as true Christs as Him who, we believe, was born of a
Virgin. For no Person has been made one by the union of God and man
either in Him or in them who by the Spirit of God foretold the coming
Christ, for which cause they too were called Christs. So now it follows
that so long as the Persons remain, we cannot in any wise believe that
humanity has been assumed by divinity. For things which differ alike in
persons and natures are certainly separate, nay absolutely separate; man
and oxen are not further separate than are divinity and humanity in
Christ, if the Persons have remained. Men indeed and oxen are united in
one animal nature, for by genus they have a common substance and the
same nature in the collection which forms the universal.[67] But God and
man will be at all points fundamentally different if we are to believe
that distinction of Persons continues under difference of nature. Then
the human race has not been saved, the birth of Christ has brought us no
salvation, the writings of all the prophets have but beguiled the people
that believed in them, contempt is poured upon the authority of the
whole Old Testament which promised to the world salvation by the birth
of Christ. It is plain that salvation has not been brought us, if there
is the same difference in Person that there is in Nature. No doubt He
saved that humanity which we believe He assumed; but no assumption can
be conceived, if the separation abides alike of Nature and of Person.
Hence that human nature which could not be assumed as long as the Person
continued, will certainly and rightly appear incapable of salvation by
the birth of Christ. Wherefore man's nature has not been saved by the
birth of Christ--an impious conclusion.[68]

But although there are many weapons strong enough to wound and demolish
the Nestorian view, let us for the moment be content with this small
selection from the store of arguments available.

[66] Cf. the discussion of _aequiuoca_=[Greek: homonumos] in _Isag.
Porph. Vide_ Brandt's Index.

[67] Vniuersalitas=[Greek: to katholou].

[68] For a similar _reductio ad absurdum_ ending in _quod nefas est_ see
_Tr._ iii. (_supra_, p. 44) and _Cons._ v. 3 (_infra_, p. 374).

V.

Transeundum quippe est ad Eutychen qui cum a ueterum orbitis esset
euagatus, in contrarium cucurrit errorem asserens tantum abesse, ut in
Christo gemina persona credatur, ut ne natura