The Vicarious Atonement

 "FORMERLY the world, as guilty, was under judgment from the Law; but now the Word has taken on Himself the judgment, and, having suffered in the body for all, has bestowed salvation on all." Orat. i. § 60.

 "When the Father willed that ransom should be paid for all, and to all grace should be given, then truly the Word ... did take earthly flesh ... that, as a high priest ... He might offer Himself to the Father and cleanse us all from sins in His own blood." Orat. ii. § 7.

 The perfect Word of God puts around Him an imperfect body, and is said to be created for the creatures, that, paying the debt in our stead ([ anth hemon ten opheilen apodidous ]), He might by Himself perfect what was wanting in man. Now immortality was wanting to him, and the way to paradise." Orat. ii. § 66.

 "How, were the Word a creature, had He power to undo God's sentence, and to remit sin?" Orat. ii. § 67. Our Lord's death is [ lutron panton ], Incarn. V. D. 25, et passim; [ lutron katharsion ], Naz. Orat. 30, 20 fin.

 "Therefore was He made man, that what was as though given to Him, might be transferred to us; for a mere man had not merited this, nor had the Word Himself needed it. He was united therefore to us," etc. Orat. iv. § 6. Vid. also iii. § 33 init. and In Illud Omnia, § 2 fin.

 "There was need He should be both man and God; for unless He were man, He could not be slain; unless He were God, He would have been thought, (not, unwilling to be what He could, but) unable to do what He would." August. Trin. xiii. 18. "Since Israel could become sold under sin, he could not redeem himself from iniquities. He only could redeem, who could not sell Himself, who did no sin; He is the redeemer from sin." Id. in Psalm. 129, n. 12. "In this common overthrow of all mankind, there was but one remedy, the birth of some son of Adam, a stranger to the original prevarication and innocent, to profit the rest both by his pattern and his merit. Since natural generation hindered this, ... the Lord of David became his son." Leon. Serm. 28, n. 3. "Seek neither a 'brother' for thy redemption, but one who surpasses thy nature; nor a mere 'man,' but a man who is God, Jesus Christ, who alone is able to make propitiation for us all ... One thing has been found sufficient for all men at once, which was given as the price of ransom of our soul, the holy and most precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He poured out for us all." Basil. in Psalm. 48, n. 4. "One had not been sufficient instead of all, had it been simply a man; but if He be understood as God made man, and suffering in His own flesh, the whole creation together is small compared to Him, and the death of one flesh is enough for the ransom of all that is under heaven." Cyril. de rect. fid. p. 132. Vid. also Theod. Eran. iii. pp. 196 8, etc. Procl. Orat. i. p. 63 (ed. 1630); Vigil. contr. Eutych. v. 9 fin. § 15, etc.; Greg. Moral. xxiv. init.; Job. ap. Phot. 222, p. 583.

 Pardon, however, could have been bestowed without an Atonement such as our Lord made, though not renovation of nature. Vid. art. Incarnation . Catechising

 Athanasius lays much stress on this practice, as in fact supplying the evidence of Tradition as to the doctrine which Arius blasphemed.

 E.g. "Let them tell us, by what teacher or by what tradition they have derived these notions concerning the Saviour?" de Decr. § 13 init.

 "For who was ever yet a hearer of such a doctrine? or whence or from whom did the abettors and hirelings of the heresy gain it? who thus expounded to them when they were at school? who told them, 'Abandon creature worship, and then draw near and worship a creature and a work?' But if they themselves own that they have heard it now for the first time, how can they deny that this heresy is foreign, and not from our fathers? But what is not from our fathers, but has come to light in this day, how can it be but that of which the blessed Paul has foretold, that in the latter times some shall depart from the sound faith," etc.? Orat. i. § 8.

 "Who is there, who when he heard, upon his first catechisings, that God had a Son, and had made all things in His proper Word, did not understand it in that sense which we now intend? who, when the vile Arian heresy began, but at once, on hearing its teachers, was startled, as if they taught strange things?" Orat. ii. § 34.

