{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/211/2111160.htm","path":"chr/ecf/211/2111160.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/211/2111160.htm","text":"Again he convicts his opponent of deadly heresy by his own confession.\nBut why are we arguing about words, when the facts are clear enough? and seeking for a determination of the matter from the terms of the Creed, when the Creed itself deals with the question. Let us repeat the confession of the Creed, and of you yourself (for yours it is as well as the Creed\u2019s, for you made it yours by confessing it), that you may see that you have departed not only from the Creed but from yourself. \u201cI believe\u201d then, says the Creed, \u201cIn one only true God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible: And in the Lord Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, and the first-born of every creature: Begotten of Him before all worlds and not made; Very God of Very God; Being of one substance with the Father; By whom both the worlds were framed, and all things were made. Who for us came, and was born of the Virgin Mary.\u201d \u201cFor us\u201d then the Creed says, our Lord Jesus Christ \u201ccame and was born of the Virgin Mary, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate; and was buried, and rose again according to the Scriptures.\u201d The Churches are not ashamed to confess this: the Apostles were not ashamed to preach it. You yourself, you, I say, whose every utterance is now blasphemy, you who now deny everything, you did not deny all these truths: that God was born; that God suffered, that God rose again. And what next? Whither have you fallen? What have you become? To what are you reduced? What do you say? What are you vomiting forth? What, as one says, even mad Orestes himself would swear to be the words of a madman. 2556 For what is it that you say? \u201cWho then is the Son of God who was born of the Christotocos? As for instance if we were to say I believe in God the Word, the only Son of God, begotten of His Father, Being of one substance with the Father, who came down and was buried, would not our ears be shocked at the sound? God dead?\u201d And again: \u201cCan it possibly be, you say, that He who was begotten before all worlds, should be born a second time, and be God?\u201d If all these things cannot possibly be, how is it that the Creed of the Churches says that they did happen? How is it that you yourself said that they did? For let us compare what you now say with what you formerly said. Once you said: \u201cI believe in God the Father Almighty; and in Jesus Christ His Son, Very God of Very God; Being of one substance with the Father; who for us came and was born of the Virgin Mary; and was crucified under Pontius Pilate; and was buried.\u201d But now what is it that you say? \u201cIf we should say: I believe in God the Word, the only Son of God, Begotten of His Father; Being of one substance with the Father, who came down and was buried, would not our ears be shocked at the sound?\u201d The bitterness indeed and blasphemy of your words might drive us to a furious and ferocious attack in answer; but we must somewhat curb the reins of our pious sorrow.\nPersius Sat. iii. l. 116\u2026\u201cquod ipse non sani esse hominis non sanus juret Orestes.\u201d","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. XI: The Works of John Cassian.: Chapter IX. Again he convicts his opponent of deadly heresy by his own confession.","type":"page"}