. xiv. c. 2. 



XVI.] and a proof of Christ's Divinity. 91 

and placed at the Father's right hand, with Whom 
He liveth and reigneth, in the unity of the Holy 
Spirit, God, through all eternity. Amen. 



SERMON XVI. 

ASCENSION. 
SERM. 7__ De Ascensione Domini, II. Sacramentum. 



THE sacred work, 1 beloved, of our salvation, of that 
salvation which the Maker of the universe valued at 
the price of His own Blood, was fulfilled, from the day 
of His corporeal birth even to the issue of His Passion, 
by means of an economy of humiliation. And although 
even in " the form of a servant" there gleamed forth 
many a token of His Godhead, yet properly speaking, 
His course of action at that time was concerned with 
proving the reality of the Manhood which He had 
assumed. But after the Passion, when the bonds of 
that death were broken, which had exposed its own 
strength by going to attack Him Who knew no sin, 
infirmity w r as turned into that strength, mortality into 
that eternity, and contumely into that glory, which the 
Lord Jesus Christ, by " many and manifest proofs," 2 
made clear to the eyes of many, until He carried on 
into heaven that victorious triumph which He had 
won over death. As, then, in the Paschal solemnity 
our Lord's Resurrection was our cause of rejoicing, 

1 " Sacramentum." - Acts i. 3. 



92 Faith, exercised by ttie Ascension, . [SERM. 

so is His Ascension into heaven the groundwork of 
our present joys, while we recall and duly venerate 
that day, whereon our lowly nature was in Christ 
advanced above all the host of heaven, above all the 
ranks of Angels, and beyond the height of all Powers, 
to sit down with God the Father. By which order 
of Divine works we have been placed on a sure 
basis, we have been built up ; that the grace of God 
might become more wonderful, when after the re- 
moval from men's sight of the things which were 
justly felt to claim reverence for themselves, faith did 
not lose confidence, hope did not fluctuate, love did 
not wax lukewarm. For in this consists Jhejrigpur 
ofgreat minds, and in this the light of thoroughly 
faithful souls, unhesitatingly to believe what isjiot^ 
seen by bodily discernment, and tojix...the ajfeciions 
on a point to which one cannot raise one's_eyes. But 
whence could this piety spring up in our hearts, or 
how could any one be justified by faith, if our salva- 
tion were centred in those things only which were 
subject to our gaze ? Wherefore also to that man who 
seemed to be doubtful about Christ's Resurrection, 
unless he could explore both by sight and touch the 
traces of the Passion of Christ's own flesh, our Lord 
said, " Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed ; 
blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have 
believed." 1 

2. Therefore that we, dearly beloved, might be able 
to take in this^ blessedness, after all things had been 
fulfilled which were appropriate to the preaching of 
the Gospel and the mysteries of the New Testament, 
our Lord Jesus Christ, ieing elevated into heaven in 

1 S. John xx. 29. 



xvi.] has overcome the World. 93 

the presence of His disciples on the fortieth day after 
His Resurrection,^ put an end to His corporal Pre- 
sence, 1 ^ He was to remain at the Father's right hand 
until the times Divinely ordained for the multiplying 
of the Church's children have been completed, and 
He comes, in the same flesh- wherein He ascended, to 
judge the quick and the dead. Accordingly, that 
presence of our Redeemer which could be gazed upon 
was superseded by what was mysterious ; and, that 
faith might be the loftier and firmer, sight was suc- 
ceeded by doctrine, the authority of which might be 
followed by believing hearts, illumined by rays from 
on high. 

^^^^*^^^^^ .... 

3. This faith, increased by our Lord's Ascension, 
and strengthened by the gift of the Holy Spirit, has 
nqt^been overawed by chains, nor imprisonments, nor 
banishments, nor famine, nor the sword, nor the teeth 
of wild beasts, nor punishments invented by the cruelty 
of persecutors. For this faith, throughout the whole 
world, not only men, but even women, not only young 
boys, but even tender maidens, contended even to the 
shedding of their own blood. 2 This faith has cast out de- 
mons, driven away sicknesses, raised the dead. Hence 
also the blessed Apostles themselves, who, although 
confirmed by so many miracles, instructed by so many 
discourses, had yet been scared by the horrors of the 
Lord's Passion, and had not received without hesita- 
tion the truth of His Resurrection, profited so greatly 
by the Lord's Ascension, that whatever before had 
caused them fear was turned into joy. For they had 
lifted up their souls to contemplate fixedly the Divinity 
of Him that was sitting at the Father's right hand ; nor 

1 See Note 119. 2 See Note 120. 



94 *' Touch Me not" [SERM. 

i . 

were they any longer hindered by the interposition 
of bodily vision from directing the glance of thejmnd. 
to that which had neither, in descending, been absent 
from the Father, 1 nor, in ascending, withdrawn from 

^-"- '" * *^"^"^ i ..' in uii ^aa*"~*^^ ^^i^i^H^*"^^^^^^^ 

the disciples. 

4. Accordingly, then it was, dearly beloved, that 
the Son of Man became known as the Son of God in 
a more transcendent and sacred way, when He be- 
took Himself to the glory of the Father's majesty, 
and in an ineffable manner began to be more present 
in His Divinity, when He became farther off in His 
Humanity^ Then did a more instructed faith begin 
to approach, by the steps of the mind, to the Son as 
equal to the Father, and not to need any handling of 
the corporeal substance in Christ, wherein He is in- 
ferior to the Father. 2 For, while the nature of the 
glorified body remained, thither was the faith of be- 
lievers summoned, where the Only-begotten, equal to 
the Begetter, might be touched, not by a hand of flesh, 
but by spiritual understanding. Hence comes that 
saying of our Lord, after His Resurrection, to Mary 
Magdalene, when she, representing the Church, was 
hastening to draw near to touch Him; "Touch. Me 
not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father ;" 3 that 
is, " I will not have thee come to Me corporeally, 
nor recognise Me by the sensations of the flesh. I 
am putting thee off to something loftier, I am pre- 
paring for thee something greater. When I shall 
have ascended to My Father, then shalt thou handle 
Me more perfectly and more truly, being about to 
apprehend what thou touchest not, and to believe what 

1 See Serm. xviii. c. 5. 2 See Serm. ii. c. 2. 

3 S. John xx. 17. See Note 121. 



\ 



XVI.] Angels minister to Christ. 95 



thou seest not." And when, as the Lord was ascend- 
ing into heaven, the disciples' eyes were gazing at 
and following Him with rapt admiration, there stood 
by them two Angels in garments glittering with a mar- 
vellous whiteness, u who also said, Ye men of Galilee, 
why stand ye gazing into heaven ? This Jesus, Who 
has been taken up from you into heaven, shall so 
come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into 
heaven." 1 By which words all the children of the 
Church were taught that they must believe that Jesus 
Christ would come visibly in the same flesh wherein 
He had ascended ; and that there could be no doubt 
of all things being subject to Him Who, from the 
very beginning of His corporeal birth, had been 
served by the attendance of Angels. For as it was 
an Angel who announced to the Blessed Virgin that 
Christ was to be conceived of the Holy Spirit, so too 
it was the voice of the heavenly ones that proclaimed 
Him to the shepherds as born of the Virgin. As the 
first testimonies, which told that He had risen from 
the dead, were those of messengers from on high, so 
it was the services of Angels which proclaimed that 
He would come in that very flesh to judge the world : 
that we might understand what mighty Powers will 
be present with Him when He comes to judge, seeing 
that such mighty ones ministered to Him even when 
He came to be judged, ^k 

5. Let us then exult, dearly beloved, with spiritual 
joy, and rejoicing before God with meet thanksgiving, 
let us freely lift up the eyes of our heart to that height 
on which Christ is. Let not earthly desires depress 
the minds that are called upwards ; 2 let not perishing 
1 Actsi. ii. 2 See Note 122. 



96 Charity a help against Temptation. [SERM. 

things occupy those that are chosen beforehand to 
things eternal ; let not deceitful allurements retard 
those that have entered on the way of truth ; and let 
the faithful so pass through these temporal things, as 
to know that they are but pilgrims in this world's 
valley, 1 wherein, even if some conveniences may try to 
allure us, we must not be so poor-spirited as to embrace 
them, but brave enough to pass them by. For to this 
devotedness does the most blessed Apostle Peter in- 
cite us ; and according to that love which, by his 
triple profession of love for the Lord, he conceived 
for feeding the Lord's sheep, he entreats us, saying, 
" Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pil- 
grims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against 
the soul." 2 And in whose cause do fleshly pleasures 
make war, save in the devil's, who, when souls are 
aiming at things above, is glad if he can bind them with 
the delights of corruptible goods, and lead them away 
from those seats whence he himself fell ? And against 
his plots every faithful man ought to be wisely on the 
watch, that he may strike down his enemy from that 
part which is being attacked. Now nothing is more 
effectual, dearly beloved, against the wiles of the devil, 
than a kindly compassion and a bounteous charity, 
by means of which every sin is either avoided or con- 
quered. But this exalted virtue is not attained until 
that which is adverse to it is overthrown. Now, what 
is so hostile to mercy and to works of charity as 
covetousness, from the root of which shoots up the 
germ of all evils ? And unless it is killed in that 
which feeds it, it is inevitable that in the soil of that 
heart, wherein the plant of this evil has gathered 
1 See Note 123. 2 I S. Pet. ii. 11. 



xvii.] The Feast of Pentecost. 97 

strength, the thorns and briars of vices should spring 
up rather than any seed of true virtue. Let us, there- 
fore, dearly beloved, resist this most pestilent evil, 
and follow after charity, without which no virtue 
can shine ; that through this way of love, whereby 
Christ descended to us, we also may be able to 
ascend to Him, to Whom, with God the Father and 
the Holy Spirit, belong honour and glory for ever and 
ever. Amen. 



SERMON XVII. 

WHITSUNTIDE. 
SERM. 75. De Pentecoste, I. Hodiernam. 

THAT this day's solemnity, dearly beloved, is to be 
venerated among our chiefest festivals, the hearts of 
all Catholics well know ; nor is there any doubt of the 
amount of reverence due to this day, which the Holy 
Spirit consecrated by that transcendent miracle of 
His own bounty. For from that day on which our 
Lord ascended above the height of all heavens to sit 
on the right hand of God the Father, this day is the 
tenth, which, being the fiftieth from His Resurrection, 
has dawned upon us, on that very day from which 
it took its origin, containing in itself great mysteries, 
which belong to sacred facts both old and new; whereby 
it is most clearly shown that grace was heralded by 
the Law, and the Law was fulfilled by grace. For 
as, after the Hebrew people had in old time been de- 

H 



98 The Descent of the Holy Spirit, [SERM. 

i 

livered from the Egyptians, on the fiftieth day after 
the sacrificing of the lamb the Law was given on 
Mount Sinai ; so after the Passion of Christ, wherein 
the true Lamb of God was slain, on the fiftieth day 
from His Resurrection the Holy Spirit descended 
on the Apostles and on the believing people : so that 
the thoughtful Christian may readily acknowledge 
that the beginnings of the Old Testament were sub- 
servient to the outset of the Gospel, and that the 
second covenant was established by the same Spirit 
by Whom the first had been ordained. 

2. For, as the Apostolic history testifies, " while the 
days of the Pentecost were being completed, and the 
disciples were all together in the same place, there came 
suddenly from heaven a sound as of a vehement wind 
approaching, and it filled the whole house where they 
were sitting. And there appeared to them, distri- 
buted, tongues as of fire, 1 and it sat upon each of 
them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, 
and began to speak with other tongues, as the Holy 
Spirit was giving them utterance." 2 O how rapid 
is the discourse of wisdom ! and where God is the 
Master, how soon is that learned which is taught ! 
No interpretation was added that they might hear 
better ; they were not familiarised with the words in 
order to use them, nor had they time given them for 
study ; but by the Spirit of truth " blowing where 
He willed," 3 the peculiar languages of the several na- 
tions were made common in the mouth of the Church. 4 
It was, then, from this day that the trumpet of the 
preaching of the Gospel gave forth its sound ; it was 

1 See Note 124. 2 Acts ii. 14. 

3 S. John iii. 8. 4 See Note 125. 



xvii.] Who is God with the Father and the Son. 99 

from this day that showers of spiritual gifts, 1 streams 
of blessings, watered every desert and all the dry 
ground, for " the Spirit of God was being borne over 
the waters" 2 in order to " renew the face of the earth ;" 3 
and new flashes of light were beaming forth to drive 
away the old darkness, seeing that by the splendour 
radiant tongues was being received that lus- 



trous-Word of the Lord, that fiery utterance, wherein 
were present an illuminating energy and a burning 
force, to create intelligence and to consume sin. 

3. But although, dearly beloved, the appearance of 
the event was indeed wonderful, nor can it be doubted 
that, in that exultant choir of all human tongues, the 
majesty of the Holy Spirit was present, yet let no 
one fancy that in what was seen by bodily eyes His 
Divine substance showed itself. For His invisible 
nature, which He shares with the Father and the Son, 
did exhibit, by such a manifestation as it pleased, the 
character of its own gift and work. But it retained 
within its Divinity that which belonged to its own 
essence ; for as the Father and the Son, so also the 
Holy Spirit is inaccessible to human eyesight. For 
in the Divine Trinity there is nothing dissimilar, 
nothing unequal ; and all that can be thought of as 
pertaining to that substance, admits of no difference 
in respect to power, glory, and eternity. 4 And while 
in regard to the distinctness of Person, the Father is 
one, the Son is another, the Holy Spirit another, yet 
it is not another Godhead nor a different nature : 
seeing that, since the Only-begotten Son is from the 
Father, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father 

1 "Charismatum." 2 Gen. i. 2. 

3 Ps. civ. 30. 4 See 



ioo The Coequality in the Trinity. [SERM. 

t 

and of the Son, [He is] not like any creature what- 
soever, which is the creature of the Father and of the 
Son, but as One living and mighty together with Both, 
and eternally subsisting from that which the Father 
and Son are. 1 Wherefore, when our Lord, before the 
day of His Passion, was guaranteeing to His disciples 
the coming of the Holy Spirit, " I have yet," said He, 
" many things to say to you, but you cannot bear 
them now. Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of truth, 
is come, He will guide you into all truth. For He 
will not speak from Himself, but whatever He will 
hear, He will speak, and will announce to you things 
to come. All things that the Father hath are Mine : 
therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall 
show it unto you. 2 It is not then that some things 
belong to the Father, some to the Son, some to the 
Holy Spirit ; but that whatever the Father has, the 
Holy Spirit also has : nor was this communion ever 
non-existing in that Trinity, because in the Trinity 
to have all things is the same as to exist always. In 
the Trinity let no times, no degrees, no differences, 
be thought of; and if any one cannot explain, in 
respect to God, what is, let no one dare to affirm 
what is not. 3 For it is more excusable not to utter, 
concerning the ineffable Nature, what is worthy of it, 
than to give a definition contrary to truth. There- 
fore, whatever pious hearts can conceive about the 
everlasting and unchangeable glory of the Father, the 
same let them understand also about the Son, and 
about the Holy Spirit, without any severance or dif- 
ference. 4 For this is the very reason why we confess 

1 See Note 126. 2 S. John xvi. 1215. 

3 See Note 127. 4 See Note 128. 




XVII.] Macedonianism a heresy. 

this Blessed Trinity to be One God, because in these 
Three Persons there is jiojiiversity of substance, or of 
rjower, or of will, or of operation. 

4. As therefore we detest the Arians, who insist on 
making some interval between the Father and the 
Son, so do we equally detest the Macedonians 1 also, 
who, although they ascribe equality to the Father and 
the Son, yet think the Holy Spirit to be of an in- 
ferior nature ; not considering that they are falling 
into that blasphemy, which is not to be forgiven either 
in the present world or in the future judgment, as 
our Lord says, " Whosoever shall say a word against 
the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him ; but who- 
soever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be 
forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world 
to come." 2 Therefore, if he persist in this iniquity, 
he is without pardon, because he has excluded from 
himself Him by means of Whom he might have con- 
fessed ; nor will he ever attain the remedy of forgive- 
ness, who has not an Advocate to be his patron. 
For from the Spirit comes the calling on the Father, 
from Him are the groans of suppliants ; 3 " and no one 
can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy 
Spirit," Whose equality in omnipotence and oneness 
in Godhead with the Father and the Son are most 
clearly proclaimed by the Apostle when he says, 

There are indeed divisions of graces, but the same 
Spirit. And there are divisions of ministrations, but 
the same Lord. And there are divisions of operations, 
but the same God, Who worketh all in all." 4 

5. By these and other proofs innumerable, which 

1 See Note 129. 2 See Note 130. 

3 Rom. viii. 26. 4 i Cor. xii. 3 6. 



IO2 The Fast after Pentecost. [SERM. 

l 

shine forth in the authoritative record of Divine ut- 
terances, let us with one accord be stirred up to reve- 
rence for Pentecost, rejoicing in honour of, the_Holy 
Spirit, by Whom the Holy Catholic Church is sanc- 
tified, and every rational soul penetrated ; Who is 
the Inspirer of faith, the Teacher of knowledge, the 
Fountain of love, the Seal of chastity, and the Cause 
of all virtue. Let the minds of the faithful rejoice, 
because throughout all the world One God, the Fa- 
ther, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is praised by 
an acknowledgment which all tongues render ; and 
because that indication which was given in the form 
of fire is still continued alike in a work and a gift. 
For the Spirit of Truth Himself makes the house of 
His glory to shine with the radiance of His own light, 
and wills not to have in His temple anything dark or 
lukewarm. 1 And it is by this aid and teaching that 
the cleansing power of fasts and alms has been vouch- 
safed to us. For this venerable day is followed by a 
customary and most salutary observance, 2 which all 
holy men have always found most useful to them, and 
to the diligent performance of which we exhort you 
with a pastor's earnestness ; that if, in the days just 
preceding, any stain has been contracted through 
careless negligence, it may be chastened by corrective 
fasting, and amended by devout piety. On Wednes- 
day and Friday, therefore, let us fast ; on the Sabbath, 
let us all join in keeping vigils with our accustomed 
devotion : through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who liveth 
and reigneth with the Father and the Holy Spirit, 
one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 

1 See Note 131. 2 See Note 132. 



XVIII.] Whitsuntide. 103 



SERMON XVIII. 

WHITSUNTIDE. 
SERM. 77. In Pentecoste, III. Hodiernam. 

THIS day's festival, dearly beloved, which is vene- 
rable throughout all the world, was consecrated by 
the coming of the Holy Spirit, Who on the fiftieth 
day after our Lord's Resurrection flowed into the 
Apostles and the believing people, 1 even as they had 
been hoping for Him. And they did hope, because the 
Lord Jesus had assured them that He would come ; not 
that He should then first begin to be an Indweller 2 
in the Saints, but that He should kindle with more fer- 
vour, and more abundantly stream into, the bosoms 
consecrated to Himself; not making an instalment of 
His gifts, but heaping them yet higher ; and although 
richer in bounteousness, not on that account new in 
operation. For never was the majesty of the Holy 
Spirit separate from the omnipotence of the Father 
and the Son ; and whatever the Divine government 
effects in the ordering of all things, comes from the 
providence of the whole Trinity. In that Trinity, the 
benignity of mercy is one, the severity of justice is 
one ; nor is there aught of division in action, where 
there is nought of diversity in will. 3 What therefore 
the Father illuminates, that the Son illuminates, that 
the Holy Spirit illuminates ; and since there is one 
Person of the Sent, another of the Sender, another of 

1 See Note 133. 2 Comp. Serm. ii. c. 4. 

3 See Serm. x, c. 2. 



IO4 What the Divine Three did for us. [SERM. 

the Promiser, there is manifested to us at once Unity 
and Trinity ; so that the essence which has equality, 
and does not admit of solitariness, may be understood 
to be of the same Substance, and not of the same 
Person. 

2. Whereas, therefore, without prejudice to the co- 
operation of the inseparable Godhead, some things 1 
are wrought by the Father in particular, some by the 
Son, some by the Holy Spirit, for our redemption is 
this appointed, for our salvation is this planned. For 
if man, made after God's image and likeness, had 
remained in the dignity of his own nature, and had 
not been deceived by the fraud of the devil into de- 
viating, through appetite, from the law laid down for 
him, the Creator of the world would not have become 
a creature, 2 nor would the Everlasting have entered 
on a temporal condition, nor would God the Son, 
equal to God the Father, have assumed " the form of 
a servant" and " the likeness of sinful flesh." But be- 
cause " by the devil's envy death entered into the 
world," 3 and the captivity of man could in no other 
way be loosened than by His taking up our cause, 
Who, without losing His own majesty, could become 
both very Man, and the only Man free from con- 
tagion of sin ; the merciful Three divided between 
Themselves the work of our restoration ; so that the 
Father should be propitiated, the Son should pro- 
pitiate, 4 the Holy Spirit should enkindle. For it was 
right that those who were to be saved should also do 
something for themselves, 5 and by conversion of their 

1 Comp. Serm. x. c. 2. " See Note 134. 

3 Wisd. ii. 24. 4 See Note 135. 

5 See Note 136. 



XVIII.] Their Coequality to be recognised. 105 

hearts to the Redeemer should depart from the do- 
minion of the enemy ; for as the Apostle says, " God 
sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, 
Abba, Father :" " and where the Spirit of the Lord 
is, there is liberty :" and, " No one can say that Jesus 
is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit." 1 

3. If therefore by the guidance of grace, dearly be- 
loved, we faithfully and wisely apprehend what there 
is in the work of our restoration which is proper to 
the Father, to the Son, to the Holy Spirit respectively, 
and what there is which is common to Them all, we 
shall doubtless receive in such a sense what was done 
for us in lowly wise and corporeally, as to have no 
unworthy thoughts about that glory of the Trinity 
which is one and the same. For although no mind 
is sufficient to think about God, no tongue to speak 
about Him, yet 2 whatever be the extent of the con- 
ception which by human intelligence we attain to 
respecting the essence of the Father's Godhead, unless 
we have one and the same conception when we think 
either of His Only-begotten Son, or of the Holy 
Spirit, our minds are not piously informed, but car- 
nally darkened ; and we lose even what befitting 
thoughts we seemed to have respecting the Father ; for 
we depart from the whole Trinity, if we hold not the 
Unity therein. Now that is in no real sense one 
which is divided through some inequality. 

4. When therefore we bend the gaze of our mind 
to confess the Father, and the Son, and the Holy 
Spirit, let us banish far away from our thoughts the 
forms of visible things, the ages of temporal natures, 

1 Gal. iv. 6 ; 2 Cor. iii. 17 ; I Cor. xii. 3. 

2 Cf. Serm. xvii. c. 3. 



IO6 The Divine Coequality consistent [SERM. 

the bodies which exist in places, the places in which 
bodies exist. Far from our hearts be that which is 
extended in space, which is enclosed by limit, and 
whatever is not always everywhere and entire. In 
the conception which we form respecting the God- 
head of the Trinity, let us understand nothing -in the 
way of interval, look for nothing in the way of gra- 
dation j 1 and if we have any worthy thoughts about 
God, let us not dare, in reference to the Trinity, to 
consider them inapplicable to any one Person, as 
though we should do more honour to the Father by 
ascribing to Him what we do not attribute to the Son 
and the Spirit. It is no piety to prefer the Father to 
the Only-begotten ; to dishonour the Son is to wrong 
the Father ; what is taken away from one is detracted 
from both. For since They have in commoa-eteraityi 
ancLGodhead, the Father is not esteemed omnipotent, 
nor immutable, if He either begat One inferior to 
Himself, or gained somewhat by having One whom_ 
(before) He had not. 2 

5. It is true that the Lord Jesus said to His dis- 
ciples, as has been recited in the Gospel reading, " If 
ye loved Me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go to 
the Father ; for My Father is greater than I." 3 But 
this passage is understood by those ears which have 
so often heard, " I and the Father are One," and "He 
that hath seen Me hath seen the Father," as implying 
no difference of Godhead ; nor do they refer it to that 
essence which they know to be everlasting with the 
Father, and of the same nature. It is then thejid-_ 
vancement of man in the Incarnation of the Word, 

1 Comp. Serm. xvii. c. 3. 2 See Serm. ii. c. 2. 

3 Comp. Serm. ii. c. 2. See Note 137. 



XVIIL] with the Son's inferiority as Man. 107 

which is being set forth even to the holy Apostles ; 
and they who were disturbed when the Lord's depar- 
ture was announced to them, are cheered on towards 
eternal joys by the increase of their own dignity. 
" If_^ejpved^ Me," saith He, " ye would certainly re- 
joice, because I go to the Father :" that is, " If ye saw 
with a perfect knowledge what glory is bestowed on 
the fact, that I, begotten of God the Father, 



have also been born of a human mother ; that I, the 
Lord of things eternal, have willed to become one of 
mortals ; that I, the Invisible, have presented Myself 
as visible ; that I, Who in the form of God am ever- 
lasting, have taken the form of a servant ; then ye 
would rejoice, because I go to the Father, jior it. .-is.. 
to you that this Ascension is vouchsafed, and it is 
your lowliness which in Me is exalted above all 

_ "" 

leavens to be placed on the Father's right hand. 1 
But I, Who with the Father am that which the 
Father is, remain indivisibly with the Father ; 2 and 
just as in returning to Him I leave you not, so in 
coming from Him to you I depart not from Him. 
Rejoice, therefore, because I go to the Father, for the 
Father is greater than I. For I have united you to 
Myself, and have become Son of Man that you may 
be able to be sons of God. Wherefore, although I am 
One in both (natures), yet whereas I am conformed to 
you, I am inferior to the Father ; but whereas I am 
not divided from the Father, I am even greater than 
Myself." Let then the nature which is inferior to the 
Father go to the Father, that where the Word is 
always, there the flesh may be ; and that the one faith 
of the Catholic Church may believe Him to be equal 
1 See Serm. xv. c. 4. 2 See Note 138. 



108 The Divine Coequality. [SERM. XVIII. 

as touching the Godhead, Whom as touching the 
Manhood she denies not to be inferior. 

6. Let us therefore, dearly beloved, contemn the 
vain and blind craft of heretical impiety, which flat- 
ters itself by a perverse interpretation of this sen- 
tence, and after the Lord has said, " All things that 
the Father hath are Mine," 1 understands not that it is 
taking away from the Father whatever it dares to 
deny to the Son, and is so foolish in regard to the 
things which belong to manhood, as to think that 
because the Only-begotten assumed what was ours, 
He lost what was His Father's. Mercy, in God, does 
not lessen power ; nor is the reconciling of a beloved 
creature 2 a (deficiency in everlasting glory. What the 
Father has, the Son also has ; and what the Father 
and Son have, the Holy Spirit also has ; because the 
whole Trinity together is One God. And this faith is 
no discovery of earthly wisdom, nor has man's opinion 
persuaded us to accept it ; 3 but the Only-begotten 
Son Himself has taught it, the Holy Spirit Himself 
inculcated it that Spirit of Whom we must think no 
otherwise than of the Father and the Son. For al- 
though He is not the Father nor the Son, yet from 
the Father and Son He is not divided ; and as He 
has His own personality 4 in the Trinity, so in the 
Godhead of Father and Son has He one substance, 
filling all things, containing all things, and with the 
Father and the Son governing all things ; to Whom 
belong honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. 

1 S. John xvi. 15. 2 See Serai, vii. c. I. 

3 See Serm. viii. c. 2. 4 " Personam." 



Eutyches proved to be ignorant. 109 



THE TWENTY-EIGHTH EPISTLE, 
OR THE "TOME." 



Leo, Bishop, to his dearest brother Flavian, Bishop 
of Constantinople. 

Having read your Affection's letter, 1 the late arrival 
of which is matter of surprise to us, and having gone 
through the record of the proceedings of the Bishops, 2 
we have now, at last, gained a clear view of the scandal 
which has risen up among you, against the integrity of 
the faith ; and what at first seemed obscure has now 
been elucidated and explained. By this means Euty- 
ches, who seemed to be deserving of honour under the 
title of Presbyter, is now shown to be exceedingly 
thoughtless and sadly inexperienced, 3 so that to him 
also we may apply the prophet's words, "He refused 
to understand in order to act well : he meditated un- 
righteousness on his bed." 4 What, indeed, is more 
unrighteous than to entertain ungodly thoughts, and 
not to yield to persons wiser and more learned ? But 
into this folly do they fall, who, when hindered by some 
obscurity from apprehending the truth, have recourse, 
not to the words of the Prophets, not to the letters 

1 See Note 139. 2 See Note 140. 

3 See Note 141. 4 Ps. xxxvi. 4. 



no The very terms of the Creed [EPIST. 

of the Apostles, nor to the authority of the Gos- 
pels, but to themselves ; and become teachers of error, 
just because they have not been disciples of the 
truth. For what learning has he received from the 
sacred pages of the New and the Old Testament, who 
does not so much as understand the very beginning of 
the Creed ? And that which, all the world over, is 
uttered by the voices of all applicants for regenera- 
tion, 1 is still not grasped by the mind of this 
aged man. 

2. If, then, he knew not what he ought to think 
about the Incarnation of the Word of God, and was 
not willing, for the sake of obtaining the light of in- 
telligence, to make laborious search through the whole 
extent of the Holy Scriptures, he should at least have 
received with heedful attention that general Confession 
common to all, whereby the whole body of the faith- 
ful profess that they "believe in God the Father 
Almighty, and in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord, 
Who was born of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin 
Mary." 2 By which three clauses the engines of almost 
all heretics are shattered. For when God is believed 
to be both " Almighty" and " Father," it is proved that 
the Son is everlasting together with Himself, differing 
in nothing from the Father, because He was born as 
" God from God," 3 Almighty from Almighty, Co- 
eternal from Eternal ; not later in time, not inferior 
in power, not unlike Him in glory, not divided from 
Him in essence, but the same Only-begotten and 
Everlasting Son of an Everlasting Parent was " born 
of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary." This birth 
in time in no way detracted from, in no way added 

1 See Note 142. 2 See Note 143. 3 See Note 144. 



XXVIII.] affirm a true Manhood in Christ. in 

to, that divine and everlasting birth ; but expended it- 
self wholly in the work of restoring man, who had been 
deceived ; so that it might both overcome death, and 
by its power " destroy the devil who had the power of 
death." 1 For we could not have overcome the author 
of sin and of death, unless He Who could neither be 
contaminated by sin, nor detained by death, had taken 
upon Himself our nature, and made it His own. 
For, in fact, He was " conceived of the Holy Ghost" 
within the womb of a Virgin Mother, who bare Him, 
as she had conceived Him, without loss of virginity^, i 
But if he (Eutyches) was not able to obtain a true 
conception from this pure fountain of Christian faith, 
because by his own blindness he had darkened for him- 
self the brightness of a truth so clear, he should have 
submitted himself to the Evangelist's teaching ; and 
after reading what Matthew says, " The book of the 
generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of 
Abraham," 2 he should also have sought instruction 
from the Apostle's preaching ; and after reading in 
the Epistle to the Romans, " Paul, a servant of Jesus 
Christ, called an Apostle, separated unto the gos- 
pel of God, which He had promised before by the 
prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, 
Who was made unto Him 3 of the seed of David 
according to the flesh," 4 he should have bestowed 
some devout study on the pages of the Prophets ; and 
finding that God's promise said to Abraham, " in thy 
seed shall all nations be blessed," 5 in order to avoid 
all doubt as to the proper meaning of this " seed," he 

1 Heb. ii. 14. 2 S. Matt. i. I. See Note 145. 

3 "Ei." SoVulg. 4 Rom. i. i~3, 

5 Gen. xii. 3. 



112 Scripture affirms the true Manhood. [EPIST. 

should have attended to the Apostle's words, "To 
Abraham and to his seed were the promises made. 
He saith not, * and to seeds,' as in the case of many, 
but, as in the case of one, ' and to thy seed,' which 
is Christ." 1 He should also have apprehended with 
his inward ear the declaration of Isaiah, " Behold, a 
Virgin shall conceive 2 and bear a Son, and they shall 
call His name Emmanuel, which is, being interpreted, 
God with us ;" and should have read with faith the 
words of the same prophet, " Unto us a Child has 
been born, unto us a Son has been given, whose power 
is on His shoulder; and they shall call His name, 
Angel of great counsel, Wonderful, Counsellor, Strong 
God, Prince of Peace, Father of the age to come." 3 
And he should not have spoken idly to the effect 
that the Word was in such a sense made flesh, that 
the Christ who was brought forth from the Virgin's 
womb had the form of a man, and had not a body 
really derived from His Mother's body. 4 Possibly his 
reason for thinking that our Lord Jesus Christ was 
not of our nature was this, that the Angel who was 
sent to the blessed and ever- Virgin Mary 5 said, " The 
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the 
Highest shall overshadow thee, and therefore also that 
holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called 
Son of God ;" 6 as if, because the Virgin's conception 
was caused by a divine act, therefore the flesh of Him 
Whom she conceived was not of the nature of her who 
conceived Him. But we are not to understand that 
"generation," peerlessly wonderful, and wonderfully 

1 Gal. iii. 16. 2 " In utero accipiet." 

3 Isa. ix. 6. See Note 146. 4 See Note 147. 

5 See Serm. ii. c. I. 6 S. Luke i. 35. 



XXVIII.] The one Christ in Two Natures. 113 

peerless, in such a sense as that the newness of 
the mode of production 1 did away with the proper 
character of the kind. For it was the Holy Ghost 
Who gave fecundity to the Virgin, but it was from 
a body that a real body was derived ; and " when 
Wisdom was building herself a house," 2 " the Word 
was made flesh, and dwelt among us," that is, in that 
flesh which He assumed from a human being, and 
which He animated with the spirit of rational life. 

3. Accordingly, while the distinctness of both na- 
tures and substances was preserved, and both met in 
one Person, lowliness was assumed by majesty, weak- 
ness by power, mortality by eternity ; 3 and, in order 
to pay the debt of our condition, the inviolable na- 
ture was united to the passible, so that, as the 
appropriate remedy for our ills, one and the same 
* Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ 
Jesus," might from one element be capable of dying, 
and also from the other be incapable. Therefore in the 
entire and perfect nature of very man was born very 
God, 4 whole in what was His, whole in what was ours. 
By " ours" we mean what the Creator formed in us at ' 
the beginning, and what He assumed in order to re- 
store ; for of that which the deceiver brought in, and 
man, thus deceived, admitted, there was not a trace in 
the Saviour ; 5 and the fact that He took on Himself a 
share in our infirmities did not make Him a partaker 
in our transgressions. He assumed "the form of a 
servant" without the defilement of sin, jenriching 
what was human, not impairing what was divine ; 6 

1 " Creationis." 2 Prov. ix. i. 

3 See Note 148. 4 See Note 149. 

5 See Serm. i. c. I. 6 See Serm. ii. c. 2. 



114 The original plan of Divine Love [EPIST. 

because that "emptying of Himself," whereby the 
Invisible made Himself visible, and the Creator and 
Lord of all things willed to be one among mortals, 
was a stooping down in compassion, not a failure 

I of power. 1 Accordingly, the Same who, remaining 
in the form of God, made man, 2 was made Man in 
the form of a servant. For each of the natures 
retains its proper character without defect; and as 

I the form of God does not take away the form of a 
servant, so the form of a servant does not impair 

, the form of God. 3 For since the devil was glorying 
in the fact that man, deceived by his craft, was bereft 
of divine gifts, and, being stripped of his endowment 
of immortality, had come under the grievous sentence 
of death, and that he himself, amid his miseries, 
had found a sort of consolation in having a trans- 
gressor as his companion, 4 and that God, according 
to the requirements of the principle of justice, had 
changed His own resolution in regard to man, whom 
He had created in so high a position of honour ; there 
' was need of a dispensation of secret counsel, in order_ 
that the unchangeable God, Whose will could not 
be deprived of its own benignity, should fulfil by_a_ 
more secret mystery His original plan of loving- 
kindness towards us, and that man, who had been led 
into fault by the wicked subtlety of the devil, should 
not perish contrary to God's purpose. 

4. Accordingly, the Son of God, descending from 
His seat in heaven, and not departing from the glory 
of the Father, 5 enters this lower world, born after a_ 

1 See Note 150. 2 See Note 151. 

3 See Note 152. 4 See Note 153. 

5 See Serm. xviii. c. 5. 



XXVIII. ] carried into effect by the God- Man. 115 

new order, by a new mode of birth. After a new 
order ; because He Who in His own sphere is invi- 
sible became visible in ours ; He Who could not be 
enclosed in space 1 willed to be enclosed ; continuing 
to be before times, He began to exist in time ; the 
Lord of the universe allowed His infinite majesty to 
be overshadowed, and took upon Him the form of 
a servant : the impassible God did not disdain to 
be passible Man, and the immortal One to be sub- 
jected to the laws of death. And born by a new mode 
of birth ; because inviolate virginity, while ignorant of 
concupiscence, supplied the matter of His flesh. What 
was assumed from the Lord's Mother was nature, not 
fault ; nor does the wondrousness of the nativity of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, as born of a Virgin's womb, 
imply that His nature is unlike ours. For the 
selfsame Who is very God, is also very Man : and 
there is no illusion in this union, while the low- 
liness of man and the loftiness of Godhead meet 
together. 2 For as " God" is not changed by the 
compassion (exhibited), so " Man" is not consumed by 
the_ dignity (bestowed). For each "form" does the 
acts which belong to it, in communion with the other ; 
the Word, that is, performing what belongs to the 
Word, and the flesh carrying out what belongs to the 
flesh ; the one of these shines out in miracles, the 
other succumbs to injuries. 3 And as the Word does 
not withdraw from equality with the Father in glory, 
so the flesh does not abandon the nature of our kind. 
For, as we must often be saying, He is one and the 
same, truly Son of God, and truly Son of Man. God, 

1 See Note 154. 2 See Note 155. 

3 See Note 156. 



n6 Tokens of the Two Natures [EPIST. 

inasmuch as "in the beginning was the Word, and 
the Word was with God, and the Word was God :" 
Man, inasmuch as "the Word was made flesh, and 
dwelt among us." God, inasmuch as "all things 
were made by Him, and without Him nothing was 
made :" Man, inasmuch as He was " made of a 
woman, made under the law." 1 The nativity of the 
flesh is a manifestation of human nature : the Virgin's 
child-bearing is an indication of Divine power. The 
infancy of the Babe is exhibited by the humiliation of 
swaddling clothes : the greatness of the Highest is 
declared by the voices of angels. He Whom Herod 
impiously designs to slay is like humanity in its be- 
ginnings ; but He Whom the Magi rejoice to adore on 
their knees is Lord of all. Now when He came to 
the baptism of John His forerunner, lest the fact that 
the Godhead was covered with a veil of flesh should 
be concealed, the voice of the Father spake in thunder 
from heaven, " This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I 
am well pleased." 2 Accordingly, He Who, as man, is 
tempted by the devil's subtlety, is the same to Whom, 
as God, angels pay duteous service. To hunger, 
to thirst, to be weary, and to sleep, is evidently human. 
But to satisfy five thousand men with five loaves, and 
give to the Samaritan woman that living water, to 
draw which can secure him that drinks of it from 
ever thirsting again ; to walk on the surface of the sea 
with feet that sink not, and by rebuking the storm to 
bring down the "uplifted waves," 3 is unquestionably 
Divine. 4 As then to pass by many points it does 
not belong to the same nature to weep with feelings of 

1 Gal. iv. 4. 2 See Note 157. 

3 See Ps. xciii. 4. 4 See Note 158. 



XXVIII.] as belonging to One Person. 117 

pity over a dead friend, and, after the mass of stone 
had been removed from the grave where he had lain 
four days, by a voice of command to raise him up to 
life again j 1 or to hang on the wood, and to make all 
the elements tremble after daylight had been turned 
into night ; or to be transfixed with nails, and to open 
the gates of paradise to the faith of the robber ; so it 
does not belong to the same nature to say, " I and 
the Father are one," and to say, " the Father is 
greater than I." 2 For although in the Lord Jesus 
Christ there is one Person of God and man, yet 
that whereby contumely attaches to both is one 
thing, and that whereby glory attaches to both is 
another: 3 for from what belongs to us He has that 
manhood which is inferior to the Father; while 
from the Father He has equal Godhead with the 
Father. 

5. Accordingly, on account of this unity of Person 
which is to be understood as existing in both the 
natures, 4 we read, on the one hand, that " the Son of 

/ I f * m L ~ I II I I 

Man came down from heaven," inasmuch as the Son 
of God^ took flesh from that Virgin of whom He was 
born ; ajid^on the other hand, the Son of God is said 
to have been crucified and buried, inasmuch as He 
underwent this, not in His actual Godhead, wherein 
the Only-begotten is coeternal and consubstantial 
with the Father, but in the weakness of human nature. 
Wherefore we all, in the very Creed, confess that " the 
only-begotten Son of God was crucified and buried," 
according to that saying of the Apostle, " for if they 
had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord 

1 See Note 159. 2 Serm. ii. c. 2. 

3 See Note 160. 4 See Note 161. 



1 1 8 Christ both God and Man. [EPIST. 

of majesty." 1 But when our Lord and Saviour Him- 
self was by His questions instructing the faith of the 
disciples, He said, " Who do men say that I the Son 
of Man am ?" And when they had mentioned various 
opinions held by others, He said, " But who say ye 
that I am ?" that is, " I Who am Son of Man, and 
Whom you see in the form of a servant, and in reality 
of flesh, who say ye that I am ?" 2 Whereupon the 
blessed Peter, as inspired by God, and about to benefit 
all nations by his confession, said, " Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the living God." 3 Not undeserv- 
edly, therefore, was he pronounced blessed by the 
Lord, and derived from the original 4 Rock that solidity 
which belonged both to his virtue and to his name, 
who through revelation from the Father confessed the 
Selfsame to be both the Son of God and the Christ ; 
because one of these truths, accepted without the 
other, would not profit unto salvation, and it was 
equally dangerous to believe the Lord Jesus Christ 
to be merely God and not man, 5 or merely man and 
not God. But after the resurrection of the Lord, 
which was in truth the resurrection of a real body, for 
no other person was raised again than He Who had 
been crucified and had died, what else was accom- 
plished during that interval of forty days than to make 
our faith entire and clear of all darkness ? 6 For while 
He conversed with His disciples, and dwelt with 
them, and ate with them, and allowed Himself to be 
handled with careful and inquisitive touch by those 
who were under the influence of doubt, for this end 

1 I Cor. ii. 8. 2 See Note 162. 

3 S. Matt. xvi. 1316. 4 "Principal!." 

5 "Sine homine." c See Serm. xv. c. 2. 



