CXLIV. To the
Soldiers.1996
| 1996 From the mention at the end of the letter of the epistle of Leo to
Flavianus, Garnerius argues that it must be dated at the end of 449 or
somewhat later. The epistle of Leo is dated on the 13th of June and
could not have reached Theodoret in his detention at Cyrus till the
autumn. |
Human nature is everywhere the
same, but pursuits in life are many and various. Some men prefer a
sailor’s career, some a soldier’s; some men become
athletes, some husbandmen; some ply one craft and some another. To pass
by all other differences, some men are zealous and diligent about
divine things, and get themselves instructed in the exact teaching of
the apostolic doctrines; while others, on the contrary, become slaves
of the belly, and suppose that the enjoyment of base pleasures is
happiness. Others again are there, lying in a mean between these two
extremes, who do not exhibit this praiseworthy enthusiasm, nor embrace
a life of incontinence, but still honour the simplicity of the faith.
Men who attack the statement that some things are altogether impossible
with God must not, I apprehend, be classed with the zealous and the
well instructed in divine things, but rather either with those who have
no exact knowledge of the apostolic doctrines, or those who have been
enslaved by pleasures and shift hither and thither at the caprice of a
moment, setting forth now one thing and now another.
You have asked me to write on
these points. I should prefer at the present time to keep silence. But
in obedience to the commandment of the Lord, “Give to every man
that asketh of thee,”1997
I am
constrained briefly to reply.
I say then that the God of the
universe can do all things, but that in the word “all” is
comprehended only what is right and good, for He who is naturally both
wise and good admits of nothing that is of a contrary nature, but only
what becomes his nature. If any objectors gainsay this statement, ask
them if the God of the universe, the lawgiver of truth, can lie. If they say
that lying is possible to God, expel them from your company as impious
and blasphemous. Should they agree that lying is not possible to the
God of the universe, ask them in the second place, if He who is the
fount of justice can become unjust. Should they allow that this too is
impossible to the God of all, you must yet again enquire if the
unfathomable depth of wisdom can become unwise, God cease to be God,
the Lord cease to be the Lord, the Creator be no Creator, the Good not
good but evil and the true Light not light but its opposite. If they
admit that all these things and the like are impossible to God, you
must say to them therefore many things are impossible with God; and
that their being impossible so far from being a proof of want of power,
indicates on the contrary the greatest power.
Even in the case of our own
soul, when we say that it cannot die, we do not predicate weakness of
it, but we proclaim its capacity of immortality. And similarly when we
confess the immutability, impassibility, and immortality of God, we
cannot attribute to the divine nature change, passion, or death.
Suppose them to urge that God can do whatever He will, you must reply
to them that He wishes to do nothing which it is not His nature to do;
He is by nature good, therefore He does not wish anything evil; He is
by nature just, therefore He does not wish anything unjust; He is by
nature true, therefore He abominates falsehood; He is by nature
immutable, therefore He does not admit of change; and if He does not
admit of change He is always in the same state and condition. This He
Himself asserts through the prophet. “I am the Lord I change
not.”1998
And the blessed David says
“Thou art the same and Thy years shall have no end.”1999
If He is the same He undergoes no change.
If He is naturally superior to change and mutation He has not become
from immortal, mortal nor from impassible, passible, for had this been
possible He would not have taken on Him our nature. But since He has an
immortal nature, He took a body capable of suffering, and with the body
a human soul. Both of these He kept unstained from the defilements of
sin, and gave His soul for the sake of the souls that had sinned, and
His body for the sake of the bodies that had died. And since the body
that was assumed is described as body of the very only begotten Son of
God, He refers the passion of the body to Himself. But the four
evangelists testify that it was not the divine nature but the body
which was nailed to the cross, all teaching with one voice that Joseph
of Arimathea came to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus; that he took
down the body of Jesus from the tree and wrapped in fine linen, and
laid in his own new tomb the body of Jesus; that Mary the Magdalene
came to the tomb seeking the body of Jesus and ran to His disciples,
and reported these things when she could not find the body of
Jesus.
This is the unanimous teaching
of the evangelists. But if your opponents urge that the angels said
“Come see the place where the Lord lay”2000
let the foolish folk learn that the divine Scripture says also about
the victorious Stephen “And devout men carried Stephen to his
burial.”2001
And yet it was the
body only which was deemed proper for burial, while the soul was not
buried together with the body; nevertheless the body alone was spoken
of by the common name. Similarly the blessed Jacob said to his sons
“Bury me with my fathers.”2002
He
did not say “Bury my body.” Then he went on “There
they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and
Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.”2003
He did not say “their bodies.”
The names are common to bodies or souls, but nevertheless it is only
the bodies which he called by the common names. In this manner too we
constantly describe the shrines of the holy apostles, prophets and
martyrs, one it may be of Dionysius, another of Julianus another of
Cosmas.2004
| 2004 Cf.
note on p. 303. Among martyred Dionysii were (i) one of the Seven
Sleepers of Ephesus, (ii) one at Tripoli (iii) another at Corinth, (iv
and v) and two at Cæsarea, in the persecution of Diocletian.
Cosmas and Damianus are the famous semi-mythical physicians, the
Silverless Martyrs. Vide p. 295. |
And yet we know that only fragmentary
remains of bodies lie there, while the souls in diviner regions are at
rest. Precisely the same custom is to be found in common use, for such
an one, we say, died; and such an one lies in this place; although we
know that the soul is immortal and does not share the tomb with the
body. In this sense the angel said “Come see the place where the
Lord lay”2005
not because he shut
the Godhead in the tomb, but because he spoke of the Lord’s body
by the Lord’s name.
In proof of this being the view
of the holy Fathers let them mark the words of Athanasius, illustrious
archbishop of Alexandria, who adorned his episcopate with confession.
He exclaims “Life cannot die, but rather quickens the
dead.”
Let them hear too the words of
the far-famed Damasus bishop of Rome, “If anyone allege that on the
cross pain was undergone by the Godhead and not by the body with the
soul, the form of the servant which He had taken in its completeness,
let him be anathema.”2006
| 2006 Damas. Epist. ad Paulinum. |
Let them hear too the very
sacred and holy bishop of the Church of the Romans, the lord Leo, who
has now written “The Son of God suffered as He was capable of
suffering, not according to the nature which assumed but that which was
assumed. For the impassible nature assumed the passible body, and gave
it for us, to the end that He might work out our salvation and at the
same time preserve His own nature impassible.”
And again “For He did not
come to destroy His own nature but to save ours.”2007
| 2007 Leo
Epist. ad Flavianum. |
If therefore they accuse us for
saying that God can do what He wishes, but that He wishes what is
becoming to His own nature, and what is unbecoming He neither wishes
nor is capable of; let them accuse too these saints and all the rest
who maintain this position. Let them accuse even the Apostle who says
“That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God
to lie.”2008
And again
“If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful: He cannot deny
Himself.”2009
Repeat these passages to your
opponents, and if they are convinced, praise the good Lord for that, by
means of your zeal, He has benefited them. If they remain unconvinced,
enter into no discussion with them about doctrines, for it is forbidden
by the divine apostle to “strive about words to no profit but to
the subverting of the hearers.”2010
But
do you keep inviolate the teaching of the Gospels, that in the day of
His appearing you may bring to the righteous Judge what has been
entrusted to you with its due interest, and may hear the longed for
words “Well done good and faithful servant; thou hast been
faithful over a few things I will make thee ruler over many things.
Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”2011
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