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| Concerning the manner of the Mutual Communication.
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Chapter
IV.—Concerning the manner of the Mutual
Communication1985
| 1985 Cf.
Athan., De Salut. adv. Christi; Greg. Naz., Orat. 38;
Greg. Nyss., Contr. Apoll.; Leont., Contr. Nestor. et
Eutych., bk. 1; Thomas Aquinas, III., quæst. 16,
art. 4, 5. | .
Now we have often said already that essence is one
thing and subsistence another, and that essence signifies the common
and general form1986
| 1986 εἶδος, form,
class, species. | of
subsistences of the same kind, such as God, man, while subsistence
marks the individual, that is to say, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, or
Peter, Paul. Observe, then, that the names, divinity and
humanity, denote essences or natures: while the names, God and
man, are applied both in connection with natures, as when we say that
God is incomprehensible essence, and that God is one, and with
reference to subsistences, that which is more specific having the name
of the more general applied to it, as when the Scripture says,
Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee1987
, or again, There was a certain man
in the land of Uz1988
, for it was
only to Job that reference was made.
Therefore, in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ,
seeing that we recognise that He has two natures but only one
subsistence compounded of both, when we contemplate His natures we
speak of His divinity and His humanity, but when we contemplate the
subsistence compounded of the natures we sometimes use terms that have
reference to His double nature, as “Christ,” and “at
once God and man,” and “God Incarnate;” and sometimes
those that imply only one of His natures, as “God” alone,
or “Son of God,” and “man” alone, or “Son
of Man;” sometimes using names that imply His loftiness and
sometimes those that imply His lowliness. For He Who is alike God
and man is one, being the former from the Father ever without1989
| 1989 ἀεὶ
ἀναιτίως ἐκ
Πατρός. | cause, but having become the latter
afterwards for His love towards man1990
| 1990 Greg. Naz.,
Orat. 35. | .
When, then, we
speak of His divinity we do not ascribe to it the properties of
humanity. For we do not say that His divinity is subject to
passion or created. Nor, again, do we predicate of His flesh or
of His humanity the properties of divinity: for we do not say
that His flesh or His humanity is uncreated. But when we speak of
His subsistence, whether we give it a name implying both natures, or
one that refers to only one of them, we still attribute to it the
properties of both natures. For Christ, which name implies both
natures, is spoken of as at once God and man, created and uncreated,
subject to suffering and incapable of suffering: and when He is
named Son of God and God, in reference to only one of His natures, He
still keeps the properties of the co-existing nature, that is, the
flesh, being spoken of as God who suffers, and as the Lord of Glory
crucified1991
, not in respect
of His being God but in respect of His being at the same time
man. Likewise also when He is called Man and Son of Man, He still
keeps the properties and glories of the divine nature, a child before
the ages, and man who knew no beginning; it is not, however, as child
or man but as God that He is before the ages, and became a child in the
end. And this is the manner of the mutual communication, either
nature giving in exchange to the other its own properties through the
identity of the subsistence and the interpenetration of the parts with
one another. Accordingly we can say of Christ: This our
God was seen upon the earth and lived amongst men1992
, and This man is uncreated and
impossible and uncircumscribed.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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