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Translated by P.E. Pusey
St Cyril of Alexandria Resources Online and in Print
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31 Pages
Page 31
There once murmured [46] in the wilderness against Moses and Aaron the people of Israel saying, Would we had died, stricken by the Lord in Egypt when we were sitting at the flesh pots and were eating bread even to fulness. Therefore the most wise Moses says (for it were like that he should reply to men so rashly impatient), But who are we? for neither against us is your murmuring but against God. And in those times even God Almighty used to reign through the holy Prophets over the people of Israel, but they in this too, slack of courage approached the Divine Samuel saying, Lo THOU hast grown old and thy sons walk not in thy ways and now set over us a king which may judge us even as the other nations. The Prophet felt this grievously but Almighty God said, Hear the voice of the people even as they have spoken to thee, for not thee have they rejected but Me they have rejected that I should not reign over them.
And elsewhere too has Christ said to the holy Apostles, He who receiveth you hath received Me: and He promiseth that He will address the merciful before His Tribunal, Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And acknowledging as His own their righteous ways towards those to whom they had dealt kindly, He says, In that ye did it to one of these least, to Me did ye it.
Lo in these instances is clearly recognized the mode of reference of what kind it is. The people of Israel were murmuring against Moses and Aaron and the matter had reference to God, yet were Moses and Aaron men as we. In the same way too will you conceive as to the others whereof we have just made mention, yet were some (as I said before) holy men and worthy of admiration, yet men as we. Is it then in this way that the man too who is connected (as they call it) with God the Word, will have reference of his sufferings to Himward? And how will he not now be mere man and apart and nought else? Hence Emmanuel is not truly God, is not Only-Begotten Son, is not God by Nature.
Why then was no one of the rest honoured by God the Word with equality of dignity or of sway, but they contend that this man alone obtained all things equal? specially seeing that God, the Saviour of all men, judgeth not according to the person hut righteous judgement, as Himself maketh mention. Why then doth He co-sit Alone? how will He come as Judge, with Angels waiting on Him? why is He Alone worshipped as well by us as by the spirits above?
But in good truth it is so (says he), for we find that thou also dost the same, for thou confessest that He suffered, in that thou attributest to Him the sufferings of the flesh, albeit thou keepest Him impassible as God.
But we, good sirs, (shall I say) having first united to the Word the human, have to the flesh allotted the sufferings, have kept Him impassible as God: for though He hath become as we, yet are we cognizant of His God-befitting Excellence and of His Supreme Endowments.
Hence first putting the Union as a basis and foundation to the Faith, we confess that He suffered in the flesh, that He remained again superior to suffering in that He possesses Impassibility in His own Nature. But if we are diligent to put apart God and Man, severing the Natures one from another, and then say that in reference only does the Word of God make His own what have befallen His Body; He That is born of the holy Virgin, Emmanuel, which is, interpreted, With us is God, will haply have but the measure of Moses and Aaron.
Thus even though He say through the holy Prophets, My Back have I given to scourges, My Cheeks to blows, My Face I turned not from the shame of spittings, and again, They dug My Hands and My Feet, they told all My Bones, and again, They gave for My meat gall and for My thirst they gave Me to drink vinegar: we shall allot all these things to the Only-Begotten Himself, Who suffered Economically in the flesh according to the Scriptures (for with His wheal were we healed, and Himself hath been weakened because of our sins), yet do we know that He is Impassible by Nature. For if (as I just said) Himself is Man alike and God, with reason do the Sufferings belong to His Manhood, His own as God is it to be conceived of as superior to suffering.
Thus minded shall we be pious and through such right thoughts advancing, we shall attain unto the prize of our high calling in Christ Jesus, through Whom, and with Whom to God the Father be glory with the Holy Ghost unto ages of ages, Amen.
46. [x] See the same illustrations in the treatise Quod Unus est Christus .
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/cyril-alexandria/incarnation-only-begotten.asp?pg=31
