Читать книгу The History of Persecution - Samuel Chandler - Страница 20

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During these transactions, a new controversy, of a very extraordinary and important nature, arose in the church, which, as the other had done before, occasioned many disorders and murders, and gave birth to the third general council. Nestorius,185 the persecuting bishop of Constantinople, although tolerably sound in the doctrine of the real deity of the Logos, yet excepted against the Virgin Mary’s being called “mother of God,” because, as he argued, “Mary was a woman, and that, therefore, God could not be born of her;” adding, “I cannot call him God, who once was not above two or three months old;” and, therefore, he substituted another word in the room of it, calling her “mother of Christ.” By this means he seemed to maintain not only the distinction of the two natures of Christ, for he allowed the proper personality and subsistence of the Logos, but that there were also two distinct persons in Christ; the one a mere man, absolutely distinct from the word, and the other God, as absolutely distinct from the human nature. This caused great disturbances in the city of Constantinople, and the dispute was thought of such consequence, as to need a council to settle it. Accordingly, Theodosius convened one at Ephesus,186 A. C. 431. of which Cyrill was president; and as he hated Nestorius, he persuaded the bishops of his own party to decree, that the Virgin was, and should be, the mother of God, and to anathematize all who should not confess her in this character, nor own that the word of God the Father was united substantially to the flesh, making one Christ of two natures, both God and man together; or who should ascribe what the scriptures say of Christ to two persons or subsistences, interpreting some of the man, exclusive of the word; and others of the word, exclusive of the human nature; or who should presume to call the man Christ, “the bearer, or the receptacle of God,” instead of God; and hastily to depose Nestorius five days before the coming of John, bishop of Antioch, with his suffragan bishops. John, upon his arrival at Ephesus, deposed Cyrill, in a council of bishops held for that purpose, and accused him of being the author of all the disorders occasioned by this affair, and of having rashly proceeded to the desposition of Nestorius. Cyrill was soon absolved by his own council, and, in revenge, deposed John of Antioch, and all the bishops of his party. But they were both reconciled by the emperor, and restored each other to their respective sees, and, as the effect of their reconciliation, both subscribed to the condemnation of Nestorius, who was sent into banishment, where, after suffering great hardships, he died miserably; being thus made to taste those sweets of persecution he had so liberally given to others, in the time of his power and prosperity. The emperor himself,187 though at first he disapproved of this council’s conduct, yet afterwards was persuaded to ratify their decrees, and published a law, by which all who embraced the opinions of Nestorius, were, if bishops or clergymen, ordered to be expelled the churches; or, if laymen, to be anathematized. This occasioned irreconcilable hatreds amongst the bishops and people,188 who were so enraged against each other, that there was no passing with any safety from one province or city to another, because every one pursued his neighbour as his enemy, and, without any fear of God, revenged themselves on one another, under a pretence of ecclesiastical zeal.