st, he cannot, as he himself admits, apply the substance of one
definition to both his Christs? For if the substance of God is different
from that of man, and the one name of Christ applies to both, and the
combination of different substances is not believed to have formed one
Person, the name of Christ is equivocal[66] and cannot be comprised in
one definition. But in what Scriptures is the name of Christ ever made
double? Or what new thing has been wrought by the coming of the Saviour?
For the truth of the faith and the unwontedness of the miracle alike
remain, for Catholics, unshaken. For how great and unprecedented a thing
it is--unique and incapable of repetition in any other age--that the
nature of Him who is God alone should come together with human nature
which was entirely different from God to form from different natures by
conjunction a single Person! But now, if we follow Nestorius, what
happens that is new? "Humanity and divinity," quoth he, "keep their
proper Persons." Well, when had not divinity and humanity each its
proper Person? And when, we answer, will this not be so? Or wherein is
the birth of Jesus more significant than that of any other child, if,
the two Persons remaining distinct, the natures also were distinct? For
while the Persons remained so there could no more be a union of natures
in Christ than there could be in any other man with whose substance, be
it never so perfect, no divinity was ever united because of the
subsistence of his proper person. But for the sake of argument let him
call Jesus, i.e. the human person, Christ, because through that person
God wrought certain wonders. Agreed. But why should he call God Himself
by the name of Christ? Why should he not go on to call the very elements
by that name? For through them in their daily movements God works
certain wonders. Is it because irrational substances cannot possess a
Person enabling them to receive the name of Christ? Is not the operation
of God seen plainly in men of holy life and notable piety? There will
surely be no reason not to call the saints also by that name, if Christ
taking humanity on Him is not one Person through conjunction. But
perhaps he will say, "I allow that such men are called Christs, but it
is because they are in the image of the true Christ." But if no one
Person has been formed of the union of God and man, we shall consider
all of them just