Chapter 2 (69)
Distinction XXI | 91 time, but neither was severed from the Word of God. Therefore the flesh lays down and takes up the soul, and this not by its own power, but by the power of the Godhead inhabiting the flesh."!" Here it is plainly handed down that neither the flesh, nor the soul, was divided at death from the Word of God in any way by which their union would have been dissolved.
9. AUGUSTINE, IN THE EXPOSITION OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH. Hence Au-
gustine, Against Felicianus: "Far be it that Christ should have felt death in such a way that all that is life in him should lose life. If it had been so, the source of life would have dried up. And so he felt death by participation of the human disposition which he had freely taken up; he did not lose that power of his nature by which he gives life to all things. Therefore, in dying with it, he did not desert his flesh in the tomb as he had formed it in being born with it in the Virgin's womb. And so he did not die by the abandonment of life, just as he did not suffer by the perishing of power. No one took his soul from him because he has the power of laying it down and taking it up again."''' See, you have here too that Christ did not abandon his flesh in death, and that life did not abandon the one who had died; also, that he freely gave up his spirit, and no one took it from him.
10. AMBROSE, ON THE HOLY SPIRIT, BOOK 3. Hence Ambrose: "Christ gave up his spirit,'* and yet, as if he were the arbiter of whether his body would be spared or hung, he gave up his spirit, he did not lose it. He hung on the cross, and moved all things.' But from where did he give it up?
From the flesh. To where did he send it? To the Father.
Chapter 2 (69)
1. FOR WHAT REASON CHRIST IS SAID TO HAVE DIED AND SUFFERED. But
as the soul withdrew, Christ's flesh died; and because the flesh is dead, Christ is dead. For just as God is said to be dead when the man is dead, so the man is said to be dead when the flesh is dead. The separation of the soul was the death of the flesh. And so, because the flesh, which is united to the Word, was dead, God is said to be dead; and because both flesh and soul felt pain, God is said to have suffered, even though the Godhead had no share of any pain.
2. AUGUSTINE, ON PSALM 129. Hence Augustine: "And the Word was made flesh,' so that by this flesh the heavenly bread should come to the children. And in a similar way, the Word was crucified, but was not '? Augustine, /n loannem, tr. 47 nn10-11. i That is, Vigilius of Thapse, Contra Felicianum Arianum de unitate Trinitatis,
14.
MMi 27, 50:
'SThat is, Ambrose, De incarnationis dominicae sacramento, c5 39.
In. 1, 14:
92 | THE SENTENCES, BOOK 3
changed into a man; the man was changed into the Word, so that he should become better than he was. And so, because he was man, God died; and because he was God, man was roused and rose again. Whatever the man suffered, God cannot be said not to have suffered, because God was man; in the same way, you cannot say that you have suffered no injury, if your clothing is torn, even though your clothing may not be you.
Much more, then, whatever the flesh united to the Word suffers, God also must be said to suffer it, even though the Word may neither die, nor be subject to corruption or change. But whatever of these things he suffered, he suffered it in the flesh."
3. Regarding this, Ambrose too says, in On the Holy Spirit, book 3:
"What the Word's flesh suffered, the Word remaining in the flesh referred to himself because of having taken a body; and so he may be said to suffer because the flesh suffered, as it is written: Christ suffered in the flesh."**
—Here is taught for what reason God or the Son of God is said to have suffered or died: not because he felt death insofar as he is God, but because the flesh united to him died.
4. AUGUSTINE, IN A SERMON ON FAITH. It is according to this reason that Augustine says: "If anyone should say and believe that God the Son of God suffered, let him be anathema." Expounding the reason for this statement, from which we are to gather its meaning, he adds in the same place:
"If anyone should say that God the Son of God felt pain in the passion, and not only the flesh with the soul which he had taken to himself, let him be anathema."° 5. And so it may rightly be said that God died and did not die, that the Son of God suffered and did not suffer, that the third person suffered and did not suffer, that the Word was crucified and was not crucified. According to the one nature he suffered, and according to the other he was unable to suffer—Hence Ambrose: "This is the common faith: that Christ is the Son of God and was born of the Virgin. The Prophet describes him as if he were a giant,' because the one person is of a twofold nature, partaker of divinity and bodiliness. And so he at the same time suffered and did not suffer, died and did not die, was and was not buried, rose and did not rise again. He rose again according to the flesh which had died, but not according to the Word, which remained ever with the Father.'®
"More accurately, Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos, on Ps. 130, 2, nn9-10.
Wei, Ab, Al.
"Ambrose, De incarnationis dominicae sacramento, c5 n44.
°*Pseudo-Augustine, Sermo 233, n2 (Creed of the Council of Toledo I).
"Ibid.
CE. Ps. 18, 6.
*Ambrose, De incarnationis dominicae sacramento, c5 nn35-36.