Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 2.djvu/74

8 The first is the case of Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, one of the most famous Prelates of his time. The heresy of Sabellius had sprung up in his province, which, under pretence of magnifying our blessed, confounded His Person with that of the Almighty , and so in fact denied the whole economy of Salvation: maintaining that the himself was incarnate; that He appeared on earth as the , and suffered on the cross for us. Refuting these, the holy Bishop had argued from those expressions of Scripture which represent our in his human nature, as the work or creature of  the. "The Incarnate ," said he, "is not the same with the, as the tree is not the same with the husbandman, nor the ship with the builder." Expressions surely justifiable enough, since what they affirm is found almost word for word in our own discourses. "I am the true Vine, and my Father is the Husbandman." However, the expressions were misunderstood, although from St. Dionysius' own report it should seem that he had carefully guarded them by the context; it was generally reported that he had used language derogatory to the Divine honour of our. A synod met at Rome to examine the matter, on behalf of which the then Bishop of Rome, also named Dionysius, wrote to the Bishop of Alexandria, requesting an explanation; which he gave to the full satisfaction of the whole Church; summing up his doctrine in these remarkable words: "Of the names used by me to express the Divine Persons, there is none which can be separated or divided from the other to which it is related. Thus, suppose I speak of the ; before I add the term ',' I have implied His existence, by using the term '.' I add the term ; though I had not mentioned the, assuredly the idea of Him would have been comprised in that of the : I join to these the ',' but at the same time I annex the thought of the fountain from whom and the channel by whom He proceeds;" calling him, as it seems, the of the  and the. "Thus, on the one hand, we do as it were expand the, without division, into a of Persons; on the other hand, we gather the , without diminution, into an  of substance." This noble confession of a perfect faith we owe to the friendly remonstrance of the assembled Bishops; and surely the advantage is great, of such a standing guard, in enabling the Church not only to