Of the same from his discourse against the Arians:-
"And not to prolong what I am saying, I will shortly ask you, O heretic, did He who was begotten of God before the ages suffer, or Jesus who was born of David in the last days? If the Godhead suffered, thou hast spoken blasphemy; if, as the truth is, the manhood suffered, for what reason do you hesitate to attribute the passion to man?"
Of the same from his discourse concerning the Son:-
"Peter said, `God hath made this Jesus both Lord and Christ' and said too, `this Jesus whom ye crucified God hath raised up.' Now it was the manhood, not the Godhead, which became a corpse, and He who raised it was the Word, the power of God, who said in the Gospel, `Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.' So when it is said that God hath made Him who became a corpse and rose from the dead both Lord and Christ, what is meant is the flesh, and not the Godhead of the Son."
Of the same from his discourse on "The Son can do nothing of Himself": -
"For He had not such a nature as that His life could be held by corruption, since His Godhead was not forcibly reduced to suffering. For how could it? But the manhood was renewed in incorruption. So he says `For this mortal must put on immortality and this corruptible must put on incorruption.' You observe the accuracy; he points distinctly to `this mortal' that you may not entertain the idea of the resurrection of any other flesh."
Testimony of the holy Flavianus, bishop of Antioch.
On Easter Day:-
"Wherefore also the cross is boldly preached by us, and the Lord's death confessed among us, though in nothing did the Godhead suffer, for the divine is impassible, but the dispensation was fulfilled by the body."
Of the same on Judas the traitor:-
"When therefore you hear of the Lord being betrayed, do not degrade the divine dignity to insignificance, nor attribute to divine power the sufferings of the body. For the divine is impassible and invariable. For if through His love to mankind He took on Him the form of a servant, He underwent no change in nature. But being what He ever was, he yielded the divine body to experience death."
Testimony of Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria.
From his Heortastic Volume:-
"Of unreasoning beings the souls are not taken and replaced: they share in the corruption of the bodies, and are dissolved into dust. But after the Saviour at the time of the cross had taken the soul from His own body, He restored it to the body again when He rose from the dead. To assure us of this He uttered the words of the psalmist, the predictive exclamation, `Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell nor suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.'"
Testimony of the blessed Gelasius, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine:-
"He was bound, He was wounded, He was crucified, He was handled, He was marked with scars, He received a lance's wound, and all these indignities were undergone by the body born of Mary, while that which was begotten from the Father before the ages none was able to harm, for the Word had no such nature. For how can any one constrain Godhead? How wound it? How make red with blood the incorporeal nature? How surround it with grave bands? Grant now what you cannot contravene and, constrained by invincible reason, honour Godhead."
Testimony of the holy John, bishop of Constantinople.
From his discourse on the words "My Father worketh hitherto and I work": -
"`What sign shewest Thou unto us seeing that Thou doest these things?' What then does He reply Himself? `Destroy this temple,' He says, `and in three days I will raise it up,' speaking of His own body, but they did not understand Him."
And a little further on:-
"Why does not the evangelist pass this by? Why did he add the correction, `But He spake of the temple of his body'? for He did not say destroy this `body,' but `temple' that He might shew the indwelling God. Destroy this temple which is far more excellent than that of the Jews. The Jewish temple contained the Law; this temple contains the Lawgiver; the former the letter that killeth; the latter the spirit that giveth life."
Of the same from the discourse "That what was spoken and done in humility was not so done and spoken on account of infirmity of power but different dispensations":-
"How then does He say `If it be possible'? He is pointing out to us the infirmity of the human nature, which did not choose to be torn away from this present life, but stepped back and shrank on account of the love implanted in it by God in the beginning for the present life. If then when the Lord Himself so often spoke in such terms, some have dared to say that He did not take flesh, what would they have said if none of these words had been spoken by Him?"
Of the same from the same work:-
"Observe how they spoke of His former age. Ask the heretic the question Does God dread? Does He draw back? Does He shrink? Does He sorrow? and if he says yes, stand off from him for the future, rank him down below with the devil, aye lower even than the devil, for even the devil will not dare to say this. But, should he say that each of these things is unworthy of God, reply-neither does God pray; for apart from these it will be yet another absurdity should the words be the words of God, for the words indicate not only an agony, but also two wills; one of the Son and another of the Father, opposed to one another. For the words `Not as I will, but as Thou wilt,' are the words of one indicating this."