XXVIII.] Wherein Eutyches erred. 119 

He came in to the disciples when the doors were 
shut, and by His breath gave them the Holy Ghost, 
and opened the secrets of Holy Scripture after 
bestowing on them the light of intelligence, and again 
in His selfsame Person showed to them the wound 
in the side, the prints of the nails, and all the fresh 
tokens of the Passion, saying, " Behold My hands and 
feet, that it is I Myself; handle Me and see, for a 
spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have j" 1 
-that the properties of the Divine and the] human 
nature might be acknowledged to remain in Him 
without causing a division, and that we might in 
such sort know that the Word is not what the flesh 
is, as to confess that the one Son of God is both 
Word and flesh. 2 On which mystery of the faith this J 
Eutyches must be regarded as unhappily having no 
hold whatever ; 3 for he has not acknowledged our 
nature to exist in the Only-begotten Son of God, 
either by way of the lowliness of mortality, or of the 
glory of resurrection. Nor has he been overawed by 
the declaration of the blessed Apostle and Evan- 
gelist John, saying, " Every spirit that confesseth that 
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God ; and 
every spirit which dissolveth Jesus 4 is not of God, 
and this is Antichrist." Now what is to dissolve Jesus, 
but to separate the human nature from Him, and to 
make void by shameless inventions that mystery 5 by 
which alone we have been saved ? Moreover, being 
in the dark as to the nature of Christ's body, he 
must needs be involved in the like senseless blindness 

1 S. Luke xxiv. 39. 2 See Note 163. 

3 See Note 164. 4 See Note 165. 

5 " Sacramentum." 






1 20 Tokens of Chris fs true Manhood. [EPIST. 

with regard to His Passion also. For if he does not 
think the Lord's crucifixion to be unreal, and does 
not doubt that He really accepted suffering, even unto 
death, 1 for the sake of the world's salvation ; as he 
i believes in His death, let him acknowledge His flesh 
'also, and not doubt that He Whom he recognises as 
having been capable of suffering is also Man with a 
body like ours ; since to deny His true flesh is also 
to deny His bodily sufferings. If then he accepts the 
Christian faith, and does not turn away his ear from 
the preaching of the Gospel, 2 let him see what nature 
it was that was transfixed with nails and hung on the 
wood of the cross ; and let him understand whence it 
was that, after the side of the Crucified had been 
pierced by the soldier's spear, blood and water flowed 
out, that the Church of God might be refreshed 3 both 
with a Laver and with a Cup. Let him listen 
also to the blessed Apostle Peter when he declares, 
that " sanctification by the Spirit" takes place through 
the " sprinkling of the blood of Christ :" and let him 
not give a mere cursory reading to the words of the 
same Apostle, " Knowing that ye were not redeemed 
with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your 
vain way of life received by tradition from your 
fathers, but with the precious blood of Jesus 4 Christ, 
as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot." 5 
Let him also not resist the testimony of blessed John 
the Apostle, "And the blood of Jesus the Son of 
God cleanseth us from all sin." 6 And again, " This is 
the victory which overcometh the world, even our 



1 " Supplicium." 2 See Note 166. 

3 "Rigaretur." See Note 167. 4 "Jesu Christi." So Vulg. 

5 i S. Pet. i. 2, 18. 6 i S. John i. 7. 






XXVIII.] Eutyches' profession of belief . 121 

faith :" and, " who is he that overcometh the world, 
but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God ? 
This is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus 
Christ ; not in water only, but in water and blood ; 
and it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the 
Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness, 
the Spirit, the water, and the blood ; and the three 
are one." 1 ) That is, the Spirit of sanctification, and the 
blood of redemption, and the water of baptism ; 
which three things are one, and remain undivided, 
and not one of them is disjoined from connection with 
the others : because the Catholic Church lives and 
advances by this faith, that in Christ Jesus we should 
believe neither Manhood to exist without true God- 
head, nor Godhead without true Manhood. 

6. But when Eutyches, on being questioned in your 
examination of him, answered, " I confess that our 
Lord was of two natures 2 before the union, but after 
the union I confess one nature ;" I am astonished 
that so absurd and perverse a profession as this of his 
was not rebuked by a censure on the part of any of 
his judges, and that an utterance extremely foolish 
and extremely blasphemous was passed over, just as if 
nothing had been heard which could give offence : 3 
seeing that it is as impious to say that the Only- 
begotten Son of God was of two natures before the 
Incarnation as it is shocking to affirm that, since the 
Word became flesh, there has been in Him one 
nature only. 4 But lest Eutyches should think that 
what he said was correct, or was tolerable, because it 
was not confuted by any assertion of yours, we ex- 

1 i S. John v. 48. See Note 168. 2 "Ex duabus naturis." 
3 See Note 169. 4 "Singularis." 



122 If Eutyches can be reclaimed, [EPIST. 

hort your earnest solicitude, dearly beloved brother, 
to see that, if by God's merciful inspiration the case 
is brought to a satisfactory issue, the inconsiderate 
and inexperienced man be cleansed also from this 
pestilent notion of his ; seeing that, as the record of 
the proceedings has clearly shown, he had fairly 
begun to abandon his own opinion, 1 when, on being 
driven into a corner by authoritative words of yours, 
he professed himself ready to say what he had not 
said before, and to give his adhesion to that faith 
from which he had previously stood aloof. But when 
he would not consent to anathematise the impious 
dogma, you understood, brother, that he continued in 
his own misbelief, 2 and deserved to receive sentence 
of condemnation. For which if he grieves sincerely 
and to good purpose, and understands, even though 
too late, how properly the Episcopal authority has 
been put in motion, or if, in order to make full satis- 
faction, he shall condemn viva voce, and under his 
own hand, all that he has held amiss, no compassion, 
to whatever extent, which can be shown him when 
he has been set right, will be worthy of blame : 3 for 
our Lord, the true and good Shepherd, Who laid 
down His life for His sheep, 4 and Who came to save 
men's souls and not to destroy them, 5 wills us to 
imitate His own lovingkindness ; so that justice should 
indeed constrain those who sin, but mercy should not 
reject those who are converted. For then indeed is 
the true faith defended with the best results, when a 
false opinion is condemned even by those who have 

1 See Note 170. 2 "Perfidia." 

3 See Note 171. 4 S. John x. 11. 

5 S. Luke ix. 56. 



XXVIII.] how he should be treated. 123 

followed it. But in order that the whole matter may 
be piously and faithfully carried out, we have ap- 
pointed our brethren, Julius, Bishop, and Renatus, 
Presbyter [of the title of Saint Clement, 1 ] and also 
my son Hilarus, Deacon, to represent us ; 2 and with 
them we have associated Dulcitius, our Notary, of 
whose fidelity we have had good proof : trusting that 
the Divine assistance will be with you, so that he 
who has gone astray may be saved by condemning 
his own unsound opinion. 

May God keep you in good health, dearly beloved 
brother. Given on the Ides of June, in the*Consulate 
of the illustrious men, Asturius and Protogenes. 3 

The words bracketed are probably a gloss. 2 See Note 172. 

3 I.e. June 13, 449. See Note 173. 



NOTES. 



1. Here and elsewhere, Leo teaches that our Lord's Nativity 
was unique, not only in that He had no human father, but in 
that He was born without any taint of what the Augustinian 
theology describes as " originale peccatum," a phrase which, if 
baldly rendered into English, requires some explanatory accom- 
paniments, but which, when thus interpreted, will itself express 
the gravest convictions of modern thought as to a corrupt ten- 
dency de facto infecting the moral life of the whole race, and 
imposing on it a bias towards evil. (Mozley's Lectures, p. 148.) 

Of this " taint," or " disorder," or " corruption," which non- 
Christian thinkers have to account for somehow, and which 
Christianity traces to a primeval " Fall," Leo speaks frequently, 
as in Serm. 4 of this volume, c. 3 ; Serm. n, c. i ; Serm. 14, 
c. 2 ; and also in Nativ. 4, c. 2, " lethali vulnere tabefacta 
natura ;" Nativ. 10, c. 6, " original! . . . praejudicio ;" de Je- 
junio vii. mensis, 5, c. i, " Habet . . . hoc in se vitium humana 
natura, non a Creatore insitum, sed a prsevaricatore con- 
tractum, et in posteros generandi lege transfusum :" and ib. 8, 
c. i, "non dubitant in propagine vitiatum esse, quod est in 
radice corruptum ;" Epist. 59, c. 4, " originali peccato trans- 
eunte per posteros," &c. From it, he affirms, no one ever born 
was exempt, except Christ only ; see Sermon 4 in this volume, 
c. 3 ; Sermon 10, c. 2 ; Sermon 18, c. 2 ; and in Nativ. 5, c. 5 ; 
" Solus itaque inter filios hominum Dominus Jesus innocens 
natus est." He does not expressly say, like S. Augustine, that 
the Blessed Virgin was " ex Adam mortua propter peccatum." 



1 26 Privilege and Grace in Mary. 

(in Ps. xxxiv. Serm. 2, c. 3.) But his language expresses a be- 
lief which is simply incompatible with the present Roman doc- 
trine of the Immaculate Conception. The question, of course, 
was never presented to him ; but can any one who answers it 
affirmatively adopt this great Pope's words in a natural sense ? 

2. The Blessed Virgin is said to have conceived our Lord in 
soul or mind, in that she readily believed the Divine promise, 
and gave herself up to be the instrument of the Divine will. 
The language is virtually Augustinian. "Ilia fide plena, et 
Christum prius mente quam ventre concipiens, ' Ecce,' inquit, 
'ancilla Domini:'" S. Aug. Serm. 215, c. 4. "Beatior ergo 
Maria percipiendo fidem Christi, quam concipiendo carnem 
Christi. Nam et dicenti cuidam, * Beatus venter qui te portavit,' 
ipse respondit, 'Imo beati qui audiunt verbum Dei et custo- 
diunt.' .... Materna propinquitas nihil Marias profuisset, nisi 
felicius Christum corde quam carne gestasset :" de S. Virgini- 
tate, c. 3. The same thought is repeated in Tract. 10 in Joan. Ev. 
c. 3 : " Hoc in ea magnificavit Dominus, quia fecit voluntatem 
Patris, non quia caro genuit carnem. . . . ' Et mater mea quam 
appellatis felicem, inde felix quia verbum Dei custodit, non 
quia in ilia Verbum caro factum est . . . sed quia custodit ipsum 
Verbum Dei per quod facta est,' " &c. In the text referred to, 
S. Luke xi. 28, Jesus does not (of course) deny that Mary heard 
God's Word, and kept it, (which she did in an eminent degree, 
S. Luke i. 38, 45, ii. 51 ;) but simply points to holiness as a more 
blessed thing than any privilege, to grace as far more precious 
than dignity. Compare S. Luke x. 20 ; i Cor. xii. 31, xiii. i. 

3. " Dei Genitrix mox futura." So in the important Epist. 
165, to the Emperor Leo, which has been called his "Second 
Tome," he anathematizes Nestorius for believing the Blessed 
Virgin to have been "non Dei, sed tantummodo hominis 
genitricem." Dei Genitrix is equivalent to Deipara, the Latin 
rendering of the title Theotokos. This latter title, as is well 
known, was solemnly ascribed to the Blessed Virgin by the 
Third (Ecumenical Council at Ephesus in 431, and again by 
the Fourth at Chalcedon in 451. It had been applied to 
her, not only by ordinary Christians in Julian's time, (cf. Cyril, 



" Tkeotokos" 127 

c. Jul. 1. 8, p. 262,) but by many Church writers, from Origen 
downwards, (Routh, Rell. Sac. ii. 332,) including S. Atha- 
nasius, Orat. c. Arian. iii. 14, 29, 33, iv. 32 ; Eusebius, Vit. 
Const, iii. 43 ; and Cyril of Jerusalem, Cat. 10. 9. S. Ignatius, in 
effect, had said the same ; " God in man . . . both from Mary 
and from God," Eph. 7 ; " our God Jesus Christ was borne 
in the womb by Mary," ib. 18. The theological importance of 
the title consists in this, that it is a condensed expression of the 
personal Divinity of the Redeemer. The modern license of 
using theological terms with their legitimate meaning scooped 
out has extended itself to the phrase " Divinity of Christ," which 
is sometimes adopted as an imposing or reassuring synonym 
for " moral supremacy," or " pre-eminent conformity to the Di- 
vine mind." Undoubtedly " Theotokos" will not fit in with any 
such recognition of " divinity." It presupposes that the " ego" 
or " self" of Jesus Christ is identical with the " ego" or " self ' ; 
of Him Who " in the beginning was with God, and was God," 
" the Only-begotten Son, Who was in the bosom of the Father," 
and " by Whom all things were made :" that this Divine Person 
did actually assume our humanity by means of an actual birth, 
without any compromise of His essential, pre-existing, and in- 
alienable Deity. This belief being accepted, it follows that she 
of whom He was then humanly born may truly be described as 
"one whose Son is Himself God," that is, of whom was born 
that body which, from the moment of its origination, He appro- 
priated, so that with it, and in it, He entered our earthly sphere 
of being, and became Man. This, and neither more nor less, is 
the purport of " Theotokos." The stronger terms ^rrip &eov, 
used by Eusebius (ad Sanct. Ccet. p. 480,) and " Mater Dei," 
used implicitly by Tertullian, (de Patientia, 3,) and expressly 
by S. Ambrose (Hexaem. v. s. 65,) as afterwards pointedly by 
Facundus (pro Def. Trium Capit. i. I, &c.) do not add to the 
range of the idea. They do but put into two simple words, in- 
stead of a single composite one, the most fundamental of those 
"antitheses of the Incarnation" in which Christian hymnology 
and Christian oratory have in all ages taken pleasure, and to 
which Christian theology has been felt to give serious warrant. 
(See Oosterzee, Image of Christ, E. T. p. 219.) It is true that a 
Greek or Latin reader would be more apt than an English one 



128 "He became Man, remaining God" 

to understand " of God" in this connexion, as meaning, " of the 
Divine Son considered as under the conditions of Incarnation." 
The English phrase, " Mother of God," has, indeed, for an 
English ear, apart from theological training, a certain perplexing 
abruptness ; but when duly explained, or embodied in such a 
paraphrase as that in our first Reformed Liturgy, " Mother of 
Jesus Christ our Lord and God," it will be accepted by all who 
sincerely believe that Jesus Christ is in truth Divine. (Compare 
Church Quarterly Review, vol. xv. p. 290.) Pearson's note (2) 
on Art. 3 is worth remembering : " Absit ut quisquam S. 
Mariam Divinae gratiae privilegiis et speciali gloria fraudare 
conetur." See too Dean Church, Human Life, &c., p. 173. 

4. A phrase, perhaps, taken immediately from S. Augustine : 
" Intelligerent eum assumpsisse quod non erat, et permansisse 
quod erat," Aug. Serm. 184. i : compare also Serm. 186. 2, and 
213. 2. So S. Cyril of Alexandria says that in taking our flesh 
" He remained what He was," Ep. ad Nest. 3, and " Quod 
unus sitChristus" (in P. E. Pusey's edition of Cyril, vol. vii. p. 340.) 
Newman, in Athan. Treat, ii. 289 (Lib. Fath.) quotes other pas- 
sages, as S. Greg. Nazianzen's Orat. 29. 19, "What He was, He 
remained ; what He was not, He assumed :" and S. Athanasius 
c. Apollin. ii. 7, " the Word, remaining God, became man." 

5. This sentence, with very slight verbal differences, will be 
found in the " Tome," c. 3. Leo is here, as in so many other places, 
affirming the truth of the Hypostatic or Personal Union, i.e., 
that " God and Man is one Christ," without any confusion of 
the two natures, Godhead and Manhood. He is carefully ex- 
cluding errors on either side ; the error of Nestorius, who de- 
nied the unity of Person, and the error of Eutyches, who denied 
the duality of Natures. There is one Christ, and not two ; the 
Son of God is the Virgin-born. " The selfsame," as S. Proclus 
expressed it in the early days of the Nestorian controversy, 
" was in the Father's bosom, and in the Virgin's womb ;" for 
otherwise the gulf between God and mankind would not have 
been bridged over ; there would not have been one " daysman 
to lay His hand upon both," Job ix. 33 ; and if Christ differed 
from other servants of God simply in the degree of His nearness 



The Hypostatic Union. 129 

to God, He would be but the most eminent of the Saints ; and 
no Saint, however eminent, could be our Saviour. On the other 
hand, this one Christ must be truly God and truly Man : neither 
nature by itself would be sufficient ; the higher must not absorb 
the lower, for this were to destroy the reality of His example, 
His Sacrifice, His Mediation. "The whole doctrine of our sal- 
vation depends on Christ being of one substance with us. He 
did not merely touch our nature as from the outside . . . He took 
it all," Gore's Leo the Great, p. 57, where it is added that on this 
veritable assumption of our humanity depend our re-creation by 
Christ as the Second Adam, the value of His atoning Sacrifice, 
the meaning of His Ascension. He must be, as the Council of 
Chalcedon defined Him to be, "One Christ in Two Natures ;" 
a single Person, Who, ever since He stooped to " take the form 
of a servant," has existed in two spheres of being, (see Lid- 
don's Bamp. Lect, p. 261,) which, for the sake of a compendious 
term, we call ' ' two natures." Leo uses " natura," " substantia," 
" forma," as equivalents on this subject. A fine passage on this 
twofold truth is in Nativ. 10, c. 5, " Idem est in forma Dei qui 
formam suscepit servi . . . Idem Filius Dei atque filius hominis 
est," &c., which may well be compared with the language of 
S. Athanasius in Tom. ad Antioch. 7, see Later Treatises of 
S. Ath. (Lib. Fath.)p. n. And here we must observe the varied 
language wherein Holy Scripture enshrines this truth, that the 
same Person Who from all eternity was very God, has also by 
the Incarnation become very Man. Because He is " God and 
Man" in one Person, therefore all His acts and properties are 
the acts and properties of that one Person, and may be pre- 
dicated of " God" or of " Man." This proposition was upheld 
by Cyril of Alexandria in his fourth " anathematism," directed 
against any who should assign some of the Scriptural expres- 
sions concerning Christ to the Word, and others to " a man 
considered as apart from the Word." (Compare Leo's own de- 
scription of Nestorianism, as affirming that the Son of Man ex- 
isted " separatim atque sejunctim" from the Son of God, Ep. 
165. 2, with Cyril's I5t/co>$ and ai/& /xepos.) The proposition was 
admitted by his critic, Andrew of Samosata, (Cyril. Apol. adv. 
Orient. 4,) and afterwards by Theodoret in his " Dialogues." It 
supplies the key to the following texts : 

K 



1 30 " Communicatio Idiomatum? 

Scripture predicates 

What is human of God; What is Divine of Man; 

" The Word was made flesh," " The Son of Man, Who is in 

&c., S. John i. 14. heaven," S. John iii. 13. 

" The Church of God, which " The Second Man is the Lord 
He purchased with His own from heaven," I Cor. xv. 47 ; 
blood," Acts xx. 28. (text. rec. Or, " is from 

heaven.") 

" The princes of this world . . . 
crucified the Lord of glory," 
i Cor. ii. 8. 

" That which was from the be- 
ginning, which we have seen 
. . . and our hands have 
handled, of the Word of 
Life." i S. John i. i. 
I.e., not of the Godhead, but I.e., not of the Manhood, but 

of Christ's One Person 
in His Manhood. in His Godhead. 

And this Scriptural language, it will be seen, is our warrant 
for ascribing to " God," to the Eternal Son, birth from a M< 
ther, and death upon the Cross, in regard to His Manhood. 
This is that "interchange" of which so much has been said by 
writers on the Incarnation, modern as well as ancient, and 
which is technically called Antidosis, or Communicatio Idio- 
matum. Its propositions, as Dr. Mill says (on Myth. Interpr. p. 
1 7,) are " alone verified by the unity of Person in both natures." 
So in Serm. 2 in this volume, c. 2 ; Serm. 8, c. i. Very point- 
edly also in Epist. 165, c. 6, "Licet ergo in uno Domino Jesu 
Christo . . . Verbi et carnis una persona sit, quae inseparabiliter 
atque indivise communes habeat actiones, intelligendas tamen 
sunt ipsorum operum qualitates," &c. And again, c. 8, " Propter 
quod sicut Dominus majestatis dicitur crucifixus, ita qui ex 
sempiternitate aequalis est Deo, dicitur exaltatus," &c. The 
reader will of course consult the great passages in Hooker, v. 
52 and 53 ; and Pearson, i. 289, Art. 3, " Nor is this union only a 
scholastic speculation," &c. ; i. 324, Art. 4, " For it was no other 
person," &c. But it is interesting to see how much they were 



" Communicatio Idiomatum" 131 

indebted to S. Thomas Aquinas, who says, Sum. Th. iii. 2. 6, 
that the union is personal ; that while some make it unreal by 
severing the persons, and others reduce it to an absolute single- 
ness of nature, " the Holy Church of God" (here he quotes 
from the Fifth General Council, A.D. 553, Mansi, ix. 377) "re- 
jects the impiety of either form of unbelief, and confesses the 
union of God the Word to the flesh to be by way of combi- 
nation ; that is, hypostatic." This means that the Deity and 
the humanity are combined in one hypostasis or personal self. 
The term o-u^etrts, used by this Council, is equivalent to Cyril's 
ffw^po^ and crvvoSos, and to Leo's " connexio," (Ep. 28. 5,) or to 
his similar use of "coire," "convenire." In Sum. iii. 16. 4, 
Aquinas asks whether the things which belong to the Son of 
Man can be predicated of the Son of God, and conversely? 
and gives for answer, that since the two natures belong to one 
hypostasis, we may use the name of either nature when we 
mean to speak of that hypostasis, i.e., we may ascribe any 
of Christ's acts or properties to either "God" or "Man," 
simply because we mean Him Who is both God and Man. 
Aquinas in his turn, was indebted to John Damascene, de 
Fide Orthodoxa, iii., c. 4 and 5. " We do not predicate of God- 
head the properties of Manhood . . . nor of Manhood those of 
Godhead . . . But in speaking of the Person in both or either 
of its elements, we do ascribe to it the properties of both natures. 
Since from one element He is called God, He takes to Him the 
properties of the co-existing nature, the flesh, being called the 
crucified Lord of glory, not in that He is God, but in that He, 
the self-same, is Man. And whereas He is called Man, He 
receives the properties ... of the Godhead, not as Man, but in 
that, being God . . . He became a Child. And this is the mode 
of the Antidosis"- here begins the sentence quoted by Hooker, 
v. 53. 4, which Damascene guards by explaining that there is no 
interchange between the natures themselves, each of which 
^ preserves, unchanged, its own natural property." Such teach- 
ing is essentially that of S. Athanasius in a golden passage of 
his Orat. c. Arian. iii. 31, " Hence the properties of the flesh, as 
hunger, thirst, suffering, . . . are called His, because He was in 
it ; and the peculiar works of the Word, as to raise the dead, 
... He used to do through His own Body ; ... it was the 



132 " Communicatio Idiomatum" 

\ 

Body of God." And ib. 32, " While the flesh suffered, the Word 
was not external to it, and therefore the Passion is called the 
Word's ;" and see Cardinal Newman's notes on this passage, 
Ath. Treat, ii. 443, ff. Of Latin Fathers, Tertullian, in the second 
century, is here almost verbally like Leo ; " Videmus duplicem 
statum, non confusum, sed conjunctum in una persona Deum 
et hominem Jesum ... et ... salva est utriusque proprietas 
substantial," adv. Prax. 27. In S. Augustine's Christmas Ser- 
mons we find the " birth of God in the flesh" insisted on, while a 
" confusio naturae" is excluded, Serm. 191 and 186. And a great 
passage in Leo's Ep. 28, explaining some of the texts referred to 
above, as Hooker, Pearson, &c., explain them, is based on a 
passage in S. Aug. c. Serm. Arian. c. 8 : " Ac per hoc, propter 
zstam unitatem persona, in utraque natura intelligendam, et 
Filius hominis dicitur descendisse de coelis . . . et Filius Dei 
dicitur crucifixus," &c., as this, again, appears to be suggested 
by a passage of S. Ambrose (de Fide, ii. s. 58) which is among 
those sent by Leo to the Emperor Leo, in proof that the Council 
of Chalcedon had not broken with the authoritative Doctors of 
the Church ; " Unde illud quod lectum est, * Dominum majestatis 
crucifixum esse,' non quasi in majestate sua crucifixum putemus, 
sed quia idem Deus, idem homo, per divinitatem Deus, per 
conceptionem carnis homo, Christus Jesus Dominus majestatis 
dicitur crucifixus, quia consors utriusque naturas, id est humanae 
atque divinae, in natura hominis subiit passionem, ut indiscrete 
et Dominus majestatis dicatur esse qui passus est, et Filius 
hominis, sicut scriptum est, qui descendit de ccelo." 

6. Here compare Leo's language with that of Athanasius, who 
in his invaluable treatise, " De Incarnatione Verbi," refers to the 
doom pronounced on man's disobedience, and proceeds in sub- 
stance thus : God could not recall His sentence ; yet neither 
would it be consonant to His goodness to cast off His reason- 
able creatures. Repentance could not undo so vast an evil. 
But if the Word Himself were to interpose, He could be a De- 
liverer and a Mediator. He could pay the debt due to God ; 
He, and He only, could make an offering, di/rl iravrwv (c. 9); His 
Body, given up to death, could be a world-redeeming and a life- 
restoring Sacrifice. (Cp. c. 10, 20; Orat. i. 60, ii. 66.) 



The A tenement. 133 

There has been needless debate over the questions, whether a 
redemption, atonement, and propitiation were strictly necessary, 
and whether they require the agency of a Divine Person. It is 
vain, and worse than vain, to pronounce on such points irrespec- 
tively of Scripture, from d priori views of the character of God. 
Bishop Butler has a well known passage on this point in the 
fifth chapter of the second part of the " Analogy." See also 
Wilberforce on Incarnation, p. 160, "If it be asked whether" 
the Atonement " was a necessary part of the counsels of God, 
the question is one which we are plainly incompetent to answer." 
"Revelation," says Dr. Liddon, " does not encourage conjecture" 
on this subject : but " we may presume, without hardihood, that 
if God might have saved us in other ways, He has chosen the 
way which was in itself the best," (Univ. Serm. i. 243,) best for the 
harmonizing of mercy and truth, of love and righteousness ; as 
Leighton says, (on i S. Peter ii. 24,) " that this way wherein our 
salvation is contrived is most excellent, and suitable to the 
greatness and goodness of God ;" and again (on Psalm cxxxi.), 
" that nothing can be thought of more worthy of the Divine 
Majesty, nothing sweeter, nothing more munificent in this re- 
spect to unworthy man." Aquinas, who holds that " God's infinite 
power could have restored mankind by a different act," but that 
this was the best and fittest mode, in regard to the promotion of 
faith, hope, love, right action, and to our full communion with 
God, and the removal of our manifold evils, combines with this 
passage of S. Leo some words of S. Aug. de Trin. xiii. s. 13, 
17, 1 8, to the effect that, without limiting what was possible with 
God, " sanandae nostrae miseriae convenientiorem modum alium 
non fuisse, nee esse oportuisse ;" and that " it was fitting that the 
devil should be overcome by the righteousness of the Man Jesus 
Christ." " Quod factum est," S. Thomas comments, " Christo 
satisfaciente pro nobis. Homo autem purus" i.e. (a mere man) 
" satisfacere non poterat pro toto humano genere : Deus autem 
satisfacere non debebat : unde oportuit Deum et Hominem esse 
Jesum Christum." Sum. iii. i. 2. Here we must remember 
that " satisfaction," like " substitution," is a term which only 
pretends to illustrate a certain aspect of the mystery, (see Dale 
on the Atonement, pp. 358, 432 ; Bp. Barry on Atonement, 
p. 46.) 



1 34 Connection of the A tonement 

The special bearing of Christ's Divinity on the Atonement is 
sometimes ignored by persons who fully believe in Him as 
Divine. But surely the fact of His Divinity tends to clear away 
some difficulties as to the equitableness and the possibility of 
His Sacrifice. Compare Archbishop Thomson in Aids to Faith, 
p. 341 : "When we are invited to discuss whether vica- 
rious punishment could ever be agreeable to God's justice, we 
cannot but notice that the Divine nature of Christ is never 
strongly asserted on that side, nor assumed as an element in the 
argument. The death of Jesus is discussed as the death of a 
mere man." See too the excellent preface to Benson's Sermons 
on Redemption : " All that is said about the injustice of God 
punishing the innocent to spare the guilty, is really based upon 

a Socinian view of our Lord's personality It is no mere 

act of morality or compensation that we have to consider. It is 
a Divine act that we have to adore." It is " the Moral Ruler of 
our race" Who " asserts the principle" of penal justice " not by 
inflicting, but by enduring," &c., Dale, p. 392. And, while 
it might well be asked how any finite being, however pure, 
could " make agreement unto God" for his fallen brethren, 
that question is idle in presence of One Who could "steep 
in the glory of His Divine personality all of human that 
He wrought," (Trench's Westm. Serm. p. 177,) and impart to 
His sufferings an infinite value. It is also Christ's Deity which 
makes it possible for Him to unite all humanity to Himself, and 
act and suffer for all men. No mere man could thus represent 
all ; it is because Christ is God that His Manhood has received 
this vast extension of power. In this way the Incarnation acts 
on His Manhood in its relation (i) to God, (2) to mankind in 
general. Generally, as Waterland says, (Works, iv. 508,) " it is 
the Divinity that stamps the value on the suffering humanity." 
See S. Thorn. Aq. Sum. iii. 48. 2, " Dignitas carnis Christi non 
est aestimanda solum secundum carnis naturam, sed secundum 
personam assumentem, in quantum scilicet erat caro Dei, ex 
quo habebat dignitatem infinitam." Bp. Andrewes, Serm. ii. 
152, "That which setteth the high price on this sacrifice, is 
this ; that He which offereth it unto God, is God." Newman, 
Serm. vi. 71, "There was a virtue in His death which there 
could be in no other, for He was God." See also Liddon, 



with our Lord^s Deity. 135 

Bamp. Lect. p. 480, ff. ed. 1 1 ; and Univ. Serm. i. 240, " His 
Eternal Person gave infinite merit to the" acts and sufferings 
" of His humanity." The same idea prevailed in the ancient 
Church : it was a special " motive power" in Cyril's contest with 
Nestorianism, as when he said that Christ " would not have been 
equivalent to the whole creation, nor sufficient for purchasing 
gloriously the life of the whole world, had He been a creature 
and not truly Son, and God, as from God," (de Trin. Dial. 4, 
in torn. v. 508.) It was indicated in the famous sermon of S. 
Proclus, wherein, excluding the possibility of salvation by man 
or Angel, he spoke of the " one course remaining, that the sin- 
less God should die for sinners ;" in the thirteenth Catechetical 
Lecture of S. Cyril of Jerusalem, " Wonder not if the whole 
world was redeemed, for He who died on its behalf was not a 

mere man, but God's Only-begotten Son One of two 

things was inevitable, that God should keep His word and de- 
stroy all, or show benignity and cancel His sentence ; but . . . 
He preserved both reality for His sentence, and activity for His 

benignity : Christ took on Him our sins He was God 

Incarnate : the iniquity of the sinners was not so great as the 
righteousness of Him Who died for them," c. 2, 33 ; and in the 
anonymous Epistle to Diognetus, which belongs to the second 
century, c. 9, " He gave His own Son a ransom for us, the Holy 

for the lawless the Immortal for the mortals ; for what 

else could cover our sins ^ eWvou St/cotoo-u^ ; in whom could we, 
the wicked and impious, be justified, save in the Son of God 
alone ? O the sweet exchange ! O the unsearchable design ! O 
the unexpected benefits ! that the wickedness of many should 
be hidden by a single Righteous One, and the righteousness of 
One should justify many wicked." 

7. Bingham observes (b. xiv. c. 2, s. i) that Leo here uses, 
though in a Catholic sense, that form of doxology which had 
become associated with Arianism. He could well afford to do 
as S. Athanasius had done, who ascribes glory to the Father, 
"through the Son," at the conclusion of four treatises, ad 
Episc. ^Eg., de Fuga, de Synodis, and ad Afros. See Theo- 
doret, ii. 24, on Leontius' inaudible utterance of the critical 
words in the doxology. 






136 " Sacramentum" 

8. " Sacramentum." This word has had a remarkable history. 
Originally signifying the pledge or deposit in money, " which in 
certain suits," according to Roman law, " plaintiff and defendant 
were alike bound to make" (Trench on Study of Words, p. 70), 
and which " was in the form of a wager as to the right" (Diet 
Antiq. p. 1042) ; (2) it came to signify the pledge of military 
fidelity, a voluntary, not an exacted promise ; then (3) the ex- 
acted oath, which finally took the character of an oath of alle- 
giance ; (4) "any solemn oath whatever;" (5) in early Christian 
use, any sacred and solemn act or event, " and especially any 
mystery where more was meant than met the eye or ear." 
(Trench.) Pliny's use of it, in his report as to the Christian 
religious rites, is well known ; he clearly means by it a solemn 
religious pledge. S. Cyprian uses " Sacramentum" for a sacred 
bond (de Laps. 7 ; de Unit. 7), or symbol (de Unit. 7), or mean- 
ing (de Orat. 9, 28). S. Augustine regards it as a sign per- 
taining to Divine things, which may or may not have a gift 
of grace attached to it ; compare Ep. 137. 15. Thus he ap- 
plies the term to Jewish ordinances, and in reference to the 
Christian system his employment of it ranges from the salt 
given to catechumens (de Cat. Rud. s. 50, de Pecc. Mer. ii. s. 42), 
the Lord's Prayer and the Creed (Serm. 228), the chrism and 
the imposition of hands (de Bapt. c. Don. v. s. 28), to those 
"pauca, facillima, augustissima," received from "the Lord Him- 
self and Apostolic discipline, sicuti est baptismi Sacramentum, 
et celebratio Corporis et Sanguinis Domini" (de Doctr. Chr. iii. s. 
13), the "sacramenta fontis" and "altaris" (Serm. 228). The 
Vulgate in two memorable places, Eph. v. 32, I Tim. iii. 16, uses it 
as equivalent to fj-vcrr^piov, and Leo appears to have understood 
" pietatis Sacramentum" in the latter passage as the mystery or 
the sacred work of Divine loving-kindness, pietas being an am- 
biguous word. He himself uses " sacramentum" very frequently 
(e.g. in Serm. 5 of this volume, Serm. 7, and elsewhere, as in 
Nativ. 2, i) in the sense of mystery, sacred act, fact, rite, or 
meaning; and in the passage in the text, the idea of solemn 
observance is implied. 

9. He expresses his belief in the Perpetual Virginity of Mary 
by the words in the Tome (Ep. 28, c. 2), " beatam Mariam sem- 



The " Ever- Virgin? 1 3 7 

per Virginem." See too his Serm. in Nativ. 2, c. 2, " et Virgo 
permanserit." In the present passage, he seems to imitate S. 
Augustine, Serm. 184, " quam virgo ante conceptum, tam virgo 
post partum ;" Serm. 51, s. 18, "Virgo concepit, virgo peperit, 
virgo permansit" (cp. Serm. 190. 2.) ; and still more strongly, de 
Cat. Rud. s. 40, " Virgo concipiens. virgo pariens, virgo moriens." 
The title " Ever- Virgin" is applied to Mary by S. Athanasius, 
Or. c. Ar. 2, c. 70 (see Newman, Ath. Treat, ii. 381) ; and the 
" Antidicomarians," who denied it to her, were denounced by 
Epiphanius as depriving her of " honour" due, just as Hooker, 
E. P. v. 45. 2, speaks of Helvidius as infringing on "the honour 
of the Blessed Virgin" by " abusing greatly" S. Matt. i. 25. The 
student will of course consult Pearson, i. 304 (Art. 3), but he 
will there observe that in the texts quoted, the ordinary infer- 
ence from "until" is barred by impossibilities, physical or 
moral, whereas in this case we can only oppose to it a high im- 
probability, as pious reverence has felt ; on which see Dr. Mill 
on the Mythical Interpretation of the Gospels, pp. 269 274. 
Of course, the title " Ever- Virgin" does not stand on the same 
footing with the title " Mother of God," nor does Bishop An- 
drewes, by coupling them together in his Devotions (Engl. Tr. 
p. 93), mean to represent them as equally momentous ; but 
those who wonder at the repugnance with which the Helvidian 
theory has been continuously rejected by Church writers, and 
by devout minds in the Church, can hardly be thought to have 
taken home in its fulness the fact of the Divine Incarnation. 
Bishop Lightfoot says that the Fathers "rightly maintained 
that irp(ar6roKov in S. Luke ii. 7 did not necessarily imply that" 
tfary had other children. (On Colossians, p. 215.) 

10. So in Serm. 10, c. 4; 14, c. 2, and Ep. 165, c. 6, " Li- 
cet ... Verbi et carnis una persona sit." Strictly speaking, 
indeed, Christ's Person is Divine ; His personality is said to 
reside originally in the Godhead, for the simple reason that He 
was God before He became Man. Cp. Sermon 4, c. 3. See New- 
man, Sermons, vi.~62 : " His Person is not human like ours, but 
Divine. He who was from eternity, continued one and the same, 
but with an addition." So Wilberforce on Incarnation, p. 132 : 
'* In which of His two natures did the personality of Christ our 



138 Christ s Person Divine. 

Lord originally reside ? Plainly in His Godhead. For He Him- 
self refers to its actings before His human nature was assumed ; 
' Before Abraham was, / am.' " And Liddon, Bamp. Lect. p. 

262 : " Our Lord's Godhead is the seat of His personality 

The Person of the Son of Mary is Divine and eternal ; it is 
none other than the Person of the Word Christ's Man- 
hood is .... not a seat and centre of personality : it has no 
conceivable existence apart from the act whereby the Eternal 
Word, in becoming incarnate, called it into being and made it His 
own. ... In saying that Christ ' took our nature upon Him,' we 
imply that His Person existed before," &c. See also Later Trea- 
tises of S. Athanasius, p. 69. But Leo clearly means that He, 
the Self-same, was truly God, and became truly Man ; not that 
He gained by the Incarnation a new personal being, but only a 
new relation of His pre-existing personal being towards human 
nature, S. Tho. Aq. Sum. Hi. 17. 2. So in Sum. iii. 2. 4, it is 
laid down that although the Person of the Word be simple in 
itself, yet it is compound as subsisting in two natures. So Da- 
mascene, 4, c. 5, that the Person of the Word became composite 
when it became incarnate. See Hooker, E. P. v. 52. 3, " Christ 
is .... a Person Divine, because He is personally the Son of 
God ; human, because He hath really the nature of the children 
of men," &c. See note 34. 

11. " Sed ita ut naturae alteri altera misceretur? This phrase 
is not to be understood as signifying a confusion of the natures, 
which was a notion specially abhorrent to Leo. Cp. Serm. de 
Pass. 14, c. i, and Ep. 165, c. 6, " nulla permixtione confundi- 
mus." The fact is, he is here using language to express the 
Personal Union which had been employed without scruple, e.g. 
by Tertullian, "Homo Deo mistus," Apol. 21; S. Cyprian, 
" Deus cum homine miscetur," de Idol. Van. 6 ; S. Athanasius, 

T^V airapx^f T\p-&v Treptflejuevos, Kal ravrr) ava.Kpa.6tis, Orat. iv. 33 ; S. 
Greg. Naz., 77 KCUV)J /ui|ts, ebj Kal &vdpcoiros .... ebs aapni .... 
aveupde-n, Orat. 2. 23 ; and similarly ib. 38. 13 ; and S. Hilary, 
" hujus admixtionis," de Trin. ii. 24, (quoted at end of Leo's 
Ep. 165.) S. Augustine, in words which show that the idea 
of fusion was far from his mind, " Sicut in unitate personae 
anima unitur corpori, ut homo sit, ita in unitate Personae Deus 



The phrase " Mingled? 1 39 

unitur homini, ut Christus sit :" (compare the " Quicunque,") 
" in ilia ergo persona mixtura est animse et corporis ; in hac 
Persona mixtura est Dei et hominis ; si tamen recedat auditor 
a consuetudine corporum, qua solent duo liquores ita commisceri, 
ut neuter servet integritatem suam," Ep. 137, to Volusianus, 
s. 11. So Cyril Alex, says that some of the Fathers had used 
the word Kpao-is, not with any idea of avdxvffis, as when liquids 
are blended, but to set forth the perfect eVoxm, adv. Nest. i,c. 3. 
Gradually this language came to be so much abused by Apol- 
linarians and Eutychians, that it was abandoned by the or- 
thodox, just as other phrases, not strictly accurate, which had 
been employed by Ante-nicene writers, were abandoned after 
the rise of Arianism. " Securius locuti sunt," says Quesnel on 
this passage, "nondum litigantibus Eutychianis ; post cujus 
hasresis ortum cautius . . . locutus est Leo." Already Cyril 
had found it needful to disclaim all notion of " mixture" properly 
so called, (o-i'iyKpavis, <Ti>yx v<ris > Qvp^s,) as in his first letter to 
Succensus ; see also the great " second letter to Nestorius," that 
to John, the Defence against Theodoret (c. i), the Explanation 
of Anath. i, and the first letter to Acacius, in all of which he 
repudiated the confusion of the natures. On this subject con- 
sult Pearson, i. 287, (Art. 3,) ii. 199, with the notes to the Oxford 
Translation of Tertullian, p. 48, and to S. Athan. Treatises, ii. 
551 ; and the Chalcedonian Definition of Faith, Canons of First 
Four Councils, p. 34, ed. Oxf. 

12. Compare on Arianism, Sermon 4 of this volume, c. 4 ; 
17, c. 4. In one place he alludes to it as an " impia perversitas," 
in Nativ. 5, c. 3. In Ep. 15. 2, he says that the Priscillianists 
in part agree with the Arians. Arianism was largely the result 
of a mental and moral temper fostered by the Greek schools of 
disputation, and began, as we learn from Socrates (i. 5) with 
this line of argument ; 

What is true of human fatherhood is true of the relation be- 
tween the Father and the Son : 

But the father's priority of existence is true of human father- 
hood : 

Therefore it is true in regard to the Father and the Son : 

Therefore, once there was no Son : 



140 Arianism. 

Therefore, He was, at some very remote period, created by 

the Father. 

