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Translated by P. E. Pusey
St Cyril of Alexandria Resources Online and in Print
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44 Pages
Page 4
A. Therefore when certain sing, And the Lord WAS MADE to me a refuge, and again, O Lord, Thou WERT MADE a refuge, to us in generation and generation, what now will they say [1]? hath He Who is hymned, letting go His being God, passed by a change into being a refuge, and removed He by Nature into something other than what He was at first?
B. How is such a thing not incongruous and unbefitting Him Who is by Nature God: for being by Nature without change, He abideth full surely what He was and ever is, even though He be said to be made a refuge to any?
A. You spoke most excellently, and very right. Hence the mention of God being brought forward, if Was made be said by any body, how is it not unlearned and unholy exceedingly to suppose that it means change, and not rather to strive to conceive of it in some other way, and to turn in wisdom to what most especially befits and is congruous to the Unchangeable God?
B. How then do we say that the Word WAS MADE flesh, preserving to It ever Unchangeableness and without-turning, as Its own and Essentially innate to It?
A. The all-wise Paul, the steward of His mysteries, the Priest of the Gospel preachings, will make it clear saying, He ye thus minded each one in yourselves according to what was in Christ Jesus also, Who being in the Form of God held not the being Equal to God a thing to seize, yet emptied Himself taking bondman's form, MADE in likeness of men, and, found in fashion as a man, humbled Himself, MADE obedient unto death, the death of the Gross. For His Only-Begotten Word albeit God and out of God by Nature, the Brightness of the glory and the Impress of the Person of Him Who begat Him, WAS MADE man and that not turned into flesh, or undergoing commingling [2] or mixture or ought else of such like, but rather abasing Himself unto emptiness, and for the joy set before Him despising shame and not dishonouring the poverty of the human nature. For He willed as God to render the flesh which is holden of death and sin, superior to both death and sin, and to restore it to what it was in the beginning, having made it His own, not (as some say) soulless but ensouled with intellectual soul: yet, not disdaining to go along the path hereto befitting, He is said to undergo a birth like ours, abiding what He was. For He has been born in wondrous wise according to flesh of a woman: for no otherwise was it possible that He being God by Nature should be seen by them on earth than in likeness of us, the Impalpable and without body, yet Who thought good to be made man and in Himself Alone to shew our nature illustrious in the dignities of Godhead: for He the Same was God alike and man, and in likeness of man, in that herewith He was also God, but in fashion as a man. For He was God in appearance as we, and in bondman's form the Lord, for thus do we say that He was MADE FLESH.
Therefore do we affirm that the holy Virgin is also mother of God.
B. Does it like you that arraying their words against yours we make a subtler scrutiny of the conceptions, or shall we yield it simply to your word that the matter has been well apprehended?
A. Irreprehensible as I deem is all that will be said by us, wisely and skilfully and not repugnant to the God-inspired Scriptures. But say, yourself too, what seems good to you: for a counter-plea will beget something profitable.
1. [a] The two texts quoted here were used against the Arians by S. Athanasius, to vindicate the use of the same word, ἐγένετο, γενόμενος (in κρείττων γενόμενος, Heb. i. 4), against their misinterpretations of it (against Arians, i fin. pp. 268 sqq. O.T.), as S. Cyril used them here against Nestorian quibbles.
2. [b] ἥ φυρμὸν ἥ κρᾶσιν. φυρμὸς implies the commingling of a dry substance with a moist, as in kneading: κρᾶσις the blending of two liquids together so as to form a compound. S. Cyril observes (ag. Nest. i. §3 above pp. 16, 17) that some of the older Fathers had used the word κρᾶσις (see Tertullian's use of it Apol. i. 21 and the passages of the other Fathers put together in p. 48 note h O.T.). S. Cyril himself in his writings on the Incarnation denies it in the sense which Apollinaris' error was importing into the word: he uses the expression of mixing to express the intensity of the union of God the Son with us, below p. 250 note i.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/cyril-alexandria/christ-one.asp?pg=4