 Hence too Athan.'s phrases, [ mathon edidasken ], de Decr. § 7, Orat. iii. 9, [ erotontes emanthanon ], Orat. ii. § 1, after S. Paul, 1 Cor. xv. 3. And so "What Moses taught, that Abraham observed, that Noe and Enoch acknowledged," etc., de Decr. § 5. Vid. art. Rule of Faith . Catholic: The Name and the Claim

 For the adoption into Christianity, and the sense and force of the word "Catholic," not a very obvious word, we must refer to the Creed. The articles of the Creed are brief enunciations and specimens of some, and of the chief, of the great mercies vouchsafed to man in the Gospel. They are truths of pregnant significance, and of direct practical bearing on Christian life and conduct. Such, for instance, obviously is "one Baptism for the remission of sins," and "the resurrection of the body." Such then must be our profession of "catholicity." And, thus considered, the two, "the Catholic Church" and "the Communion of Saints," certainly suggest an explanation of each other; the one introducing us to our associates and patrons in heaven, and the other pointing out to us where to find the true teaching and the means of grace on earth. Indeed, what else can be the meaning of insisting on the " One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church"? does it not imply a contrast to other so-called Churches? Now this plain sense of the Article, this its obvious or rather its only sense, is abundantly confirmed by such passages of the Fathers as the following, taken in connection and illustration of each other.

 Thus, to begin with what is implied and introduced to us by the name "Christian." Orat. i. §§ 2, 3. "Though the blessed Apostles have become our teachers, and have ministered the Saviour's Gospel, yet not from them have we our title, but from Christ we are and are named Christians. But for those who derive the faith which they profess from others, good reason is it they should bear their name, whose property they have become." Also, "Let us become His disciples and learn to live according to Christianity; for whoso is called by other name beside this, is not of God." Ignat. ad Magn. 10. Hegesippus speaks of "Menandrians, and Marcionites, and Carpocratians, and Valentinians, and Basilidians, and Saturnilians," who "each in his own way, and that a different one, brought in his own doctrine." Euseb. Hist. iv. 22. "There are, and there have been, my friends, many who have taught atheistic and blasphemous words and deeds, coming in the Name of Jesus; and they are called by us from the appellation of the men, whence each doctrine and opinion began ... Some are called Marcians, others Valentinians, others Basilidians, others Saturnilians," etc. Justin. Tryph. 35. "They have a name from the author of that most impious opinion, Simon, being called Simonians." Iren. Hær. i. 23. "When men are called Phrygians, or Novatians, or Valentinians, or Marcionites, or Anthropians, or by any other name, they cease to be Christians; for they have lost Christ's name, and clothe themselves in human and foreign titles." Lact. Inst. iv. 30. " A . How are you a Christian, to whom it is not even granted to bear the name of Christian? for you are not called Christian, but Marcionite. M . And you are called of the Catholic Church; therefore ye are not Christians either. A . Did we profess man's name, you would have spoken to the point, but, if we are so called for being all over the world, what is there bad in this?" Adamant. Dial. § 1, p. 809. "We never heard of Petrines, or Paulines, or Bartholomeans, or Thaddeans, but from the first there was one preaching of all the Apostles, not preaching themselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. Wherefore also they all gave one name to the Church, not their own, but that of their Lord Jesus Christ, since they began to be called Christians first at Antioch; which is the sole Catholic Church, having naught else but Christ's, being a Church of Christians, not of Christs, but of Christians; He being one, they from that one being called Christians. After this Church and her preachers, all others are no longer of the same character, making show by their own epithets, Manichæans, and Simonians, and Valentinians, and Ebionites." Epiph. Hær. 42, p. 366. "This is the fearful thing, that they change the name of Christians of the Holy Church, which hath no epithet but the name of Christ alone, and of Christians, to be called by the name of Audius," etc. Ibid. 70, 15. Vid. also Hær. 75, 6 fin. "If you ever hear those who are called Christians, named, not from the Lord Jesus Christ, but from some one else, say Marcionites, Valentinians, Mountaineers, Campestrians, know that it is not Christ's Church, but the synagogue of Antichrist." Jerom. adv. Lucif. fin.