The petitio principii in the major premiss is a key to the whole 
heresy. It was essentially Rationalistic ; see Newman's note 
on Athan. Treatises, i. 256. (Lib. Fath.) The extraordinary ver- 
satility, the argumentative subtlety, and the too frequent pro- 
fanity of Arianism are matters of which a few lines can give no 
idea. But it is necessary, in even the briefest notice of this 
long-lived heresy, to remark on the contrast between its change- 
ful inventiveness and the simple steadfastness of Catholic doc- 
trine. On the one side, some twenty different creeds, (of which 
several, however, were rather negatively than positively hete- 
rodox,) and three main sects, the Semi-arians with their formula 
of Homoiousiofi) i.e. " the Son is like in essence to the Father," 
the Acacians vaguely calling Him " like," Homoion, the 
Aetians boldly proclaiming Him " unlike," Anomoion, as much 
as to say, " He is in no sense Divine." On the other side, the 
Church with the Nicene Creed, confessing Him as Homoousion^ 
" of one essence with the Father ;" meaning thereby, as her 
great champion repeatedly bore witness, to secure belief in the 
reality of His Divine Sonship, and therefore in His real Deity, 
as distinguished from the titular deity which was so freely con- 
ceded to him by the Arians. S. Ath. de Deer. Nic. 20 ; de 
Syn. 39, ff. ; ad Afros 9. Cp. Liddon, Bamp. Lect. p. 444. 

13. S. Leo here, as in other Sermons, e.g. the last in this 
volume, and in Ep. 28, c. 4, and in Ep. 59, c. 3, " et secundum 
hominem, Pater major me est," gives that interpretation of S. 
John xiv. 28 with which we are so familiar through the " Qui- 
cunque," " Inferior to the Father as touching His manhood." It 
is implied in the language of S. Cyprian, Ep. 73. 18 : it is ex- 
pressly taken in the Sermo Major de Fide (c. 34) which though 
probably not by S. Athanasius, is a compilation by one of his 
school ; and in Cyril of Alexandria's " Quod unus sit Christus," 
icaToire^oiTTjKf 5e irws CTT! T^ jjfy 'bv v S6^rj, /caflcfc irf<pTjvfv &v9pci>iros, 
roiydproi KCU ftyaffKtv, 'O irarrjp fjifi^osv pov tern. (Vol. vii. 412, Pusey.) 
Suicer quotes Basil of Seleucia, Leo's contemporary, as si- 
milarly referring the words to the o'tKovo/jiia, i.e., to the as- 
sumption of humanity (Thesaurus, in v. oiKovo/j.ia.) S. Atha- 



" My Father is greater than /." 141 

nasius, indeed, had seen in our Lord's words a reference to 
what later writers have called the " Subordinatio Filii," or the 
" Principatus Patris," that is, to the precedency of the Father as 
the Fountain of Godhead, cf. Orat. i. 58 ; so S. Chrysostom in 
loc. But this interpretation was probably felt to be but imper- 
fectly available in controversy with the Arians, who, as we 
know from Epiphanius (Haer. Ixxix. 63) and Gregory Nazianzen 
(Orat. 29. 71), were wont to insist on this text. Accordingly, 
the interpretation which refers to the assumption of humanity 
became the received view in the West : it was adopted at the 
Council of Paris in 360, (see Hilary, Fragm. xi. 3 ;) and at the 
Council of Aquileia in 381, when Palladius the Arian adduced this 
text, S. Ambrose answered, " The Son is inferior as touching the 
form of a servant, as touching the flesh," (Gest. Cone. Aq. 35 ;) 
so S. Augustine, in loc. and de Div. Qu. 83, n. 69 ; de Trin. i. s. 
14, ii. s. 2 ; Enchir. 35, takes the same interpretation : in de Fid. et 
Symb. s. 18, he unites it with the Athanasian interpretation, which 
indeed is actually adopted by Pearson, in Art. 2, " greater in refe- 
rence to the communication of the Godhead ;" by Newman, Ser- 
mons, vi. 60 ; and by Westcott, (on Gospel of S. John, in loc.) 
Against it is the consideration that our Lord is suggesting an in- 
ference. " Because the Father is greater than I, you ought to re- 
joice that I am going to Him." They might rejoice in that 
prospect because the Father would be a yet mightier Friend 
to them than Jesus Himself in His humiliation : but would the 
mysterious "principatus Patris" be an intelligible reason for 
such joy ? As to the other text, S. John x. 30, see Ep. 28, c. 4. 
So Ep. 165, c. 8, " Secundum formam Dei, ipse et Pater unum 
sunt." Similarly in Ep. 59, c. 5. Our Lord's argument in that 
place turns not upon unity of will merely, i.e. what has been 
called a moral union, but upon unity of power, which in this 
case implies unity of essence. Cf. S. Ath. de Syn. 48. The 
argument in ver. 36 is a fortiori, and in ver. 38 He virtually re- 
peats the assertion which in ver. 30 had given offence. See 
Pye Smith's Scripture Testimony to the Messiah, i. 460, that 
" the kind of union" in question is " a real identity of power ;" 
that our Lord's words were instantly pronounced to be blas- 
phemous ; that " upon the Unitarian hypothesis, no motive can 
be imagined why He should not have met" the charge by 



142 Impeccability of Christ. 

" protesting that He was merely a man :" that His way of deal- 
ing with it was, in fact, to conduct the hearers " to a point" at 
which they would understand Him again to affirm what had 
created the offence ; that this language, " the Father is in 
Me, and I in Him," cannot be reduced to an assertion of mere 
moral union or harmony of wills, because " the case refers not 
to any moral quality, but to a oneness of power." See also 
Liddon, Bamp. Lect. p. 185. In regard to the indirectness of our 
Lord's replies to cavillers, see Archd. Hessey on Moral Diffi- 
culties in the Bible, second series, lect. 4. 

14. Here and elsewhere as in the last Sermon in this volume, 
and de Nativ. 7, c. 2, " Non . . . quod in carnem sit Dei natura 
mutata," and de Pent. 2, c. 3, " Quod enim Pater est, hoc est 
Filius, hoc est et Spiritus Sanctus, et vera Deitas in nullo 
esse aut major aut minor potest" Leo's language reminds us 
of the " Athanasian Creed," which, whatever be its date, was 
clearly compiled by some one accustomed to the theological 
terminology of the Latin Church of the fifth century. 

15. Here the impeccability of Christ is affirmed, as by S. 
Athanasius, c. Apollin. i. 7, 17, ii. 10 ; and Epiphanius, Haer. 
Ixxvii. 27. There was in His human soul no germ of evil will, 
no " fomes peccati," no " concupiscentia" for temptation to ex- 
cite or develope. See Liddon, Bamp. Lect. p. 524, that in " Chris- 
tian antiquity our Lord's manhood, by the unique conditions 
of its existence," as personally united to God, " was believed to 
be wholly exempt from any propensity to, or capacity of, sinful 
self-will . . . however latent and rudimentary." So Mozley on 
Augustinian Doctrine of Predestination, p. 97 : " Scripture says 
that our Lord was in all points tempted like as we are : but the 
Church has not thought it consistent with piety to interpret this 
text to mean that our Lord had the same direct propension to 
sin that we have. . . . Such direct appetite for what is sinful is 
the characteristic of our fallen and corrupt nature." But here 
it is not enough to say that " our Lord did not assume a corrupt, 
but a sound humanity :" for Adam, as unfallen, was peccable, 
whereas our Lord's soul was protected by the presence of God- 
head from any possibility of contradicting the Divine will ; 



Impeccability of Christ. 143 

although it might wish that obedience were " compatible" with 
a certain object of per se innocent desire, it could never " wish to 
be free from the law of obedience itself." (Liddon, p. 525.) See 
also an admirable article on " Our Lord's Human Example" in 
Church Quart. Review, vol. xvi. (July, 1883.) The writer points 
out that His human nature " had no independent centre of per- 
sonality in itself :" it never existed except in union with His 
Divine Person ; and thus, "being one, and personally God, He 
could not have willed to sin. . . . Evil suggestions were really 
presented to Him, and He had real human faculties for them 
to make their appeal to ; but . . . ." His " human will could 
not, in virtue of its essential relation to God, assent to what was 
not of God." It is added that a Christ Who could have sinned, 
but actually did not, would be as far removed from " the fellow- 
ship of ordinary moral experience" as the Christ of the Church's 
theology, Whose impeccability does not, in fact, destroy the 
value of His example, as taken in connection with that re- 
creating virtue which flows from, and presupposes a Christ 
personally divine. We may also observe that if, as is sometimes 
urged, a Christ Who is to be an universal example must have 
been peccable, then He must have felt and overcome every 
possible propensity to evil which can be felt by any of our race : 
and that the two ancient writers who maintained His abstract 
peccability are Julian, the developer of Pelagianism, and Theo- 
dore, the parent of Nestorianism. See more in Hutchings' 
Mystery of the Temptation, p. 116, ff. ; Trench's Studies in 
the Gospels, p. 27 ; Later Treatises of S. Athanasius, pp_ 
109, 128 ; F. W. Robertson, Sermons, i. 116. 

1 6. He means that the Incarnation did but consummate a pro- 
cess which had previously been going on : it effected completely 
what had before been done imperfectly. As to the religious 
position of the Old Testament worthies, two truths must be 
held together, (i.) It is certain that " grace and truth came 
by Jesus Christ," S. John i. 17 ; that " Moses gave not the true 
Bread from heaven," vi. 32 ; that " the Holy Spirit was not" 
plenarily given until Jesus " was glorified," vii. 39 ; that " the 
ministration of the Spirit is more glorious than that of death," 
2 Cor. iii. 7, &c. ; and that the men of faith referred to in Heb. 



144 The Old Dispensation. 

xi. " obtained not the promise" in their lifetime, and thus were 
" not made perfect." (2.) It is as certain that the patriarchs 
have a place in the kingdom, S. Matt. viii. 1 1 ; that Abraham 
saw the day of Christ, S. John viii. 56 ; that he and all God's 
ancient servants were justified by faith, Rom. iv. I, ff., Heb. 
xi. 2, ff. Leo held both these truths. While he dwelt on the 
vast increase of blessing brought by the Incarnation, he was as 
true to the unity which binds together the two economies, to 
the revelation of Christ as the End of the law, the Antitype of 
ancient symbols, the Fulfiller of persevering hopes, the God 
Whom Judah was to behold ; to that teaching, in short, of the 
Nunc Dimittis, which Marcionite and Manichean assailants of 
the Old Testament so rudely flung away, and which our Seventh 
Article re-affirmed against the Anabaptists. Christ, he knew, 
was the Christ of the Hebrew Fathers ; the New Testament, as 
S. Augustine had said, was " the Old unveiled ;" on the hopes 
which it realized, pure souls had long been living. See Sermon 
ii in this volume, c. 2. Not only does he call Christ's birthday 
" dies prseparationis antiquae," (in Nativ. 2, c. i,) and affirms 
that " omnis prorsus antiquitas colentium Deum verum in hac 
fide vixit," (i.e. faith in the expected Christ, de Pass. I, c. i,) but 
he even says that those who were justified by faith in Christ 
before His coming, " Christi sunt corpus effecti," (in Nativ. 10, 
c. 7.) See the Christian Year, Circumcision : 

" Now of Thy love we deem 

As of an ocean vast, 
Mounting in tides against the stream 
Of ages gone and past, " &c. 

17. Here Leo gives his own answer to a very old objection, 
" If Christ's Advent was so great a blessing, why were so many 
generations allowed to pass away without enjoying it ?" The 
writer of the Epistle to Diognetus (c. 9) says in effect, " In order 
fully to exhibit man's moral incapacity, and so to prepare him 
to accept God's grace." Martensen, in his Christian Dogmatics, 
(E. T. p. 226,) follows this ancient writer : " Because God would 
show men what by their own power they could accomplish .... 
The kingdom of this world must be revealed in its full range 
.... heathendom must exhaust all its possibilities." A yet 



The Eucharistic Sacrifice. 145 

sterner form of this answer is given in Gregory Nyssen's Cate- 
chet. c. 29. Justin Martyr glances at the difficulty, and cha- 
racteristically meets it by claiming as unconscious and antici- 
pative Christians multitudes who before Christ came were taught 
by the Word to live righteously, (Apol. i. 46.) Origen gives 
the same answer, c. Cels. iv. 7 ; and, what is more remarkable 
and interesting, Augustine adopts it in Ep. 102, q. 2. Leo's 
reply is somewhat fuller; he says that the " delay" is to be 
looked at in connection with a long process of " fore-announce- 
ments :" the more numerous these were, the easier would it be 
for men to receive the Gospel when it was actually presented to 
them. But as we have seen, he dwells strongly on the close- 
ness of God's relation to the righteous from the very dawn of 
human history. 

18. " Glorificate et portate Deum in corpore vestro," I Cor. 
vi. 20, Vulg. The true Greek text is, So^darare &\ rlv ebv 4v T$ 

ffw/j.aTi V/J.WV, omitting nal <=// T< irvfii^ari /c.r.A. See Alford in loc. 

The " et portate" is doubtless a very old gloss (S. Cyprian read it 
in his text, de Hab. Virg. 2, and Tertullian seems to have read 
"tollite," adv. Marc. v. 7) suggested by ver. 19. Leo again 
adopts it, de Pass. 2, c. 3. 

19. There was no need for him to say what Sacrifice he 
meant. All his hearers would at once understand him of the 
Holy Eucharist, in the oblation of which the faithful were 
believed to have their part, (so the Roman Canon Missas, " qui 
tibi offerunt hoc sacrificium laudis,") in that they brought the 
elements to the sanctuary, and afterwards supported the Priest, 
their representative, by the devout energy of their u concordant 
will." (Carter on the Priesthood, p. 151.) Leo says in Serm. 
de Jej. vii. mensis, 6, c. 3, " Tune enim et sacrificii munda est 
oblatio, et misericordias sancta largitio, quando ii qui ista de- 
pendunt, quod operantur intelligunt." In Ep. 80, c. 2, " In 
ecclesia Dei . . . nee rata sunt sacerdotia, nee vera sacri- 

icia, nisi in nostras proprietate naturae verus nos Pontifex 
reconciliet." Ep. 157, c. 5 : " intercepta est sacrificii oblatio." 
In Serm. de Nat. ips. 5, c. 3, Melchisedech is said to have offered 
the sacrifice of that Sacrament, &c. ; and Muratori, Lit. Rom. 

L 



146 The " Gloria in Excelsis" 

i. 19, quotes from the "Gemma Animas," "Leo Papa apposuit 
(canoni) ' Sanctum sacrificium, immaculatam hostiam,' ' the 
words which conclude the prayer " Supra quae propitio." 

20. " Cum ccelestis militiae . . . exercitu." Hence probably 
came the words which occur in some of the Roman Prefaces, 
e.g., that for Christmas, " Cumque omni militia ccelestis exer- 
citus, hymnum glorias tuae canimus." It is to be observed that 
Leo's words as to the " Gloria in Excelsis" do not necessarily 
mean more than that the original Angelic Hymn, S. Luke ii. 14, 
was recited in the Christmas Day service ; and it is to this that 
Zaccaria (Biblioth. Ritual, ii. 2, p. Ix. sq.) in his notes on Mal- 
donatus' Tract, de Caeremoniis (Disput. i. 10) would restrict the 
statement in the Liber Pontificalis, that Telesphorus, Bishop of 
Rome in the reign of Hadrian, ordered the "hymnus Angelicus 
Gloria in Excelsis to be said before the sacrifice" on the Na- 
tivity. There is, indeed, no reason for attaching any historic 
value to this statement ; and it may be questioned whether, if 
Symmachus, the sixth Pope after Leo, is rightly reported to 
have ordered the "hymn" to be used on all Sundays and Mar- 
tyrs' days, (Anastasius, Vit. Pontif. i. 89,) this is to be under- 
stood of more than the single verse. But as the whole hymn 
was substantially extant long before Leo's time, it is likely 
enough that it is referred to in Leo's words, and in the state- 
ment about Symmachus. It is " Grascas absque dubio originis," 
Gerbert. Vet. Lit. Alemann. i. 299. Compare Daniel, The- 
saurus Hymn. ii. 268. It exists in two Greek forms, one in 
the Alexandrian MS. (see T. Smith's Miscellanea, p. 144, and 
Palmer's Orig. Lit. ii. 159,) and another in the Apostolical Con- 
stitutions, vii. 47, (see Bingham, xiii. 10. 9.) The former brings 
in the name of the Holy Spirit after " the only-begotten Son 
Jesus Christ ;" and in this it is followed by old Irish texts of 
the hymn, and by the text in the Scottish Communion Office as 
revised in 1764, which, however, has amplified the address to 
the Holy Spirit, and inserted a new address to the Son, both 
preceding the words, " O Lord, the only-begotten Son," &c- 
(See Dowden's Annotated Scottish Communion Office, p. 226.) 
The latter is a very inferior form, perhaps corrupted by Arian- 
isers ; at any rate "there is no sort of reason to suppose that" it 



The "Gloria in Excelsis" 147 

; ' is older or more primitive than that which appears in Codex 
A." (Church Quart. Review, xxi. 6.) In the East it has always 
been what it was anciently in Gaul, at Milan, and in Ireland, a 
part of the Morning Office ; see Gear's Euchologion, p. 58. It is 
called in the East " the Great Doxology." Its Eucharistic use 
seems to have extended in the West from Rome, until it ex- 
cluded the more ordinary use ; but until the eleventh century 
no celebrant other than a Bishop might recite the hymn, except 
on Easter Day. (Muratori, Lit. Rom. ii. i.) See also Les- 
ley's Preface to the Mozarabic Missal, 70 ; and note to the 
Mass "omnium offerentium," Miss. Moz. ed. Migne, 221. The 
Latin version, as now used in the Roman Mass, and as sub- 
stantially represented in the English Service, differs from the 
Eastern by repeating the word " God" twice at the end of the 
first part ; by adding " Thou only art most high ;" by altering 
" to the glory" into " in the glory," and by inserting the mention 
of the Holy Spirit into that clause, thereby doubly impairing the 
allusion to Phil. ii. 11. The addition of the clause, "Thou that 
takest away .... have mercy upon us" to our form dates from 
1552, and was perhaps due to some oversight. Leo, it will 
be seen, follows the Latin reading "bonse voluntatis," from 

SoKtas, which has been preferred by modern critics on the 
authority of the older uncials ; but Scrivener (Introduct. to Criti- 
cism of N. T., p. 590) considers that " solid reason and pure taste 
revolt against" their " yoke" in this instance, and observes that 

SoKias destroys the symmetrical triad, and well nigh defies 
attempts to "extract some tolerable sense out of it." (Keble's 
" love towards men of love" is a poetic recasting of the sup- 
posed original ; see Christian Year, Christmas Day.) Dean 
Burgon suggests that euSo/da became euSo/a'as after a copyist, 
with his eyes fixed on the first syllable of avdpuirois, had for- 
gotten the preceding lv. (Revision Revised, p. 41.) 

21. Baptism, with S. Leo as with the whole ancient Church, 
vas the Sacrament of Regeneration. He even compares the 
bnt to the Virgin's womb, in that the same Spirit Who " caused 
Mary to bear the Saviour causes the water to regenerate the 
jeliever," Serm. in Nativ. 5, c. 5 ; so that, "as in that case the 
>acred conception made sin to be absent, in this the mystic 



148 Prevenient Grace. 

washing takes it away," in Nativ. 4, c. 3. See also Serm. I, c. 3, 
Serm. 9, c. 6; and de Pass. 18, c. 5, where the regenerating 
effect of baptism is made to depend on the real assumption of 
human nature by the Word. In Ep. 16 he calls Baptism a 
"principal" Sacrament ; traces it as he does in the Tome, and 
in Epiph. 4, c. 4 to the water from our Lord's side (compare our 
Baptismal Office, Pearson, Art. 4, and Dr. Pusey on Holy Bap- 
tism, pp. 293 301) ; comments on S. Paul's account of it in 
Rom. vi. 3 ; and forbids it to be administered, except in cases of 
necessity, at any other times than Easter and Pentecost. See 
de Jej. x. mensis, 7. I, "natura .... sacro baptismate jam 
renata," de Pass. 19. 4, " regenerationis . . . mysterio." 

22. Here, following Phil. iii. 3, Gal. vi. 16, he claims for 
Christians the character of true Israelites, as in Nativ. 10, c. 7, 
" veri Israelite, et in consortium filiorum Dei veraciter adoptati." 
In Epiph. 3, c. 3, " Intret in patriarcharum familiam gentium 
plenitude," &c. De Pass. 2, c. 3, " Nos, inquam, spiritale semen 
Abrahae." 

23. Here, alluding to Phil. ii. 13, he puts into the fewest words 
possible the doctrine of prevenient grace, i.e., that the first 
movements of the will towards good are the result of a Divine 
prompting, the Holy Spirit appealing to the soul, and enabling 
it to respond to that appeal. Compare the Collect "Prevent 
us," and those for Easter Day and the Sunday next before 
Advent. See " Anti-Pelagian Treatises of S. Augustine," p. xiii. 
Leo often recurs to this thought, e.g., in Epiph. 8, c. 3, " ex Deo 
. . . et effectum operis et initium voluntatis ;" de Quadrag. 
5, c. i, "qui ideo dat praeceptum ut excitet desiderium ;" de 
Quadrag. u, c. 4, "cum qui praestitit velle, donet et posse;" 
de Pass. 16, c. 6, "Juste . . . nobis instat prsecepto qui prae- 
currit auxilio ;" Ep. I, c. 3, " Gratia . . . principium justi- 
tise," &c. 

24. Paganus was originally "a villager." It came to be ap- 
plied, chiefly in military arrogance, to the whole unwarlike or 
civilian population. So according to Juvenal, xvi. 33, it was , 
safer to accuse a paganus falsely than a soldier truly ; and in ' 






"Pagans? 149 

Tac. Hist. iii. 24, at the second battle of Bedriacum, delin- 
quent soldiers are addressed as " pagani." The word became 
thus associated with the notion of boorishness and ignorance ; 
comp. Prudentius, Cathem. xi. 86, on the adoration by the 
shepherds 

" Concurrat ad prsesepia 
Pagana gens et quadrupes." 

i 

And from the middle of the fourth century it became a synonym 
for one who persisted in idolatry ; partly as a term of reproach, 
partly because the old superstitions became more and more con- 
fined to the rural districts. In this sense we have "paganorum 
animi" in a law of Valentinian I., Cod. Theod. xvi. 2. 18 ; and 
in subsequent laws we read, " Qui ex Christianis pagani facti 
sunt," xvi. 7. i ; "vel de haereticis vel de paganis," xvi. 10, 13 ; 
" sacerdotales paganae superstitionis," xvi. 10, 20; "qui pro- 
fano pagani ritus errore . . . polluuntur, hoc est Gentiles? xvi. 
10, 21. And see Leo, de Collect. 3, on pagan "superstitions." 
And so the term is a witness to the Church's successful bold- 
ness in first occupying the great towns (" neque civitates 
tantum" &c., says Pliny to Trajan), and also a compendium, as 
it were, of that strange, sad chapter in European history, the 
vitality of idolatry, of "heathenism" amid the "heaths" and 
forests. It calls to our minds the " peasants" refusing the Light, 
assembling around the tree, the stone, the fountain, and the 
Bel-fire (the Scottish Beltane), using divination, scarifying their 
flesh, and transmitting the dark tradition of a condemned 
worship in spite of missionaries, kings and synods. On the 
history of the term cf. Hooker, v. 80. 2 ; Gibbon, iii. 100 (ed. 
Smith) ; Trench on Study of Words, p. 69 ; and on the linger- 
ings of " Paganism," Johnson's Engl. Canons, i. 244, 279, 378 ; 
Maitland's Dark Ages, p. 151 ; Dean Church's Essays, p. 249 ; 
Robertson's Hist. Ch., i. 246. 

25. He emphasizes the coeternity of the Son in this passage, 
in Ep. 28, c. 2, and in Nativ. 5, c. 3, " Sempiterne .... Filius, 
Filius est : et sempiterne Pater, Pater est." And de Pentec. 2, 
c. i : " Sempiternum est Patri, coaeterni sibi Filii sui esse geni- 



150 The Coeternity. 

torem." This is quite in the Athanasian manner ; cf. Orat. c. 
Ar. i. 14, 1 8, 20, where S. Athanasius argues, against the Arian 
%v iroTe '6re OVK $v, that God could not begin to be a Father ; that 
a real Divine Sonship implies coeternity ; that the Trinity must 
be eternal ; that, given the Father's essence (uTr6<na<ris,) iravrus 

fbOvs e?//ot Set rijv ^apo/crf/pa . . . Taurrjy. So S. Augustine : " Sem- 

piternae Sapientiae sua causa est sempiterna ; nee tempore 
prior est quam sua sapientia. Deinde, si Patrem sempiter- 
num esse inest Deo, nee fuit aliquando non Pater, nunquam 
sine Filio fuit," de Div. Quaest. 83, n. 16. And cf. Aug. Serm. 
140. 5. " Semper Pater, semper Filius." 

26. See Note 10. In this passage he teaches that the 
Manhood of Christ never existed in a human personality ; He 
did not unite Himself to a man, but He took to Himself Man- 
hood. Comp. this sermon, c. 6 ; Ep. 28, c. 3 ; and Serm. 
in Nativ. 10, c. 5, " Idem est a paterno non divisus throno, 
et ab impiis crucifixus in ligno;" de Pass. 17, c. i, "Idem est 
qui impiorum manibus comprehenditur, et qui nullo fine conclu- 
ditur." See Hooker, v. 52. 3, "It pleased not the Word or 
Wisdom of God to take to Itself some one person among men," 
&c. So Newman, Sermons, vi. 62 : " Though man, He was not 
strictly speaking, in the English sense of the word, a man : He 
was not such as one of us, and one out of a number." And see 
Liddon, Bamp. Lect. p. 262. 

27- Psilanthropism, or the doctrine that Jesus was a mere 
man, began with Cerinthus, who called Him the son of Joseph 
and Mary, and distinguished Him from " the Christ," a being 
emanating from the Deity, which descended on Him at His bap- 
tism, and departed from Him before His death. Cerinthus, it 
is well known, was the great adversary of S. John at Ephesus. 
See Iren. i. 26 ; iii. 3 ; Euseb. iii. 28. Compare Bp. Lightfoot, 
Apost. Fath., part 2, vol. i. p. 366. Of the Ebionites, who stood, 
like Cerinthus, between Christianity and Judaism, and appear to 
have become a sect at the beginning of the second century, 
some admitted the miraculous conception, but all held our Lord 
to have been a mere man, eminent for His goodness, Euseb. iii. 
27. Burton contends, (Bamp. Lect. Note 84), on the authority 



Psilanthropism. 151 

of Epiphanius, (Haer. xxx.) that they agreed with Cerinthus in 
distinguishing between Jesus whether regarded as the son of 
Joseph, or as virginally born and the " Christ" who descended 
upon Him : so that it would not be accurate to call them dis- 
believers in the Divinity of " Christ." But it seems clear from 
Epiphanius' own words that he was speaking only of one class 
of Ebionites, those who had affinities with Gnosticism, and 
whose notion of a pre-existent " Christ" comes out in the Pseudo- 
Clementine writings. (See Diet. Chr. Biog. art. " Ebionites.") 
Justin Martyr's reference to an evidently small number of pro- 
fessing Christians, who regarded Christ as a mere man, points 
clearly to the more simply Judaical Ebionites. (Dial. 48.) He was 
so regarded by a few of the Gnostics, as Justinus, Carpocrates, 
and apparently Basilides. But such men, being wholly outside 
the Church's pale, were not taken account of ; and when at the 
end of the second century, Theodotus, the tanner of Byzantium, 
being reproached at Rome for having previously fallen away in 
a persecution, answered, "Why, I did but deny a man!" he 
was regarded as " the father of the God-denying apostasy," (see 
the writer quoted by Eusebius, v. 28, and usually identified with 
Hippolytus, but supposed by Dr. Salmon to be Caius, Intro- 
duction to New Testament, p. 66.) This "bad eminence" 
would be assigned to him as the first " Psilanthropist" among 
Gentile Christians. Artemas took a similar line ; as Neander 
says, ii. 264, the Artemonites " wanted a Christianity which 
the understanding could fully comprehend ;" and their claim 
to represent the primitive Gospel was at once repelled on 
grounds of history and Scripture, Eus. 1. c. The writer there 
quoted, as Dr. Liddon says, refers confidently to " the continu- 
ous drift and meaning" of the Church's " belief." (Bamp. Lect. 
p. 435.) In 269, Paul of Samosata, when forced to avow his 
opinions, declared Jesus to be a mere man, who so advanced in 
virtue by aid of the Divine attribute called the Logos, as to 
attain the honorary title of " Son of God." The Council of 
Antioch, in condemning him, said, " Let him write letters of 
communion to Artemas," Euseb. vii. 30. In the middle of the 
fourth century, Psilanthropism was represented by the clever 
and pertinacious Photinus, Bishop of Sirmium, who held that 
the Son of Mary had no pre-existence, but was a mere man in 



152 Docetism. 

whom the Word, viewed as impersonal, dwelt with special ful- 
ness, (see Later Treat, of S. Ath. p. 16.) He was condemned 
by synods in 345, 347, 348, and 351. Augustine, before his con- 
version, was for a time a Psilanthropist, Confess, vii. c. 19. 
Leo mentions this heresy again, in Nativ. 10. 2 ; " Some believed 
Him to be merely Son of man." 

28. Compare in Nativ. 10, c. 2, " simulatam carnis spe- 
ciem." " Docetism, or the doctrine that our Lord's Body was 
an immaterial phantom," (Mansel, Gnostic Heresies, p. 58), 
originated in the notion, widely spread throughout the farther 
East, that matter and spirit were in antagonism, and that " evil 
resulted from the inherent fault of matter," (Dr. Salmon in Diet. 
Chr. Biogr. art. " Docetism." On its various forms see Bishop 
Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, part ii. vol. i. p. 369, and Salmon 

1. c.) Its growth and success are facts of great significance : 
for it never could have sprung up in presence of an originally 
" Psilanthropist" Christianity. It presupposed our Lord's divine 
pre-existence, and inferred that He could not have stooped to a 
real contact with matter. We meet with it first in Simon Magus ; 
Pearson, i. 285, Art. 3; ii. 196, 240. Its effect was, as has been 
said, to " unrealize the real y historic, positive basis of the Chris- 
tian faith; to attenuate into a mere illusion the history and per- 
son of Jesus ; and so to make His redemption only ideal and 
imaginary ;" and, as Bp. Alexander remarks, it became, by logical 
necessity, " anti-sacramental." It shared with Cerinthianism the 
far-stretching censure of i S. John iv. 3 ; for it " confessed not 
Jesus Christ come in flesh." His disciple S. Polycarp, Philipp. 7, 
refers to it as a work of the devil ; S. Ignatius denounced it as 
a deadly plant, an unbelief, a blasphemy, Trail, ii, 10, Smyrn. 

2, 5. It was held by Saturninus of Antioch. Tertullian pointed 
to its results; all Christ's works were " imaginarias," done 
" mendacio ;" and " thus the whole work of God was over- 
thrown," adv. Marc. iii. 8. In the fourth century S. Cyril of 
Jerusalem found reason to warn his catechumens, " If the In- 
carnation is a phantom, so is salvation," Cat. 4, 9, compare 
Epiphanius, Haer. Ixix. 59. In Leo's time Docetism was still 
potent ; it formed part of that many-sided and terrible Ma- 
nicheism which he called "the devil's fortress" (cf. Serm. -in 



Arianism " idolatrous" 153 

Nativ. 4, c. 4) ; as such he alludes to it in Sermon 10 in this 
volume, c. I, 2 ; and he regarded Eutychianism as Docetism 
in a new form, Serm. in Pass. 14, c. 4 ; " isti phantasmatici Chris- 
tiani ;" so Ep. 124, c. 2, that Eutyches held " Christum simula- 
torie omnia egisse," &c. This, be it observed, is not what 
Eutyches said, but an inference of Leo's from what he said. 
Docetism mingled itself with the wild misbelief of the Ana- 
baptists : Caspar Schwenckfeld, in Silesia, approached, at any 
rate, to a Docetic position as early as 1528 (Hardwick, 
Hist, of Articles, p. 97, 393), and so did some heretics de- 
nounced by Henry VIII. in 1540, (Hardwick, Hist. Reform, 
p. 277.) 

29. From a wish to pacify Catholics, the Arian leaders, at an 
early period of the controversy, adopted a high tone of lan- 
guage about our Lord, speaking of Him as the greatest of crea- 
tures, as adorable, and as Divine. See Newman's Arians, p. 
216, ff. The Catholic controversialists seized on this inconsis- 
tency. " All creatures," they argued, " are, as such, on a level, 
in comparison of the Uncreate. You who make the Son a crea- 
ture, so many degrees above the Archangels, and then adore 
Him as a God, are, on your own showing, idolaters. Either 
disclaim the worship of Christ, or confess His Consubstan- 
tiality." We find this argument in S. Athanasius (Orat. iii. 16, 
&c.), S. Hilary (de Syn. 50), S. Ambrose (de Fide, i. 104), 
and in the narrative of Peter of Alexandria in Theodoret, iv. 
22 : and S. Basil, when urged by Modestus to adopt the creed 
of the Arian emperor, is said to have replied that he " could 
not endure to worship any creature," (Greg. Naz. Orat. 43. 48 :) 
and Epiphanius taunts Arians with setting up again Nebu- 
chadnezzar's golden image. (Haer. Ixix. 31.) In fact, "the 
Fathers regarded" the Arian conception of a created god- 
head " with simple detestation ;" such a godhead " was a theo- 
logical monster in their eyes, unlawfully, profanely, and falsely 
imagined." Mozley on Theory of Development, p. 78. See too 
Later Treatises of S. Athanasius, p. 63. In the passage before 
as, Leo seems to be following S. Augustine c. Maximin. ii. 15, to 
the effect that if the Father (as God) is greater and the Son 
less, then there are two gods. He repeatedly denies that there 



154 The issues raised by Arianism. 

can be any " degrees" in Deity. See Sermon 14 in this volume, 
c. 5, Sermon 18, c. 4, and de Pentec. 2, c. 2, " omnibus existentiae 
gradibus exclusis." We thus see that in the Arian controversy 
the question which was really at stake was not only as to the 
Divine dignity of Christ, not only as to the basis and justifica- 
tion of an " absolute devotion" to Him, in recognition of His 
" eternal supremacy over minds and hearts, (a point excellently 
brought out by R. W. Dale in " Good Words" for 1878, p. 685, 
and see Gore, Leo the Great, p. 55, " Not fully God ? Then, by 
an inevitable inference, not able to claim full adoring worship. 
But that .... this He could claim, the whole Christian life in- 
volved as its secret, its clue, its inspiration.") This was indeed 
at stake, but more than this, namely, the purity and simplicity 
of the idea of Deity. That idea was impaired and corrupted by 
Arianism, which was thus, as has often been remarked, a retro- 
grade movement towards Paganism a fact which goes far to 
account for its large success in such an age as the fourth 
century. See Church Quart. Rev. xvi. 376. 

30. Compare Ep. 15, i, where the Priscillianists are said to 
have derived their notion of a single Person in the Godhead, 
called at different times Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, from 
Sabellius, " cujus discipuli etiam ' Patripassiani' merito nuncu- 
pantur," &c. The Sabellian heresy, which confounded the Per- 
sons in the Godhead, appears to have had two forms ; (i) a 
downright assertion that the Father actually became Incarnate, 
that the Son was but the Father under another name ; (2) a 
subtler representation of the Son and the Spirit as emanations 
from the Father ; cf. Newman's Arians, p. 90. Its chief pro- 
pounders were Praxeas, about A.D. 200 ; Noetus, of Smyrna ; 
and Sabellius, of Pentapolis, in Africa. But tendencies towards 
it existed in the time of Justin Martyr, Dial. 128. Its strength 
lay in its profession of zeal for the Divine Unity ; it called the 
Catholic doctrine Tritheism. " Well, my friends, have we one 
God, or three ?" was a Sabellian sarcasm, (Epiphan. Hasr. Ixii. 2.) 
On the other hand, it was doubly weak, in that its more in- 
telligible form might be fairly described as Patripassianism 
(" Patrem crucifixit," was Tertullian's phrase), and that both 
forms denied the Eternal Sonship, and deprived the Mediation 



Sabellianism. 155 

of all reality. Dionysius of Alexandria, in Euseb. vii. 6, as- 
cribed to Sabellius " unbelief as to the Only-begotten, the Word 
Incarnate, and insensibility as to the Holy Spirit ;" and Be- 
ryllus of Bostra was converted from these views by Origen's 
reasoning from the fact of Christ's human soul, Euseb. vi. 33, 
Soc. iii. 7. The Arians imputed Sabellianizing to the upholders 
of the Homoousion, (Newman, Athan. Treat, i. 203 ;) but S. 
Athanasius pointed to the Eternal Sonship as a safeguard 
against Sabellian " impiety," Orat. iii. 36 ; and S. Chrysostom 
traced the Church's middle way between Arian "severance" 
and Sabellian "confusion," de Sacerd. iv. 4. In truth, the Church 
was safe by not being one-sided : she called our Lord, in Scrip- 
ture language, not " the Word" only, which would encourage 
Sabellianism, not " the Son" only, which would tend to Tri- 
theism, but " the Word in God," so as to preserve the Unity, 
and " the Son from God," so as to preserve the Trinity. See 
Newman, Arians, p. 174 ; Liddon, Bamp. Lect. p. 236. In her 
use of the Latin term Person, with regard to the Blessed Three, 
she excluded alike the original sense of character or aspect, and, 
as Olshausen says, (On the Gospels, iii. 334,) " the idea of iso- 
lated individuality." So Newman, Ath. Treatises, i. 155, "the 
original mystery of the Holy Trinity, that Person and Indi- 
viduum are not equivalent terms." On " the popular tendency 
of the day to an unconscious Sabellianism," see Wilberforce on 
the Incarnation, p. 112. Language apparently Trinitarian is 
sometimes found to refer to an " economic," and not an " onto- 
logical" Trinity ; whereas the Church professes to " worship 
one God" as existing " in Trinity," and the Trinity thus acknow- 
ledged is called " eternal." The Incarnation, in fact, presup- 
poses that the distinctions which for want of a better term we 
call personal " have more than a mere relationary existence 
dependent on external things," that they exist necessarily and 
absolutely in the Godhead. (Wilberforce, p. in.) 

31. The notion that Christ's Body was ethereal, not human, 
was a modified Docetism. Leo refers to it, in Nativ. 10, c. 2 ; 
!< Some thought that His bodily action and form de sublimioris 
generis prodiisse materia." Valentinus said his " lower Jesus" 
had such a body, which only " passed through" Mary, and was 



156 Apollinarian ism. 

not formed from her substance ; and this " unclean fancy'' 
(Kingsley's Good News of God, p. 182) was reproduced by 
some of the early Anabaptists (Hardwick on Articles, p. 92), 
and punished with death in the person of Joan Bocher; our 
Christmas Preface, composed at that very time, being a witness 
against it. Modern as it is, that Preface exactly represents 
the Fathers' mind ; see Cyril. Hier. Cat. iv. 9. 

32. This passage, which says that the Apollinarians supposed 
the " Deity" to supply the place of a rational mind in Christ, 
is more accurate than that in Nativ. 4, c. 5, which puts " anima" 
for " mens," in that only some of them went so far as to deny that 
He had an " animal soul." The history of Apollinaris is pecu- 
liarly mournful. (See Newman, Church of the Fathers, p. 156, ff., 
and Tracts Theol. and Eccl. p. 257, ff.) A learned and able 
prelate, an old friend of S. Athanasius, intent on opposing 
Arianism, he fell into error through ill-directed reverence. He 
appealed to the true and deep-seated Christian conviction of the 
singleness of Christ's Person, and of His absolute sinlessness. 
But he gave to these ideas a one-sided and erroneous expression. 
He assumed that if Christ had all the constituents of humanity, 
the " two complete" natures thus supposed would make two 
persons : and that, although Christ might assume an " animal 
soul" or tyvx-fi without compromising His Divine sanctity, the 
intelligent soul or vovs, the seat of choice, was necessarily in- 
stinct with capacities for evil, and therefore Christ had no such 
soul, but the Word supplied its place. (See Later Treatises of 
S. Athanasius, p. 79.) Speaking generally, the Catholic oppo- 
nents of Apollinaris answered in effect, We agree with you that 
Christ is one, and that He is sinless : but we reject your in- 
ferences from these truths. The Word, we hold, could main- 
tain a human mind, as well as body, in union not with a human 
individual, but with His own single self : and while appropriat- 
ing a human mind, He could thereby exempt it from all " sub- 
jection to evil," (Epiphanius, Hasr. Ixxvii. 27.) S. Ambrose has a 
vigorous passage, in which he seems to say to Apollinarians in 
regard to their " solicitude" on this point, " Trust God to care for 
His own honour," (de Incarn. Domin. Sacram. 69.) Damasus, 
Bishop of Rome, was specially earnest against Apollinaris ; he 






Apollinarian ism. 157 

rightly felt that the Word, if really Incarnate for the restora- 
tion of human nature in its entirety, must have assumed " in- 
tegrum Adam sine peccato," and therefore " a reasonable soul," 
exempt from sinful tendencies. See his language in Theodoret, 
H. E. v. ii. Apollinaris was condemned by Councils at Rome 
in 377, at Alexandria in 378, at Constantinople in 381. Cf. 
Pearson, i. 286, Art. 3 ; ii. 197. Some of his adherents, from 
denying to Christ a human mind, proceeded to deny Him a 
human body. They revived, in substance, the old Valentinian 
notion, saying that His body was not formed from the Virgin, 
but was a portion of the Divine essence clothed with matter. 
S. Athanasius, S. Basil, and others protested earnestly against 
this revolting development of a theory which had arisen as if 
in jealousy for the Majesty of God ; and urged that "men could 
receive no help from the Incarnation, unless a real human body, 
joined to Godhead, had overcome the power of death," S. Basil 
Ep. 262. Apollinaris himself, according to his own declara- 
tions, did not go beyond asserting that Christ's flesh, while 
really derived from the Virgin, might be called consubstantial 
with the Word, because of its close union with Him. He could 
therefore personally disclaim the debasing notions which S. 
Athanasius combated in his letter to Epictetus, and elsewhere. 
The Lord's flesh, he owned, was really human ; and Godhead 
had undergone no alteration. Language, indeed, was quoted as 
his, which went much further : and whether he was disingenu- 
ous or inconsistent, or on the other hand was charged with 
what he had never said, some of his friends and followers, at a 
very early period, had spoken of the Lord's body not merely as 
" God's body," and thereby as Hooker says (v. 54. 9), " many 
ways exalted above the reach of our capacities," but as actually, 
in its own substance, divine. This was the view of the extreme 
section of Apollinarians, led by Polemon and Timotheus, as 
against the moderate section represented by Valentinus ; and, 
as Leo here says, it involved the monstrous consequence of a 
conversion of part of the Divine essence itself into flesh (com- 
pare the " Ouicunque") and, in so far, of a destruction of its 
integrity. Altogether, Apollinarianism, in either or both of its 
two forms, was a menace to the doctrine of the Incarnation on 
one side, as Nestorianism was afterwards on the other. Men 



158 Connection of different errors. 

were being led to think that here, at least, was a decisive 
barrier against that Arian heresy which persisted in living on, 
and would not accept defeat, a complete satisfaction for the 
felt need of a Redeemer strictly immaculate and personally 
divine : a whole Apollinarian literature sprang up ; the aged 
chief of the party, who in earlier life had written book after 
book in classic style for Christians bereft of Christian school- 
teachers, was just as facile in pouring out pamphlets and trea- 
tises, and hymns which men and women could sing at their 
work. (Cf. Sozomen, vi. 25.) The prospect was nothing short 
of a revival of Oriental mysticism, which would virtually " deny 
Jesus Christ as come in flesh." How serious it was, we may 
understand from Gregory Nazianzen's passionate complaints 
against the "confidence" or "audacity" of Apollinarians: from 
the fact that, as will presently be explained, this popular heresy 
was Theodore's stumbling-block : and from the often-recurring 
disclaimer of " any concern with the opinions of Apollinaris" 
or the denial of Apollinarian propositions, which the necessities 
of controversy evoked from Cyril. (Apol. adv. Orient. 3.) 

