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| To Aphthonius, Theodoritus, Nonnus, Scylacius, Apthonius, Joannes, Magistrates of the Zeugmatensis.
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CXXV. To Aphthonius,
Theodoritus, Nonnus, Scylacius, Apthonius, Joannes, Magistrates of the
Zeugmatensis.
I know the strength and
stability of your faith, and have been filled with the greatest
possible delight, for, since we worshippers of the eternal Trinity
constitute one body, it is only natural that together with the members
that are sound the rest of the members should rejoice. So says the
divine Apostle; “Whether one member be honoured all the members
rejoice with it.”1925
I therefore
rejoice with you in your struggles on behalf of the apostolic doctrines
and your following of the famous Naboth in more excellent things.
Naboth for his vineyard’s sake suffered most unrighteous
slaughter, because he would not give up the heritage of his fathers.
You are fighting not for vineyards, but for divine doctrines, and
reject this new-fangled and spurious heresy as blackening the
brightness of the teaching of the gospel; you do not suffer the number
of the blessed Trinity to be diminished or increased. For it is
diminished by those who ascribe the passion of the only begotten to the
Godhead; it is increased by those who have the audacity to introduce a
second son. You believe in one only begotten, as you do in one Father
and in one Holy Ghost. In the only begotten made flesh you behold the
assumed nature which He took from us and offered on our behalf. The
denial of this nature puts our salvation far from us; for if the
Godhead of the only begotten is impassible, as the nature of the
Trinity is impassible, and we refuse to acknowledge that which is by
nature adapted to suffer, then the preaching of a passion which never
happened is idle and vain. For if that which suffers has no existence
how could there be a passion? We declare that the divine nature is
impassible;—a doctrine confessed by our opponents as well as by
ourselves. How then could there be a passion when there is no subject
capable of suffering? The great mystery of the œconomy will appear
an appearance, a mere seeming instead of the reality. This is the fable
started by Valentinus, Bardesanes, Marcion and Manes. But the teaching
handed down to the churches from the beginning recognises, even after
the incarnation, one Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and confesses the same
to be everlasting God, and man made at the end of days; made man not by
the mutation of the Godhead but by the assumption of the manhood. For
suppose the divine nature to have undergone mutation into the human
nature, then it did not remain what it was; and if it is not what it
was, they who have these objects of worship are false in calling Him
God. We, on the contrary, recognise the only begotten Son of God to be
immutable as God, and Son of the very God. For we have learnt from the
divine Scripture that being in the form of God He took the form of the
servant;1926
and took on Him the seed of
Abraham, not was changed into Abraham’s seed; and shared just as
we do both in flesh and blood and in a soul immortal and immaculate.
Preserving these for our sinful bodies He offered His sinless body and for our
souls His soul free from all stain. It is for this reason that we have
the hope of the common resurrection for the race will assuredly share
with its first fruits, and as we have shared with Adam in his death, so
too with Christ our Saviour shall we be sharers in His life. This the
divine Apostle has plainly taught us, for “now” he says
“is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of
them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the
resurrection of the dead, for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ
shall all be made alive.”1927
I write thus not to inform you
but to remind you. I have tried to be brief, but I fear I have
transgressed the limits of a letter. I was however urged to write by
the very reverend and godly presbyter and archimandrite Mecimas, who,
in obedience to the law of love, has undertaken so long a journey, told
us of your excellency’s zeal, and begged us to inflame it by a
letter. I have therefore granted his supplication, and written my
letter, and I implore the Lord of all to keep you safe in the faith and
make stronger than him who sifts us.1928
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