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372 THE HISTORY OF HERESIES,
a means to make Christ become the Son of God. All this, how
ever, is false, for when we speak of Jesus Christ, we cannot say
that that man, on account of being united with a Divine Person,
was made by the Trinity the Son of God in time ; but we are
bound to profess that God, the Eternal Word, is the Son, born of
the Father from all eternity, born of the substance of the Father,
as the Athanasian Creed says,
"
God, of the substance of the
Father, born before all ages," for, otherwise, he never could be
called the natural Son of God. He it is who, uniting
to himself
Humanity in unity of Person, has always sustained it, and he it
is who performed all operations, who, notwithstanding that he
was equal to God, emptied himself, and humbled himself to die
on a cross in that flesh which he assumed.
29. Berruyer s whole error consists in supposing the hunanity
of Christ to be a subject subsisting in itself, to which the
Word was subsequently united. Faith and reason, however,
would both teach him that the Humanity of Christ was accessary
to the Word which assumed it, as St. Augustin (7) explains :
" Homo
autem, quia in unitatem persons
accessit Verbo Anima
et Caro." Berruyer, however, on the contrary, says that the
Divinity of the Word was accessary to the Humanity ; but ho
should have known, as Councils and Fathers teach, that the
Humanity
of Jesus Christ did not exist until the Word came to
take flesh. The Sixth Council (Act. 11) reproved Paul of
Samosata, for teaching, with Nestorius, that the humanity of
Christ existed previous to the Incarnation. Hence, the Council
declared :
"
Simul enim caro, simul Dei Yerbi caro fuit ; simul
animata rationabiliter, simul Dei Verbi caro animata rationabi-
liter." St. Cyril (8), in his Epistle to Nestorius, which was
approved of by the Council of Ephesus,
writes :
" Non
enim
primum vulgaris quispiam homo ex Virgine ortus est, in quern
Dei Verbum deinde Se dimiserit ; sed in ipso Utero carni unitum
secundum carnem progcnitum dicitur, utpote sure carnis genera-
tionem sibi ut propriam vindicans." St. Leo the Great (9),
reprobating the doctrine of Eutyches, that Jesus Christ alone,
"
Sed hoc
previous to the Incarnation, was in two natures, says :
Catholics mentes auresque non tolerant natura quippe
(7) St. Augua. in EucMrid. c. 35. (9) St. Leo, Ep. ad Julian.
(8) St. Cyrill. Ep. 2, ad Nestor.