33. On the subtle connection between diverse errors, e.g., 
Arianism and Sabellianism, which were formally antagonistic 
to each other, see Newman's note in Athan. Treatises, i. 189. 
In his "Arians," p. 209, he exhibits the points of agreement and 
difference between Arianism and four other theologies. Gib- 
bon has observed that " the Sabellian ends where the Ebionite 
had begun," (iii. 55,) as Paul of Samosata and the Photinians 
held the Logos to be impersonal and Jesus to be simply human : 
so Cyril (ad Theodosium, 13) observes that the former of these 
opinions leads naturally to the latter ; and Wilberforce quotes 
Blanco White as " truly remarking that Sabellianism is only 
Socinianism in disguise," (Incarnation, p. 173,) even as F. W. 
Newman " discerned too plainly that the Sabellian, if consistent, 
is only a concealed Ebionite," (Phases of Faith, p. 87.) There 
is an historical affinity between Pelagianism and Nestorianism : 
those who underestimate the need of redemption will be likely 
to underestimate the Person of the Redeemer. But Apollina- 
rianism also approached the Pelagian ground by laying stress 
on the " imitation" of Christ apart from re-creation by Him. 



Nestorianism. 159 

In modern times Calvinism has developed a Judaical tendency : 
and popular Protestantism has unconsciously employed rational- 
istic arguments against the principle of Sacramental operation. 
Hooker, in a well known passage, speaks of disparagers of Sacra- 
ments as " drawing very near" to Gnosticism, v. 60. 4. Schwenck- 
feld, already referred to, "was denounced as a Eutychian 
heretic," (Hardwick, Hist. Ref. p. 291,) and the early Quakers 
were charged with Sabellianising. And Westcott well observes 
(Epistles of S. John, p. xxxvi.) that " modern idealism, which 
aims at securing the pure spiritual conception free from 
all associations of time and place, is a new Docetism," while 
; ' modern realism, by striving to give distinction to the actual 
outward features of the Lord's life, seems to tend more and 
more to an Ebionitic" position, and " popular Christology is 
largely though unconsciously affected by Cerinthian tendencies," 
separating the Son of God from the Son of Man. (Such ten- 
dencies might not less truly be called Nestorian.) Any one 
who looks at the arguments of a typical Manichean in S. 
Augustine's "Contra Faustum" will find himself in a strangely 
modern atmosphere ; and his controversy with those who ex- 
plained away " grace" anticipates the issue now raised by 
Naturalism. 

34. The history of Nestorianism links on to that of Apol- 
linarianism. The Antiochene school of theology, always averse 
to mystic extremes, produced an able exponent in Diodore, 
Bishop of Tarsus, who, in order to secure a full recognition 
of the humanity of Christ, represented Him as a human in- 
dividual who had been taken by the Son of God into an ex- 
ceptional alliance with Himself, so as permanently to abide in 
that Divine presence into which the prophets had been at 
times admitted. To Diodore succeeded a much more famous 
person, Theodore, Bishop of Mopsuestia in Cilicia. He was 
keen and vehement against Apollinarianism, bent on main- 
taining the distinction between " the form of God" and " the 
form of a servant," and, from an ethical standpoint, very 
anxious about the value of Christ's life as an example. And 
here it must be allowed that approved writers before his time, 
as well as after it, had sometimes treated the language of 



1 60 Theodore 

t 

" humiliation" in the Gospels as " economic," and not re- 
presenting a true human experience in our Lord. Such lan- 
guage would be a provocation to Theodore : he would say, 
" This is Docetism." He formulated his Christology somewhat 
thus : the Divine Son or Word had chosen and dwelt in a 
man, Jesus ; the bond between them was best described as a 
" conjunction ;" it might be compared to the conjugal tie. Jesus 
was the greatest of the saints, the one with whom God was 
specially " well pleased :" He was the chief of all God's adopted 
children ; His pre-eminence showed itself in the u signal rapi- 
dity" with which He discerned good from evil, in His "extraor* 
dinary inclination towards good," in the unusual facility with 
which He practised virtue, and acquired complete control over 
passion. Such was the Christ of Theodore ; not in any real 
sense an Incarnate Word, but an associate of the Word, Who 
thus employed him as a specially favoured agent. Theo- 
dore's extant language seems sometimes to show a sort of 
anxiety as to whether such a " conjunction" would seem a suffi- 
cient union between God arid man, for the purposes of redemp- 
tion. He stretches it as far as it will go, and makes as much 
of it as he can. But at its best and utmost, it differs only in 
degree from the relation between God and a great saint : in 
effect, it sets Incarnation clean aside, and evacuates of mean- 
ing such passages as S. John i. 14 and Phil. ii. 6 8. Theodore 
had got hold of two truths, as Apollinaris of other two ; and 
like Apollinaris, he distorted truths by exaggerating and iso- 
lating them. He did not see that the reality of Christ's man- 
hood could be recognised without lodging it in a human per- 
sonality ; that the moral power of Christ's life could be felt 
without admitting that it had been possible for Him to rebel 
against His Father. 

If we substantially understand Theodore, we understand 
Nestorianism ; for Nestorius did but popularise, in an unsys- 
tematic fashion, the ideas which he had imbibed from Theo- 
dore's books, if not from intercourse with him. 

It is, then, clear that the question raised by the wide circula- 
tion of the discourses of Nestorius as archbishop of Constan- 
tinople was not verbal, but vital. Much of his language was 
irrelevant, and indicated some confusedness of thought : much 



and Nestorius. 1 6 1 

would, of itself, admit of an orthodox construction ; in one of 
the latest of his sermons, which Gamier dates on Sunday, Dec. 
14, 430, he grants that "Theotokos" might be used as signifying 
that " the temple which was formed in Mary by the Holy Spirit 
was united to the Godhead :" but it was impossible not to ask 
whether by " the temple" he meant the body of Jesus, or Jesus 
Himself regarded as a human individual existing t'Si'ot, iSiKus, ava 
/j.fpos, as Cyril represents his theory, and whether by " union" 
he meant more than a close alliance, ejusdem generis, in the last 
analysis, with the relation between God and every saint, or, in- 
deed, every Christian in true moral fellowship with Him, an 
alliance which would amount, in Cyril's phrase to no more than 
a " relative union," and would reduce the Saviour to a " Theo- 
phoros,"- the title claimed of old by one of His chief martyrs. 
And the real identity of Nestorius' view with that of Theodore 
was but too plainly exhibited by such statements as occur in 
some of the extracts preserved in Cyril's treatise "Against 
Nestorius,"- to the effect that Christ was one with the Word by 
participation in dignity ; that " the man" was partaker of Divine 
power, and in that sense not mere man ; that He was adored 
together with the Word ; and that " My Lord and my God" was 
a doxology to the Father ; and, above all, by the words spoken 
at Ephesus, " I can never allow that a child of three months old 
was God." If Jesus was not God in His infancy, He was not 
God in His adult manhood. Leo had in earlier life enlisted 
the pen of Cassian against Nestorius ; and his letters and ser- 
mons, as we have seen, are emphatically orthodox on the Hy- 
postatic Union. While contending against Eutychianism, he 
shows that he has no indulgence for the heresy against which it 
was a reaction. He is indignant when a Nestorian sense is 
fraudulently put upon his "Tome." (Ep. 130, c. 3.) In several 
other places, he "brackets" Nestorianism and Eutychianism 
together, as equally heretical. See Ep. 30, c. i ; Ep. 102, c. 3 ; 
Ep. 123, c. 2. And in Ep. 93, c. 3, he upholds the decisions of 
the Council of Ephesus, " Ne tune damnata impietas ideo sibi 
in aliquo blandiatur quia Eutyches justa exsecratione percellitur." 
Cp. Ep. 59, c. 5, " Nestorium .... merito . . . damnavimus." 

35. Eutyches was an old man, the head of a monastery at 

M 



1 62 Eutyches. 

Constantinople, very different from Nestorius both in tempera-! 
ment and in theology, yet occupying ground which was equally 
foreign to the faith. Years before he had been treated by Cyril, 
and by Cyril's archdeacon, as an important ally in the anti- 
Nestorian struggle. But afterwards he became a rallying point 
for that extreme wing of the " Alexandrian" party which was 
eager to crush Theodoret, as still in heart a Nestorianiser : and 
Theodoret was thus led to write his famous " Dialogues," in 
which Eutyches is probably indicated by " Eranistes," the op- 
ponent of " Orthodoxus :" while Domnus, patriarch of Antioch, 
went so far as openly to censure Eutyches for speaking of the 
Godhead and manhood of Christ as "one nature." (Facundus, 
Def. Tr. Capit. v. 8.) This points to the " celebrated dictum," 
as Cardinal Newman calls it, (Athan. Treat, ed. 2, ii. 427,) 
which Cyril had adopted from a tract believed to be by S. 
Athanasius : " one tyvais of God the Word, but that a <j>6<ns 
incarnate." Cyril used it, as he largely explained (see passages 
quoted in Later Treatises of S. Athanasius, p. 175) by way 
of emphasising the singleness of the Lord's Person of affirm- 
ing that His divine </>v<m, in the sense of " self" or " personality," 
had assumed a manhood which was " not a second person, for it 
had never existed till it was His," (Newman, 1. c.) In other 
words, " when the Word became flesh, He continued to be in- 
divisibly Himself." Eutyches, a " dull old monk," whose " in- 
tensity and obstinacy of conviction were untempered either by 
theological insight or by moderation and balance of judgment," 
(Gore, Leo the Great, pp. 60, 48,) neglected Cyril's explanations 
of the " dictum ;" he had evidently no head for them ; he 
simply clung to his formula, " without note or comment," as if 
therein lay his whole doctrinal safety. So, when at the close of 
448 he was accused before his Bishop, Flavian of Constan- 
tinople, the result of a long discussion was this : Eutyches (i) 
readily admitted that our Lord was " perfect man ;" (2) he was re- 
luctantly induced to acknowledge that He was " consubstantial 
with us in regard to His manhood ;" (3) he persisted in saying 
that after the union of two Qvcfis, i.e. of Godhead with manhood 
considered in the abstract, had been effected in the Incarnation, 
there remained "one </>rf(m only." There was, he held, no 
authority for saying " two." It is true that <j>uo-ts had been used 



" Two Natures? 163 

with some diversity of meaning ; not seldom as equivalent to 

; ' person" or " hypostasis," (as in pfa <pixns o-eo-a/j/cw^e^) 

but also for " nature ;" and Cyril in one remarkable pas- 
sage, had explained the " hypostatic union" to mean that " the 
Qva-is or vir 6o-Ta.tr is of the Word, which is the Word Himself, 
having been really united, without any change or confusion, 
avOpuireiq 4>uiret, is considered, and is, one Christ, the selfsame, 
God and man." (Adv. Theod. 2.) This was not, indeed, an 
express assertion that the " human </>utris" remained, but it surely 
implied no less. Athanasius had not only implicitly but ex- 
plicitly said as much (Orat. ii. 70, a passage relied on by Theo- 
doret; Orat. iii. 43, 58 ; iv. 36 ; c. Apollin. ii. 6, n :) Chrysostom 
had depicted the exaltation of "our <f>u<nj" by the Ascension: 
Gregory Nazianzen had repeatedly ascribed two ^urreisto Christ : 
" nor must it be forgotten," says Card. Newman (Tracts Theol. 
and Eccles. p. 311), "that Cyril himself accepted the two </>u<reiy," 
as appears from passages at the end of Theodoret's second 
Dialogue. The first of these was adopted into the formulary of 
Chalcedon ; " Not as if the difference of the natures was an- 
nulled by the union :" another says that they must be " kept 
unconfused." Another is still more tersely decisive : "Although 
it be said that the Only-begotten Word was hypostatically united 
to flesh, yet we do not mean that any fusion of the natures took 
place, oijffTjs 5e /*5A\oj/ etcarfpas rovd' oirep eVrf." This is like saying, 
; The human nature exists in Christ." It is worth while to 
observe this, because Cyril has been so often made responsible 
for Monophysitism. To return to Eutyches : his refusal to 
admit " two natures" in the Incarnate was fairly interpreted to 
mean that he did not believe Christ to exist in two spheres of 
being, and therefore that, like Theodoret's " Eranistes," he held 
chat manhood had been " absorbed" by Godhead. If so, his ad- 
nission of a " human consubstantiality" was unreal and value- 
ess. But Flavian was not justified in telling Leo that Eu- 
:yches refused to make this admission : and it was polemical 
hetoric to say that he was reviving Apollinarian or Valentinian 
heories, that he supposed Christ's body to have not been de- 
ived from Mary, that he " made void the truth of Christ's 
mman flesh," that he " declared what was visible and palpable 
a Christ to be of the coeternal substance, as if the Word's Deity 



164 The Formula of Chalcedon. 

had converted itself into flesh and soul." These statements, 
which we find in Leo's correspondence, are inferences from the 
formula to which Eutyches had committed himself. That for- 
mula might, indeed, lead consistent thinkers to any amount of 
error in the direction to which it pointed : but where an ancient 
controversialist would think himself free to load a heretic in 
person with all the logical contents of his own language, the 
modern standard of justice towards opponents will bid us lay 
stress rather on Leo's own description of Eutyches as " multum 
imprudens et nimis imperitus," (Ep. 28, c. i, comp. Ep. 29, c. 
i, and Ep. 35, c. I :) while we sympathise with Leo's indig- 
nation at the temporary success which Eutychianism achieved 
through the disastrous issue of the " Robbers' Meeting" at Ephe- 
sus in 449, and appreciate his zeal in working for another Council 
which should vindicate the doctrine of Christ's brotherhood 
with man, His real human sufferings and exaltation, and His 
Church's real communion with her Head, together with the 
truth of His personal Divinity. This was done at Chalcedon. 
There, in the first instance, a formulary had been drafted which 
took special care to meet the expected imputation, " You are in 
effect Nestorianisers." It also declared Christ to be "of" or 
"from two natures." This phrase was ambiguous : Dioscorus, the 
bold bad prelate who had dominated the recent Council of 449 
as a patron of Eutyches, was willing to say as much. It was 
urged by Leo's legates, and by the imperial commissioners, that 
something more definite was necessary. Ultimately, under this 
pressure, the Council adopted the phrase "m two natures," which 
was like saying, " Two natures exist under the Incarnation," or, 
" He is, a.t this moment, Man as well as God," as Cyril himself 
had said, that "even in our manhood He continued to be that 
which He was" the Only-begotten Word, (Epist. p. 95.) (Com- 
pare Serm. 2, c. 2, above, and a Preface for the Ascension in 
the so-called Leonine Sacramentary, Muratori, Lit. Rom. Vet. 
i. 314 : "dum et in ea gloria quam tecum semper habuit, et in 
ea natura est quam suam fecit ex nobis.") Thus the revised 
formulary acknowledged " one and the same Christ, perfect in 
Godhead and in Manhood ; truly God and truly Man, consub- 
stantial Divinely with the Father, humanly with us ; existing in 
two natures without confusion, change, division, or severance :" 



" Homo" for "Manhood." 165 

then partly in Cyril's own words (see his second letter to Nes- 
torius,) " the difference of the natures being nowise annulled 
by the union, but rather both natures being preserved, and meet- 
ing in one person and one hypostasis." One might have thought 
that such language, while excluding one error, was equally de- 
cisive against the opposite; but for years an Eutychianising party 
continued to charge the Council with Nestorianism ; and the 
Armenians disowned its authority, not from any intelligent objec- 
tion to what it intended to assert, but because in their own lan- 
guage "two natures" seemed to mean "two persons." (Neale, 
Introd. to East. Ch. ii. 1080.) Dioscorus and the great majority 
of the Egyptians rejected the Council, and professed to believe, 
not that the Manhood was absorbed in the Godhead, but that 
both together formed one composite nature. (Neale, Hist. Patr. 
Alex. ii. 8.) This formula still prevails among the Copts. It was 
largely propagated in the East by the indefatigable exertions of 
one man, Jacob or James, from whom its adherents have derived 
the name of " Jacobites :" and who was surnamed " Baradaeus" 
from the " tattered beggar's disguise" in which he traversed 
Syria and Mesopotamia, animated by the deepest conviction 
that in preaching the " one nature," he was but contending for 
the personal oneness of Christ. 

36. " Homo" does not here mean " an individual man" or 
human person, but " manhood." So in Serm. 14, c. 6, below, 
;< hominis" is read antithetically to " deitatis," and in Serm. 16, 
c. i, to " divinitatis." See too in Epist. 8, c. 2, where " verum 
hominem accepit Christus" is followed by " de ipsa naturae nostrae 
communione." The passages, de Pass, i, c. 2, "nee Verbum ibi 
ab homine disjunctum, nee homo est dissociatus a Verbo," and 
in Nativ. 2, c. 4, " inseparabilis a suo homine deitatis," and in 
Ep. 28, c. 4, " homo non consumitur dignitate," are to be simi- 
larly explained. The same usage appears in S. Augustine, 
Enchirid. c. 36, where it is distinctly denied that the " homo" 
in this case had any personal existence before the union of 
' Verbum et homo ;" and in Civ. Dei, xi. 2, " Deus, Dei Filius, 
homine assumpto, non Deo consumpto, eamdem constituit . . . 
fidem, ut ad hominis Deum iter esset homini per Hominem 
Deum;" and Serm. 80. 5, " Idem enim Deus, idem homo ; unus 



1 66 The Epiphany. 

enim Christus, Deus et homo ; homo assumptus, ut in melius 
mutaremur," &c. Compare the "Leonine Sacramentary," Mu- 

ratori, Lit. Rom. i. 316, " Dominus noster unitum sibi 

hominem nostrae substantiae in glorias tuae dextera collocavit." 
Similarly S. Athanasius had used Hvepuiros for avepunrwov, see 
Athan. Treat, ii. 349 : also Newman, Tracts Theol. and Eccles. 

P- 333- 

37. The service of the Epiphany was the last Christian ob- 
servance attended by Julian before he threw aside the mask of 
Christian profession (Ammianus Marcellinus, xxi. 2.) It was a 
very popular festival : Leo corrects as a mistake the opinion of 
those Sicilians who thought it a more fitting time than Easter 
itself for solemn baptisms, " because on that day the Lord drew 
near to the baptism of S. John." (Ep. 16, c. i, 6.) S. Augustine 
speaks of its solemn observance as " per universum mundum 
nota solemnitas," Serm. 202. i. 

38. The Magi were gradually reckoned as three, because of 
" the threefold gifts which they offered." Trench on Star of 
Wise Men, p. 15. S. Aug. in his Epiphany Sermons does not 
call them three; and neither he nor Leo take them to be kings, 
as Tertullian did, adv. Marc. iii. 13, in connection with Psalm 
Ixxii. 10. In the Middle Ages they were not only called "the 
Three Kings," and the Epiphany " the Three Kings' Day," or 
simply " Les Rois," but their names were given as Melchior, 
Caspar, and Balthasar. The best information as to the Magi 
will be found in Trench, 1. c. and Mill on Myth. Interpr. p. 302 
10. They were not such Magi as Simon or Elymas cf. Acts 
viii. 9, and Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus, i. 203. That 
the star was a new luminary or luminous appearance is main- 
tained by Trench. Edersheim thinks it just probable that it 
was an " evanescent star" connected with that conjunction of 
Jupiter and Saturn which appeared two years before, i. 213. 

39. Independently of any special revelation, the Magi had 
expected that a Jewish King was to be born. In a later sermon, 
in Epiph. 4, c. 2, Leo connects this with Balaam's prophecy of 
the Star, Numb. xxiv. 17, and in so doing takes part in "the 



The Epiphany. 167 

general consent of the ancient Church," Mill, 303 ; Trench, 36 
40. Against this see Edersheim, i. 209. Bishop Ellicott, Lect. 
on Life of our Lord, p. 72, would trace their expectation to 
" prophecies uttered in their own country, dimly foreshadowing 
this Divine mystery," e.g. as to Sosioth the raiser and judge of 
the dead, ib. p. 77. In the often cited words of Suetonius, in 
Vesp. 4, " Percrebuerat Oriente toto vetus et constans opinio, 
esse in fatis ut eo tempore Judaea profecti rerum potirentur :" 
and Tac. Hist. v. 13, " pluribus persuasio inerat, antiquis sacer- 
dotum litteris contineri, eo ipso tempore fore ut valesceret 
Oriens, profectique Judaea rerum potirentur;" the Roman writers' 
misuse of this expectation being nothing to our purpose. 

40. Compare Serm. in Epiph. 4, c. 2, " Superfluo, Herodes, 

timore turbaris Quern in Judaea regnare non vis, ubique 

regnat." So in the hymn of Sedulius, which, slightly modern- 
ized, occurs in the Roman Breviary for the first Vespers of 
Epiphany ; 

" Hostis Herodes impie, 
Christum venire quid times ? 
Non eripit mortalia, 
Qui regna dat coelestia." 

Yet " can we wonder," asks Bishop Ellicott, Lect. p. 74, " that 
the aged man still on the throne of Judaea was filled with strange 
trouble and perplexity?" On the " ever- watchful suspicion" 
which formed part of Herod's character, as an Idumaean whom 
Roman favour had placed on the throne of David, and on the 
hideous deeds to which what S. Augustine calls his " cruel fear," 
(Serm. 199, s. 2,) had led him, see Mill on Myth. Interpr. 282 
287, 311, and Edersheim, i. 214. 

41. This is the usual symbolism of the Three Gifts, myrrh 
indicating mortality. S. Leo had probably read in S. Aug. Serm. 
202, " Non solum aurum honorandus, et thus adorandus, verum 
etiam myrrham sepeliendus acceperat." So says S. Irenaeus, 
iii. 9. 2 ; and S. Ambrose, de Fide, i. s. 31, " Thesaurus regni, sa- 
crificium" (sc. " thus") " Dei, myrrha est sepulturae." See Pru- 
dentius, Cathem. xii. 69 ; 



1 68 The Innocents. 

" Regem Deumque adnuntiant 
Thesaurus et fragrans odor 
Thuris Sabsei, ac myrrheus 
Pulvis sepulchrum prgedocet." 

So in the second Vespers of the Sarum and Aberdeen Breviaries. 
Antiphon at Magnificat ; " Obtulerunt aurum sicut Regi magno, 
thus sicut Deo vero, myrrham sepulturae ejus, Alleluia." The 
Sarum Missal has a sequence to the same effect. Yet the 
frankincense has been otherwise explained ; at the end of the 
same sermon above quoted, S. Augustine makes it a recogni- 
tion of Christ as the Priest. And the Roman Breviary, while 
prescribing Prudentius' lines for Lauds, has the following in a 
responsory for Matins on the week days within the octave ; " In 
thure, Sacerdotem magnum considera :" which is also in the 
Sarum. The symbolism, as ordinarily given, is well drawn out 
by Archbishop Trench, pp. 66 70. And so Mill, p. 309 ; " the 
gifts which, whether consciously on their parts or not, symbolize 
severally to the faithful of all after ages His sovereignty, His 
Divinity, and His sufferings." That His superhuman majesty 
was revealed to them, at least to some extent, seems involved in 
the whole narrative : it was so far a real Epiphany of " the 
Only-begotten Son." 

42. He means, Christ had a King's power, both as God and 
as Man. Comp. Pearson, i. 267, Art. 2, on the two Lordships 
belonging to His Divinity and His Humanity. 

43, On the Martyr-dignity of the Innocents, see Serm. in 
Epiph. 2, c. 3, "ut disceretur neminem hominum Divini inca- 
pacem esse Sacramenti, quando etiam ilia astas gloriae esset apta 
martyrii ;" and in Epiph. 7, c. 4, " ut . . . . per communionem 
aetatis consortes fierent passionis." Similarly S. Augustine, 
" non frustra illos in honorem martyrum receptos commendat 
ecclesia," de Lib. Arb. iii. 68. S. Cyprian also recognises them 
as martyrs, Ep. 58. 6. The lovely stanza of Prudentius, 

"Salvete, floras martyrum, 
Quos lucis ipso in limine 
Christi insecutor sustulit, 
Ceu turbo nascentes rosas," 



The Order of Readers. 169 

expresses "the dignity and blessedness of thus suffering, though 
unconsciously, for Him Who came to redeem mankind," (Mill, 
316 ;) and against the Church's deep consciousness of this, as 
Trench says, p. 92, " all the hard-hearted arguments to the con- 
trary are nothing worth." Our Collect (from the Gelasian 
Sacramentary) has lost since 1661 the touching antithesis, 
that they showed forth God's praise " not in speaking, but in 
dying ;" but " infants" is substituted for " innocents." 

44. The Ballerini read " Impensa humana salutis sacramenta 
venerantes," instead of the old reading, " Impens&sa/utitumana 
gratias sacramenta." Surely the latter text, leaving out " gratise" 
as a gloss, is the more probable. We have a similar phrase in 
Serm. in Nativ. 8, c. 3, " effectum misericordias suas quern resti- 
tution/ impendebat humanae ;" de Pass. 15, c. 4, "quae nostrae 
impendit salu//y" de Res. 2, c. i, "salvandis impensa," &c. 

45. Acquirere, from an old and correct Latin rendering of 
S. Luke xxi. 19, /cr^o-ao-fle, ie., make your souls your own, get 
the mastery over them. The A.V. wrongly follows the Vulgate, 
" possidebitis." See Trench on Auth. Vers. p. 95. The Revised 
Version has " ye shall win your souls." 

46. The"narratio evangelicae lectionis" refers to the read- 
ing of passages of Scripture by the Lector, as a part of the 
Church service. (Compare Serm. 7, c. I ; n, c. i ; 14, c. i.) 
So in Epiph. 3, c. i, "secundum consuetudinem evangelicus 

sermo ;" in Epiph. 8, c. i, " evangelica narratio ;" de 

Pass. 3, c. 5, "qua lectio Dominicae passionis iterabitur." S. 
Augustine alludes to this usage in Serm. 17. i, " Lector ascen- 
dit" (i.e., to the "ambon" or desk); Serm. 32. 23, "sonant 
lectores ;" Serm. 67. i, "ut hoc verbum sonuit in ore lec- 
tori s ;" in Psal. 138. i, "psalmum quern mandaveramus can- 
tari a lectore." In Africa boys sometimes discharged this 
function, S. Aug. Serm. 352. i ; de Cons. Evan, i, s. 15. So at 
Milan, S. Ambrose de Excessu Fratris, i. 64. S. Epiphanius of 
Pavia was a Reader at eight. So in Asia, as in the cases of 
Julian (Soz. v. 2) and Theodoret (Hist. Relig. 12). The order 
of Readers is first mentioned by Tertullian (de Praescr. Haeret. 



170 Jews and Pagans. 

41) and next by S. Cyprian, who took pleasure in commissioning 
two brave laymen who had confessed Christ in a persecution to 
read His acts and words in church. (Epistles 38, 39.) S. Chry- 
sostom in early life was Reader under Meletius ; he himself, 
as Bishop, had a faithful Reader named Paul. (See Soc. vi. 15.) 
Readers were appointed by a solemn form, sometimes with im- 
position of hands, (Apost. Const, viii. 22,) but more commonly 
without it, " Cone. Carth. 4," c. 8. The Greek forms vary, 
Gear's Euchol. p. 234 if. The African address, "Take this" 
(roll of Scripture) "and be a reader of God's Word," &c., 
found its way into the Roman ritual, and thence into the Pon- 
tifical of Egbert Archbishop of York. 

47- In regard to this Jewish " envy," see Milman, Hist, of 
Jews, iii. 27 ; " No doubt the more intemperate members of the 
Synagogue, when they might do it securely, would revenge them- 
selves by insult or any other means of hostility in their power 
against the aggressions of the Church," &c. 

48. The Pagan remnant in the West had very little power at 
this time to exhibit " ferocity" against Christians : we must 
allow for Leo's rhetorical turn, but he may have had in his 
time some isolated cases in which the deep-seated bitterness of 
feeling against the new religion which had dethroned Rome's 
ancient gods, and thereby, as it was often said, had brought 
calamities on the empire, found opportunities of angry and 
violent expression. Cp. Salvian, de Gub. Dei, viii. 45. 

49. This may remind us of the old proverb, " Sanguis mar- 
tyrum semen ecclesiae." Compare Leo's Sermon "in Natali 
Petri et Pauli," c. 6 ; " Non minuitur persecutionibus ecclesia, 
sed augetur ; et semper Dominicus ager segete ditiori vestitur, 
dum grana singula cadunt, multiplicata nascuntur," &c. 

50. Christianity had for a long time been the dominant, 
though occasionally the baffled, power in the Imperial court. 
Prudentius could write, c. Sym. ii. 766, " Unus nostra regat 
servetque palatia Christus." S. Augustine, in an Epiphany Ser- 
mon, could say that kings now delighted not in slaying like 



Need of continual Vigilance. 171 

Herod, but in worshipping with the Magi, Serm. 200. Theo- 
dosius II., a devout, amiable, and fairly cultured prince, whose 
weakness once drew him into a murderous plot, (Hodgkin, Italy 
and her Invaders, ii. 64,) has left a record of his orthodox zeal in 
Cod. Th. xvi. 5. 63, " Omnes Catholicaelegis inimicos insectamur 
errores ;" but it was not always easy to make him see which side 
was orthodox. His sister Pulcheria is worthily reckoned among 
royal Saints ; she gave extreme satisfaction to Leo by " her 
love for the Catholic Faith" as to the Two Natures, Ep. 60. 
Valentinian III., in matters ecclesiastical, submitted his con- 
science to Leo, lent his authority to the aggrandisement of the 
Roman see, and supported Leo's views in a letter to Theodosius, 
Ep. 55 ; but Leo could not keep him from the degrading vices 
which contributed to bring him, in 455, to a terrible end, cp. 
Gibbon, c. 35 (vol. iv. p. 251.) 

51. Leo repeatedly insists on the need of moral vigilance, as 
not diminished by the cessation of one particular form of trial, 
that which was embodied in persecution. So in de Jej. x. 
mensis, 7, c. I, u Sciendum tamen est . . . retuso aculeo timoris, 
causam manere certaminis, quod . . . terribiliter quidem furore 
persecutionis movetur, sed nocentius specie pacis infertur . . . 
Adversarius cruentas inimicitias ad quietas convertit insidias," 
&c. De Quadrag. 2, c. 2 : " Semper quidem tibi, O anima Chris- 
tiana, vigilandum contra salutis tuas adversarium fuit, sed modo 
tibi major cautio . . . est adhibenda . . . Fremit . . . exspoliati 
hostis impius furor, et novum quaerit lucrum, quia jus perdidit 
antiquum. Captat ... si quas reperiat oves a sacris gregibus 
negligentius evagantes . . . inflammat iras, nutrit odia, acuit cu- 
piditates," &c. De Quadrag. 9, c. I : " Unum nomen est per- 
secutionis, sed non una est causa certaminis, et plus plerumque 
periculi est in insidiatore occulto quam in hoste manifesto . . . 
Omnis haec vita tentatio est," &c. 

52. The common identification of the Pagan deities with evil 
spirits was an overstrained inference from I Cor. x. 19, the sense 
of which is, " The idol in itself is a nullity ; but the strings of 
the puppet are pulled by an unseen diabolical power. The evil 
spirits energise through the worship ; it may be considered as, 



172 Reconciliation. 

in effect, passing on to them. If Christians advisedly join in it, 
they stain their souls, they compromise their religious loyalty, 
they contradict in act their Sacramental relations to their 
true Lord ; and thereby they serve the cause of the great 
enemy." 

53. That probation ends with life, that there is no repentance 
beyond the grave, is affirmed by Leo again, in Epiph. 5, c. 4 ; 
"In inferno nulla est correctio ; nee datur remedium satisfac- 
tionis, ubi jam non superest actio voluntatis." 

54. The idea of "reconciliation of the guilty" involves the 
idea of a " reconciliation of God to man," which some have 
called " unscriptural," opposed to S. Paul's teaching, and theo- 
logically erroneous. It is found, however, in S. Clement's 
genuine Epistle, c. 48, " that He, being made propitious, may 
be reconciled to us ;" and it has been expressly defended by 
Pearson against the Socinians, (see vol. i. 614, Art. 10,) and 
before him by S. Thomas Aquinas, who in Sum. iii. 49. 4 dis- 
cusses this point, meeting the objection, " God always loved 
us," with the answer, " He always does love us in regard to our 
nature, but not in regard to our sins ;" they are an " odii causa," 
which the Passion of Christ removed. S. Chrysostom, who felt 
God's love as strongly as any man since S. John's death, dis- 
tinctly affirms a reconciliation of God as well as of man, Horn, 
de Ascens. c. 2. Tertullian sees in the word " grace" the indica- 
tion of an offence forgiven, adv. Marc. v. 5 ; as Olshausen (who 
once thought otherwise) observes that a "ministry of reconcilia- 
tion" implies a reconciliation ex parte Dei, Comm. on Rom. 
iii. 24, and Bishop Browne points to what is involved in " not 
imputing," on Articles, i. 101. See Archb. Trench on Parab. 
p. 355 (on the Barren Fig-tree ;) and in Westminster Sermons, p. 
178, "The Atonement is a reconciling not merely of man to 
God, but of God to man .... Christ made the peace which 
He announced .... Through the sacrifice of His death, the 
disturbed, and in part suspended relations between God and 
His sinful creatures were constituted anew." The radical ques- 
tion is, Were those relations at all suspended on God's side ? 
The answer must be, that sin as such is necessarily an objective 



The Human Will in Christ. 173 

barrier between God and His creatures ; and that " reconciliation" 
is primarily associated by S. Paul with forgiveness of sins and 
deliverance from " wrath," and only secondarily with man's 
change of heart, (see Dale on the Atonement, pp. 239, 242, 262.) 

55. Pagans would still on occasion repeat the old sneers at 
" a crucified god/' or, in Lucian's phrase, (de Morte Peregrini,) 
;< that impaled sophist" of the Christians, the ignorant rustic 
teacher, according to Julian, whose cures wrought on a few sick 
people in Galilee had been so greatly overrated. (See Kendall, 
The Emperor Julian, p. 235.) As long as Paganism lingered 
among old noble families in Rome, this contempt would be the 
more intense in private because public expression of it was not 
safe. It must be remembered that even after Leo's death, 
a Pagan remnant could point to a Roman general, Marcellinus, 
as a worshipper of the ancient gods : and the Lupercalia might 
still give occasion for much license of Pagan talk, although pro- 
fessedly the festival had been stripped of Pagan associations. 

56. When he denies a "conflict of feelings" in Christ, he 
does not mean (as the context shows) to deny the reality of the 
Agony, although here and in de Pass. 7, c. 5, he may seem to 
dwell too much on the instructive or exemplary character of 
Christ's words, too little on the actual feeling which they indi- 
cated ; yet elsewhere he speaks absolutely of fear as having 
been, equally with compassion, within the range of our Lord's 
human experience, Ep. 139, c. 2. It is indeed true that "haec 
vox Capitis salus est corporis .... Haec vox omnes fideles 
instruxit, omnes confessores accendit, omnes martyres coro- 
navit," de Pass. 7, c. 5. In the context Leo affirms the ex- 
istence of two wills in Christ, a higher and a lower. Atha- 
nasius, indeed, had said, " The will belongs to the Godhead 
only," c. Apollin. ii. 10 : but this was said in support of the 
statement that our Lord's " flesh" was devoid of " carnal desires," 
and is followed by the statement that He had " the whole of the 
first Adam." In the " de Incarn. et c. Arianos," c. 21, there is 
an express assertion of " two wills :" but that treatise is probably 
not by Athanasius himself. S. Ambrose plainly says, " Sus- 
cepit voluntatem meam, suscepit tristitiam meam," de Fide, ii. 



1/4 The Human Will in Christ. 

s. 53. Early in the seventh century there grew out of the 
controversy on Christ's Natures a controversy as to whether 
He had one or two Wills, it being hoped by the Eastern court 
that the Monophysite schism might be healed if the Church 
would grant that Christ had but one will and one activity. 
(Robertson, Hist. Ch. iii. 422.) The "one will" was asserted by 
some, as Sergius and Cyrus, on quasi-Monophysite grounds ; 
by others, as Pope Honorius, from the mistaken notion that 
" two wills" implied a conflict. The co-existence, without con- 
flict, of two wills, as a consequence of the two natures, was in- 
sisted on by the first Council of Lateran in 649, and ultimately 
by the Sixth General Council at Constantinople in 680, and 
which was thus a kind of supplement to the Fourth Council, as 
the Fifth had been to the Third ; and which, besides condemn- 
ing Monothelites, living and dead, (Honorius being among the- 
latter,) pronounced that our Lord had " two natural wills and 
two natural operations," each nature willing and " working what 
belonged to it, in communion with the other." At first sight, 
the exceeding earnestness of the orthodox in this matter may 
appear overstrained ; but if we consider that Christ's true Man- 
hood was once again the point at issue, we shall not wonder 
that Sophronius of Jerusalem, placing one of his suffragans " on 
the holy Golgotha," adjured him to maintain the truth against 
Monothelites, as he should answer to that Lord Who "in this 
holy place was voluntarily crucified :" nor that Pope Martin 
I. the story of whose noble confessorship is among the most 
touching in Church history serenely endured, under the tyrant 
Constans II., the extremities of brutal treatment and hopeless 
exile in the cause of a real Incarnation. The question, says 
Trench, (Huls. Lect. p. 214,) "was one for life and death ; the 
denial of a human will in Christ was in fact a denial of His 
Sacrifice." See Hooker, v. 48. 9 ; Pearson, i. 285, Art. 3. Com- 
pare Aquinas, Sum. iii. 18, I, 6 : "ad perfectionem humanae 
naturae pertinet voluntas, quae est naturalis ejus potentia .... 
Unde necesse est dicere quod Filius Dei humanam voluntatem 
assumpserit cum humana natura ;" but he adds that the "volun- 
tas naturalis," or instinctive wish to avoid suffering, obeyed 
" the voluntas rationalis" and the Divine will, so that there was 
no " contrariety of wills." See also Liddon's Bamp. Lect. p. 265, 



Holy Week Services. 175 

where an analogy is suggested between the two principles of voli- 
tion observable " within the precincts of a single human soul," (as 
in Rom. vii. 17, ff.) and the coexistence of a real human will with 
a Divine will in the incarnate Christ : but it is added, by way of 
caveat, that the human will " corresponded to the eternal will 
with unvarying accuracy . . . from the first was controlled by the 
Divine will." See note 15, on the impeccability of Christ. 

57. The subject of God's merciful refusals was one which 
Leo might have repeatedly seen discussed by S. Augustine ; 
e.g. Enarr. 2 in Ps. xxvi., " et propitius Deus, cum male amamus, 
negat quod amamus ;" and in Jo. Ev. Tr. 73, 3, 4. "Quod videt 
peti contra salutem, non faciendo potius se exhibet Salvatorem 
.... Petamus, quando bene petimus, ut non faciat quod non 
bene petimus." Comp. Christian Year, I7th Sunday after 
Trinity : 

" . . . . In veiy love refuse 
Whate'er Thou know'st our weakness would abuse." 

58. On Wednesday before Easter it is probable that Leo was 
wont to offer a Collect, which the " Gelasian Sacramentary" 
provides for that day, Muratori, i. 548, and which occurs in the 

' Leonine Sacramentary" as a Preface for one of the Masses in 
the " fast of the seventh month," ib. 421. " (Omnipotens sem- 
piterne Deus) Qui Christi tui beata Passione nos reparas, con- 
serva in nobis opera misericordice tuse ; ut in hujus celebritate 
mysterii perpetua devotione vivamus, per," &c. The next Ge- 
lasian prayer resembles in tone these sermons of S. Leo, in 
that it speaks of the " piaculum perfidorum" becoming the 
" salus omnium." The Leonine Sacramentary, so called, exists 
only as a fragment, and its Passiontide portion is lost ; but we 
can form some idea of the Leonine ritual for this day by turn- 
ing to the Ordo Romanus I. at the end of Murat, vol. ii., which 
Mabillon ascribes to the age of Gregory the Great, and which 
probably embodies many older liturgical traditions. This Ordo, 
for "feria IV. quae est pridie In Coena Domini," prescribes that 
the " Pontifex" is to come at 9 a.m. to the altar " in ecclesia 
majore," and say the solemn prayers of intercession, (as on 
Good Friday ; the third of them being now our second Good 



176 The Passion an inexhaustible subject. 

Friday Collect,) omitting only the prayer for himself. At 2 p.m. 
' they come in to Mass ;" there is an Introit, Collect, a Lection, 
probably " Who is this that cometh from Edom," a Gradual 
from Ps. Ixix., another Lection, probably " Who hath believed 
our report," a " Canticle" (or " Tract") from Ps. cii., and " the 
Passion according to S. Luke ;" after which, " expletur Missa 
ordine suo." The afternoon Celebration on this day of solemn 
fasting is no precedent for Sunday " Evening Communions." 

