Orth. -This name too is common, signifying species of drink.
Eran. -And after the consecration how do you name these?
Orth. -Christ's body and Christ's blood.
Eran. -And do yon believe that you partake of Christ's body and blood?
Orth. -I do.
Eran. -As, then, the symbols of the Lord's body and blood are one thing before the priestly invocation, and after the invocation are changed and become another thing; so the Lord's body after the assumption is changed into the divine substance.
Orth. -You are caught in the net you have woven yourself. For even after the consecration the mystic symbols are not deprived of their own nature; they remain in their former substance figure and form; they are visible and tangible as they were before. But they are regarded as what they are become, and believed so to be, and are worshipped as being what they are believed to be. Compare then the image with the archetype, and you will see the likeness, for the type must be like the reality. For that body preserves its former form, figure, and limitation and in a word the substance of the body; but after the resurrection it has become immortal and superior to corruption; it has become worthy of a seat on the righthand; it is adored by every creature as being called the natural body of the Lord.
Eran. -Yes; and the mystic symbol changes its former appellation; it is no longer called by the name it went by before, but is styled body. So must the reality be called God, and not body.
Orth. -You seem to me to be ignorant-for He is called not only body but even bread of life. So the Lord Himself used this name' and that very body we call divine body, and giver of life, and of the Master and of the Lord, teaching that it is not common to every man but belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ Who is God and Man. "For Jesus Christ" is "the same yesterday, to-day, and forever."
Eran. -You have said a great deal about this, but I follow the saints who have shone of old in the Church; show me then, if you can, these in their writings dividing the natures after the union.
Orth. -I will read you their works, and I am sure you will be astonished at the countless mentions of the distinction which in their struggle against impious heretics they have inserted in their writings. Hear now those whose testimony I have already adduced speaking openly and distinctly on these points.
Testimony of the holy Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, and martyr:-
From the Epistle to the Smyrnaeans: "I acknowledge and believe Him after His resurrection to be existent in the flesh: and when He came to hem that were with Peter He said to them `Take; handle me and see, for I am not a bodiless daemon.' And straightway they took hold of him and believed."
Of the same from the same epistle:-
"And after His Resurrection He ate with them, and drank with them, as being of the flesh, although He was spiritually one with the Father."
Testimony of Irenoeus, the ancient bishop of Lyons; -
From the third Book of his work "Against Heresies." (Chap. XX.)
"As we have said before, He united man to God. For had not a man vanquished man's adversary, the enemy would not have been vanquished aright; and again, had not God granted the boon of salvation we should not have possessed it in security. And had not man been united to God, he could not have shared in the incorruption. For it behoved the mediator of God and men, by means of His close kinship to either, to bring them both into friendship and unanimity, and to set man close to God and to make God known to men."
Of the same from the third book of the same treatise (Chapter XVIII):-
"So again in his Epistle he says `Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God,' recognising one and the same Jesus Christ to whom the gates of heaven were opened, on account of His assumption in the flesh. Who in the same flesh in which He also suffered shall come revealing the glory of the Father."
Of the same from the fourth book (Chapter VII):-
"As Isaiah saith `He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root. Israel shall blossom and bud and fill the face of the world with fruit.' So his fruit being scattered through the whole world, they who erst brought forth good fruit (for of them was produced the Christ in the flesh and the apostles) were abandoned and removed. And now they are no longer fit for bringing forth fruit."
Of the same from the same book (Chapter LIX):-
"And he judges also them of Ebion. How can they be saved unless it was God who wrought their salvation on earth, or how shall man come to God unless God came to man?"
Of the same from the same book (Chapter LXIV):-