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Translated by P. E. Pusey
St Cyril of Alexandria Resources Online and in Print
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This Part: 31 Pages
Page 20
But thyself art undoing the words of the economy and deignest not to confess that the Word of God hath suffered in the flesh for our sakes, making use of certain unskilful loquacity: for thou sayest that Son is a name common to the Word Which sprang of God and to ourselves. Then having made God the Word, through Whom we have been saved, no worker of the good things that have been wrought to us-ward, thou wilt be evidently caught allotting the things wherein He is glorified to one as we, conceived of as other than He and apart, and thou supposest that community of name will suffice full well for demonstration of what thou saidst and unrightly thoughtest; not considering that even though with things which obtain by nature the being ought, certain other of things that be, be said to be co-named, one must not therefore thrust away the things that are by nature, ever putting their properties about those which are by adoption or imitation. But we must (I deem) ever test the natures of things done and allot them to whomsoever they rightly pertain. As for example, the Father is named and is in truth God, and from Him is every father-hood both in heaven and upon earth named, as it is written, yet are there with us other fathers too both fleshly and spiritual. If therefore ought of things most God-befitting be said of God the Father, will it belong to those too who by adoption obtain the same title with Him, and will the identity of name thrust Him away from the things which in the highest degree befit Him alone? yet how is it not evident to all that it is both absurd and discordant that any of ours should be minded thus to think and say? Why then dost thou ever talking to us of community of name, dishonour the by Nature and truly Son, putting Him forth and rendering Him alien from kindly deeds to usward? albeit thou oughtest to gather into union what thou blushest not utterly to sever, and [oughtest] to deem one with His own Flesh the Word that is out of God the Father: for thus wilt thou free thyself from much toil, and deeming aright wilt at length be praised. And thou wilt in no wise say that the Godhead of the Only-Begotten is passible, but wilt with us confess that He is Life and Life-giving by Nature and moreover beyond all suffering; next that the flesh suffering which was united to Him, He by the grace of God, as it is written, tasted death for every man, that having shewn His own Temple superior to him who had conquered all that are on the earth, He might be called the firstfruits of them that slept and the firstborn from the dead: transmitting to us too the grace, that being One and Only Son, both before the Incarnation and after it He might yet be called Saviour and Redeemer of all: and freeing (as I said) from sin all who believe on Him, might become peace to them that are afar and to the near, reconciling through Himself to God the Father them who of old worshipped the creature and through sin were at enmity with the All-good God.
But severing again into a pair of sons the One Lord Jesus Christ, he says after this wise:
"Hear their other testimony also; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Lo he says the Lord of glory, he calls not so the manhood but the Godhead. But this belongs to those who pluck asunder the accurate connection, for when thou sayest, This is not Lord, but the other is, THOU makest Christ a mere man. What then dost thou say, o heretic in clerical form [3]? is the man too Lord or not? if then he be Lord, the things said agree; if he be not Lord, do not THOU making Christ a mere man, fasten the reproach of it on me." Then he says, "Hear we the blessed Paul openly crying out who He is who is crucified. Hear then most plainly the voice, For (says he) He was crucified out of weakness, yet He liveth out of the Power of God. If He were crucified out of weakness, who was it who was weak, heretic? God the Word?"
3. [g] .... see exactly the same expression at the close of serm. 2 in Mercator, "Si haereticus tibi ex persona ecclesiastica mortuum Deum tuum exprobaverit," p. 69 fin. Bal. It is not clear whom Nestorius is addressing as "heretic" and as having called the Godhead Lord of glory. The learned but uncritical Jesuit, John Garnier (see Tillemont's remarks in notes 71, 73, 74, 91 on S. Cyril of Alexandria, t. xiv. 780, 781, 792 sq. ed. 2) supposes this to be a reply (Marii Merc. opp. ii. pp. 29,30. Par. 1673) to S. Proclus' famous homily on the Incarnation (Migne, Patrol. lxv. 679 sqq.), but I do not see any special mention of this point in S. Proclus' Homily. One would naturally expect S. Cyril to be the person referred to, but besides that S. Cyril immediately after disclaims the expression, a List of references to S. Cyril's extant citations of 1 Cor. ii. 8 (generously furnished me by the Dean of Chichester) do not supply any passage likely to be referred to by Nestorius. S. Cyril in his work against the Arians cites the text in proof that the Son is not less than the FATHER. "Making discourse of the princes of this world and the folly that is in them, he says, For had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Hence if the SON Who endured the cross for our sakes is Lord of glory, how is He not God by Nature ? how a creature or made, Who is even hymned by the Seraphin? for they say that full is the heaven and the earth of His Glory, and call Him Lord of Sabaoth: for it is clear that of Him are they saying this if He is Lord of glory, as Paul saith." Thes. cap. 32 p. 272 a. Commenting on the whole passage (1 Cor. ii. 6-8) in reference to Nestorian errors, S. Cyril says, "If the mystery of Christ be God's wisdom, and. it is preached to the world and if He is not truly God according to what somehow pleases some to imagine, and our faith is to Himward ; how is the mystery wise if it bear away them on the earth from the true knowledge of God and render the world worshipper of a man? But it is not so, the mystery IS wise for it brings to God them that have strayed. Christ therefore is God, He that has been crucified is rightly called Lord of glory." de recta fide to the princesses, p. 62 a. "Therefore the blessed Paul himself somewhere says of the rulers of this world, For had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. He knows then that the Crucified is Lord of glory." de recta fide to the Empresses, § 31 p. 168 b c.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/cyril-alexandria/against-nestorius-2.asp?pg=20