59. The "festival of the Passion" may seem a strange phrase, 
(yet compare G. Herbert's " dear feast of Lent,") but Leo ex- 
presses by it exactly what is meant by our phrase " Good Fri- 
day." So Bp. Andrewes, Serm. ii. 153, that in one sense it is 
" a day of joy and jubilee." Archbishop Mepeham, in his con- 
stitutions of 1328, orders Good Friday to be observed "festive," 
simply in the sense of " as a holy day." 






60. This passage is the fourth Lesson, as others in the same 
sermon are the fifth and sixth, at Matins in the Roman Office 
for Palm Sunday. Compare what Leo says of Christmas, de 
Nativ. 9, c. i. " Inde oritur difficultas fandi, unde adest ratio 
non tacendi .... Ideo nunquam materia deficit laudis, quia 
nunquam sufficit copia laudatoris. Gaudeamus igitur quod ad 
eloquendum tantum misericordiae sacramentum impares sumus ; 
et cum salutis nostrae altitudinem non valemus explicare, sen- 
tiamus nobis bonum esse quod vincimur." See Nehem. ix. 5 ; 
and compare Ecclus. xliii. 27 31, which suggested to Aquinas 
the rapturous words, in his " Lauda Sion," 

" Quantum potes, tantum aude, 
Quia major omni laude, 
Nee laudare sufficis !" 

S. Augustine says to the same effect, Conf. i. c. 4, " Quid dicit 
aliquis cum de te dicit ? Et vas tacentibus de te ! quoniam 
loquaces muti sunt." 

61. Here he treats the ordinary Roman Creed as handed 
down from the Apostles. So in the " tractatus against Euty- 
chianism," which is reckoned as his ninety-sixth sermon : 



Various Readings in the Creed. 177 

" institute a sacris apostolis symbolo." And in a letter to Pul- 
cheria, Epist. 31. 4 : " Catholici symboli brevis et perfecta con- 
fessio, quae duodecim apostolorum totidem est signata sententiis." 
Here we find the long popular notion that each Apostle contri- 
buted a sentence, Peter beginning, " I believe in God," &c., as 
in the Sermons reckoned as 240 and 241 in the appendix to S. 
Augustine's genuine Sermons. 

62. There are six forms of this article in the various types of 
the old Western Creed, (i) That in the text, " de Spiritu 
Sancto natum ex Maria Virgine." This is found in the Creed 
of Aquileia as given by Rufinus, of Ravenna as given by Peter 
Chrysologus, of Turin as given by Maximus of Turin, of Gaul 
as given by Venantius Fortunatus (see Heurtley, Harmonia 
Symbolica, pp. 26 50) : compare a pseudo-Augustinian Ser- 
mon, 238th in the appendix. See Leo, Serm. 2, c. I, for "ex ... 
Maria" simply. (2) Again, by a slight change, which produces 
some uncertainty as to reading, (e.g. in the Tome, c. 2,) " de 
Spiritu Sancto et Virgine Maria." This is found in S. Augus- 
tine's Enchiridion, c. 38, in his de Symbolo ad Catechumenos, 
s. 6, and Sermons 212 and 214. Both ex and et occur in his 
Serm. 215, (see Heurtley, pp. 42, 49). De . . . et occurs in 
the Laudian Codex. It seems to have been the reading of the 
Roman Creed when Marcellus of Ancyra presented a confes- 
sion to Pope Julius, which was evidently the Roman Creed 
rendered into Greek (Heurtley, p. 23), and which contained the 
words yfvri6evTa c/c Tlvtv/JiaTos ayiov Kal Mapias TTJS TrapOevov (Epi- 
phanius, Hasr. Ixxii. 3 ; compare the " Constantinopolitan" recen- 
sion of the Nicene, (rap/ca>0eWa K UvevfjiaTos ayiov Kal Mapias rr)S 
irap6(vov, the reading followed in the Gelasian version of that 
Creed, "de Spiritu Sancto et Maria Virgine," Murat i. 540, 
tnd in two old English versions, Heurtley, p. 162 ; but altered 
n the present Roman and English versions into nearer confor- 
nity with the received text of the Apostles' Creed, as the Arme- 
lian Church has altered it into e/c Mapias ... 5m rii/eu^o-ros 07101;, 
riort, Two Dissertations, p. 146). Leo uses "de Maria Vir- 
fine" simply, in Nativ. 4, c. 4. (3) Again, Facundus, about a 
:entury after Leo, reads "natum ex Spiritu Sancto et Maria 
/irgine," in the " epistle" at the end of his " Pro Defensione 

N 



178 The One Person in Two Natures. 

Trium Capitulorum." (4) We have "per Spiritum Sanctum ex 
Virgine Maria" in S. Augustine de Fide et Symbolo, s. 8. 
(5) A Gallic form, " de Maria . . . per Spiritum Sanctum." 
(Heurtley, p. 67.) (6) The present full form "conceptus est de 
Spiritu Sancto, natus ex Virgine Maria," occurs in S. Augus- 
tine's Serm. 213 ; in a Creed gathered from two expository 
homilies ascribed to various authors, but apparently by a Gallic 
bishop of the province of Aries (Heurtley, p. 57 ;) and in the 
Creeds of the seventh and eighth centuries, &c., (ib. p. 68.) 

63. The passage is not very clear ; but he appears to be com- 
bining the two thoughts, " alike in glory and in humiliation He 
is one and the same," and " this personal unity is compatible 
with the distinct functions of Godhead and Manhood." Most 
intimate, indeed, is the combination of the two elements ; but 
it does not produce an interchange of properties, whereby the 
Almighty essence itself could suffer, or the weakness of huma- 
nity be annulled. Compare the celebrated passage in the Tome, 
" Agit enim utraque forma, cum alterius communione, quod pro- 
prium est:" which probably was in Hooker's mind when he wrote, 
" Of both natures there is a co-operation often, an association 
always, but never any mutual participation whereby the pro- 
perties of the one are infused into the other," (v. 53. 3.) " The 
only true communication of properties," as Pearson says, is 
the ascription of Divine and human acts or qualities to the one 
Person of Christ, whether under the title of " God" or of " Man," 
see above, note 5. This does not satisfy Dorner, who criticises 
the Chalcedonian Christology from the Lutheran point of view, 
which apparently requires such a communication as amounts to 
the " mutual participation" between the natures as such. 

64. It is undeniable (i) that Leo differed from the general line 
of Patristic teaching by ascribing to S. Peter, not merely a pri- 
macy in the sense of a precedency and representative character, 
but also a certain superiority of power, as in Sermon 15 of this 
volume, c. 2, and more plainly in Ep. 14. u, " inter beatissimos 
Apostolos in similitudine honoris fuit qu<zdam discretio potesta- 
tis ;" and both in Serm. de Nat. ipsius, 4, c. 2, 3, and Ep. 10. i, 
he makes the daring assertion that the powers of the other 



Leo's "Petrine" claims. 179 

Apostles were transmitted to them through Peter : (2) that, as 
the " heir" of S. Peter, he put forth high pretensions (for which he 
procured Valentinian's sanction) to a general authority over the 
whole Church. The Easterns, in the Council of Chalcedon, al- 
lowed him the first place and great influence, but steadily ignored 
his theories of supremacy ; declining to accept as final his deci- 
sion in favour of Theodoret, approving his "Tome" on the ground 
of its ascertained conformity to received standards, and passing 
a canon which placed the pre-eminence of Rome on a civil basis. 
But we are now concerned only with his view of S. Peter and of 
S. Peter's Confession, the parent of Christian Creeds. He seems 
to have taken " this rock" to mean S. Peter, considered as con- 
fessing the Divinity of our Lord, the " original Rock" or " cor- 
nerstone" (Serm. 1. c.; Ep. 28. 5) and as appointed to "proclaim 
this faith," and to perpetuate it in his own see. Three elements 
combine in the idea : (i) Christ Himself, (2) the faith in Christ, 
and (3) Peter, considered as the chief of the Apostles, and, under 
Christ, the head of the Church. Hence we have Christ spoken 
of as the " petra :" then in the same sermon, that against which 
the " portae inferi" are not to prevail is called Peter's confession, 
and to that faith " soliditas" is attributed in de Nat. ips. 3, c. 
3. So Ep. 119. 2, "Catholicae fidei petra." Again, Peter is 
called absolutely the " petra" in de Pass. 9, c. 4 ; " soliditas" 
is attributed to him in Ep. 10, c. I ; and in de Nat. ips. 4, c. 
2, we read, " Tu quoque petra es, quia mea virtute solidaris." 
Leo's way of looking at the passage was most practically illus- 
trated by his continuous unhesitating assertion of "Petrine" 
powers for himself as the " heir of Peter," see de Nat. ips. 5. 4. 
The name of " Peter" is made to serve as warrant for any claim 
of power that Leo thinks well to assert. Hilary of Aries stands 
up, firmly but respectfully, for his own metropolitical authority : 
this, according to Leo, is " not to endure to be subject to the 
blessed Apostle Peter," " to diminish by somewhat arrogant 
words the reverence due to the most blessed Peter." (Ep. 10, c. 
2; see Gore, Leo the Great, p. 108.) It is rather a long step 
from S. Ambrose's observation that Peter, in making his great 
confession, " primatum egit, confessionis utique, non honoris 

fidei, non ordinis," (de Incarn. Dom. Sacram. s. 32,) to 

Leo's assertion that in reward of his faith Christ granted to him 



1 80 Theory of a price paid to Satan. 

"apostolicae dignitatis primatum" in such sense as to fix the 
Church's basis in " fundamenti ipsius soliditate," and to invest 
all his successors with an universal " solicitude," Ep. 5. 2, or 
to say that he has " never quitted that guidance of the Church 
which he received," a proposition explained in the words which 
presently follow, " cujus in sede sua vivit potestas et excellit 
auctoritas," in Nat. ips. 3, c. 3. Cp. in Nat. ips. 5, c. 4. 

65. The concealment of Christ's Divinity from Satan was a 
favourite idea of the Fathers, from S. Ignatius (Eph. 19) down- 
wards. But on this supposition, combined with Scriptural 
imagery of "redemption" and the Scriptural language on the 
dominion of Satan over " this world," was built up a mode of 
speaking which unless we can treat it as a " rhetorical playing 
with words," (Aids to Faith, p. 341), must needs be deemed a 
strange and repulsive theory. It was presumed that he had 
acquired a real right of property in man as fallen, which right 
he could not lose except by fair purchase ; that the price offered 
to him was the life of Jesus : but that he would not have ac- 
cepted the equivalent if he had not been misled by the purely 
human surroundings of that life, so as to slay One who, being 
Divine and sinless, was in no sense subject to his claim. See 
Oxenham on Cath. Doctr. of Atonement, p.'i2i, ff.; and Dale on 
the Atonement, p. 273, ff., who pertinently observes that " the 
more intolerable .... this hypothesis is, the more conclusively 
it proves the depth and strength of the faith of the Church in 
the reality of the objective element in the Atonement. In the 
earliest ages, Christian men were quite sure that Christ died to 
deliver them from some great objective evil, and . . . they were 
willing to accept even this preposterous explanation of the 
manner in which His death delivered us, if no better could be 
found. But nothing can be more certain than that the idea of 
an objective Atonement was not invented to satisfy such a 
theory as this : the theory was a most irreligious method of 
satisfying the idea." It was also not very coherent : in one 
aspect, it spoke of a bargain and purchase, of a claim surren- 
dered in view of compensation : in the other, of a deceit prac- 
tised upon Satan whereby he was led to seize one over whom he 
had no right, and thus to forfeit his right over others. (Oxen- 



What " Redemption " involves. 1 8 1 

ham, p. 137.) And yet, although Athanasius entertained far 
worthier views of the efficacy of Christ's death, and Gregory 
Nazianzen, while still permitting himself to speak of Satan as 
"ensnared" by it, (Orat. 39. 13,) denounced as " outrageous" the 
notion of a ransom paid to Satan instead of to the Father (Orat. 
45. 22), the theory, in one or other of its parts, was popular until 
the days of S. Anselm : and the words of Venantius Fortu- 
natus, still sung in the course of the Roman Office for Good 
Friday, " Multiformis proditoris ars ut artem falleret," are but 
an echo of the distressing language in Gregory Nyssen's " Ca- 
techetical Oration," as to the justice of that aTrorrj whereby the 
old deceiver was deceived. Leo himself says, in Nativ. 2, c. 4, 
* lllusa est securi hostis astutia :" in the text, and de Pass. 9, c. 3, 
he does not go so far. Of course, there is a truth represented by 
such terms as " ransom," and another truth represented by such 
texts as S. John xii. 31 ; and in Archb. Trench's words, "it was 
part of the great scheme of redemption that the victory over 
il should be a moral triumph, not a triumph obtained by the 
mere putting forth of superior strength ; we can see how im- 
portant it was for this end that man, who lost the battle, should 
ilso win it, i Cor. xv. 21," (on Parables, p. 94 ;) as Cardinal 
Newman has so grandly expressed it, 

" O wisest love ! that flesh and blood, 

Which did in Adam fail, 
Should strive afresh against their foe, 
Should strive and should prevail :" 

)ut this is no warrant for condensing one part only of the 
Scriptural imagery on the Atonement into a theory, and letting 
he fancy play around it in disregard alike of moral considera- 
ions and of other representations of a many-sided mystery, 
n the context before us, Leo shows that he could not conceive 
>f the price as really paid to Satan, but to the Divine justice 
rtiich had punished man by leaving him, to a great extent, 
inder the evil master whom he had chosen by his sin. Re- 
peatedly, also, he speaks of Christ's death as a " sacrifice," of 
:ourse to the Father : see below, note 84 ; as in Serm. 2, c. 3, 
o, c. 3, and 11, c. 3. So Dr. Mill, who insists on the truth un- 
lerlying the old patristic language, and cites S. Bernard as 



1 82 Christ died for all. 

maintaining it, adds "that in his view the selfsame Divine 
justice that left fallen man in the power of Satan at first, is that 
which accepted the satisfaction," and also considers that this 
was, in fact, the belief of the Fathers in question. (Sermons on 
our Lord's Temptation, p. 148.) So Aquinas, Sum. iii. 48. 4, 
that the captivity of man under Satan was by God's permission 
and just appointment ; therefore redemption had reference to 
God ; and to Him, not to Satan, the price was to be paid. See 
above, note 6. 

66. " Et pretium et poculum." This combination of the re- 
demptive efficacy and the Eucharistic reception of Christ's 
blood was perhaps suggested by S. Augustine's language, " Cogito 
pretium meum, et manduco, et bibo." Confess, x. s. 70 ; and 
" gentibus .... pia humilitate bibentibus pretium suum," de 
Trin. iv. s. 18. Leo again refers to the Eucharistic cup in the 
Tome, c. 5. See note 81. 

67. That Christ died for all, is affirmed in 2 Cor. v. 14. S. 
Augustine had been led by his Predestinarian opinions to ex- 
plain away (see de Corrept. et Grat. 44) the parallel statement 
of i Tim. ii. 4. But S. Leo asserts the largeness of the Di- 
vine benignity without reserve, in the text, and in Serm. n. 3. 
As to the general view of the Fathers, see S. Athan. de Incarn. 
20, "It was on behalf of all that He offered the Sacrifice, giving 
up His own temple to death O//T! Ttdvrwv," (avrl has plainly a vica- 
rious sense, for he had just said, " That which was due from all 
had to be paid," &c.) S. Chrys. in Heb. Horn. 17, c. 2. " So far 
as He was concerned, He died for all, to save all ; for that death 
was an equivalent for the perdition of all. But He did not 
take away the sins of all, because they were not willing." And 
S. Ambrose, in Ps. 118, Serm. 15. 10 : " Passio Salvatoris omnes 
redemit" The proposition that He did not die for all, was 
maintained by Gottschalk in the ninth century ; and Hincmar, 
Archbishop of Rheims, who took a strong line against extreme 
predestinarianism, caused Gottschalk's theology to be con- 
demned by the Council of Quiercy in 853, which declared, " As 
there never was, nor will be, nor is, any man whose nature 
Christ did not assume, so there neither is, was, nor will be any 



Judas. 183 

man for whom He did not suffer The cup of man's sal- 
vation, composed of our weakness and Divine power, has the 
capacity of benefiting all, but it does not heal if it is not drunk" 
One of the five propositions imputed to Jansenius, and con- 
demned by Innocent X. in 1653, was " Semi-pelagianum est 
dicere, Christum pro omnibus omnino hominibus mortuum 
esse aut sanguinem fudisse." Mohler says that the Roman 
Church and the Lutheran formularies agree in the truth of 
Christ's having died for all : Symbolism, i. 137, E. Tr. 

68. Of Judas he says again in de Pass, i, c. 5, that had he 
but repented in earnest, he would have been forgiven ; and so, 
de Pass. 3, c. 3, that despair drew him to the halter : that he 
ought to have waited until (obs. this use of donee, as of s) 
Christ had died for sinners. See de Pass. 7, c. 3, on the for- 
bearance indicated in " One of you shall betray Me." Like 
most of the Fathers, he considers that Jesus "repelled him not 
from the Communion of His Body and Blood," ib. and see 
de Pass. 7, c. 3, " ne ab hoc quidem mysterio traditore submoto 
.... Non sacramentorum tibi communio denegatur." Comp. 
S. Chrys. de Prod. Judae, i. 6, with our Exhortation, " Lest after 
the taking," &c. The exception to the general Patristic consent 
on this point is S. Hilary ; " sine quo," he says, referring to 
Judas, " Pascha accepto calice et fracto pane conficitur, dignus 
enim aeternorum sacramentorum communione non fuerat," 
Comm. in Matt. c. 30. 2. If S. Luke xxii. 21 is in the actual 
order of time, Judas must have been a communicant ; but if, as 
Bp. Ellicott thinks, (Lectures, p. 325,) S. Matt. xxvi. 25 corres- 
ponds to S. John xiii. 26, a Harmony should read, " He went 
out, and it was night," ib. 30, before the Consecration. 

69. Leo is thus one of those Fathers who recognise the 
; 'Pericope Adulteras." S. Chrysostom's and S. Cyril's Com- 
mentaries ignore it. S. Aug. de Conj. Adult, ii. s. 6, thought it 
had been erased as dangerous. S. Jerome, adv. Pelag. ii. 17, says 
that it was in many Greek and Latin copies. See Scrivener's 
Introduction to Criticism of N. T. p. 610 ; he thinks the passage 
may have been added by S. John in a "second edition" of his 
Gospel. Bp. Ellicott inclines to ascribe it to S..Luke, Lect. p. 253. 



X 

184 '' The First-born of all creation? 

70. See on Pilate, de Pass. 3, c. 5, "lotis manibus et ore pol- 
lute ;" and de Pass. 8, c. 2, "Non purgant contaminatum ani- 
mum manus lotae .... Excessit quidem Pilati culpam facinus 
Judaeorum .... Sed nee ipse evasit reatum, qui cooperatus J 
seditiosis, reliquit judicium proprium, et in crimen transivit / 
alienum." 

71. " Nostra augendo, non propria ;" compare Dean Mil- 
man's " Martyr of Antioch ;" 

' ' Thou, that couldst nothing win 

By saving worlds from sin, 
Nor aught of glory add to Thy all-glorious Name." 

\ 

72. Although Leo lays stress on the Lord's manhood in con- 
nection with His title of " first-born of all creation," we need 
not suppose that, like S. Athanasius, he imported into that pas- 
sage of S. Paul, Col. i. 15, the idea of His Headship as the 
Incarnate Founder of a new order of spiritual existence, a 
reference which Estius thinks " forced and irrelevant," and which, 
in Bishop Lightfoot's opinion, "shatters the context." Leo's 
words here, if they stood alone, might at first sight seem ca- 
pable of Nestorian perversion, as if the difference between Jesus 
and the Saints were merely in degree : but it is plain that he 
means, not in any sense to deny the Personal Union on which, 
indeed, he is more than sufficiently explicit but to emphasise 
the intimate presence of the Divine Redeemer with His " body 
mystical." See Newman's Arians, p. 233 ; " It is a known pecu- 
liarity of the message of mercy, that it views the Church of 
Christ as if clothed with, or hidden within, the glory of Him 
Who ransomed it," &c. So Pusey, Serm. i. p. ix. ff. 

73. Leo may here again be illustrated from S. Athanasius 
c. Ar. iii. 32, 34 ; " It was meet for the Lord, when putting on 
human flesh, to put it on entire with the feelings belonging to 
it ; that as we say that the body was His own, so too the feel- 
ings of the body may be called simply His own, though they 
did not touch Him as to His Godhead .... When He is said 
to hunger and thirst, and to be weary, and not to know"" (i.e. 



Reality of Christ's Manhood. 185 

S. Mark xiii. 32) " and to sleep, and weep, and ask, and flee, 
and be born, and deprecate the cup, and generally all that be- 
longs to the flesh ; it should in all fitness be said in each case, 
' Christ hungering and thirsting; for our sake in flesh? ' Or 
take Cyril of Jerusalem, Cat. iv. 9 ; "really eating as Man, just 
as we do, for He had the same bodily feelings that we have, 
but feeding the five thousand with five loaves, as God ; . . . . 
really sleeping in the ship as Man, and walking on the waters 
as God." In the text, and in de Pass. 14, c. 2, Leo brings to- 
gether, (i) the reality of our Lord's human feelings, and (2) their 
exemplary value ; making the latter depend upon the former. 
In de Pass. 7, c. 4, Leo warns his hearers not to infer, from the 
spiritual significances of Christ's life, that the tears shed by Him 
were unreal, or His hungering fictitious ; " Veros et corporis sen- 
sus et animi suscepit affectus." The weariness and the sleep, he 
urges, de Quadr. 8, c. 2, belong to true Manhood ; and so in the 
Tome, c. 4, he sets human properties over against Divine. In a 
very touching passage, Ep. 139. 2, he bids Juvenal of Jerusalem 
enforce the true doctrine by referring to the very places where 
the Child was born and the Man lived, and dwells also on the 
supposed identification, not only of the sepulchre, but of the 
actual cross. It may be added that extreme Monophysitism 
showed itself in the theory of Julian of Halicarnassus, to the 
effect that the physical infirmities, needs, and sufferings, to 
which our Lord submitted Himself in His earthly life and at 
His death, were not properly incident to His body, which of 
itself was, in this large sense, "incorruptible." Ath. Treat, ii. 
375. Justinian scandalised orthodoxy by adopting and dying 
in this belief: Evagrius, iv. 39 ; Gibbon, vi. 41. 

74. Here "exemplum" is used in the sense in which "forma" 
occurs at the end of Serm. 8. The antithesis of " sacramen- 
tum" and "exemplum" occurs again in Serm. 14, c. I ; also in 
Nativ. 5, c. 6, "Haec Domini nostri opera . . . non solum sacra- 
mento nobis utilia sunt, sed etiam imitationis exemplo, si in 
disciplinam ipsa remedia transferantur, quodque impensum est 
mysteriis prosit et moribus." So in Epiph. 5, c. 3, we have the 
" sacramentum" with its saving efficacy, and the " exemplum" 
with its spur to exertion : and compare Serm. 4, c. 3. This is a 



1 86 Jewish and Christian Ordinances. 

cardinal point, as the " imitation" of Adam by actual sin is but an 
outflowing from the mystery of " original sin," (Article 9,) so the 
imitation of Christ is to be accounted for by a supernatural union 
with Him. His acts are " the greatest moral acts ever done in 
the world ;" but they are so because of their mysterious, redemp- 
tive, Divine virtue. Compare'the Collect for the Second Sunday 
after Easter. See Gore, "A Word for Peace on Justification," p. 
4, that an example which, by itself, would be too high for us to 
follow, is made effective by the infusion into us of a divine life 
from Him Whose character presents it ; so as " to mould us in- 
wardly into conformity with what He has shown us and requires 
of us outwardly," &c. See note 15. 

75. "Judicanti se z/zjuste." The Vulgate reading of I S. 
Peter ii. 23, where the true text is TV Kptvovn SiKaius, i.e. to God. 
Estius ascribes the erroneous Latin rendering to some copyists 
who did not understand this text. He refers to S. Aug. in Joan. 
Tr. 21, 12, where the passage is cited rightly, "commendabat 
illi qui juste judicat." 

76. So de Jej. vii. mens. 7, i : " Quamvis enim varietates 
hostiarum, differentiae baptismatum, et otia sabbatorum cum 
ipsa carnis circumcisione cessaverunt, manent tamen ex ipsis 
voluminibus etiam apud nos plurima praecepta moralia." Com- 
pare our Seventh Article. On the types of the Old Law, 
see Serm. u, c. 2 ; also de Pass. 7, c. i, " Oportebat ut mani- 
festo implerentur effectu quae diu fuerant figurato promissa 
mysterio : ut ovem significativam ovis vera removeret," &c. 

77- " Dantia salutem .... promittentia Salvatorem :" the 
Augustinian contrast between Christian and Jewish ordinances ; 
Enarr. in Ps. Ixxiii. 2. " Sacramenta Novi Testamenti dant salu- 
tem ; sacramenta Veteris Testamenti promiserunt Salvatorem." 
The same thought is worked out in c. Faust, xix. 8 14. For S. 
Augustine clearly recognised a difference in kind between the two 
classes of ordinances (see note 16), in that the old prefigured what 
the new effected ; the old were shadowy, the new had " the very 
image ;" the Law gave tokens of a coming fulness of grace, the 
Gospel provided channels through which its streams should ac- 



Baptismal Renunciations. 187 

tually flow in. This " high view of Sacraments" was simply a con- 
sequence of high thoughts about the Incarnation, as the source 
of new and special gifts ; (Liddon, Bampt. Lect. p. 489 ; Sadler, 
Church Doctr. Bible Truth, p. 396 ;) and when in the Calvinistic 
theology, (e.g. in the Scottish Confession of 1560) the difference 
here referred to was denied, the Jewish rites were not raised 
to a Christian dignity, but the Christian lowered to the Jewish 
level ; all alike were " seals" and " assurances" of Divine fa- 
vours which were common to both covenants. Cf. Bp. Bethell 
on Regeneration, pp. 53 56 : Pusey, Scriptural Views of Holy 
Baptism, p. 323 ; Hardwick, Hist, of Articles, p. 94. 

78. Baptismal Renunciations, in the Roman church of Leo's 
time, seem to have run thus, Gelas. Sacr. in Murat. Lit. Rom. 
i. 563 : " Dost thou renounce Satan? I renounce him. And all 
his works ? I renounce. And all his pomps ? I renounce." At 
Milan the form included a renunciation of the world, its lust, its 
pleasures ; S. Ambrose de Myst. s. 5 ; so in Gaul, " the pomps 
of the world and its pleasures," Muratori, Lit. Rom. ii. 741. 
Salvian cites a Gallic form, " diabolo, pompis, spectaculis, et 
operibus ejus," de Gub. Dei, vi. 6. At Jerusalem, " I renounce 
thee, Satan, and all thy works, and all thy pomp, and all thy wor- 
ship." S. Cyril. Cat. Myst. i. At Antioch, more simply, " and thy 
pomp and thy worship," S. Chrys. ad Illuminand. ii. 4. The 
form referred to by Tertullian, de Cor. Mil. 3, renounces "the 
devil, and his pomp, and his angels." His " pomp " meant all 
the Vanity-fair of Heathenism, with its alluring splendour and 
stateliness, which was primarily in S. John's mind when he 
wrote, "The world is passing away." S. Ambrose quotes a 
peculiar form, " Abrenuntio tibi, diabole, et angelis tuis,'et 
operibus tuis, et imperiis tuis ;" Hexaem. ii. 14. S. Augustine 
more than once alludes to the renunciation as made by infants 
through sponsors, e.g., " Prius exorcizatur in eis . . . potestas 
contraria, cui etiam verbis eorum a quibus portantur se renun- 
tiare respondent," de Pecc. Orig. s. 45 ; cp. Op. imperf. c. 
Jul. ii. 224. Compare the old Sarum form : " Abrenuntias 
Sathanae ? Respondeant compatrini et commatrintz, Abrenun- 
tio. Item Sacerdos : Et omnibus operibus ejus ? 1^. Abre- 
nuntio. Et omnibus pompis ejus ? R/r. Abrenuntio." Maskell, 



1 88 Baptismal Incorporation into Christ. 

Monum. Rit. i. 23. The renunciations were followed, as Leo 
here intimates, by a profession of faith ; on which see below, 
note 142, and Heurtley, Harm. Symb. p. 103. Comp. Hooker, 
v. 63. 3, where, after referring to the engagements to renounce 
and to believe, he quotes Justin Martyr as showing " how such as 
the Church in those days did baptise made profession of Chris- 
tian belief, and undertook to live accordingly. Neither do I 
think it an easy matter for any man to prove that ever baptism 
did use to be administered without interrogatories of these two 
kinds." But the special interrogatory, "Wilt thou then obe- 
diently keep," &c., was added to our Office in 1661. 

79. This strong expression is quoted by Hooker, v. 60. 2 as 
descriptive of baptismal "incorporation into Christ." It is ob- 
vious that Leo is specially thinking of the obligation laid " on 
a baptised person, in the language of the Prayer Book, to die 
from sin, and rise again unto righteousness." It need hardly be 
said that Leo does not mean that Christ is "received" in Bap- 
tism in the same sense as in the Holy Eucharist ; see Wilber- 
force on the Holy Eucharist, p. 228, ff. on the points which 
" discriminate" the Fathers' language on the relation of Baptism 
to Christ's blood from their language on the Eucharistic gift. 
S. Cyril, he says, " sums up the contrast in a few words, observ- 
ing that in Baptism men are made members of Christ through 
the gift of His Spirit, but that His presence in the Holy Eucharist 
is brought about through the presence of His Body. " Baptism 
is truly Christ's and from Christ, and the force of the mystical 
Eucharist arises to us from His sacred Flesh." (Cyr. in Joan. 1. 
xii. vol. v. p. 103, ed. Pusey.) 

* 

80. " Meritum." He appears to mean any good deed which 
God approves : as in de Collect. I. where he uses it as equi- 
valent to "virtus." The idea of acceptableness, of desert in a 
certain sense, goes along with the term, e.g. de Collect. 6, c. 2, 
de Jej. x. mens. 4, c. 2 ; and he applies the Augustinian phrase, 
" nullis praecedentibus meritis," to his people's choice of him as 
bishop, de Nat. ips. i. But his use of the elastic word mereri is 
illustrated by Serm. in Quadr. i, c. 6, where he exhorts to alms- 
giving, " ut misericordiam in judicio mereamur invenire ;" he 






The Holy Communion. 189 

repeatedly testifies against self-reliance, in Epiph. 8, c. 3, de 
Quadr. 6, c. i ; he speaks of God as a " benignus aestimator 
operum nostrorum, Who will reward even a cup of cold water," 
de Jej. x. mens. 3, c. 2. Naturally enough, he uses "merito" in 
a stricter sense, when he means desert for evil, in Epiph. 7, c. 3 ; 
and equally so in Serm. 4 of this volume, c. 3, where Christ is 
said to profit us " et exemplo et merito." He agrees with the 
Augustinian teaching that the " merita" of Christians must really 
be resolved into "munera" of God, S. Aug. Ep. 194. 19 ; and 
whether or not he drew up the Articles on Grace which have 
been wrongly annexed to a letter of Pope Celestine in 431, 
he would have heartily accepted their teaching, that man's 
" merits" are the gift of God, Who works in man "both to will 
and to do," and enables man to co-operate with His grace ; 
see note 136. 

81. On the Holy Communion see his Sermon de Jej. vii. 
mens. 6, c. 3 : " Nam dicente Domino, ' Nisi manducaveritis car- 
nem Filii hominis, et biberitis ejus sanguinem, non habebitis 
vitam in vobis,' sic sacrae mensae communicare debetis, ut 
nihil prorsus de veritate corporis Christi et sanguinis ambigatis. 
Hoc enim ore sumitur, quod fide creditur ; et frustra ab illis 
'Amen' respondetur" (the usual response of communicants,) "a 
quibus contra id quod accipitur disputatur." And Ep. 59. 2 ; 
;< Ut nee ab infantium linguis veritas corporis et sanguinis 
Christi inter communionis sacramenta taceatur ; quia in ilia 
mystica distributione spiritalis alimoniae hoc impartitur, hoc su- 
mitur, ut accipientes virtutem ccelestis cibi, in carnem ipsius, 
qui caro nostra factus est, transeamus." On which see Wil- 
berforce on the Holy Euch. p. 353. As Cyril had argued 
against the Nestorians, " We should not eat Christ's Flesh in 
the Eucharist, unless we believed it to be the Flesh of God, and 
therefore life-giving," so Leo against the Eutychians, "We 
should not communicate, unless we believed Christ's Flesh, thus 
received, to be most true and real." In Serm. de Quadr. 4, c. 5, 
he says of the crypto-Manicheans at Rome, " Ita in sacramento- 
rum communione se temperant, ut interdum, ne penitus latere 
non possint, ore indigno Christi corpus accipiunt, sanguinem 
autem redemptionis nostras haurire omnino declinent." 



190 The Divine Unity of Will. 

82. See S. Augustine, Serm. 311, c. 2 : " Viderant quod dice- 
bant ; nam quando pro ea re morerentur quam non viderant ?" 
So Butler, Anal, part ii. c. 7 ; " If the Apostles and their contem- 
poraries 'did believe the facts in attestation of which they ex- 
posed themselves to sufferings and death, this their belief, or 
rather knowledge, must be a proof of those facts ; for they were 
such that came under the observation of their senses." Against 
the " Vision-theory," see Milligan on the Resurrection, p. 92. 

83. That "the acts of the Trinity are in common" means 
" that by reason of the unity of the Divine substance, there is 
the most perfect intercommunion" (technically called Pericho- 
resis or Coinherence, Newman, Arians, p. 178) "between the 
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in Their existence, revelations, 
and works. . . . The Father created, the Son created, and the 
Holy Ghost created. And yet there is this difference that . . . 
it is to the Second Person .... that the agency in creation is 
ascribed ;" Archdeacon Hannah, Discourses on the Fall, p. 67. 
Cf. Hooker, v. 56. 5. See S. Aug. c. Serm. Arian. 4, " Insepa- 
rabilia quippe sunt opera Trinitatis." S. Leo explains his mean- 
ing more fully in the last two sermons of this volume ; in de 
Pass. 7, c. 4, " In salvandis omnibus per crucem Christi, com- 
munis erat voluntas Patris et Filii," c. ; and de Pass, i, c. 5, 
" Una est enim Patris et Filii voluntas, ut est una Divinitas ;" 
a thought which disposes of that shallowest of cavils, that the 
received doctrine of the Atonement represents the Father as 
reluctantly induced, by the value of so much pain and blood, to 
abandon a vindictive purpose. The doctrine supposes the Fa- 
ther and the Son to have the same essence, and therefore the 
same love, the same justice, the same counsel. No thoughtful 
believer in the doctrine forgets that " God loved the world," and 
how He showed His love for it, S. John iii. 16 ; I S. John iv. 10. 
Cf. Benson on Redemption, p. xii. : " We often find this matter 
stated ... as if justice were the special attribute of God the 
Father, injured by the sins of man, and love the special attribute 
of God the Son, Who came on earth to satisfy the requirements 
of the Father's wrath. Now, the justice of the Father and of 
the Son is one justice. . . . And further . . . their love towards 
man is one love." So Dale on the Atonement, p. 167; "The 






The attraction of the Crucified. 191 

advocate is of the Father's own appointment ; the propitiation 
is the Father's own provision." See Aids to Faith, pp. 351, 365. 

84. This passage is repeated in Ep. 124, c. 4, and Ep. 165, 
c. 5. Leo speaks of Christ's death as a Sacrifice in Serm. 2, 
c. 3 ; and in Pass. 4, c. 3, " Crux ergo Christi sacramentum 
veri et prasnuntiati habet altaris" (i.e., the mysterious character 
of an altar, see note 8) " ubi per hostiam salutarem, naturae 
humanas celebraretur oblatio. Ibi sanguis immaculati Agni 
antiquae prasvaricationis pacta delebat." De Pass. 7, c. i : " Ut 
ergo umbras cederent corpori, .... hostia in hostiam transit." 
De Pass. 8, c. 5 : " Ut . . . nova hostia novo imponeretur altari," 
&c. De Pass. 17, c. 3 : " Offerebatur enim Deo pro salute mundi 
hostia singularis." 

85. On this great text, S. John xii. 32, see Serm. de Pass. 6, 
c. 4, "Id est, totam causam humani generis agam," c., and 
de Pass. 8, c. 7 : " O admirabilis potentia Crucis ! O ineffabilis 
gloria Passionis ! in qua et tribunal Domini, et judicium mundi, 
et potestas est Crucifixi. Traxisti enim, Domine, omnia ad te ; 
et cum expandisses tota die manus tuas ad populum non cre- 
dentem et contradicentem tibi, confitendas majestatis tuas 

sensum totus mundus accepit Traxisti, Domine, omnia 

ad te ; quoniam scisso templi velo, sancta sanctorum ab in- 

dignis pontificibus recesserunt Traxisti, Domine, omnia 

ad te ; ut quod in uno Judasas templo obumbratisTsignificationi- 
bus agebatur, pleno apertoque sacramento universarum ubique 
nationum devotio celebraret. Nunc etenim et ordo clarior Le- 
vitarum, et dignitas amplior seniorum, et sacratior est unctio 
sacerdotum ; quia crux tua omnium fons benedictionum, om- 
nium est causa gratiarum ; per quam credentibus datur virtus 
de infirmitate, gloria de opprobrio, vita de morte. Nunc etiam, 
carnalium sacrificiorum varietate cessante, omnes differentias 
hostiarum una corporis et sanguinis tui implet oblatio : quo- 
niam tu es verus Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, et ita 
in te universa perficis mysteria, ut sicut unum est pro omni 
victima sacrificium, ita unum de omni gente sit regnum." 

86. The passage in the text is inserted by Leo into Ep. 124, 



1 92 The " Catholic Faith? 

c. 5, Ep. 165, c. 6. Compare the antitheses in the Tome, c. 4 ; 
also de Quadrag. 8, c. 2 ; " Formam servi obvolutam pannis, 
jacentem in praesepio cognosce : sed annuntiatam ab angelis, de- 
claratam ab elementis, adoratam a magis, formam Domini con- 
fitere." In Nativ. 10, c. 5, " In Salvatore nostro manifesta cog- 
noscimus geminae signa naturae," &c. 

87. " Catholica fides" recurs in the same connection in Ep. 
89 to the Emperor Marcian. Compare Ep. 161, c. I. " Catholica 
fides, quae vera et una est, nulla se patitur diversitate violari :" 
and in Nativ. 4, c. 6, " Magnum presidium est fides integra, 
fides vera, in qua nee augeri ab ullo quidquam nee minui po- 
test ; quia nisi una est, fides non est." So Ep. 29, " Catholicam 
veritatem ;" Ep. 30, c. 2, "Catholica praedicatio ;" Ep. 31, c. I, 
" a catholico tramite ;" Ep. 102, c. 2, " hanc esse vere apostoli- 
cam et catholicam fidem." 

88. Compare S. Augustine, on the supernatural inspiration 
of Scripture, Ep. 82. 3 : " Ego fateor caritati tuae, solis eis Scrip- 
turarum libris qui jam Canonici appellantur didici hunc timorem 
honoremque deferre, ut nullum eorum auctorem scribendo ali- 
quid errasse firmissime credam. Ac si aliquid in eis offendero 
litteris, quod videtur contrarium veritati ; nihil aliud, quam vel 
mendosum esse codicem, vel interpretem non assecutum esse 
quod dictum est, vel me minime intellexisse, non ambigam." 

89. So in Nativ. 4, c. 2, " Qui cum origini humanae multum 
dederit, quod nos ad imaginem suam fecit, reparationi nostrae 
longe amplius tribuit, cum servili formae ipse se Dominus co- 

aptavit." 

90. So in Ep. 156 he tells the Emperor Leo, that the savage 
murder of Bishop Proterius, at Alexandria, has interrupted the 
sacrifice, and caused the "hallowing of chrism" to cease. This 
chrism was that which, from the second century, had been ad- 
ministered in connection with Confirmation. The idea, doubt- 
less, was, to symbolise the unction from the Holy One (i S.John 
ii. 20 ; 2 Cor. i. 21), which made the'regenerate people "a royal 
priesthood ;" as Leo says in Serm. de Nat. ips. 4, c. i, " Omnes 



Confirmation . 193 

in Christo regenerates . . . Sancti Spiritus unctio consecrat 
sacerdotes," &c. So Tertullian explains it, de Bapt. 7, where he 
mentions that the oil was blessed. S. Cyprian, in a difficult 
passage, Ep. 70. 3, speaks of the oil as sanctified on the altar. 
S. Cyril, in his third Mystagogic Lecture, tells us that this 
" holy chrism" was applied to the forehead, ears, nostrils, and 
breast. The Council of Laodicea alludes to the "heavenly 
chrism." S. Ambrose does not speak of Chrism when he de- 
scribes " Christ's" act of " Confirmation" (the earliest passage 
in which the laying-on of hands is so named is this, in de 
Myst. 42) but he mentions a previous unction just after Baptism. 
Some controversy has arisen as to these unctions ; but it would 
seem that, as Confirmation became more and more regarded as 
a distinct rite, (instead of being, as in the earliest times, a " part 
of" the Baptismal rite, Pusey on Baptism, p. 153,) the anoint- 
ing act was, as it were, parted into two. The priest, after ad- 
ministering Baptism, was allowed to pour oil, episcopally hal- 
lowed, on the top of the head ; but, as Pope Innocent wrote in 
416, the Bishops alone were privileged to anoint the forehead, 
when they " imparted the Holy Spirit." This was the chrisma- 
tion of Confirmation, which had practically the effect of effacing 
the "laying on of hands." Leo, however, in Ep. 159. 7, says, 
simply, " per impositionem manuum confirmandi sunt." The 
Gelasian ritual for Easter-eve and Whitsun-eve provides that 
the presbyter shall anoint the newly-baptised " in cerebro ;" 
after which the Bishop, placing his hand on the heads of the 
persons so anointed, offers up a prayer, substantially the same 
with our Confirmation-collect, and then " signs them on the 
forehead with chrism, saying, 'The Sign of Christ unto life 
eternal, Amen." Murat. i. 570, 596. There is a Gelasian Missa 
Chrismalis, for the benediction of the Chrism, on Maundy 
Thursday. An unction was also given before Baptism, Bingh. 
xi. 9. i ; and Pope Innocent mentions the anointing of the 
sick, Epist. i. 8, to Decentius. 