 Having thus laid down the principle that the name, given to a religious body, is a providential or divine token, they go on to instance it in the word "Catholic." "Since one might properly and truly say that there is a 'Church of evil doers,' I mean the meetings of the heretics, the Marcionists, and Manichees, and the rest, the faith hath delivered to thee by way of security the Article, 'And in One Holy Catholic Church,' that thou mayest avoid their wretched meetings; and ever abide with the Holy Church Catholic, in which thou wast regenerated. And if ever thou art sojourning in any city, inquire not simply where the Lord's House is, (for the sects of the profane also make an attempt to call their own dens houses of the Lord,) nor merely where the Church is, but where is the Catholic Church. For this is the peculiar name of this Holy Body," etc. Cyril Cat. xviii. 26. "Were I by chance to enter a populous city, I should in this day find Marcionites, Apollinarians, Cataphrygians, Novatians, and other such, who called themselves Christian; by what surname should I recognise the congregation of my own people, were it not called Catholic? ... Certainly that word 'Catholic' is not borrowed from man, which has survived through so many ages, nor has the sound of Marcion or Apelles or Montanus, nor takes heretics for its authors ... Christian is my name, Catholic my surname ." Pacian. Ep. 1.

 Athan. seems to allude, Orat. i. § 2, to Catholics being called Athanasians; supr., vol. i. p. 157. Two distinctions are drawn between such a title in controversy as applied to Catholics, and then again to heretics, when they are taken by Catholics as a note against them. S. Augustine says, " Arians call Catholics Athanasians or Homoüsians, not other  heretics call them so . But ye not only by Catholics but also by heretics, those who agree with you and those who disagree are called Pelagians; as even by heretics are Arians called Arians. But ye, and ye only, call us Traducianists, as Arians call us Homoüsians, as Donatists Macarians, as Manichees Pharisees, and as the other heretics use various titles." Op. imp. i. 75. It may be added that the heretical name adheres, the Catholic dies away. S. Chrysostom draws a second distinction, "Are we divided from the Church? have we heresiarchs? are we called from man? is there any leader to us, as to one there is Marcion, to another Manichæus, to another Arius, to another some other author of heresy? for if we too have the name of any, still it is not those who began a heresy, but our superiors and governors of the Church. We have not 'teachers upon earth,'" etc., in Act. Ap. Hom. 33 fin.

 Athan. says that after Eusebius had taken up the patronage of the heresy, he made no progress till he had gained the Court, (Hist. Arian. 66,) showing that it was an act of external power by which Arianism grew, not an inward movement in the Church, which indeed loudly protested against the Emperor's proceeding. "If Bishops are to judge," he says, ibid. § 52, "what has the Emperor to do with this matter? if the Emperor is to threaten, what need of men styled Bishops? where in the world was such a thing heard of? where had the Church's judgment its force from the Emperor, or his sentence was at all recognised?" Vid. art. Heretics .

 "Many Councils have been before this, many judgments of the Church, but neither the Fathers ever argued with the Emperor about them, nor the Emperor meddled with the concerns of the Church. Paul the Apostle had friends of Cæsar's household, and in his Epistle he saluted the Philippians in their name; but he took them not to him as partners in his judgments. But now a new spectacle, and this the discovery of the Arian heresy," etc. § 52. Again, "In what then is he behind Antichrist? What more will he do when he comes? or rather, on his coming will he not find the way prepared for him by Constantius unto his deceiving without effort? for he is claiming to transfer causes to the Court instead of the Churches, and presides at them in person." Hist. Arian. § 76. And so also Hosius to Constantius, "Cease, I charge thee, and remember that thou art a mortal man. Fear the day of judgment; keep thyself clear against it. Interfere not with things ecclesiastical, nor be the man to charge us in a matter of the kind; rather learn thou thyself from us. God has put into thy hand the kingdom; to us He hath entrusted the things of the Church, and as he who is traitorous to thy rule speaks against God who has thus ordained, so fear thou, lest drawing to thyself the things of the Church, thou fallest beneath a great accusation." ap. Athan. ibid. 44.