360 NOV ATI AN THE ROMAN PRESBYTER CHAPTER XXV.1 Argument. — And thatit does notfollowtlience,thatbecause Christdied it must alsobe receivedtliatGod died; for Scripturesetsforth that not onlywas Christ God, but man also. Therefore, say they,if Christ is not man only,but God also— and Scripturetellsus that He died for us, and was raisedagain— then Scriptureteachesus to believethatGod died; or if God does not die, and Christ is said to have died,then Christwillnot be God, becauseGod cannot be admitted to have died. If they ever could understand or had understood what they read, they would never speak after such a perilousfashion. But the follyof erroris always hastyin itsdescent,and it is no new thing if those who have forsakenthe lawful faithdescendeven to perilous results.For if Scripturewere to set forththat Christis God only,and thattherewas no associationof human weak nessmingled in His nature,thisintricateargument of theirs might reasonablyavailsomething. If Christ is God, and Christdied,then God died. But when Scripturedetermines, as we have frequentlyshown, that He isnot only God, but man also,it followsthat what is immortal may be heldto have remained uncorrupted. For who cannot understand thatthe divinityisimpassible,althoughthe human weakness isliabletosuffering? When, therefore,Christisunderstood to be mingled and associatedas wellof thatwhich God is, as of that which man is— for " the Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us "— who cannot easilyapprehend of himself, without any teacherand interpreter,that itwas not thatin Christthatdiedwhich is God, but that in Him died which is man ? For what if the divinityin Christ does not die, but the substanceof the fleshonly is destroyed,when in other men also,who are not fleshonly,but fleshand soul, thefleshindeedalonesufferstheinroadsof wastingand death, 1AccordingtoPamelius,ch.xx.