91. See Serm. de Pass. 2, c. i, to the effect that the robber's 
great act of faith was produced by a special grace from our 
Lord : and that the " Hodie mecum eris" was spoken rather 
" from a throne" than from a cross. Cyril of Jerusalem has a 

O 



194 Union with Christ, supernatural. 

glowing passage, Cat. xiii. 31 : "What power enlightened thee, 
O robber ? Who taught thee to worship thy despised fellow - 
sufferer? .... To-day shalt thou be with Me ... because 
to-day thou hast heard My voice. . . . Fear not the fiery sword ; 
it sinks in awe before the Sovereign," &c. S. Chrys. de Cruce et 
Latrone, ii. 2, 3, (a Good Friday sermon,) magnifies the robber's 
faith, but observes that confession of sins had preceded it. 
" He confessed, and found boldness 



92. Here he emphatically makes the presence of a common 
nature with Christ depend on supernatural conditions. Men 
have it " if" they receive Him, i.e., if they are regenerated by 
His Spirit in Baptism. This "if" is momentous : and modern 
tendencies to naturalism make it now more significant than ever. 
According to a mode of speech which was largely current some 
years ago, in one school of religious thought, all men, simply 
as men, and irrespectively of any " event" in their religious 
history, (see Maurice's Kingdom of Christ, i. 428, where the 
germs of the theory are observable,) from their natural birth 
upwards, are to be regarded as members of Christ and children 
of God ; and baptism is not the means whereby they become so, 
but a witness that they have always been so. By an ingenious 
extension of Calvinistic language, it becomes a token, on God's 
part, of sonship already granted, not indeed to an " elect" class, 
but to every human being, baptised or unbaptised. In three 
ways, apparently, this theory gratifies certain minds. They are 
glad to explain away the text, Eph. ii. 3, which pronounces all 
men, " by nature, children of wrath ;" to believe in acceptance 
as independent of any Sacramental medium ; above all, to ignore 
all special Gospel-privileges, and represent the Church as co- 
extensive with the world, or at least with civilised society. Thus 
the tendency of the language in question is downwards ; and 
the sacred terms, when extended to all men apart from sacred 
conditions, are evacuated of their meaning ; instead of the 
conception of humanity at large being spiritualised, the con- 
ception of Christian privileges is secularised; "the tide of 
Divine economy is sucked back again into the earthly vor- 
tex," (Mozley's Essays, ii. 30, as to the German theory which 
absorbs the Church into the State.) The Pelagianism of 



Union with Christ, supernatural. 195 

this view is not concealed by language about Christ being 
the Root of humanity ; in fact, it tends to substitute a " Divine 
immanence in all souls" for the " miracle" of a Divine Incar- 
nation ; and it is hardly too much to say, that it would re- 
quire large portions of the New Testament to be re-written. 
Not by nature, but by grace, not by birth, but by regenera- 
tion, by the act of " the One Spirit" in Baptism, does man, 
in the Apostolic theology, gain his interest in the Second Adam, 
and his right to say, " Our Father." The Incarnation is the 
source of a transcendent life, which "by nature we cannot have ;" 
if " the last Adam was" indeed to be " a quickening Spirit," 
His nature, as a principle of life, must be imparted by means 
supernatural ; and the Church is a mysterious organisation per- 
vaded by that life as so imparted, a new creation, diverse from 
the old in its basis and its agencies, a " body of Christ/' with 
:< joints and bands" of its own, conveying to its members their 
portion of the fulness of the Head. Cp. Hooker, v. 56. 7, " It is 
too cold an interpretation," &c., i.e., the view that we are " in 
Christ" inasmuch as our "nature is in Him." So Wilberforce 
on the Incarnation, p. 203, that our union with Christ " does 
not merely mean the union which He has with our nature, but 
the union which we have with His :" and ib. p. 232, " It 
is Christ's manhood which binds men through Sacraments to 
His mystic body :" and compare Sadler on the Second Adam, 

p. 12, " If Jesus Christ is to be an Adam at all, if 

His undefiled human nature is to be a principle of 

life, counteracting the death received from the human nature 
of the first Adam, this cannot be in the way of nature : it must 
be effected supernaturally." So Hardwick's Christ and other 
Masters, i. 53 ; " The only ' higher unity' connecting men toge- 
ther is the spiritual nature they derive in common by regenera- 
tion into Christ, the New Head of humanity; but this birth is 
most expressly said to be * not of blood,' (atfjidrcuv.) S. John i. 13." 

93. He alludes to the result of the Council of Chalcedon. So 
in Ep. 120, he calls the condemnation of Eutychianism a victory 
of Christ; "Vicit per nos et pro nobis ille," &c. 

94. He probably used, on Good Friday, the eighth interces- 



196 Christian Faith not irrational. 

sion for that day in the Gelasian rites, Murat. i. 562 ; its words, 
at least, resemble his own : " Qui etiam Judaicam perfidiam a 
tua misericordia non repellis." Compare in Epiph. 5, c. 3, 
" Optandum nobis et studendum ut et hie populus, qui ab ilia 
spiritali patrum nobilitate defecit, ramis suae arboris insera- 
tur." The martyr Paulus, in Euseb. Mart. Pal. 8, prays first 
for the Church, then " for the conversion of the Jews to God, 
through Christ." Compare the Apostolic Constitutions, v. 19. 

95. u Inconsequens et irrationabile." S. Augustine more than 
once refers to dogmatism of this kind. Sometimes it implied 
grave mistakes as to what the Church really taught. In the 
Confessions he repeatedly tells us that he had once imputed to 
her anthropomorphic views of God's nature ; in de Mor. Eccl. 
Cath., having alluded to the Manicheans' persistent demand of 
" rational" proof, i. 3, he says of these misconceptions, " Talem 
fidem qua Deo inconveniens aliquid creditur, nos vehementius 
et uberius accusamus," i. 17. So Volusianus tells S. Augustine 
that he had heard, in a debating society, the question pro- 
pounded, How could the Lord of all things confine Himself 
within an infant body ? And S. Augustine answers, Ep. 137. 4, 
that He did not abandon the government of the world. Again, 
Volusianus had heard it said (as Julian had said before) that 
Christ's miracles were but poor evidences : why should not God 
Incarnate have done more ? Augustine answers, Besides what 
are commonly called His works, what think you of " nasci de 
Virgine, a mortuis resurgere, in ccelum ascendere?" Ep. 137. 13. 
The Pagans repeated the old scoff, " Qualem Deum colitis qui 
natus est?" Enarr. in Ps. xciii. 15 ; (so too Chrys. says, in Diem 
Natal. 7, c. 6 ;) and " In nulla re tarn vehementer, tarn pertina- 
citer, tarn obnixe et contentiose contradicitur fidei Christianas, 

sicut de carnis resurrectione ut dicant fieri non posse? 

&c., in Ps. Ixxxviii. 2, 5. Ancient theologians were thus fami- 
liar with the question, "whether Christian belief was reason- 
able." See too Origen c. Cels. iii. 75. 

96. Here, and in Serm. 13, c. 2, he asserts, as a consequence of 
the Personal Union, that our Lord's Godhead was not separated 
from His Manhood during the short interval between His death 



The Personal and Vital Unions. 197 

and His Resurrection. S. Athanasius says as much, c. Apollin. i. 
1 8, and still more explicitly, ii. 14, " The Godhead did not desert 
the body in the sepulchre, nor was the soul separated from it in 
Hades." Some words of S. Irenseus, (iii. 19, 3,) S. Hilary (in 
Matt. c. 33. s. 6,) and S. Ambrose (in Luc. 1. 10. s. 127,) which have 
been supposed to bear a different sense, may be understood with 
reference to the mysterious " forsaking," and to the withdrawal of 
such Divine presence as would have kept off death. Fulgentius, 
de Fide ad Petrum, 1 1, is very emphatic; "In sepulchre idem Deus 

homo factus, jacuit, et ab inferis idem Deus homo factus 

resurrexit." So S. Thomas rules, Sum. iii. q. 50, that the God- 
head was never, even in death, separated from Christ's body, 
much less from His soul. So Hooker, v. 52. 4 : " Even when 
His soul forsook the tabernacle of His body, His Deity forsook 
neither body nor soul," &c. ; and Bishop Forbes on Nicene Creed, 
p. 224, " In His death the vital union between His body and 

soul was dissolved but the personal union was never 

severed," &c. See too Newman's Sermons, ii. 34. 

97. On the trine immersion see Tertullian, c. Praxeam, 26 : 
"Nee semel, sed ter ad singula nomina, in Personas singulas tin- 
gimur." Cyril of Jerusalem, Cat. Myst. 2. 4 : " Each of you was 
asked, whether he believed in the Name of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And you made that saving 
confession, and you were dipped thrice into the water, and 
emerged again ; symbolically representing also, in this circum- 
stance, the three days' sepulture of Christ," &c. In S. Am- 
brose, de Mysteriis, 21,28, the three confessions are mentioned, 
and the three immersions implied. Bingham, xi. 1 1.6, gives 
other references, and speaks of the double symbolism as to the 
Holy Trinity and the three days' burial. The latter, however, 
was clearly an after- thought. In the days of Gregory the Great 
(Ep. i. 43) the Spanish Arians appealed to trine immersion as a 
witness to their own doctrine of different Essences. Gregory, 
being consulted by Leander of Seville, advised the Spanish 
Catholics, under these circumstances, to use single immersion, 
as a protest against the denial of the Consubstantiality. The 
Roman ritual, however, retained the old usage : and it was pre- 
scribed in the Prayer Book of 1549. 



1 98 Watchfulness after Baptism. 

98. The voice of the ancient Church, on the duty of earnest 
living after Baptism, was as emphatic as that of our own Church 
in the exhortations which close her Baptismal Offices. Leo 
says elsewhere, de Jej. x. mens. 7, c. i, " Natura quippe mutabilis 

licet jam redempta, et in sacro baptismate renata, in 

quantum est passibilis, in tantum est ad deteriora proclivis . . . 
Sciendum . . . est, formidinem sublatam esse, non pugnam." So, 
de Quadr. 3, c. 2, Satan is said to be all the fiercer against men 
" ex quo ei in baptismo renuntiavimus." S. Augustine is great 
on this subject; e.g., de Pecc. Meritis, i. s. 25, " Baptizatus par- 
vulus, si ad rationales annos veniens non crediderit, nee se ab 
illicitis concupiscentiis abstinuerit, nihil ei proderit quod parvus 
accepit ;" and ib. s. 70, " Si post baptismum vixerit, . . . habet 
cum qua pugnet" (i.e., concupiscence) " eamque adjuvante Deo 
superet, si non in vacuum gratiam ejus susceperit, si repro- 
batus esse noluerit." S. Chrys. in Joan. Horn. 10. 2 : " Much 
earnestness is needful, in order to preserve the image of adop- 
tion, impressed on us in baptism, unsullied." Cyril. Hier. Cat. 
xviii. 33 : " How you ought for the time to come to walk wor- 
thily of this grace, both in acts and words." The address to 
candidates in Gelas. Sacr., Mur. i. 543, says much the same : 
" Diabolus, qui hominem tentare non desinit, munitos vos hoc 

Symbolo semper inveniat, ut gratiam Domini in- 

corruptam et immaculatam, (ipso, confitemini, protegente,) 
servetis." See also Collects in Mur. i. 577. 

99. The idea is, of course, taken from S. Matt. xxv. 
40. In de Collect, i, Leo says, that Christ "tantum nobis 
pauperes commendavit, ut se in ipsis vestiri ac suscipi tes- 
taretur." 

100. A bishop named Boniface asked S. Augustine, " Utrum 
parentes baptizatis parvulis suis noceant, cum eos daemoni- 
orum sacrificiis sanare conantur," Aug. Ep. 98. i. So Aug. 
in Jo. Evan. Tr. 7. 7 : " Non, quando nobis dolet caput, 
curramus ad praecantatores." So in a sermon (supposed to 
be by S. Cassarius of Aries) in the appendix to S. Augustine, 
(No. 278,) Christians are warned against consulting diviners, 
"de qualibet causa aut infirmitate." So S. Eligius, in what 



The Paschal Festival. 199 

Maitland (Dark Ages, p. 150) calls his "well known, or at 
least much talked of, sermon," (App. to Aug. torn, vi.) : " Quo- 
ties aliqua infirmitas evenerit, non quserantur prsecantatores 

neque diabolica phylacteria exerceantur." S. 

Chrysostom condemns the use of amulets in illness, in Col. 
Horn. 8. 5. 

101. The word Pascha, as applied to a Christian solemnity, is 
of course connected with I Cor. v. 7, and so testifies to Christ 
as the Peace-offering of the New Covenant, and to " the blood 
of sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel," 
Heb. xii. 24. " The general idea of propitiation underlay the 
Paschal offering ; yet the offering itself was not for the sake of 
removing sin, but of claiming the privilege of a promise already 
given. It therefore was in itself rather a Peace-offering .... 
a type of Christ's oblation as the Advocate of His Church :" 
Benson on Redemption, pp. 312 315. Such were the thoughts 
which S. Paul's words would suggest to a Christian accustomed 
to meditate on the Legal ritual. And this twofold idea of pro- 
pitiation and pleading first the Sin-offering, to expiate, and 
then the Peace-offering, to preserve in grace corresponds to 
the twofold aspect which the Paschal solemnity possessed in 
earliest times. It was a commemoration of the Crucifixion, 
Pascha Staurosimon j but as Passion-tide leads on to Easter, 
the joyful celebration of the Resurrection, Pascha Anastasimon, 
followed hard upon the former, and gradually appropriated to 
itself the Paschal name. It is striking to see, in the old Easter- 
day services, the intensest realization of the Atonement, and of 
the privilege of pleading it sacramentally to the Father. 
Take that sublime Gelasian Preface, which enriches our own 
Liturgy : or see, in the Gelasian book, the oft-recurring associa- 
tion of " the Paschal sacramentum, the Paschal mystery," with 
the blotting out of the " chirographum" and the pardon of sin. 
Or take the venerable hymn, " Ad ccenam Agni providi," which 
in one or other form occurs in most of our Hymnals. The most 
splendid, perhaps, of all ritual passages on "the Pasch" is 
that in the Greek office translated by Dr. Neale, (Introd. 
East. Ch. ii. 886,) in which the solemnity itself, " the Lord's 
Pasch of delight," is merged as it were in His own Person, " the 



2oo Easter Eve. 

Pasch which is Christ the Redeemer ;" as in the Latin lines 
which many know in their English rendering 

" O Jesu blest, to every breast 
Unceasing Paschal gladness be !" 

102. This Sabbath, of course, is " the Great Sabbath," Holy 
Saturday, or Easter Eve. Its observance, as a solemn vigil and 
as a day of baptisms, was extremely ancient. Narcissus, Bishop 
of Jerusalem, A.D. 196, was believed to have miraculously ob- 
tained oil for the church lamps " at the great night-long Paschal 
vigil," Euseb. vi. 9 : (cp. ib. ii. 17, vi. 34 ;) so Tertullian speaks 
of the vigil lasting all night, ad Ux. ii. 4. Constantine provided 
many lights for it, Euseb. Vit. C. iv. 22. S. Aug. says of it, that 
its "tarn clara celebritas" compelled even unbelievers "vigilare 
carnef that this night was " as clear as the day ;" (so also S. 
Cyril, Procat. 15) that it was spent in prayer, and in meditation 
" on that life which He began for us in His own flesh, which He 
raised from the dead to die no more," Serm. 219, 221. Compare 
Prudentius, Cathem. hymn. 5, " Inventor rutili Dux bone lumi- 
nis," which dwells on the fire being lit from a flint, and after 
dilating on the Exodus, speaks of the long vigil in the churches 
brilliantly lighted up with "lumina quae suffixa micant per 
laquearia." The Mozarabic Missal calls it " a night glorious 
throughout the world." The Gelasian services for the day began 
with the recitation of the Creed by the " infantes," who were to 
be baptised in the evening. Then came exorcism, the sym- 
bolic touching of ears and nostrils with spittle, the renuncia- 
tions, and the candidates' prayer and dismissal. A little before 
3 p.m. the clergy entered the church with a Litany ; and the 
Archdeacon, lighting the great Paschal candle, the symbol of 
Easter glory and joy, (which, says Prudentius, is " dedicated 
roscidae noctis principio,") chanted the " benedictio cerei ;" of 
which, however, the Gregorian book supplies a far more majestic 
form, " Exultet jam angelica turba." The whole heart of the 
Church seems to overflow into some of these rapturous thanks- 
givings ; they speak of the earth as " illuminated by the splen- 
dour of the eternal King," Whose Paschal " victory was the ex- 
ultation of Angels ;" they dwell on " this holy night" as " freeing 



Lent. 20 1 

the captives, gladdening the mourners, washing away faults, 
purifying the fallen." Then came twelve Lections (" consuetis 
lectionibus nocte sancta decursis," Leon. Ep. 3. 3,) with appropriate 
prayers : then a procession, with Litany, to the font, which was 
solemnly blessed to be " a regenerating water : I bless thee, 
creature of water, by the living God, by the holy God, by the 
God Who in the beginning separated thee from the dry land 
.... and I bless thee by Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord, 
Who .... turned thee into wine, walked upon thee, was bap- 
tised by John in thee, brought thee forth from His side with 
blood, and commanded His disciples that believers should be 
baptised in thee, saying, * Go, teach,' " &c. (Compare our Collect 
for the " sanctification" of the water.) Then followed the interro- 
gative creed, the three immersions, the anointing on the crown 
of the head, the Episcopal imposition of hands, the unction on 
the brow. Soon afterwards, a third Litany was chanted ; " and 
they enter the church for the Vigil- Mass, as soon as a star has 
appeared in the sky." This nocturnal Eucharist was specially 
for the new-baptised ; it contained the Preface above referred 
to. It is worth while to dwell on these details, because the 
Easter-eve observances were perhaps the most characteristic 
of any in the ancient Church, the most expressive of her loving 
devotion to a present and everlasting Lord. 

103. See his exhortations in Lent Sermons ; de Quadr. 9, c. I, 
u ut per commune consortium crucis Christi, etiam nos aliquid 
in eo quod propter nos gessit ageremus, sicut Apostolus ait, * Si 
compatimur,et conglorificamur* "(combining Rom. viii. 17, 2 Tim. 
ii. 12 :) de Quadr. 12, c. i, "nos . . . prseparare" (i.e. by fasting) 
" ut in cujus sumus resurrectione conresuscitati, in ipsius inve- 
niamur passione commortui." As to the duration of Lent, there 
was anciently much diversity. (S. Irenaeus ap. Euseb. v. 24.) 
Originally, as it would seem, (although the point is disputed) a 
fast of forty hours in commemoration of the Passion, it gradually 
included more and more of the days and weeks preceding. Al- 
though it was not until the time of Gregory II. that it became 
strictly a forty days' fast, there is no doubt that in the fourth cen- 
tury, if not earlier, a period was generally observed which might 
be called "forty days." Leo claims for " forty days" Apostolical 



2O2 "Knowing Christ after tJu flesh? 

institution ; but he would be prone to make that claim for any 
institute of his own church, (see Bingham, xxi. i. 8.) What 
Socrates, v. 22, says of the Romans observing a three weeks' 
fast must apply, if true, to the Novatians of Rome. 

104. The Latins, says Estius on I Cor. xv. 47, "constanter 
legunt id quod habet nostra Vulgata versio," i.e. "secundus 
homo de coelo ccelestis ;" as Leo, in the text, quotes the pas- 
sage. S. Chrysostom's commentary assumes the received 
Greek text ; the Revised text reads simply, " is from heaven." 
In verse 49 the Vulgate, like Leo, has portemus ; so has Tertul- 
lian, adv. Marc. v. 10. The true Greek text is <f>opeVo,uei>, the 
other reading ^op^u^ev (which Chrysostom had before him, and 
on which his gloss is, " Let us do what is best") is supposed to 
be an itacism, or confusion by a copyist between two similar 
letters. (Scrivener, Introd. to Criticism of N. T., p. 627.) 

105. S. Augustine says, " Moli autem corporis ubi divinitas 
erat, ostia clausa non obstiterunt," in Jo. Evan. Tr. 121. 4. It is 
usual to see in this twice recorded incident (S. John xx. 19, 26) 
an instance of the unique powers of Christ's risen body. See 
Macpherson on the Resurrection, pp. 310, 313. 

106. Compare the two adverbs which respectively exclude 
Nestorianism and Eutychianism, dSmtpeVws, awyxvTus, Hooker, 
v. 54. 10. See below, note 163. 

107. In this passage he assumes that 2 Cor. v. 16 refers to 
our Lord's "flesh" in its non-glorified condition. This is surely 
a mistake ; S. Paul is using *OTCI o-dpKa as in Rom. viii. i, 2 Cor. 
x. 2, for "as men of the world do, whose point of view is 
secular and not religious ;" he means to say, " Before the love of 
Christ began to constrain me, before I was in Christ, I thought 
in one way ; now, I think in another. I now look on no man in 
a mere worldly light ; even as to Christ, / once thought as other 
men did; but now, such unworthy thoughts have passed away, 
and all my feelings, as to Him and every one else, are the feel- 
ings of one new-created." To infer that he no longer laid stress 
on the " historical" life of Jesus is to make the text contradict 



Retaining the spirit of Easter. 203 

Rom. i. 3 ; ix. 5 ; i Cor. xv. 3 ; Gal. iv. 4 ; 2 Tim. ii. 8. The 
student must be on his guard against tendencies to use "carnal" 
ad invidiam, in disparagement of the bodily reality of the In- 
carnation or the Resurrection. As to the glorified condition of 
Christ's body, see Milligan on the Resurrection, p. n, that while 
"in various important respects" it was " similar to what it had 
been," retaining a " material structure closely corresponding to 
that which our Lord possessed before His crucifixion," yet it 
was not " subject to the same conditions of ponderable matter 
as before," &c. ; and Liddon, Easter in S. Paul's, i. 107, ff., that 
it " was literally the very body which had been crucified, and yet 
. . . while retaining physical substance and unimpaired identity, 
was yet endowed and interpenetrated with some of the proper- 
ties of spirit," &c. 

108. "Mens intenta mansuris." Compare a Collect in the 
Leonine Sacram., Mur. i. 313; "Da nobis, Domine, non ter- 
rena sapere, sed amare ccelestia ; et inter praetereuntia consti- 
tutes jam nunc inhaerere mansuris" 

109. The idea of retaining throughout the year the blessings 
of the Easter festival occurs in several old Collects. As in the 
Gelasian, "ut Paschalis perceptio sacramenti continuata in 
nostris mentibus perseveret," Murat. i. 573: "ut quod Pas- 
chalibus exsequimur institutis, fructiferum nobis omni tem- 
pore sentiamus," ib. i. 581 ; and still more in the Gregorian 
for the First Sunday after Easter, "ut qui Paschalia festa 
peregimus, hsec, te largiente, moribus et vita teneamus," ib. 
ii. 75. See "Ancient Collects," p. 56, ff. 

110. Here and elsewhere Leo uses "sacerdos" specifically of 
himself as a bishop ; as he speaks of bishops under the name 
of " sacerdos" in Ep. 4. i ; 14. 6 ; 10. 2, &c., and of his own epis- 
copal office as " sacerdotii mei," de Nat. ipsius, i. Cp. Ep. 4. i. 
He speaks also of the " secundi ordinis sacerdotes," in de Quadr. 
10, c. i, (cp. Ep. 9. i, " sacerdotalis ordinatio,") and would as- 
suredly have recognised no antagonism between that designa- 
tion and the name of " presbyter," which he commonly adopts, 
(e.g. Ep. i. i, ff., 9. 3, and 24. i, " Eutychem presbyterum,") any 



204 The title of " Sacerdos." 

more than between the ascription of a specific sacerdotal cha- 
racter to this or that order of the ministry and that <k royal 
priesthood" belonging to all " spiritales et rationabiles Christi- 
ani," of which he says, de Nat. ipsius, 4. i, " Quid tarn sacer- 
dotale quam . . . immaculatas pietatis hostias de altari cordis 
offerre ?" Doubtless, if he had been told that the ideas of a 
ministerial and of a general priesthood excluded each other, he 
would have answered, in effect, that the former was the ap- 
pointed organ of the corporate exercise of the latter, and in no 
way interfered with its individual exercise. See Gore, The Church 
and the Ministry, p. 27 : Carter on the Priesthood, p. 146. 

111. He refers again to this text, S. John xiv. 6, in de Pass. 
1 8, c. 3, where he explains " Veritas" somewhat differently, "in 
expectatione rei certae." 

112. Christ is here regarded as the Creator. So in the Tome, 
c. 3, and in Serm. 18, c. 2. 

113. Comp. Ep. 80, c. 2. " Qui licet in Patris sit dextera con- 
stitutus, in eadem tamen carne quam sumpsit ex Virgine sacra- 
mentum propitiationis exsequitur." There the Intercession in 
Heaven is the thought before us, here it is rather the Presence 
with the Church ; both being aspects of the truth, " We are not 
forsaken by our Lord." So in the Leonine Sacramentary, 
Murat. Lit. Rom. i. 313, "ut sicut . . . Salvatorem consedere 
tecum . . . confidimus, ita usque ad consummationem saeculi 
manere nobiscum . . . sentiamus." 

114. There is some doubt as to the genuineness of the words, 
" veritatis sinceritate," as also of words above in c. 2, " quae se 
in quas voluerit mensuras benignitatis inflectit," &c. 

115. "Nullavarietatemutabilis." The Nicene Creed, as framed 
at Nicaea, had certain anathemas against Arians, condemning 
among other of their statements, the notion that the Son was 
" changeable," Soc. i. 8. See S. Athanasius, Orat. c. Arian. i. 35 
Leo, in Nativ. 5, c. 3, argues that on Arian principles, " muta 
bility" must belong to the Father ; for He must be supposed t( 



No "degrees" in Godhead. 205 

have begun to be a Father, if " once the Son was not." But Leo 
was specially concerned to insist on the immutability of the 
Son in order to guard against any return, by the way of Eutychi- 
anism, to the Apollinarian theory described in the " Quicunque" 
as that of a "conversion of the Godhead" into manhood. For 
if the Incarnate were deemed to exist in " only one nature," i.e. 
His Godhead, then, unless actual Docetism were adopted, the 
Godhead itself would be supposed to have in some sense be- 
come materialised. Hence Leo says in the Tome, c. 4, " Deus 
non mutatur miseratione :" Ep. 35. 2, " Nee enim Verbum aut 
in carnem aut in animam aliqua sui parte conversum est, cum 
simplex et incommutabilis natura Deitatis tota in sua sit semper 
essentia, nee damnum sui recipiens, nee augmentum." So de 
Quadr. 8. i, " impassibilem Dei Verbi atque incommutabilem 
deitatem." He is in effect following Tertullian, who (as if con- 
demning Monophysitism beforehand) argues that the Word was 
not " transformed" into flesh, because " Deus neque desinit esse, 
neque aliud potest esse," and the Word must remain in His own 
" form," adv. Prax. 27. Observe this as against modern exag- 
gerations of the KeVoxns. See below, note 150. 

116. See above, note 29. The term "gradus," in reference 
to the Holy Trinity, might be used in two senses. Tertullian, 
writing against " Patripassians," and contending that in order 
to hold the Unity, it was not necessary to explain away the 
Trinity, might say that the Father, Son, and Spirit were 
" tres non statu, sed gradu." meaning thereby, (as the context 
shows for he adds, " unius autem substantiae," &c.) not that 
one was more or less truly God than another, but that beside the 
First Person there was a Second and also a Third, adv. Prax. 
3, 8, 12, 19, 30. See Bp. Bull, Defence of Nicene Faith, b. 2, 
c. 7, s. 6. On the other hand, post-Nicene writers might, for 
fear of seeming to Arianise, deny, as Pelagius did in his confes- 
sion of faith, that there was any "gradus" in the Trinity, ex- 
plaining, "There is nothing which can be called inferior or 
superior, but the whole Godhead is equal in Its own perfec- 
tion;" compare the Athanasian Creed, "And in this Trinity 
none is greater or less," &c. So S. Ambrose de Fide, v. s. 202, 
to the Arians, " gradus quosdam facitis." So S. Aug. Serm. 264 



206 The Great Forty Days. 

7, " non gradibus sibi adjecti, sed majestate adunati." So Leo, 
here and in Sermons 17 and 18 of this volume, denies any 
"gradus," which would, in his sense of the word, be a division 
of the essential unity ; again de Pent. 2, c. 2, " Omnibus exis- 
tentias gradibus exclusis." Compare S. Greg. Naz. Ep. 101, 
condemning the idea of a K. 



117. Compare our Collect for S. Thomas' Day; and R. H. 
Hutton, Essays Theol. and Literary, i. 124, on the evidential 
value of the fact " that the assertion of the Resurrection was at 
first received with disbelief and doubt, which were certainly 
turned within a few days into a sort of confidence and even of 
enthusiastic assurance, very much exceeding, as far as we can 
judge, anything which had existed among the Apostles before." 
See also Christlieb, Modern Doubt, &c. p. 498, E. T. Leo 
considers that the whole period of the " Great Forty Days" 
was characterised by a gradual confirmation of their faith and 
by a communication of sacred truths. See Bishop Moberly, 
Sayings of the Great Forty Days, p. 16 ; " Spoken .... in 

His royalty and glory, spoken to convey, and in the very form 
of expression obviously conveying direct, immediate, actual com- 
missions and powers, they form the charter of the Kingdom," 
(referring to Acts i. 3.) So the " Leonine Sacramentary," Murat. 
i. 314, that Christ was seen by His disciples "usque ad qua- 
dragesimum diem ...... in id proficientibus per has moras 

ecclesiae primitivis, ut et certius fieret quod credidissent, et 
plenius discerent quod docerent." 

118. This noble passage is read in the Roman Matins of As- 
cension Day. The sentence beginning, " Quia igitur Christi 
ascensio nostra provectio est," is adduced by Hooker as the 
best possible comment on the sentence in the " Te Deum" as to 
the opening of the kingdom of heaven to all believers, v. 45, 2. 
Compare the "Leonine Sacramentary," Muratori, i. 314, 315, 
" per hsec sacrosancta mysteria in totius Ecclesise confidimus 
corpore faciendum, quod ejus praecessit in Capite ;" and i. 315, 
" illuc subsequi tuorum membra fidelium, quo Caput nostrum 
Principiumque praecessit." As to the exaltation of Christ's Man- 
hood, S. Leo, in this sermon, comes near S. Chrysostom, Horn. 



The Ascension. 207 

in Asc. : " He offered the first-fruits of our nature to the Father, 
.... ascended above Angels, passed by Archangels, trans- 
cended the Cherubim, soared above the Seraphim, passed be- 
yond the Powers, stayed not till He attained the throne of 
sovereignty. . . . To-day Archangels saw what they had long 
desired to see, our own nature flashing light from the Kingly 
throne, resplendent with immortal glory and beauty." Compare 
the hymn, " Regnat Deus Dei caro." " Carnem Christi se- 
dentem ad dexteram Patris adorant Angeli," S. Aug. Serm. 225 ; 
as Hooker, v. 54. 9, " all the Angels of heaven adore" Christ's 
body. See Pusey's Parochial Sermons, ii. 216 239, on "the 
Ascension our glory and joy ;" and Liddon's University Ser- 
mons, i. 283 305. Pearson's words glow, as with devout ex- 
ultation, as he speaks of Christ's entrance within the inmost 
Presence ; his account of the results of the Ascension is sim- 
plified from that of Aquinas, Sum. iii. 57. 6, who calls it a 
cause of our salvation (i) on our part, in that it gives scope to 
faith, hope, love, and reverence ; (2) on His part, in that the 
Head prepares a place for the members, the High Priest inter- 
cedes for us in the heavenly sanctuary, (" for the very presenta- 
tion of Himself, from the human nature which He introduced 
into heaven, is a kind of intercession for us," Heb. ix. 24,) and 
the Divine Lord, enthroned on high, sends down His gifts to 
man. Both Aquinas and Pearson quote Micah ii. 13, "The 
breaker is come up," &c. On the necessity of a literal belief 
in this exaltation of our Head, as the ground of that hope 
which can alone support His members a belief which " is, in 
itself, belief in the whole mystery of" the Incarnation, but which 
has been deadened in so many by " the falsely spiritualising 
tendencies of the age," see Bp. Ellicott's Lectures, pp. 414 
417. "We can only," says Dean Vaughan, (Four Sermons at 
Cambridge, p. 2,) " pass to the Ascension through the Resur- 
rection and through the Divinity of Christ." That the " heaven" 
of the Ascension was not " the mere physical firmament," but 
the inmost sanctuary of the Divine presence, whatever it might 
be, see Wace, " Gospel and its Witnesses," p. 167. 

119. It is plain from the context, that the presence of our 
Lord's Humanity which Leo is excluding is a presence palpable 



208 " Touch Me not." 

or " natural," which would be an object to sense, not to faith. 
He uses exactly the same phrase, " corporal presence," which 
the note at the end of the English Communion Office uses 
for such a presence as is not to be looked for in the Holy 
Eucharist. 

120. He speaks of " innumera martyrum millia," de Pentec. 2, 
c. 6, of their affinity to our Lord in love and in sufferings, and 
of the vast moral benefit of their example, in that " plus est 
opere docere quam voce," in Nat. S. Laurentii, c. I. In the 
passage before us he is probably thinking, among others, of such 
" boys" and " maidens" as S. Pancras and S. Agnes, whom the 
Roman church specially honoured. 

121. Leo here understands " Touch Me not," as pointing to 
the spiritual intercourse which the believing soul would hold 
with our Lord when removed from " the sphere of sense," (com- 
pare Liddon, Univ. Serm. i. 295.) Other expositors of the pas- 
sage have seen in it a gentle warning as to the deeper reverence 
demanded by the glorification of the Lord's body. S. Augus- 
tine thinks that the Magdalene is admonished to recognise in 
Jesus more than a mere human teacher, Sermon 245. 2. But, 
although high authorities concur in treating this saying mys- 
teriously as indicative of some high truth, or some deep law of 
Divine manifestation, it may be, after all, that the words simply 
mean, " Do not spend time in taking hold of Me :" (cp. S. Matt, 
xxviii. 9 ;) "I am not, as you imagine, on the point of leaving 
the world : the matter now in hand is to inform My brethren." 
See Macpherson on the Resurrection, p. 160. 

122. " Sursum vocatos animos," &c. It is evident that he is 
alluding to those glorious words with which the Church from 
the very earliest times, as we may believe, has entered into the 
most inmost sanctuary of her worship ; the " Lift up your 
hearts," with its response, " We lift them up unto the Lord," at 
the opening of the Anaphora, or most solemn portion of all 
Liturgies. See the vivid description in Pater's " Marius the 
Epicurean," ii. 154. Compare S. Cyprian, de Orat. Dom. c. 31 : 
" Sacerdos, ante orationem prsefatione praemissa, parat fratrum 



" Sursum Corda" 209 

mentes dicendo, ' Sursum corda,' ut dum respondet plebs, ' Habe- 
mus ad Dominum,' admoneatur nihil aliud se quam Dominum 
cogitare debere." Cyril of Jerusalem, Cat. Myst. v. 4 : "The 
Priest exclaims, ' Lift up your hearts.' For indeed, at that most 

awful hour, one ought to have one's heart lifted up to God 

Virtually, the Priest bids us at that hour to lay aside all worldly 
cares/ 5 &c. S. Aug. de Vera Relig. s. 5 : " Ut quotidie per uni- 
versum orbem humanum genus una paene voce respondeat, 
* sursum corda se habere ad Dominum.' " The Latin form was 
always " Sursum corda," " Up with hearts !" The Greek Liturgies 
differ ; some have the form lengthened, and so far weakened ; 
e.g., S. James's, u Let us lift up our mind and hearts." S. Chry- 
sostom's : " Let us lift up our hearts." On the other hand the 
Clementine has simply " Up with the mind." It was usual to 
prefix a salutation, or blessing, with its response, " And with 
thy spirit." 

123. So de Jej. vii. mens. 5. 3 ; " Ut peregrinantibus nobis, 
et ad patriam redire properantibus, quidquid de prosperitatibus 
mundi hujus occurrerit, viaticum sit itineris, non illecebra man- 
sionis." A favourite thought of S. Augustine's : as in Psal. xxxiv. 
Serm. i, c. 6, " Consolatur (Deus) tanquam in via, sed si nos 
intelligamus viam : quia tota ista vita, et omnia quibus uteris 
in hac vita, sic tibi debent esse tanquam stabulum viatori, non 
tanquam domus habitatori : memento peregisse te aliquid, re- 
stare aliquid ; divertisse te ad refectionem, non ad defectionem." 
And in Ps. xl. c. 5, " Ne viator, tendens ad patriam, stabulum 
amet pro domo sua." The words in the text, " so pass through 
these temporal things," may be the basis of the " sic transeamus 
per bona temporalia," in the original of our Collect for the 
Fourth Sunday after Trinity. 



124. " Dispertitae linguae," Vulg. Acts ii. 2. Aia/tepif^uej/at is 
not " cloven," but " parted" or " divided," the fiery radiance 
broken into separate streams. See Christian Year, Fourth Sun- 
day after Easter : 

" The floods of glory earthward pour, 
They part like shower-drops in mid air." 

P 



2io Human Terms necessarily inadequate 

And in Lyra Innocentium, p. 342 : 

"In many a living line they sped 
To rest on each anointed head." 

Compare i Cor. xii. 7 u. 

125. Compare S. Aug. Serm. 267, c. 2 ; " Omnes qui aderant 
unam linguam didicerant. Venit Spiritus Sanctus ; impleti sunt, 
cceperunt loqui linguis variis omnium gentium, quas non nove- 
rant nee didicerant." See Bishop Chr. Wordsworth in loc. 
Dollinger identifies this "gift of divers languages" with the gift 
of tongues, First Age of the Church, p. 314, E. T. 

126. See this passage quoted in Swete's Hist, of Doctr. of 
Procession, p. 157. It is not so explicit an assertion of the 
Double Procession as repeatedly occurs in S. Augustine, or as 
is found in Leo's Ep. 15. I, " de utroque processit." 

127. He insists more than once on the ineffableness of God. 
In Nativ. 9, c. i ; " Nemo enim ad cognitionem veritatis magis 
propinquat, quam qui intelligit in rebus divinis, etiamsi multum 
proficiat, semper sibi superesse quod quaerat. Nam qui se ad 
id, in quod tendit, pervenisse praesumit, non quaesita reperit, 
sed in inquisitione defecit." And see Sermon 18 of this volume, 
de Pent. 3, c. 3, " Quamvis nulla mens ad cogitandum de Deo, 
nulla ad loquendum lingua sufficiat." So S. Augustine re- 
peatedly declares that no human words can measure infinite < 
truths, that God's mysteries transcend expression. " Cum 
quaeritur quid Tres, magna prorsus inopia humanum laborat 
eloquium. Dictum est tamen, tres ' Personae,' non ut illud dice- 
retur, sed ne taceretur," de Trinitate, v. s. 10. "Veriusenim 
cogitatur Deus quam dicitur, et verius est quam cogitatur," ib. 
vii. s. 7. " Quid restat, nisi ut fateamur loquendi necessitate parta 
haec vocabula, cum opus esset copiosa disputatione adversum 
insidias vel errores haereticorum ?" ib. vii. s. 9. " Quid facimus 
nos ? Silebimus ? Utinam liceret ! Forsitan enim silendo, 
aliquid dignum de ineffabili cogitaretur. Nam quidquid potesl 
fari, non est ineffabile. Ineffabilis est autem Deus ;" Serm 

1 17, s. 7. So Hilary de Trin. i v. 2, " Non ignoramus autem, ad re; 



in regard to Deity. 211 

divinas explicandas, neque hominum elocutionem neque na- 
turae humanas comparationem posse sufficere." See too ib. iii. 
i. Novatian de Trin. ii., "Sentire enim ilium aliquatenus pos- 
sumus : ut autem ipse est, sermone explicare non possumus." 
Similarly the great representatives of Eastern theology ; S. 

j Athanasius, Orat. ii. 32, u Since human nature is incapable of 

I comprehending God, Scripture has propounded examples and 
images, that by means of these we may be able, in some very 
poor and faint way, to have such thoughts as we can attain to ;" 
and S. Basil, Ep. 234, " It is from His acts that we say we know 
our God, but we do not profess to draw near to His very es- 
sence." And S. Cyril ; " ^(<n>v 8e irov r^s a\-r)0flas 6 Ao'yos," 
Schol. 8 : " dtfflevet p\v itacra Trapa^fiyp-drcav 5iW/as," Quod unus 
sit Christus, (Op. vii. 420, Pusey.) And again, "The mode 
of the Incarnation (TTJS eVai/fyomija-ecos) is .... not within the 
compass of our understandings," ad Theodosium (ib. vii. 70.) 
Thoroughly did the Fathers feel that, as Bp. Bull says of one 

j great mystery, " no similitude could in every respect illustrate" 
the things of God, no " language could set them forth worthily;" 

i that " in this darkness we both conceive and speak, or rather 
lisp, like children," Def. F. N. b. 4, c. 4, s. 14. We could not 
more utterly mistake their aim and view than by supposing that 
their doctrinal formulas " pretend to grasp the whole matter re- 
vealed, and to bring its unfathomable depths within the cogni- 
sance of the understanding ; they profess only to methodize 
. . . the great outlines of the faith," or to deny " some heretical 

| proposition by which it had been proposed to explain, and 
;o evacuate the revealed mystery ;" Mill on the Temptation, 

I p. 17. Compare Newman, Grammar of Assent, p. 123, "No 

j human words indeed are worthy of the Supreme Being, none 

| ire adequate, but we have no words to use but human." S. 
\thanasius knew that some misconceived the term Homoou- 
>ion : Cyril was well aware that <f>v<ris had several shades of 
neaning : no modern divine pretends that the use of " Person" 

| )r " Persons" in regard to God is intellectually unobjectionable, 
>r more than, so to speak, an olKovo^la. There were, indeed, 

I >ersons in the fourth century who declared that human lan- 
juage could explain the whole essence of God. But they 
vere the extremest of Arians, Eunomius and his school, Soc. 



