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John
" The
AND THEIR REFUTATION. 377
Word was made flesh" but was the other Son of
God, made in time. This, however,
is not the doctrine of the
Holy Fathers ; they unanimously teach that it was the Word (17).
St. Jerome writes :
" Anima
et Caro Christi cum Verho Dei una
Persona est, unus Christus" (18). St. Ambrose (19), showing
that Jesus Christ spoke sometimes according to his Divine, and,
at other times, according to his human nature, says :
"
Quasi
homo dicit
Deus sequitur Divina, quia Verbum est, quasi
humana." Pope Leo says :
" Idem est qui mortem subiit, et
Jesus
sempiternus esse non desiit." St. Augustin says :
"
Christus Dei Filius est, et Deus, et homo. Deus ante omnia
secula, homo in nostro seculo. Deus quia Dei Verbum, Deus
enim erat Verbum : homo autcm, quia in unitatem personse
accessit Verbo Anima, et Caro Non duo Filii, Deus, et homo,
sed unus Dei Filius" (20). And, in another place (Cap. 36) :
" Ex
quo homo esse ccepit, non aliud ccepit esse homo, quam Dei
Filius, et hoc unicus, et propter Deum Verbum, quod
illo sus-
cepto caro factum est, utique Deus ut sit Christus una per
sona, Verbum et homo." The rest of the Fathers speak the
same sentiments ; but it would render the Work too diffuse to
quote any more.
35. The Holy See, then, had very good reasons for so
rigorously and so frequently condemning Berruyer s Book ; for
it not alone contains many errors, in opposition to the doctrines
of the Church, but is, besides, most pernicious, because it makes
us lose that proper idea we should have of Jesus Christ. The
Church teaches that the Eternal Word that is, the only natural
Son of God (for he had but one natural Son, who is, therefore,
called the only-begotten, born of the substance of God the
Father, the first Person of the Trinity), was made man, and died
for our salvation. Berruyer, on the contrary, would have us to
believe that Jesus Christ is not the Word, the Son, born of the
Father from all eternity, but another Son, which only he and
Hardouin knew anything about, or, rather, dreamed of, who, if
their ideas were founded in fact, would have the name alone, and
the honour of being called the Son of God ; for, in order that
(17) St. Ilicron. Tract. 49, in Joan. (19) St. Leo, Serm. 66.
(18) St. Ambr. ap. St. Leon, in Ep. (20) St. Augu. in Euchirid. c. 35.
134.