st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul
st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul
st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul
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"<br />
"<br />
De<br />
"<br />
What<br />
"<br />
"<br />
THE FONS SCIENTLflE."<br />
83<br />
he writes, and water by drinking, are turned in<br />
course <strong>of</strong> nature into the flesh and blood <strong>of</strong> the eater<br />
and drinker, and become not any other body than<br />
this latter; so the bread <strong>of</strong> oblation, and the wine<br />
and water, are supernaturally changed, through the<br />
invocation and coming <strong>of</strong> the Holy Spirit, into the<br />
body and blood <strong>of</strong> Chri<strong>st</strong>, and are not two, but one<br />
and the same"<br />
( 270). The comparison,<br />
it<br />
may<br />
appear to some, falls short <strong>of</strong> its purpose. It is not<br />
made clearer how the deified Body <strong>of</strong> Chri<strong>st</strong>, or<br />
Chri<strong>st</strong> in His divine nature, so absorbs into Himself<br />
the consecrated elements, that they become one with<br />
Him. At the same time, something less than ju<strong>st</strong>ice<br />
has been done, by a di<strong>st</strong>inguished writer <strong>of</strong> our<br />
Church, to the way in which Damascenus here treats<br />
the subject.<br />
was worse <strong>st</strong>ill," says Waterland, 1<br />
"after all these lengths <strong>of</strong> fancy, there was yet a<br />
difficulty remaining which was altogether insuperable.<br />
The elements were to be made the very deified body<br />
<strong>of</strong> Chri<strong>st</strong>, like as the personal body in the womb had<br />
been made. How could this be, without the like<br />
personal union <strong>of</strong> the elements with the divinity?<br />
Here Damascen was plunged, and attempted not to<br />
get out, at that time, or in that work. But in another<br />
work, 2 in the way <strong>of</strong> a private letter, he did endeavour<br />
1<br />
"Works"<br />
(Oxford, 1843), vol. iii., p. 199.<br />
Epi<strong>st</strong>. ad Zachariam (in Migne s ed., vol. ii., pp. 401-<br />
2 "<br />
412). The genuineness <strong>of</strong> this is doubted by Lequien, though<br />
Waterland thinks the evidence in favour <strong>of</strong> it. But the point<br />
to notice is, that this argument, which Waterland says was not<br />
thought <strong>of</strong> till the writing <strong>of</strong> the letter to Zacharias, really does<br />
appear in the<br />
as Fide," quoted above.<br />
G 2