212 Coequality and Subordination. 

iv. 7, who taunted the Catholics with worshipping a God whom 
they " knew not :" to which Basil replied, that "'knowledge" 
had various senses, Epist. 236. That our knowledge of God, 
though inadequate, is real, see Church's Gifts of Civilisation, 
&c., p. 439 ; Shairp, Culture and Religion, p. 121. 

1 28. This passage probably suggested the Gelasian Preface for 
" Sunday in Octave of Pentecost," Murat. i. 606, which is now, 
in a shorter form, our Preface for " the Feast of Trinity." " Qui 
cum unigenito Filio tuo et Sancto Spiritu unus es Deus, unus 
es Dominus, non in unius singularitate personas, sed in unius 
Trinitate substantial. Quod enim de tua gloria, revelante te, 
credimus, hoc de Filio tuo, hoc de Spiritu Sancto, sine dif- 
ferentia discretionis sentimus. Ut in confessione verae sempi- 
ternaeque Deitatis, et in personis proprietas, et in essentia 
unitas, et in maj estate adoretur aequalitas. Quern laudant 
Angeli." Compare Leo, de Pentec. 2. 3, " et vera Deitas in nullo 
esse aut major aut minor potest, quae sic in tribus est confitenda 
personis, ut et solitudinem non recipiat Trinitas, et unitatem 
servet asqualitas." It was one of Coleridge's dicta (Table Talk, p. 
42) that the Athanasian Creed implicitly denied the doctrine of 
the Nicene, as to " the Filial Subordination." The fact is that, 
the essence of Godhead admitting of no degrees, the Nicene 
Creed never meant, by its &v e/c 0eov, to admit the slightest in- 
feriority in the Son as God, but simply to affirm the fact of 
His eternal generation from the Father as the Fountain of 
Godhead. On the other hand, the Athanasian Creed was em- 1 
phatic in excluding the idea of inferiority, but admitted the 
fact of Sonship, and therewith the " subordination" in its true 
sense, i.e., that the Father is named first, as being " of none," 
the Son being the second Person, as " from the Father." (Cp. 
Newman, Arians, pp. 168, 180 ; Liddon, Bamp. Lect., p. 202.) j 
In his Tracts Theol. and Eccl. p. 128, Newman "would rather 
avoid the term subordination," as " in its effect misleading," and 
prefers " Principatus Patris," i.e. that the Father is, as such. 
" principium Filii." There was a theologian, indeed, to whom 
Coleridge's words would apply ; one who " presumptuously un- 
dervalued the terminology of the ancient Creeds," and " dispa- 
raged the words Trinity and Person" (Hardwick's Hist, of Re- 









Coequality and Subordination. 2 1 3 

form. p. 126,) who " called the Nicene Creed frigida cantilena, 
treated the doctrine expressed in the words, ' God of God,' as a 
mere dream of Platonizing Greeks, and pressed," in opposition 
to that formula, "for the use of the word avr6deos, in relation to the 
Son," (Keble's Pref. to Hooker, p. Ixxxi. Cp. Bull, Def. Fid. Nic 
b. 4, c. i, s. 8.) Contrast Calvin with Hooker, who glories in de- 
fending "the Creed of Athanasius," v. 42, n, and who also of- 
fended Calvinists by speaking of the Father as the origin of 
Deity, v. 54, 2. That the "subordination" was not so much 
dwelt upon, at least by Westerns, after the growth of Arianism 
as before it, is true, and easily to be accounted for ; cf. Mozley 
on Theory of Development, p. 186. But such a typical theo- 
logian as Pearson asserts that " in that perfect and absolute 
equality there is, notwithstanding, this disparity, that . . . the 
Son hath the Godhead from the Father," (i. 243.) In Serm. 
xviii. of this volume, c. 4, Leo insists on the Son's coeternity in 
a passage which, while it reminds us of the Athanasian ar- 
gument that if the Father ever began to be a Father, His Di- 
vine immutability was compromised, may connect itself with a 
thought on which modern theologians have reasonably insisted, 
that the doctrine of an absolute or essential Trinity, of a Son 
and Spirit coeternal with the Father, can alone secure in its full 
significance the assertion that " God is love." See Bishop 
Alexander's comment on i S. John iv. 8 ; and the excellent re- 
marks in Medd's Bampton Lectures, p. 14, " To assert the 
personal singularity of God is to assert the loneliness of God. 
Such an assertion presents us with" an " essentially cold and 
sterile conception . . . Our God is love ; and love . . . implies 
necessarily an object of love, and that object a Person .... 
Wherefore, by an eternal generation from the depths of the 
Divine fecundity, which is the source of all life, there is eternally 
begotten an Only Son, who is the forth-flashing brightness of 
the Father's glory, the adequate expression of the invisible God, 
and so a satisfying object of His love," &c. Further on the 
Son is described as " equal in being and essence to God's own 
infinity," p. 27. 

129. The Semi-arian party in the fourth century attempted 
to steer a middle course between calling the Son Consubstan- 



214 Macedonianism. 

tial and calling Him a creature. Their position, indeed, was 
untenable, but several persisted in clinging to it ; and it was 
adopted by Macedonius, who occupied the see of Constanti- 
nople. It was through their adoption of a more reverential 
language about the Son than had been used by the old Arians, 
that what is called the Macedonian heresy showed itself. 
Arianism had spoken both of the Son and the Holy Spirit as 
creatures. The Macedonians, rising up out of Semi-arianism, 
gradually reached the Church's belief as to the uncreated ma- 
jesty of the Son, even if they retained their objection to the 
Homoousion as a formula. But having, in their previously 
Semi-arian position, refused to extend their own " Homoiou- 
sion" to the Holy Spirit, they afterwards persisted in regarding 
Him as " external to the one indivisible Godhead," Newman's 
Arians, p. 226 ; or as Tillemont says, (Mem. vi. 527,) " the denial 
of the divinity of the Holy Spirit was at last their capital or 
only error." S. Athanasius, while in exile under Constantius 
for the second time, " heard with pain," as he says, (Ep. i. ad 
Scrap, i,) that "some who had left the Arians from disgust at 
their blasphemy against the Son of God, yet called the Spirit 
a creature, and one of the ministering spirits, differing only in 
degree from the Angels :" and soon afterwards, in 362, the 
Council of Alexandria condemned the notion that the Spirit 
was a creature, as being " no true avoidance of the detestable 
Arian heresy." See " Later Treatises of S. Athanasius," p. 5. 
Athanasius insisted that the Nicene Fathers, although silent 
on the nature of the Holy Spirit, had by implication ranked 
Him with the Father and the Son as an object of belief, (ad 
Afros, n.) After the death of S. Athanasius, the new heresy 
was rejected on behalf of the West by Pope Damasus, who 
declared the Spirit to be truly and properly from the Father 
(as the Son from the Divine substance) and very God, " omnia 
posse et omnia nosse, et ubique esse," coequal and adorable, 
(Mansi, iii. 483.) The Illyrian bishops also, in 374, wrote to 
the bishops of Asia Minor, affirming the consubstantiality of 
the Three Divine Persons, (Theodoret, iv. 9 :) S. Basil wrote 
his De Spiritu Sancto in the same sense, (see Swete, Early 
History of the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, pp. 58, 67 ;) and 
in order to vindicate this truth against the Pneumatomachi^ 






Macedonianism. 215 

as the Macedonians were called by the Catholics, the " Con- 
stantinopolitan " recension of the Nicene Creed added the 
words, " the Lord and the Life-giver, proceeding from the Fa- 
ther, with the Father and the Son worshipped and glorified," 
&c., which had already formed part of local Creeds in the East. 
S. Leo says, in Nativ. 4, c. 5, " Macedonius .... Divinitatem 

S. Spiritus non recepit, sed in Patre et Filio eamdem 

confessus est esse naturam." See Pearson, i. 529, Art. 8, in 
proof of the Spirit's Divine Personality, and his note (b), ii. 
424. Of all the ancient heresies, Macedonianism has been the 
most short-lived. Too often is the Holy Spirit regarded as an 
attribute ; but hardly any would now regard Him as a creature. 
His Personality and His Divinity are both set forth in that 
magnificent Invocation which adorns the Alexandrian Liturgy 
called S. Mark's, and was probably drawn up about the time of 
the Council of Constantinople ; " Send forth from Thy holy 
height, from Thy prepared abode, from Thine uncircumscribed 
bosom, the Paraclete Himself, the Spirit of truth, the Holy, 
the Lord, the Life-giver, Who spoke in the Law, and Prophets, 
and Apostles ; Who is everywhere present, and filleth all things, 
and by His own right, and not as a servant, worketh sanctifica- 
tion in whom He willeth, according to Thy pleasure ; Who is 
simple in nature, manifold in working ; the Fountain of Divine 
graces ; One in essence with Thee, proceeding from Thee, shar- 
ing the throne of the kingdom with Thee and Thine Only- 
begotten Son, our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Yea, 
send down Thy Holy Spirit upon us, and upon these loaves, and 
upon these cups, that He may sanctify and consecrate them as 
God Almighty, and make the bread the Body, and the cup the 
Blood," &c. 

130. S. Augustine treats this awful subject much more 
thoughtfully. He says that those who reject Christianity, or 
who are Arians, or Macedonians, &c., have sinned against the 
Holy Spirit, but have not necessarily committed the unpardon- 
able sin, which he defines clearly as " duritia cordis usque ad 
finem hujus vitae." Epist. 185, c. n. In Serm. 71, said to be 
the " libellus" on the subject referred to in Enchirid. c. 83, Au- 
gustine says that the difficulty which he felt had kept him from 



216 The Office of the Paraclete. 

preaching about it, until on that very day he was strongly moved 
to do so : that not every sin or blasphemy against the Holy 
Spirit (e.g., on the part of Pagans, Jews, or heretics) is unpar- 
donable, but only one kind of such sin, a "perseverans duritia 
cordis impcenitentis." So in his " Inchoata Expositio" of the 
Epistle to the Romans, c. 22, 23, " perseverantia in nequitia et 
malignitate cum desperatione indulgentiae Dei." To " speak," in 
the sense of S. Matt. xii. 32, against the Holy Spirit, is, he says, 
to " persevere in sins, desperata atque impia mentis obstina- 
tione." Comp. Dollinger, First Age of the Church, p. 202. 

131. The twofold office of the Paraclete, as kindling and illu- 
minating, has often been set forth in prayers and hymns. In 
the Gelasian prayers for Vespers during Whitsun-week, Mur. i. 
602, we find one Collect which dwells upon the fervour of 
Divine love, and another which begs for illumination of mind. 
The adoption of red as the ecclesiastical colour of this festival ' 
was doubtless intended to symbolise spiritual " fire." Compare 
the " Veni Creator ;" 

" Fons vivus, ignis, caritas .... 
Accende lumen sensibus." 

So Adam of S. Victor, (see Trench's Sacred Latin Poetry, 
p. 170,) 

"Fac ferventes in te mentes 

Flamma tua divite . . . 
Lumen clarum, lumen carum, 
Internarum tenebrarum 

Effugas caliginem." 

So Archbishop Langton, if he, and not King Robert the Pious, 
be the author of the Golden Sequence (see Notes and Queries, 
2nd series, vol. i.,) 

"Veni, lumen cord ium .... 
Fove quod est frigidum." 

The enkindling power has seldom been more exquisitely de- 
scribed than in the Christian Year, Fourth Sunday after 
Easter, 



The Fast after Pentecost. 2 1 7 

"Where'er the Lord is, there are they ; 

In every heart that gives them room, 
They light His altar every day, 

Zeal to inflame, and vice consume." 

132. In his first Sermon on the Pentecostal Fast, he says that 
it was meant to guard against any negligence which might follow 
on the joy of Easter-tide. So Athanasius speaks of his people as 
" having observed the fast in the week after the holy Pentecost," 
Apol. de Fuga,6 ; using " Pentecost" (as the Nicene Council, can. 
20, had done,) for the whole Paschal season which closed at Whit- 
suntide. See Bingham, xx. 6. 3. Leo names three other fasts, the 
spring fast of Lent, the autumn fast in September, the winter 
fast in December, Serm. de Jej. x. mens. 8, c. 2. But he does not 
recognize the Lent Ember fast as a distinct season ; it is with 
him not distinguished from " Quadragesima." His sermons for 
the other Ember seasons generally announce a fast for the 
Saturday. A Collect for the Pentecostal fast, in the Leonine 
Sacramentary, Mur. i. 319, prays that the fast may produce in 
the soul a greater aptitude for the Holy Spirit's gifts. The 
connection of Ordination with the Ember weeks is due to Pope 
Gelasius ; see Maskell, Mon. Ritual, iii. p. cxxii. 

133. Leo here follows S. Augustine in interpreting " all" in 
Acts ii. i of the hundred and twenty, not merely of the Apos- 
tolic College; "Venit enim die Pentecostes Spiritus Sanctus 
in centum viginti homines congregates, in quibus et Apostoli 
omnes erant ;" Aug. in Joan. Ev. Tr. 92, c. i ; and in a Pente- 
costal sermon, " Duodecim enim elegit, et in centum viginti 
Spiritum misit," Serm. 267, i. See Bishop Wordsworth in loc. 

134. The question, Whether Christ would have been Incar- 
nate if man had not sinned, which Leo here summarily decides 
in the negative, is discussed in Sum. iii. i. 3, where Aquinas 
recognises a diversity of opinions, but thinks the negative an- 
swer best. " For things which happen simply by God's will, 
above all that is due to the creature, cannot be known to us 
except so far as they are delivered in Holy Scripture, whereby 
the Divine will is known to us. Wherefore, since in Holy 



2 1 8 The cause of the Incarnation. 

Scripture the cause of the Incarnation is everywhere assigned 
as flowing from the first man's sin, it is more befittingly said 
that the work of the Incarnation was planned by God as a 
remedy for sin ; so that, had there been no sin, there would have 
been no Incarnation." S. Athanasius sanctions the Thomist 
view in Orat. i. 49, ii. 54 ; compare Newman, Athan. Treat, 
ii. 356, and Liddon, Univ. Serm. i. 241, referring to certain texts. 
The other view is taken by Abp. Trench, Five Sermons at Cam- 
bridge, p. 10, on the ground that all things, and man above all, 
were created "not merely by the Son, but in Him, and for 
Him, and to Him ;" and Westcott, on Epistles of S. John, p. 
274, ff. Attractive as such speculations may be, they would 
seem to be precarious, and in some hands they might be 
perilous. S. Thomas has here, at least, the advantage of not 
even seeming to be wise above that which is written. Man has 
fallen, and God has become Incarnate ; that may well suffice 
" until the shadows flee away." The argument from Col. ii. 15, 
ff., proves too much, for the passage refers primarily not to men, 
but to Angels, and compare Heb. ii. 16. 

135. Here the idea of propitiation is pointedly exhibited as 
in harmony with the fact of God's " original" essential love, 
(Dollinger, First Age of the Church, p. 173, E. T. ;) it is by the 
" misericordia Trinitatis" that a propitiation is preordained. 
Leo, perhaps, was thinking of i S. John iv. 10, where the su- 
preme proof of the Father's love is that " He sent His Son as a 
propitiation for our sins." On lxa.crii.6s see Liddon, Bamp. Lect. 
p. 486 ; Lias, Doctrinal System of S. John, p. 137 ; and Dale 
on the Atonement, p. 163, ff., where, in reply to an American 
writer, it is pointedly observed that "the poetic genius of re- 
ligious language" cannot " be pleaded as a reason for alleging 
that when Christ is described as a propitiation for our sins, it 
may mean that He inclines us to forsake them ;" and it is added 
that propitiation in the Old Testament had always presupposed, 
not (as in Paganism) any capricious anger to be soothed, but a 
just displeasure against sin, which indeed, as Dollinger says, is 
merely " His holiness in its relation to men." See note 54. 

136. On Leo's assertion of the doctrine of grace, see above, 



Grace and Free Will. 2 1 9 

note 23. He here recognises very clearly the part which man has 
in co-operating with the grace of God. The truth has 'never 
been more exactly stated than in the admirable propositions of 
the Second Council of Orange in 529, which condemned Semi- 
pelagianism, without falling into errors of an opposite kind. 
They are explicit on the Fall, original sin, the necessity of real 
inward grace for a single good thought, in other words, of 
"grace preventing us, that we may have a good will ;" but they 
also affirm the reality of the acts whereby man, under grace, 
chooses good, so that grace " works with him when he has that 
good will," as our Tenth Article words it. They pronounce that 
all the baptised, having received grace through Baptism, can 
by Christ's assistance accomplish their salvation, and are there- 
fore bound to do so. The great passage in the Epistles on this 
twofold truth, of grace and free-will, is Phil. ii. 12, 13 : see Bp. 
Bull's Harm. Apost. i. 218 (Lib. A. C. Th.), deprecating any at- 
tempt to define precisely the manner of their combined agency, 
but enforcing the truth of the fact. See Mill's Univ. Sermons, 
p. 361, on this same text ; Trench on S. Augustine, p. 149 ; 
Wilberforce on Baptism, p. 173, citing the words of S. Bernard 
(de Grat. et Lib. Arbitrio, c. i) : " Tolle liberum arbitrium, et 
non erit quod salvetur ; tolle gratiam, non erit unde salve- 
tur." S. Bernard, it may be added, goes on to say, " Opus hoc 
sine duobus effici non potest ; uno, a quo fit altero, cut vel in 
quo fit." The first act of God, in His " preventing" grace, has 
been called His operating act ; it is His act only. The second, 
in His " subsequent" grace, has been called His co-operating 
act. Cf. Aquin. 1*2*, in. 2. In Bernard's way of represent- 
ing it, de Grat. et Lib. Arbitr. c. 14, the first grace is that which 
infuses the thought of goodness sine nobis; the second, that 
which unites us to itself by assent, when it changes our evil 
will to a desire of goodness, this is done nobiscum; the third, 
that which aids us in doing good, this works per nos. We 
may accept the sober statements of Mohler, Symbolism, i. 122, 
E. Tr., as to man's part in allowing himself to be excited, vivi- 
fied, raised up by grace ; that grace being, on the one hand, 
absolutely necessary for the first motions of good in man (the 
truth denied by Semi-pelagians) ; and on the other hand, not 
such an exertion of omnipotent power as would compel man to 



220 The Son always with the Father. 

accept salvation, and so destroy " that moral order which the 
Divine Wisdom has founded on liberty." See Introduction to 
" Anti-Pelagian Treatises of S. Augustine," pp. xiii. Ixv. 

137- S. John xiv. 28. It is interesting to observe that we 
still read on Whit- Sunday the same Gospel which was read at 
Rome under S. Leo. The old Roman Lectionary or Comes (see 
Pamelius, Liturg. Lat. ii. 32) prescribes as the Gospel for Whit- 
Sunday the latter part of this chapter from verse 23, as we now 
find it in the Roman Missal. In the First Prayer Book of Ed- 
ward VI., the Gospel began, as now with us, at verse 15, but 
ended at ver. 21. 

138. It was usual with S. Augustine to express the Son's 
unity of essence with the Father by saying that when He came 
in the flesh upon earth, He still continued with the Father : 
not meaning to deny that He did, in a true sense, "empty Him- 
self" of His glory, and " when He was rich, became for our sakes 
poor,"- but in order to exclude any such notions as that He had 
ever for a moment ceased to be very God, or that His Godhead 
had been "converted into flesh." See S. Aug. Serm. 184, "in 
homine ad nos venisse, et a Patre non recessisse :" Serm. 186, 
"fieri potuit, manens quod erat." See note 95. S. Leo adopts 
the same phraseology ; see also Serm. 18, c. 5, and in Nativ. 2, 
c. 2, " de ccelesti sede descendens, et a paterna gloria non re- 
cedens ;" in JSTativ. 10, c. 5, "a paterno non divisus throno ;" 
and the Homily on the Transfiguration, c. 6, " Filius Meus .... 
manens in forma gloriae meas." See S. John iii. 13. Aquinas, 
in a Sacramental hymn, has the same thought ; 

" Verbum supermini prodiens, 
Nee Patris linquens dexteram." 



139. In order to understand the situation, we must observe 
that Eutyches in the early part of 448, had apprised Leo of " a 
revival of Nestorianism," and had received a brief but sympa- 



Case of Eutyches. 221 

thetic reply (Ep. 2O). 1 Five months later, he had been con- 
demned for heresy by a local synod at Constantinople, under 
the presidency of Flavian as archbishop, on the 22nd of No- 
vember, 448. Thereupon he wrote again to Leo. The letter is 
extant in a Latin version, and forms the 2ist letter in the Leo- 
nine series. It is to this effect : " I have been falsely accused 
by Eusebius, Bishop of Dorylaeum. Flavian summoned me to 
appear ; in spite of my age, and of illness, I came, not know- 
ing that an intrigue had been got up against me. I put in a 
document, signed, and containing my profession of faith. 
Flavian would not receive it. I declared, orally, my adhesion 
to the Nicene Creed, reaffirmed at Ephesus. I was called upon 
to confess 'two natures,' and to anathematise those who de- 
nied this. I feared to transgress the Ephesine prohibition 
by adding anything to the Nicene Creed : I knew that Julius 
and Felix (of Rome), Athanasius and Gregory, had rejected 
the phrase ' two natures/ and as I did not dare to discuss the 
nature of God the Word, who became incarnate without change 
and was made man in reality, not in ' phantasm/ I asked that 
the case might be laid before you for judgment. 2 This was re- 
fused, and a sentence of deposition, which had been drawn up 
before my trial, was published. The hostile feeling against me 
was such, that I was indebted to military protection for security. 
Other abbots were commanded to sign my deposition, a step 
not taken again Nestorius himself. I was prevented from stat- 
ing my belief openly for the satisfaction of the people. Under 
these circumstances, I invoke your help. Although I anathe- 
matise Apollinaris, Valentinus, Manes, and Nestorius, and those 
who say that our Lord's flesh came from heaven, and not from 
the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and all heresies up to 
Simon Magus, still I am in peril of death on the ground of 
heresy. I pray you, let not the recent proceedings prejudice my 
claim to a hearing : do not suffer me, after seventy years, to 

1 Leo doubtless did not know that Domnus, patriarch of Antioch, 
had already denounced Eutyches as heretical : Facundus, viii. 5. 

This was disingenuous ; he had said in a low voice to the patri- 
cian Florentius, that he appealed to the Synods of Rome, Egypt, and 
Jerusalem : Mansi, vi. 817. 



222 Case of Eutyches. 

be cast out of the number of the orthodox, and shipwrecked at 
the very end of life." To this letter Eutyches appended the 
document which, as he asserted, the synod had declined to re- 
ceive. It began in the words of S. Paul, I Tim. vi. 13 ; it referred 
to the Nicene faith as at Ephesus pronounced unalterable, pro- 
fessed entire adherence to the doctrinal decisions of Ephesus, 
and entire accordance of belief with approved Fathers, including 
Proclus of Constantinople, who had taken a strong part against 
Nestorius at the opening of the Nestorian controversy, and who 
afterwards, in his excellent ' Tome' to the Armenians, which 
Cyril described as " full of good thoughts and right doctrines," 
had substituted " one for^a-Tcwm incarnate" for " one Qvais incar- 
nate," and emphasised the existence of a human <prf<ns or "nature" 
in our Lord. After referring to such authorities, Eutyches pro- 
ceeded to anathematise all heretics, and to express belief in the 
Incarnation as having taken place " without change and with- 
out conversion" (of Godhead into flesh) " even as He knows and 
willed. And He Who is always, before the ages, perfect God, 
became Himself perfect man at the end of days, for us and for 
our salvation. Let your Holinesses accept this my explicit 
profession. I, Eutyches, presbyter and archimandrite" (abbot) 
" sign this ' libellus' with my own hand." He subjoined a pas- 
sage attributed by the Eutychian party to Julius of Rome, ab- 
solutely denying " two natures," and asserting one, on the 
authority of S. John i. 14, i Cor. viii. 6, with a reference to the 
long-current analogy, " as the reasonable soul and flesh is one 
man," or, as it is here expressed, one " nature," and with the 
argument that if there were two natures, then He Who came 
from heaven could not be called Son of Man, nor He Who was 
born of a woman Son of God, that one nature would be ador- 
able, the other not, and men would be baptised into one, not 
into the other ; in short, that to say two natures was to say two 
persons, whereas the Lord's personality was indivisibly one. 
But it was afterwards shown that this passage was by Apol- 
linaris himself. (See Leontius of Byzantium, de Sectis, viii. 4, 
ap. Galland. Biblioth. Patr. xii. 651.) Soon after this missive 
came from Eutyches, Leo received a letter from Theodosius II., 
which apparently gave him the impression that Eutyches had 
been badly treated. So he afterwards wrote to Julian of Cos, 



Case of Eutyches. 223 

"Diu apud nos incertum fuit quid in ipso (sc. Eutyche) ca- 
tholicis displiceret ; et cum .... Flaviani nullas litteras su- 
meremus, ipse autem scriptis suis Nestorianam haeresim repul- 
lulare quereretur," &c. Ep. 34. Nothing on the other side had 
as yet reached him when on the i8th of February, 449, he wrote 
to Flavian, expressing surprise at not having heard from him, 
requesting information as to the merits of the case, and sug- 
gesting that all care should be taken to maintain charity while 
defending the truth : Ep. 23. To Theodosius he wrote in a 
similar strain, implying that Flavian ought to have written to 
him, and that now at any rate, it was to be hoped that he would 
do so. Already, we observe, he is assuming the position of an 
arbiter, whereas Flavian had not yet solicited his intervention. 
This letter apparently crossed one from Flavian, which was 
somewhat unaccountably delayed in its transit to Rome. It 
forms the 22nd Leonine, and is extant in the original Greek 
and in two Latin versions, (the older and less correct beginning 
' Nullares," the later and more accurate beginning " Nihil est.") 
It may be thus summarised : " I have had to grieve over the 
spiritual ruin of one of my own clergy. I could not rescue him 
from * the wolf :' he was carried away, indeed he leapt forth, 
disregarding all remonstrances." Then, by a sudden change of 
imagery, he describes Eutyches as himself a wolf in sheep's 
clothing. " This presbyter and abbot was long deemed ortho- 
dox, a hearty anti-Nestorian : but now he has attempted to 
subvert the Nicene Creed, and the letter of Cyril of holy 
memory to Nestorius" (i.e. the second letter, not the third to 
which the twelve anathemas were appended) " and his letter to 
the Easterns" (i.e. the letter to John of Antioch) " to which all 
gave assent, and to renew the old heterodoxy of Valentinus 
and Apollinaris. He said expressly before a synod that our 
Lord was not to be acknowledged as of two natures" (e/c Svo 
^yo-ewf, rendered in the earlier version de, in the later ex 
duabus naturis) "after the Incarnation, in one hypostasis and in 
one person," (this, of course, is put in to guard against all ap- 
pearance of Nestorianising,) " nor was His flesh consubstantial 
with us, as being assumed from us, and hypostatically" (" secun- 
dum subsistentiam :" the first version incorrectly reads, " secun- 
dum substantiam") " united to God the Word ; but he said that 



224 Case of Eutyches. 

although His Virgin Mother was consubstantial with us, yet 
He had not taken flesh consubstantial with us from her, and 
that His body, that which was from the Virgin, was not the 
body of a man, yet was a human body ; in opposition to all 
the statements of the Fathers." Flavian concludes by saying 
that he sends a copy of the proceedings (irpa^iv Latin, " gesta," 
or " quidquid egimus," phrases equivalent to " acts") including 
the sentence of deposition from priesthood and from abbacy, 
and of excommunication : and then, without a single word 
which might warrant the assumption that he recognised in his 
Roman brother a right to re-hear the case, he simply requests 
Leo to inform his suffragans as to its true merits. This letter, 
we should observe, is not quite consistent with the account 
given in the " Acts," where Eutyches appears as consenting, 
under pressure of authority, to call Christ " consubstantial with 
us as man ;" his reluctance to own this being a proof that he 
had not really acquiesced in the formulary of reunion be- 
tween Cyril and John of Antioch, wherein our Lord's twofold 
' consubstantiality' was expressly asserted. (Cyr. Ep. to John.) 
Flavian's letter, on its arrival, was acknowledged in a brief note, 
which Leo dates on the 2ist of May, and in which, while ex- 
pressing his sympathy with Flavian, he promises to write " more 
fully," and quietly assumes, after his fashion, that Flavian will 
need to be instructed, " quid de tota causa constitui debeat." 
(Ep. 27.) This promise he now fulfils in the Tome. We must 
think of him as writing with the older Latin version of Flavian's 
letter before him ; and it is especially necessary, in reading the 
Tome, which ranks as " Ep. 28," to take no account of Fla- 
vian's second letter, or " Ep. 26," which did not reach him until 
later, and which he acknowledges in Ep. 36, dated a week after 
the date of the Tome. (See the Ballerini, Admonit. in Ep. 22.) 
The Tome was written in order to influence the deliberations 
of the Council which had been summoned by the Emperor 
Theodosius, against the wish of Flavian and of Leo himself, to 
meet in Ephesus, and which Leo afterwards in one of those 
scathing phrases which become historic appellations described 
as characterised by " latrocinium" or brigandage (Ep. 95. 2) 
under the tyrannous presidency of Dioscorus, who took care 
that the Tome should not be read in its hearing. 



The Baptismal Creed. 22$ 

140. That is, of Flavian's synod at Constantinople. It was 
what was called the a-vvo^os evSijfioOo-a, composed of the bishops 
who might be, for the time, staying at Constantinople on ac- 4 
count of their own church business. See " Notes on Canons of 
First Four Councils," p. 159 (on Chalc. c. 9.) On this occasion 
it had assembled for the purpose of adjusting a dispute between 
the Metropolitan of Sardis and two suffragans : and after this 
had been done, Eusebius of Dorylaeum took advantage of the 
synod to accuse Eutyches. See Mansi, vi. 652 ; Hefele, Hist, of 
Councils, b. x. c. 2, s. 172. 



See above, note 35. Compare also Tillemont, xv. 487, 
" Saint Lon a cru qu'Eutyche s'etait jette dans ce malheur 
plus par ignorance que par malice : il 1'appelle quelquefois un 
vieillard e'galement imprudent et ignorant." Leo says in Ep. 30, 
that formerly Eutyches had seemed laudable " humilitatis pro- 
posito," but that his error had sprung " de imperitia magis quam 
de versutia ;" in Ep. 34. 2, he calls him " indoctus ;" in Ep. 29 
and 33, he says that he was " sadly in the dark," and " that he 
did not adorn the grey hairs of old age with ripeness of 
mind." 

142. Here, and in Ep.i24. 8, " symboli salutaris, et confessionis 
quam pronuntiantes coram multis testibus sacramentum bap- 
tismi suscepistis," and more briefly in de Nativ. 4. 6, " fide quam 
confessi estis ..... et in qua renati," he refers to the solemn 
profession of faith exacted as a preliminary to baptism. Refer- 
ence may be here made to the " Traditio Symboli," or delivery 
of the Creed to catechumens to be learnt : it was afterwards re- 
peated by the candidates, according to Eastern usage, on Maundy 
Thursday (Cone. Laodic. c. 46 ;) at Rome, on the morning of Holy 
Saturday, the actual day of baptism, as the Gelasian rubric for 
that day says, " Mane infantes reddunt symbolum," Murat. i. 
563. Finally, just before entering the " font," the candidate, or 
in the case of an infant, the sponsor as his representative, was 
interrogated, according to the form which Leo, doubtless, was 
wont to use, " Credis in Deum Patrem omnipotentem ? Resp. 
Credo. Credis et in Jesum Christum, Filium ejus unicum, Domi- 
num nostrum, natum et passum ? Credo. Credis et in Spiri- 

Q 



226 Christ's human descent. 

turn Sanctum, Sanctam Ecclesiam, Remissionem peccatorum, 
Carnis resurrectionem ? Credo;" (ib. i. 570.) The"OldGal- 
lican form" was more doctrinal : " Credis Patrem et Filium et 
Spiritum Sanctum unius esse virtutis ? Credo :" two other similar 
interrogatories following. The " Gallican Sacramentary" ad- 
dressed the triple interrogatory to the sponsors, and followed 
exactly the wording of the Apostles' Creed. The Sarum form 
agrees with the old Roman, only adding " Catholicam, Sancto- 
rum communionem," and "vitam aeternam post mortem." 
(Maskell, Mon. Rit. i. 23.) Distinct responsive acceptance of 
at least the main articles of the faith was " thought so neces- 
sary," that it was never dispensed with " even in ' clinic' bap- 
tism, when men were baptised upon a sick bed :" Bingham, xi. 
7. 8. For the solemn and public character of this final profes- 
sion, see ib. xi. 7. 9, on the case of Victorinus. 

143. Leo here seems to assume that the Roman or " Apos- 
tles' " Creed will be familiar to Eastern readers ; but in Ep. 165, 
writing to the Eastern emperor, he brings forward the original 
form of the Nicene Creed. Observe that here the best autho- 
rities read "^," not " ex Maria." 

144. Here, and in Ep. 165. 3, Leo uses the Nicene phrase, 
" God from God," which had been omitted in the " Constantino- 
politan" recension of the Creed, as involved in " very God from 
very God," but which the Western Church gradually restored, 
e.g. the great Council of Toledo in 589 has " Deum ex Deo." 

145. He lays stress on the importance of the Genealogies in 
Ep. 31. 2, " Nihil autem prodest Dominum nostrum 'verum per- 
fectumque hominem' dicere, si non illius generis ac seminis homo 
creditur, cujus in evangelic praedicatur ; dicit enim Matthasus, 
Liber generationis Jesu Christi, filii David, filii Abraham." 
Then, after a reference to the pedigree traced up by S. Luke to 
Adam, " ut Adam primum et Adam novissimum ejusdem osten- 
dat esse substantiae," so as to prevent the Incarnation from being 
resolved into a mere Theophany ; (of the Theophanies Leo takes 
the older view, rather than that of S. Augustine.) So also Ep. 
139. 3, where S. Matt. i. i is combined with Rom. ix. 5. So in 



The Personal Union. 227 

Ep. 72, " ut non confundaris de evangelic generationis Do- 
mini," &c. Theodoret, in his second Dialogue, insists against 
" Eranistes" that our Lord ought to be recognised as " the Son 
of David." (Op. iv. 97.) 

146. " Magni consilii Angelus," the old Latin reading repre- 
senting the LXX. of Isa. ix. 6, is here united with the Vulgate 
" Consiliarius." 

147. That is, he should not have fallen into the absurdity of 
putting an unreal sense on " became flesh," or " became man." 
Leo is here supposing, as in Ep. 124. 2, and Ep. 165. 2, that 
Eutyches " tertium Apollinaris dogma delegit," i.e., the opinion 
that Christ's manhood was formed out of a divine substance. 
The " first" and " second" Apollinarian dogmas, in his reckon- 
ing, were that He had not a human tyvx-f), and, that He had not 
a human vovs. See Ep. 59. 5. 

148. Here the Tome begins to be more explicitly theological. 
The first words of the passage are quoted by Hooker, v. 53. 2, 
as in entire accordance with the language of Hilary, adduced 
by Leo at the end of his Ep. 165. " Ipse ex unitis in idipsum 
naturis naturae utriusque res eadem est, ita tamen ut neutro careret 
in utroque ; ne forte ' Deus' esse, homo nascendo, desineret, et 
' homo' rursus, Deus manendo, non esset," de Trin. ix. 3 ; and of 
Cyril, whose words, in one of his letters to Succensus, Hooker 
paraphrases fairly enough, and presents as clearly incompatible 
with Eutychianism : the " Salva igitur" is also cited in Liddon's 
Bamp. Lect. p. 267. Compare Serm. 8, c. I, "quod ... in unam 
personam concurrat proprietas utriusque substantise ;" and de 
Pass. 3. i, " ut in Redemptorem nostrum duas noverimus con- 
venisse naturas." When the Tome was being read in the Council 
of Chalcedon, some bishops of Illyricum and Palestine questioned 
the orthodoxy of the latter part of the sentence in the text. 
(Mansi, Cone. vi. 972.) Aetius, deacon of the church of Con- 
stantinople, met this doubt by reading a passage from Cyril's 
second letter to Nestorius : " Since His own body, by God's 
grace, as Paul says, tasted death for all, therefore is He said to 
have suffered death for us : not as if, so far as pertained to His 



228 The Personal Union. 

nature (<j>iW) He had experienced death, (for it were insane to 
say this,) but because, as I said just now, it was His flesh that 
tasted death." Such a defence of Leo's orthodoxy on the crucial 
point of Nestorianism as if in reply to the misgiving, " Is 
not Leo abandoning the ground secured by Cyril? does he not 
press the distinction between the natures into a severance of 
the ofte personality ?" may be compared with Ephraim of An- 
tioch's contention, as described by Photius, Biblioth. n. 228 : 
" Leo loudly proclaims rbi/ avrbv flbv rov 0eou fcai a\r)6>s Ttbv av6p6- 
TTOV 7eVe(T0at .... anathematises Nestorius for saying that Mary 
was not Mother of God but of a man," and assigns alike both 
" forms" and the several natural " energies" to " one and the 
same Son." Compare Tertullian adv. Prax. 27. 

149. " In integra ergo veri hominis perfectaque natura." 
This illustrates the stand made at Chalcedon by Leo's legates 
for the phrase " in two natures," rather than " of two natures." 
Already at the Council of Constantinople, after Flavian the 
president had used " of two natures," Basil of Seleucia had 
acknowledged the " one Lord as existing in two natures," al- 
though he afterwards, at the " Robbers' Synod," retracted this 
speech through fear ; Mansi, vi. 680, 685, 828 ; Evagrius, ii. 18. 
And long afterwards, Ephraim of Antioch contended that " one 
nature incarnate" and " in two natures" were phrases not op- 
posed to each other, but respectively guarding two aspects of 
one truth. See above, note 35. So de Pass. 3, c. i, " Tota est 
in majestate humilitas, tota in humilitate majestas ;" Ep. 35. 2, 
"unus in utroque est;" Ep. 59. 41, "in ea scilicet natura quae 
nostri et sanguinis esset et generis." Compare " totus in suis, 
totus in nostris," with Serm. xiv. c. 5. And see the conclusion 
of Proclus's Tome, where it is urged that Rom. ix. 5 brings out 
the personal identity of the Christ Who had become truly man 
with Him Who was " over all, God, blessed for ever." Mansi, 
v. 425. Theodoret represents his Eranistes as admitting e'/c 860 
but denying Svo Qvo-fis. Dial. ii. (Op. iv. 101.) 



150. This remark as to the nature of the " self-emptying," 
which recurs in Serm. 2, c. 2, Serm. 14, c. 5, may be compared 
with a passage in Ep. 165. 8 (so also substantially in Ep. 124. 7,) 



The " Self-emptying? 229 

" et idem ipse est, sicut apostolus praadicat, et dives et pauper." 
(He is thinking of 2 Cor. viii. 9, a text also insisted on by 
Cyril.) Then, after explaining the " riches" and the " poverty" by 
S. John i. 13, 14, he asks, " Quae autem est ejus exinanitio, quaeve 
paupertas, nisi formae servilis acceptio, per quam,Verbi majestate 
velata, dispensatio humanae redemptionis impleta est ?" So 
Cyril, in " Quod unus sit Christus" (Op. vii. 373 ;) " Wherein con- 
sisted the KfVoxm; in the fact of His taking flesh, and being 
in the form of a servant, and being made like to us, whereas in 
His proper Qveis He was not as we are :" and adv. Theod. 4, 

" it is KcWtns for God the Word to act or speak at all 

humanly." When Leo says that " what was Divine was not les- 
sened," as again in the very same words in Serin. 2, c. 2, or in 
Serm. 14, c. 5, " male sentiunt . . . minuendo quod est Dei- 
tatis :" or again, as further on in the Tome, that the Word " did 
not depart from the Father's glory," he does not, of course, 
mean that our Lord did not forego the full exercise of Di- 
vine prerogatives, for that He did so is involved in that very 
assumption of "our nature" on which Leo insists, and in His con- 
sequent acceptance of its limitations and infirmities ; but that 
He " did not lose what belonged to Him," (" ut . . . . potenter 
propria non amitteret," de Quadr. 8, c. I,) or in other words, that 
He did not, because He could not, cease to be Himself, the 
Divine Son ; so in Nativ. 7, c. 2, " nunquam destitit esse Deus 
verus," exactly as Cyril says (Epist. p. 148,) ou rb elj/ai ebs a<j>eis. 
See Oosterzee, Image of Christ, pp. 143, 181, E. T. 

151. With this compare " Idem est qui factus est inter omnia, 
et per quern facta sunt omnia," de Pass. 17, c. I ; and " Idem est 
in forma Dei qui formam suscepit servi," &c. de Nativ. 10, c. 4. 

152. a Tenet enim sine defectu proprietatem suarh utraque 
natura." The Monophysite writers, Timotheus and Severus, 
afterwards attacked this (in its Greek version) as Nestorian. 
Eulogius, Catholic patriarch of Alexandria, (A.D. 579,) as quoted 
by Photius, Biblioth. n. 225, replied by quoting c. 2, " Idem . . . 
unigenitus .... natus est de Spiritu Sancto .... Quas na- 
tivitas temporalis illi nativitati divinae .... nihil minuit," and 
adding, " Did this ever come into the mind of Nestorius?" 



230 The distinction of the Natures. 

153. " De praevaricatoris consortio solatium." This 

passage, with the first few lines of the next chapter, is given, 
within brackets, in the Ballerini's text of Leo's Serin, in Nativ. 
2. Compare Paradise Lost, ix. 126 ; 

" Nor hope to be myself less miserable 
By what I seek, but others to make such 
As I, though thereby worse to me redound, 
For only in destroying I find ease," &c. 

