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3G8 THE HISTORY OF HERESIES,
24. When Berruyer says that Jesus Christ, at his death,
ceased to be the natural Son of God, because he was no longer a
living man, he must, consequently, hold that the humanity, pre
vious to his death, was not sustained by the Person of the Word,
but by its own proper human subsistence, and was a Person dis
tinct from the Person of the Word. But, then, how can he escape
being considered a Nestorian, admitting two distinct Persons in
Jesus Christ. Both Nestorius and Berruyer are expressly con
demned by the Symbol promulgated in the Council of Constan
tinople, which says that we are bound to believe in one God, the
Father Almighty, and in one only-begotten Son of God, born of
the Father before all ages, and consubstantial to the Father,
who, for our salvation, came down from heaven, and became
incarnate of the Virgin Mary, suffered, was buried, and rose
again the third day. It is, therefore, the only-begotten Son of
God the Father, generated by the Father from all eternity, and
who came down from heaven, that was made man, died, and was
buried. But, how could God die and be buried ? you will
say.
By assuming human flesh, as the Council teaches. As another
General Council, the Fourth of Lateran, says (9), as God could
not die nor suffer, by becoming man he became mortal and pas
sible :
"
Qui cum secundum Divinitatem sit immortalis et impassibilis,
idem ipse secundum humanitatem factus est mortalis et
passibilis."
25. As one error is always the parent of another, so
Berruyer having said that Jesus Christ in the sepulchre ceased
to be the natural son of God, said, likewise, that when God
raised Christ-man again from the dead, he again generated him,
and made him Man-God, because, by raising him again, he
caused him to be his Son, who, dying,
ceased to be his Son.
We have already (N. 18) alluded to this falsehood. He says :
"
Actione Dei unius, Filium suum Jesum suscitantis, factum est,
ut Jesus, qui desierat esse homo vivens, et consequenter Filius
Dei, iterum viveret deinceps non moriturus." He says the same
thing, in other words, in another place :
" Deus
Christum
hominem resuscitans, hominem Deum iterate generat, dum facit
resuscitando, ut Filius sit, qui moriendo Filius esse desierat" (10).
(9) Cone. Lat. IV. in cap. Firmitcr, flO) Berruyer, t. 8, p. 66.
de Suinm. Trin. &c.