154. " Incomprehensibilis voluit comprehend!." Compare 
de Pass. 17, c. i. "Idem est qui impiorum manibus comprehen- 
ditur, et qui nullo fine concluditur." And in Epiph. 7, c. i, 
" genitricis gremio continetur, qui nullo fine concluditur." This 
" antithesis" has been grandly expressed in Milman's " Martyr 
of Antioch,"- 

' ' And Thou wast laid within the narrow tomb . . . 
Whom heaven could not contain, 
Nor the immeasurable plain 
Of vast infinity enclose or circle round. " 

155. "Nullum est in hac unitate mendacium ;" i.e. the man- 
hood is as real as the Godhead. Compare Ep. 165. 9, that the 
whole mystery of faith is blurred and obscured, " si lux veritatis 
sub mendacio putatur latuisse phantasmatis." But the Mono- 
physites objected to the next words, " dum invicem sunt et 
humilitas hominis et altitude Deitatis :" and Eulogius in reply 
quoted from c. 3, " ut quod nostris remediis congruebat, unus 
atque idem Mediator . . . homo Jesus Christus, et mori posset 
ex uno, et mori non posset ex altero." Another objection to the 
words next following, " sicut Deus non mutatur miseratione, ita 
homo non consumitur dignitate," is met by Ephraim by refer- 
ence to the language of " Ignatius, Julius, Athanasius, the Grego- 
ries, and Basil," &c. Leo's meaning is well illustrated by his 
own words, de Pass. 3, c. i, " Nihil ibi ab invicem vacat, 
tota est in majestate humilitas, tota in humilitate majestas . . . 
Aliud est passibile, aliud inviolabile : et tamen ejusdem et con- 
tumelia, cujus et gloria ; ipse est in infirmitate, qui et in virtute." 

156. "Agit enim utraque forma." This passage, down to 
" injuries," (which occurs also in de Pass. 3, c. 2,) was questioned 
by the Illyrian and Palestinian bishops. Evidently it seemed to 



The one Christ in Two Natures. 231 

them Nestorianising in tendency. Aetius, therefore, produced 
a sentence from the great anti-Nestorian champion's second 
letter to Succensus, " Some expressions there are which are in 
the highest degree appropriate to Deity ; others, again, are ap- 
propriate to manhood ; and others hold a sort of middle rank, 
exhibiting the Son of God as being at once God and Man." 
(Cyr. Epist., p. 148.) It is to be observed that Cyril is here 
explaining the formulary of reunion between himself and the 
" Easterns," which concluded with the words, " We know that 
theologians have treated some of the expressions concerning 
our Lord as common, as referring to one Person, and have 
distinguished others as referring to two natures, and have taught 
us to refer to Christ's Godhead those which are appropriate to 
Deity, and to the Manhood those which imply humiliation." 
Cyril explains that the Easterns had no thought of distributing 
these expressions between two personalities, the idea censured 
in his fourth anathema ; so that the point for which he had 
been contending was secure. He proceeds to specify S. John xiv. 
9, 10, and x. 30 as samples of the expressions called 0eoirp7rets, 
S. John viii. 40 as a sample of the afepcatroirpeire'is, and Heb. xiii. 
8, i Cor. viii. 6, and Rom. ix. 5 of those which " stand midway." 
The distinction between these classes of texts had been recog- 
nised in his Apol. adv. Orient. 4, after he had definitely ex- 
cluded such a partition of the natures, in the Incarnate, as 
would imply two separate persons. It is evident that the 
phrase " two distinct natures" might have a heterodox mean- 
ing in the mouth of a Nestorianiser, but that, if it were used 
with express recognition of the unity of the " ego," it would 
convey no more than Cyril repeatedly acknowledged. Dorner, 
indeed, makes out an antagonism between Cyril and Leo on this 
point, as if Cyril had " characterised all Christ's acts and suffer- 
ings as divine-human, while Leo apportioned miracles to the di- 
vine nature, sufferings to the human nature, even after the Unio." 
But the difference is superficial. Cyril's rejection of all " fusion" 
guards the point which Leo had in mind ; and as Theodoret in 
his third Dialogue, while insisting that the properties of both 
natures must be severally recognised, fully owns that " to be 
wearied and not wearied belonged to the same Person," (compare 
also Theodoret, Ep. 104 and 130,) so Leo fully acknowledges 
that personal singleness which was matter of supreme interest 



232 The one Christ in Two Natures. 

to Cyril. Repeatedly does Cyril, in his pleas against T& 
or Statpeti/ rets Qvcreis, explain that what he means to exclude is a 
" division of the one Christ into two," whereby some expres- 
sions would be predicated of the Logos, and others assigned 
avQpwTTcp Trapix rbv e 0eoD h.6yov iSiK&s j/oov/xeVy. So Proclus, in his 
admirable Tome, Mansi, v. 429 : " That He might assure us that 
bekig God . . . and remaining what He was, He became flesh, and 
an infant, and man, while the mystery is not outraged by any 
changes, He, the selfsame, both works miracles and suffers ; by 
the miracles indicating that He was what He was (before) ; by 
the sufferings giving evidence that He had become what He (ori- 
ginally) had framed." The words of Leo in the text lay stress on 
the close intercommunion of the two natures ; and compare Ep. 
124. 7, "in tantam unitatem . . . deitate et humanitate connexa, 
ut nee sine homine divina, nee sine Deo agerentur humana." A 
certain inaccuracy, indeed, may be noted in this use of " Ver- 
bum" here for Godhead, analogous to the use of " homo" for 
Manhood. But the general meaning is quite clear, and should 
remove all doubt that might be suggested by the verb " agit," 
as applied to each nature. The Monophysite criticism on this 
passage was met by Eulogius with a reference to the following 
passage, " Unus .... idemque est . . . . vere Dei Filius et 
vere hominis Filius," &c. Ephraim observes that Leo did not 
say 6 fjLfv, 6 5e, but -rb fa, T& 5*', Photius, Bibl. 229. See John 
Damascene, iii. 19, on the joint action, called " theandric," of 
the Divine and the human " energy ;" and Aquinas, Sum. iii. 
19. i, quoting " Agit utraque," and asserting according to the 
Sixth Council, " two activities" in the one Christ. With " corus- 
cat miraculis," compare de Quadrag. 8, c. 2, " quaedam in Do- 
mino nostro . . . subjecta injuriis, quaedam illustrata miraculis." 

157. This passage on the Voice at the Baptism was objected 
to by Monophysites. Eulogius quotes, in reply, the opening 
words of this chapter. " Ingreditur ergo," &c. 

158. " Esurire, sitire, lassescere," &c. See above, Serm. 9, c. 
4 ; 10, c. 4 ; n, c. 4 ; and de Quadr. 8. 2, " Veri est hominis, 
fatigationem corpoream somni quiete relevare ; sed veri Dei est, 
vim sasvientium procellarum prascepti increpatione compescere. 
Cibos esurientibus apponere, humanae benignitatis est ; . . . sed 



The properties of true Manhood. 233 

quinque panibus et duobus piscibus quinque millia virorum, 
exceptis mulieribus et parvulis, satiare, quis negare audeat opus 
esse Deitatis ?" So more briefly in the last of his series of Ser- 
mons, the " Tractatus contra haeresim Eutychis," c. 2 : " Huma- 
num quippe est esurire, et sitire, et dormire . . . metuere, flere, 
tristari . . . mori . . . sed divinum est super mare ambulare, 
aquas in vina convertere, mortuos suscitare . . . ut qui hoc cre- 
dunt dubitare non possint quid humanitati ascribere, quid de- 
beant assignare Deitati, quoniam in utroque unus est Christus." 
So Proclus had said in his Tome : " If some are scandalised 
by the swaddling clothes, and by His being laid in the manger, 
and by His growing up, according to the flesh, in a period of 
time, or by His sleeping in the boat, and sitting down weary 
after a journey, and feeling hunger at times, and by all that is 
incident to one really born Man, let them know that if they 
mock at the sensations (irc^), they deny the nature ; and if they 
deny the nature, they do not believe in the 'economy' (the 
Incarnation) ; and if they do not believe in the economy, they 
forfeit their salvation." They were both, in effect, following 
Athanasius, Orat. iii. 32 ; and the words in the Tome are trans- 
lated in Newman's Notes on that chapter, Ath. Treat, ii. 445. 

159. So in Quadr. 8. 2 ; " Nostra tibi innotescat affectio, cum 
mortuo amico fletus impenditur ; divina potentia sentiatur, cum 
idem post quatriduanam jam fcetidus sepulturam solo vocis im- 
perio vivificatus erigitur." Compare S. Athanasius, Orat. iii. 32 ; 
14 In the case of Lazarus, He uttered a human voice, as man, but 
divinely, as God, did He raise Lazarus from the dead," &c. And 
in his Tom. ad Antioch. 7, " N or was He Who raised up Lazarus 
one, and He Who inquired about him another ; but it was the 
same Who said humanly, ' Where is Lazarus laid ?' and Who 
divinely raised him up ;" and to the same effect, de Sent. 
Dionys. ii. 9. And S. Gregory Nazianzen, arguing against the 
Apollinarians from their own admissions ; " They clearly make 
a distinction between the things which belong to Christ, they 
assign to what is human the facts that He was born, was tempted, 
hungered, thirsted, was weary, and slept ; and they set down to 
the Godhead the facts that He was glorified by Angels, that He 
overcame the tempter, and fed the people in the wilderness and 
fed them in the way He did, and walked on the surface of the 



234 The one Christ in Two Natures. 

sea ; and they consider the question, ' Where have ye laid La- 
zarus ?' to be within our sphere (^ue'repoj/,) and the loud cry, * La- 
zarus, come forth,' and the raising up one who had been dead 
four days, to be above it," &c. Epist. 102. 

160. " Quamvis in Domino . . . divinitas." Again, in spite of 
the words, " there is one Person," the Illyrian and Palestinian 
bishops objected : and this time it was Theodoret in former 
years a vehement opponent of " the Egyptian" who stood up 
and read "a parallel passage from the blessed Cyril, to this effect : 
'Who was made man, and yet did not lay aside what was proper 
to Him, for He remained what He was ; for it is clearly un- 
derstood that one thing is dwelling in another thing, that is, 
the Divine nature in the human elements.' " (Schol. 27, where 
the text reads, " in humanity ;" see the last words so quoted 
at the end of Leo's Ep. 165.) The clause " Quamvis" is ampli- 
fied in Ep. 165. 5. The Monophysites afterwards renewed the 
objection thus met : and Eulogius adduced, in reply, the pas- 
sage in the next chapter, ending with " ut unum Dei Filium 
et Verbum confiteamur et carnem." 

161. This passage is adopted, with very slight variations, from 
S. Augustine, c. Sermon. Arian. c. 8 ; see above, note 5. Leo 
brings in the word " consempiternus," c. 2, and de Quadr. 8, 
c. 3. S. Augustine had been saying, " Ipse namque unus 
Christus et Dei Filius semper natura," (compare the Atha- 
nasian use of ov<ria specifically for our Lord's divine nature, 
Newman, Athan. Treat, ii. 345, and Cyril's use of KOTO tyvtriv iSiav 
for "as He is originally in Himself," i.e. as the Divine Word ;) 
" et hominis Filius qui ex tempore assumptus est gratia," (mean- 
ing, not " by the Father's adopting grace," but, " by His own 
condescension,") " nee sic assumptus est ut prius creatus post 
assumeretur, sed ut ipsa assumptione crearetur" (i.e. His man- 
hood had never existed except as assumed by His Divine Per- 
son. See Hooker, v. 52. 3.) The Monophysites attacked the 
words adopted by Leo. Eulogius points to the words in c. 3, 
" In integra veri hominis . . . natura verus natus est Deus." 

162. " Me utique qui sum Filius hominis." Compare Liddon, 



The Son of Man, the Son of God. 235 

Bamp. Lect. p. 6 ; " This question involves an assertion, namely, 
that the Speaker is the Son of Man. . . . The point of His 
question is this, what is He besides being the Son of Man ? 
. . . what is He in the seat and root of His being ?" &c. On 
the answer of S. Peter see also de Nat. ips. 4, c. 2. Our Lord 
is in both passages described as the Rock. Here "principali" 
means evidently (as often in the Latin version of S. Irenaeus) 
" original, archetypal ;" there Leo paraphrases, " Cum ego sim 
inviolabilis petra, ego lapis angularis . . . ego fundamentum 
. . . tamen tu quoque petra es, quia mea virtute solidaris, ut 
quae mihi potestate sunt propria sint tibi mecum participatione 
communia," &c. See above, note 64. In this passage of the 
Tome, Leo emphasises the distinct advance from the recogni- 
tion of the " Christ" to the recognition of " the Son of God." 
That " Son of God" is not here used in a " theocratic" or in an 
"ethical" sense, see Liddon, Bamp. Lect. pp. 10, 193, 235, 249. 

163. "Proprietas divinae humanaeque naturae individuae." 
Here is the sense of dStatpeVcos and awyxfaws. " Et ita sciremus," 
i.e., when contending against Eutyches, we must not give any 
encouragement to Nestorianism. See above, note 34. 

164. " Quo fidei sacramento . . . . vacuus." " Sacramentum 
fidei" is here a "sacred truth received by faith." In Ep. 35, c. i, 
he says that "unless a true human nature is recognised in 
Christ, redemptionis nostrae sacramenta vacuantur," &c. ; and 
Ep. 59, c. 4, " Quicunque in Christo non confitetur corpus hu- 
manum, noverit se . . . nee ejus sacramenti habere consortium 
quod apostolus prasdicat," referring to Eph. v. 32, " sacramentum 
hoc magnum est ;" and Ep. 31. 4, " sacramentum salutis." 

165. " Qui solvit Jesum." So he reads I S. John iv. 3, and 
the same reading recurs in Ep. 164. 3. Tertullian combines it 
with the received reading in adv. Marc. v. 16, "negantes 
Christum in carne venisse, et solventes Jesum :" and in the 
Latin translation of S. Irenaeus the verse is quoted, "omnis 
spiritus qui solvit Jesum non est ex Deo," iii. 16. 8 : and S. Au- 
gustine in his commentary, after first quoting the received text, 
goes on to quote " qui solvit Christum" or " Jesum." Socrates, 



236 " Dissolving Jesus" 

" the only Greek authority for \t5et," (Westcott, Epistles of S. 
John, p. 156,) says that Nestorius "did not know that in the old 
copies it is written, irav Ttvevna & Auei rbv 'lyaovv . . . for those 
who were minded to separate the Godhead from the Man of 
the Economy" (i.e. Jesus) " removed this thought from the old 
copies : wherefore also the old interpreters noted this very fact, 
that there were some who had tampered with the epistle, 

Acetic airb TOV 0eoC rbi> &v0pu>irot> 0e \ovres," vii. 32. WestCOtt remarks 

that Socrates does not say that he had ever seen the reading 
in any Greek copy ; that A?5et rlv "\T\GOVV would not naturally, 
of itself, convey the idea of breaking up the single personality of 
our Lord ; yet that S. John may have sometimes spoken against 
of A.<Wres v\>v 'Irjffow Xpia-r6v, and that this phrase, abridged, may 
have become first a gloss, and then a Latin reading. 

166. " Et a praedicatione evangelii suum non avertit auditum." 
The thought is still more clearly brought out in de Quadr. 8. I, 
" Quidam erubescentes evangelium crucis Christi, ut audentius 
evacuerent susceptum pro mundi redemptione supplicium," &c. 

167. He again refers to the piercing of our Lord's side in 
Epiph. 4, c. 4, where, denouncing the Manicheans, he says, 
" Negent de ejus latere, lancea vulnerato, sanguinem redemp- 
tionis et aquam fluxisse baptismatis." The Monophysite objec- 
tion to this passage is met by Eulogius with a quotation of 
words preceding, " naturam nostram in Unigenito Dei." 

168. It need hardly be observed that he ignores the verse 
about " the Heavenly Witnesses ;" and in the context before us 
he interprets the water as symbolic of Baptism, (compare the 
passage last quoted, and Ep. 59. 4, " sacramentum . . . regene- 
rationis") and the blood as significant of redemption, and of re- 
demption as specially assured or made over by the Eucharistic 
reception of the Lord's blood, which he indicates by the word 
"poculo," (compare Sermon 8, c. 3.) This exposition is not 
entirely coherent ; for while the blood is made to represent the 
spiritual fact of redemption as realised in the Holy Eucharist, 
the water is made to point immediately to Christian Baptism or 
" the laver." The Sacramental reference ought surely to be 



" The Water and the Blood" 237 

mediate in both cases, if in either. And any interpretation 
which would comprehend the whole thought of this mysterious 
passage must begin by placing in the foreground three events, 
(i) our Lord's baptism, (2) His precious bloodshedding on the 
cross before His death, (3) and the flow of blood and water 
from His side after death. Of these events (3) is regarded as 
recalling (i) and (2) at once, and as it were recapitulating 
them. But both (i) and (2) are seen in the light of the facts of 
cleansing and propitiation : and S. John could not forget that 
water had been perpetuated as the sacramental medium of the 
former ; that the blood, in which was centred the latter, was im- 
parted through the cup of " the new covenant ;" and that the tes- 
timony of those ordinances to a living and working Christ was 
the testimony of that Spirit by whom they were made effectual. 
See Bishop Alexander's comment on the Apostle's words. Leo's 
conclusion, associating this text with the union of true God- 
head and true Manhood in Christ, may seem rather far-fetched : 
but to his mind " the Spirit" suggests the thought of Christ's 
Divine life as a Person of the Trinity, while the " water and 
blood" represent functions of His humanity. 

169. He means that the Synod of Constantinople had not 
met this statement with a direct refutation. Eutyches had, 
indeed, been condemned on the strength of it : but it had not 
received an argumentative reply. Leo seems to suggest that 
Eutyches, by confessing our Lord to have been " of two natures 
before the Incarnation," actually attributed to the manhood an 
objective existence in the heavenly world before the actual na- 
tivity. Thus in Ep. 35. 3 ; " Arbitror enim talia loquentem hoc 
habere persuasum, quod anima quam Salvator assumpsit prius 
in ccelis sit commorata quam de Maria Virgine nasceretur, 
eamque sibi Verbum in utero copularet,"- -where he repeats 
that the human nature of Christ was created when it was as- 
sumed, and proceeds to denounce the Origenistic theory of the 
pre-existence of souls. Probably, also, he remembered that Apol- 
linarians, whose heresy he always thought of as having reproduced 
itself in Eutychianism, had sometimes spoken of Christ's flesh 
as existing from eternity in the Son (cf. Greg. Nyssen, Antir- 
rheticos, 13 ; Greg. Naz. Ep. 202 :) language which has indeed 



238 Leo's Legates. 

been explained to mean only that in the Divine Word there 
was always latent the potency of Incarnation, but which in that 
age seemed to assert the consubstantiality of the Lord's flesh 
with Godhead. Compare Theodoret's second Dialogue, where 
" Orthodox" first leads " Eranistes" to own that Christ's flesh 
had no pre-existence, and then infers that before the " union" 
there were not two natures in existence, but one only. Euty- 
ches' admission above mentioned seems only to have meant 
that abstractedly, apart from Incarnation, Godhead and Man- 
hood were two natures, a mere truism. See Later Treatises of 
S. Athanasius, p. 197. 

170. Here he shows that he had learned from the "acts" or 
minutes that Eutyches had been brought to admit our Lord's 
human consubstantiality, in deference to authority. 

171. " Quantacunque." Probably even restoration to his rank 
as presbyter, or his abbacy. Stern as Leo is toward " heretics," 
the Tome ends with an expression of trust that Eutyches will 
be divinely aided to retract and to be saved. Comp. Ep. 291, 
" Si resipiscens . . . pro venia supplicaret, sacerdotalis ei bene- 
volentia subveniret ;" and Ep. 34, " Ut si . . . plena satisfactione 
corrigitur, sententia qua obstrictus est relaxetur." 

172. Julius, bishop of Puteoli ; not Julian, bishop of Cos, 
whom Leo afterwards commissioned to act with the second 
set of legates sent by him to the Council of Chalcedon. If Julius 
did not acquiesce in the violent proceedings at the " Robbers' 
Synod," " it is certain," says Neale, " that he offered no vigorous 
resistance," (Hist. Patr. Alex. i. 297.^ Leo says generally that 
his legates protested, (Ep. 44, c. i, Ep. 45, c. 2 ;) but Neale 
thinks that this use of the plural does not prove any activity on 
the part of Julius. Renatus died in the isle of Delos before he 
could reach Ephesus. Hilarus was archdeacon of Rome ; he 
was present at the " Robbers' Synod," and met the proposal 
to depose Flavian with a sturdy " Contradicitur." Leo says of 
him, " vix, ne subscribere per vim cogeretur, effugit," Ep. 44, c. i. 
He wrote to Pulcheria that he had " kept himself clear from the 
guilt of Flavian's condemnation," and managed to return to 



Acceptance of the Tome. 239 

Rome, " per incognita et invia loca," and report proceedings to 
Leo, Ep. 46, c. 2. He lived to sit, during seven years, in Leo's 
place, and to carry on the tradition of his policy. Dulcitius was 
a mere clerk, or secretary, in attendance on the actual legates. 

173. Here, at the end of this great dogmatic letter, it will be well 
to observe that although the Tome was suppressed at Ephesus, 
it received the adhesion, by signatures, of the bishops who 
formed the " Home Synod" (eVSrj^ouaa) at Constantinople in the 
autumn of 450, (Mansi, vii. 92 ;) Maximus, patriarch of Antioch, 
sent it round to the prelates of the " East" (i.e., of the region 
dependent on Antioch, Leo, Ep. 88. 3 : ) and thus very many 
prelates of the Eastern empire had signed it before the Council 
of Chalcedon. At the second session of that Council, October 
10, 451, many voices declared that they wanted no new expo- 
sition of the faith ; one prelate observed that they had all 
signed Leo's letter, and asked that both the Nicene Creed and 
the letter might be read. Accordingly the Creed was read in 
its original form and in its " Constantinopolitan" recension ; then 
Cyril's second letter to Nestorius, and his letter to John of An- 
tioch, containing the formulary of " re-union :" then acclama- 
tions arose, " So do we all believe : so does Pope" or " Arch- 
bishop Leo believe." An imperial secretary, Veronicianus, pro- 
ceeded to read the Tome : and the applauding bishops cried 
out, " Peter has uttered this through Leo !" (meaning, " Leo is 
true to the teaching of Peter :") " Leo and Cyril have taught 
alike : why was not this read at Ephesus !" (Mansi, vi. 972.) 
But exceptions were taken during the reading (as we have 
seen) to three passages, and were met by the production of 
three passages from Cyril, as parallel. The imperial commis- 
sioners then asked, " Has any one any further doubts ?" " No 
one doubts," was the general answer. But Atticus, bishop of 
Nicopolis, stood forward, as virtually representing the prelates 
of Epirus, Macedonia, Thessaly, Greece, and Crete, who, like 
the Palestinian bishops, were very sensitive as to any appear- 
ance of Nestorianism ; and requested an adjournment, that 
time might be obtained for comparing Leo's letter with Cyril's 
third letter to Nestorius (the letter to which were appended the 
twelve anathematisms.) With some difficulty, the Council was 



240 Acceptance of the Tome. 

induced by the commissioners to assent : Anatolius, bishop of 
Constantinople, was to name a committee to confer with those 
bishops who were not yet satisfied as to the full anti-Nestorian 
orthodoxy of the Tome. It seems that this conference removed 
all disquietude by proving that Anatolius and Leo rejected all 
notions of a " severance" of the Personal Union, i.e., were essen- 
tially in accord with Cyril. And in the fourth session, on October 
17, the assembled prelates, one after another, declared that they 
accepted the Tome of Leo as agreeing with received authorities, 
as the Nicene Creed, or the Nicene and Constantinopolitan 
Creeds, or the decisions of the Council of Ephesus in 431, or the 
teaching of Cyril, or his " epistle" or " epistles," meaning the 
second to Nestorius and the epistle to John. Theodoret men- 
tions " the epistles." Many bishops take pains to express a 
personal judgment on the Tome, after due examination and 
comparison with the above-named standards : " I have ascer- 
tained," or "am convinced," or " have found that it agrees, &c." 
The Greek phrases, in their curious variety, are significant : 
tyvcav, yvcopifa, evp^KafJifV, e5o/ct/idVa/iej/, ireTrXT/po^xJpTj/iot, eKpwa, (vpdtv, 
fipwi', Kara rty e/JL^jv Kcnd^^u', &s ffvviSe'iv rj5vvr)di]v ) %ffov /caret Sidvoiav. 
Some speak more briefly : u It agrees, and I sign it as being 
orthodox," or, " I assent to it." (Mansi, vii. 945.) The spokes- 
men of the Illyrian and Palestinian bishops profess that their 
" doubts" had been removed, and their " objections" met. Ib. vii. 
32, 33. But the long list of signatures in the " acts" of Chalcedon is 
most impressive as to the fact, that this solemn and deliberately 
promulgated utterance of the Roman see on a doctrinal question 
of the first importance was accepted by a great GEcumenical 
Council, not simply on the authority of that see, but as intrinsi- 
cally satisfying the tests of orthodoxy which were applied to it. 
Leo, in 453, professed his satisfaction that some "doubts" had 
been expressed, " ne aliarum sedium ad earn quam caeteris om- 
nium Dominus statuit praesidere consensus assentatio videretur," 
Ep. 1 20. i ; but there can be no doubt that the proceedings at 
Chalcedon are an absolute negative, so far as the Church of the 
fifth century is concerned, to the claim of infallibility for Papal 
decisions, ex cathedra^ on matters of faith. 



Flavian and the Fourth Council. 



241 



It may be desirable to present to the reader, in further illus- 
tration of the Tome, the doctrinal statement contained in a pro- 
fession of faith drawn up by Flavian in the spring of 449 at the 
request of Theodosius, (Mansi, vi. 541,) and the statement con- 
tained in the " Definition of Faith" adopted by the Council of 
Chalcedon in its fifth session, Oct. 22, 451, (Mansi, vii. 116.) 
The latter, it will be seen, was largely modelled on the former, 
but was at once more full and more precise. 



Flavian. 

. . . "We preach our one 
Lord Jesus Christ, Who was 
begotten of God the Father 
before ages, without a begin- 
ning, as to the Godhead, but 
at the end of days, the Same, 
for us and for our salvation, of 
Mary the Virgin as to the Man- 
hood ; perfect God and perfect 
Man, the Same, by the assump- 
tion of a reasonable soul and a 
body ; consubstantial with the 
Father as to Godhead, and the 
Same consubstantial with His 
Mother as to Manhood. For, 
confessing Christ to be of 1 two 
natures after He took flesh of 
the holy Virgin, and became 
Man, in one hypostasis and in 
one person, we confess one 
Christ, one Son, one Lord ; 
and we do not refuse to say 
* one Qva-is of God the Word, 



Council of Chalcedon. 

..." Following, therefore, 
the holy Fathers, we all teach 
with one accord that men 
should confess one and the 
same Son, our Lord Jesus 
Christ, the Same perfect in 
Godhead and the Same perfect 
in Manhood, truly God, and 
truly Man, the Same, of a rea- 
sonable soul and a body ; con- 
substantial with the Father as 
to the Godhead, and the Same 
consubstantial with us as to 
the Manhood ; in all things like 
unto us, apart from sin ; Who 
was begotten of the Father be- 
fore ages as to the Godhead, 
but at the end of days, the self- 
same, for us and for our salva- 
tion, of Mary the Virgin, the 
Mother of God, as to the Man- 
hood; one and the same Christ, 
Son, Lord, Only-begotten, ac- 

1 The Greek reads eV Svo fyfofffiv. But this is apparently an after- 
alteration. Liberatus, in his Breviarium, c. II, (Galland. Bibl. Patr. 
xii. 139,) reads "Ex duabus itaque naturis." So the Catholics, at a 
conference with the Severians at Constantinople in 533, cite the words 
as "of two natures," Mansi, viii. 823. And so Eulogius cites them, 
Photius, Bibl. n. 230 (p. 271, Bekker.) 

R 



242 



Flavian and the Fourth Council. 



but one which was incarnate, 
and became man ;' because our 
Lord Jesus Christ is one and 
the same from both. But those 
who assert that there are two 
Sons, or two hypostases, or 
two persons, and not one and 
the same Lord Jesus Christ, 
the Son of the living God, we 
anathematise, and judge to be 
alien from the Church. And 
first of all, we anathematise 
Nestorius," &c. 



knowledged (as) in 1 two natures, 
without confusion, change, di- 
vision, or separation ; the dif- 
ference of the natures having 
been in no wise annulled be- 
cause of the union, 2 but rather 
the properties of each nature 
being preserved, and (both) 
combined into one person and 
one hypostasis ; not (as) part- 
ed or divided into two per- 
sons, but one and the same Son 
and Only-begotten, God the 
Word, the Lord Jesus Christ ; 
even as the prophets from the 
beginning (spake) of Him, and 
our Lord Jesus Christ Himself 
instructed us, and the Creed 
of the Fathers has handed 
down." 



It may here be added that the arrangement of the Ballerini 
has been followed in regard to the correspondence of Leo and 
Flavian during the first half of the year 449. Hefele, in- 
deed, considers that the second letter of Flavian, Ep. 26, is re- 
ferred to by Leo in his letter of May 21, Ep. 27, and in the 
Tome, of which undoubtedly Ep. 27 was the forerunner. But 
the Tome clearly refers to the first information received from 
Flavian (c. I,) and Ep. 36 to some later letter of Flavian's, 
which may reasonably be identified with Ep. 26. If the first 

1 Here the Greek has K $60 tyfoewv, but *v 5vo <p{xre<nv was ulti- 
mately adopted. See the contemporary testimony of Euthymius in 
Mansi, vii. 776 ; also Evagrius, ii. 4 ; Rusticus, in Galland. xii. 69 ; 
and other authorities cited in Hefele, Hist. Councils, b. xi. s. 193. In 
fact, this appears from the discussion in Mansi, vii. 105, where the 
commissioners and the legates contend that "<?/"two natures" is insuffi- 
cient, and prevail on the Council to appoint a committee to revise the 
draft. The result was evidently the adoption of "in two natures." 

2 From Cyril's second Epistle to Nestorius. See note 35. 



Flavian and Leo. 243 

letter was long on its way, the second, although, as the Balle- 
rini and Hefele agree, probably written in March, may have 
been similarly and unaccountably delayed. It is certain that 
Leo had received the invitation to the proposed General Councih 
at Ephesus on May 13, (Ep. 31. 4,) that is, eight days before he 
wrote Ep. 27, and a month before he dated the Tome. 



INDEX. 



Abraham, Christians true children 

of, 14, 47. 

Acts, the test of inward state, 34. 
Adam, effect of sin of, 21, 54, 59. 
Adoption, Christians children of 

God by, 14, 50, 61. 
Agony, the, of Christ, 37, 173. 
All men, Christ died for, 44, 182. 
Angels, joy of, in the Incarnation, 

4 ; ministry of, to Christ, 95. 
Apollinarianism, 22, 156. 
Apostles, doubts of, why helpful, 

88 ; personal testimony borne 

ty, 53- 
Arianism, 6, 22, 139 ; idolatrous, 

153- 

Ascension, the, our interest in, 63, 

82, 90, 206. 

Atonement, the, implies Christ's 
true Divinity, 134 ; and Huma- 
nity, 55- 

Baptism, effects of, 4, 50, 61, 68, 
147; need of watchfulness after, 
198. 

Blood, efficacy of Christ's, 43, 120. 

Body of Christ, Christians made a, 
4, 10. 

Cerinthus, 150. 



Change, impossible for Divine 
nature, 54, 81, 84, 204. 

Charity, a help against tempta- 
tion, 96. 

Christian calling, dignity of the, 

4 15- 

Christian life, a struggle, 70. 

Christian ordinances, 60, 186. 
Church, the one, from all nations, 

SO- 

Coequality in the Trinity, 5, 41, 

99, 105, 212. 
Coeternity of the Son, 19, 84, 

no. 
Coinherence, the Divine, 85, 108, 

190. 
" Communicatio idiomatum," 117, 

130, 178. 
Conception of Christ, 12,57, 112, 

177. 

Condescension, the Divine, in the 

Incarnation, 8, 13, 41. 
Confession of sins, 34. 
Confirmation, 193. 
Conformity to Divine will, 17. 
Consubstantiality in the Trinity, 

7, 46, 54, 108, 117. 
Contrasts in the Incarnation, 3, 

12, 28, 42,85, 115. 
Creator, Christ the, 5, 54, 114. 



Index. 



245 



Creed, the, 41, 86, no, 225. 
Cross, attraction of the, 56, 191 ; 

hopes centred in the, 35, 62 ; 

to be borne by Christians, 13, 

68, 84. 
Crucifixion, God's will wrought 

out in the, 43, 66. 
Cyril, the point contended for by, 

161, 231 ; not Monophysite, 

163. 

David, Christ's descent from, 2, 

20, III. 

Death, Christ's, our participation 

in, 51 ; removes fear of death, 

81. 
Degrees of Godhead, impossible, 

22, 84, loo, 106, 205. 
Delay of the first Advent, purpose 

in, 9. 

Denial of Christ in act, 34. 
Despair, the final sin of Judas, 

44. 

Docetism, 22, 152. 
Doxology, forms of the, 135. 

Easter, practical lessons of, 74, 

78 ; vigil of, 200. 
Ebionites, 151. 
Emmanuel, prophecy of the, 6, 

112. 

Epiphany, festival of, 26, 166. 

Eternal death, 65. 

Eternity, retribution in for acts 

done in time, 74. 
Eucharist, the Holy, effects of, 

52, 189 ; sacrifice of, 145. 
Eutyches, 23, 109, 121, 162, 221. 
Evil spirits, hostility of, 71. 
Exaltation of Christ's manhood, 

8 5 . 



Example, our Lord's, 4, 48, 63, 
80, 143, 185. 

Faith, "the Catholic," 21, 57, 
171, 192; necessity of true, 57, 
6 1 ; revealed, 108 ; professed 
at baptism, 51, 61. 

Faith, as a principle, justifying, 
S^, 59> 92 ; power of, to realise 
Gospel facts, 65; strong in spite 
of difficulties, 67 ; victories of, 

93; 

Fasting, seasons of, 73, 102, 217. 

Feelings, human, in Christ, 48, 
63, 1 1 6, 185. 

"Firstborn of all creation," 17, 
184. 

Firstfruits of our nature in Christ, 
61. 

Flavian, 163, 221, 241. 

Flesh, Christ really took our, 22, 
53, 112; bodily needs of His, 57. 

Fleshly impulses to be resisted, 
16, 34, 69. 

"Form of God," or "of a ser- 
vant," 7, 19, 84, 115. 

Free-will, 104, 219. 

Genealogy of Christ, in. 

Gifts of the Magi, symbolism of, 

28, 31, 167. 
"Gloria in excelsis," the, 12, 

146. 
God and Man, the Redeemer must 

be, 3, 36, 56, 113. 
Good works, result of a Divine 

gift, Si- 
Grace, doctrine of, 17, 148, 219. 

Habits, sinful, hard to conquer, 
34- 



246 



Index. 



Headship of Christ, 4, 10, 13, 47, 

63, 86. 
Healings, physical and spiritual, 

by Christ, 44. 
Heathens' contempt for Christian 

belief, 37. 
Heaven, our aims to be directed 

towards, 18, 77. 
Heresies, connection of diverse, 

23, 158. 

Heretics, 18, 84. 
Herod, 27, 57, 167. 
Holy Spirit, the, a Person of the 

Trinity, 99 ; relation of to the 

Father and the Son, 100 ; offices 

of, 102, 121, 216; Christians' 

relation to, 18. 
Holy Week services, 175. 
" Homo" used for manhood, 165. 
Human nature must itself act in 

redemptive work, and how, 36, 

46. 
Human terms inadequate as to 

Divine truth, 210. 
Humanity, mere, ascribed by some 

to Christ, 22, 150. 
" Hypostatic union," 131, 163. 

Identity of Christ in Divine and 
human spheres, 25, 41, 114, 131. 

Immersion, triple, 68, 197. 

"In two natures," 129, 164, 228, 
231, 242. 

Incarnation, the, why it took 
place, 21, 54, 104, 217; our in- 
terest in, 13 ; our duty in con- 
sequence of, 4. 

" Inferior to the Father," the Son 
as Man, 6, 57, 107, 117, 140. 

Infinity, the Divine, 106. 

Infirmities, assumed by Christ, 81. 



Innocents, the Holy, 28, 32, 168. 
Intercession of Christ, 62. 

Jesus, significance of Name of, 
82. 

Jews, literalism of, 60 ; prayer for 
conversion of, 66, 196. 

Judas, death of, 44, 183. 

Justice, in the work of redemp- 
tion, 2, 21, 36. 

Kingdom of Christ, the, not tem- 
poral, 27. 

Law, types and symbols in the, 

49, 60. 

Legates, the, of Leo, 123, 238. 
Lent, utility of, 73, 201. 
Longsuffering of God, not to be 

abused, 34. 
Love, Divine, original design of, 

59, "4- 

Macedonianism, 101, 214. 

Magi, the, 26, 57, 166. 

Manhood of Christ, real, 86, 185. 

Martyrs, 32, 51, 93. 

Mary, the B. V., 5, 12, 1 12, 126. 

Mary Magdalene, 94, 208. 

Mediator, the one, 3, 113. 

Membership in Christ, 10. 

"Merit," 188. 

"Mingled," sense of the term, 

138. 

Monophysites, 163, 174, 232. 
Monothelites, 174. 
" Mother of God," title of, 2, 126. 

Nativity of Christ, miraculous, 9 ; 
spotless, 2 ; a source of special 
joy, 5 19- 






Index. 



247 



Natures, the two, in the one 
Christ, 3, 21, 24, 113, 163, 231. 
Nestorius, 23, 128, 160. 
New creation, the, in Christ, 4, 52. 
Newness of life, 78. 

" Of two natures," 121, 228, 241. 
Old Testament, Saints of the, 47, 

59, 144. 

Omnipresence of the Son, 5, 115. 

" One nature only in Christ," re- 
sult of asserting, 24. 

" Original sin," 2, 21, 54, 59, 8r, 
125. 

"Pagans," 18, 148. 
Paradise, re-opened, 62. 
"Pascha," meaning of, 85, 199. 
Passion, Christ's, efficacy of, 39 ; 

no words adequate to express, 

40 ; realised by reading of, 65 ; 

in what sense perpetuated, 70. 
Peace with God, 15. 
Pentecostal festival, 97; gift of 

the Holy Spirit, 98. 
Persecution, in some form per- 
petual, 70. 
Person, our Lord's, one, 6, 41, 

56, 81, 85, 113,128; properly 

Divine, 25, 137, 150. 
Persons, distinction of, in the 

Trinity, 99, 103. 
Peter, S., 42, 50, 96, 118, 178. 
Pilgrimage, life a, 96. 
Poor, Christ relieved in the, 70. 
Power, mere, not exerted by God 

for man's rescue, 20, 36, 54. 
Prayer, sometimes made igno- 

rantly, 38 ; for spiritual help, 

always heard, 34. 
Preaching, a bishop's duty, 40, 79. 



Proclus, "Tome" of, 222, 232. 
Properties of two Natures in 

Christ, 6, 19, 57, 116, 233. 
Propitiation, 218. 

Quiet times, spiritual perils of, 33. 

Readings from Scripture in church, 
30, 58, 65, 169. 

Reasonableness of Christians' be- 
lief, 67, 196. 

Reconciliation, 36, 61, 172. 

Redemption, doctrine of, 8, 181. 

Regeneration, 13, 51, 68, 147. 

"Remaining what He was," 3, 
19, 46, 128. 

Renunciations in baptism, 51, 187. 

Restoration, excels creation, 59, 
80, 192. 

Resurrection of Christ, literal, 61; 
proofs of reality of, 75, 88, 118 ; 
spiritual "imitation" of, 78. 

Robber, the penitent, 62, 193. 

Sabellianism, 22, 154. 

" Sacerdos," title of, 203. 

" Sacramentum, " meaning of, 136. 

Sacrifice, Christ our, 39, 61. 

Saints, could not save their fellow- 
men, 55. 

Satan, Incarnation hidden from, 
42, 1 80 ; dominion of, how 
"lost," 55; manifold hostility 

of, 3i- 
Scriptures, the Holy, free from 

falsehood, 58. 
"Self-emptying," the, of our 

Lord, 8, 85, 114, 228. 
Self-love, the true, 71. 
Self-mortification, 69. 
Shepherd, Christ the good, 51. 



248 



Index. 



Sinlessness of Christ, absolute, 8, 

54, 113, 142. 
Son of God, the, truly God, 84 ; 

equal with the Father, 5, 24, 

37 67, 94, 104, 115. 
Soul, a reasonable, in Christ, 23, 

"3- 

"Subordination" of the Son, 213. 

"Substances," two, in Christ, 6, 

36, 41, 57, 113. 
" Sursum corda," 209. 

Temperance, what it consists in, 

77- 
Temporal things, how to pass 

through, 96. 

Temptation, manifold, 16. 
"Theandric energy," 232. 
Theodore, 159. 

"Third day, the," sense of, 75. 
Thomas, S., 92. 
" Tome," the, when written, 224 ; 

accepted at Chalcedon, 239. 
Tongues, the fiery, 98. 



Trinity, unity of the, 7, 105, 108 ; 
joint and distinct action of Per- 
sons in the, 54, 100, 103, 190. 

Uncertainties of non-Christian 
opinion, 8. 

Victim, Christ a, 8. 

Virginity, the Perpetual, 112, 137. 



" Water and blood," the, 120,236. 
"Way, Truth, and Life," Christ 

the, 80. 
Will, the Divine, one in the whole 

Trinity, 103; our wills to be 

united to, 15. 
Wills, Divine and human, in 

Christ, 37, 173. 
Word, the, 3, 22, 57, 115. 
Works, Divine and human of 

Christ, to be distinguished, 56, 



Worldly wisdom, opposed to faith, 



ERRATA. 

Page 225, line 15, insert "de" before "humilitatis." 
240, 22, for "945 "read "9 45." 



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Leo L The Great, Saint, Pot 
St. Leo:on the Incarnation 

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