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I will pass over in my argument the parts of his reading that reveal the error and inconsistency of his doctrine; but I will mention only this: The Savior, he says, suffered hunger and thirst and weariness and agony and grief. Who is the Savior? God, he says in the preceding parts, not two persons, as if one were God and the other man. Therefore God suffered what he said he suffered, and He who is incapable of suffering, suffers, not by the necessity of an unwilling nature, like a man, but by consequence of nature. Who, then, will suffice to refute these follies? In what does he see a difference between the necessity of nature and the consequence of nature? For the truth sees the same meaning in both. For example, I say it is a consequence for one whose eyes are not healthy to have weak sight, and again I say the same thing, that it is a necessity, if one’s eyes are not healthy, for him to have weak sight. Is it not the same in both cases? For he who spoke of 3,1.232 necessity showed what happens by consequence; and he who mentioned consequence signified what is necessary. What then does the wisdom of this writer mean by ascribing the passions of nature to the Savior not by necessity of nature, but by consequence of nature? It was necessary, he says, for the passions to be moved in likeness to men. Did not he who said 'it was necessary' clearly proclaim necessity? Is not this the usage of Scripture? And from the Gospels themselves it is possible to take proofs of this argument.

It is necessary for offenses to come; for it is necessary for these things to happen. Is not the meaning of both expressions one? For he who said it is a necessity for offenses to come showed by his expression that offenses must come. And he who said these things must happen proclaimed in advance what must necessarily come to pass. But again I will pass over the next piece of nonsense, piled up at random and haphazardly from foolish reasonings. And he says toward the end of his argument that Even with the body being in heaven, he is with us until the end of the age. Who is he that is with us? Clearly the writer, dividing the indivisible, does not understand. For if he places the body in heaven, but says the Lord is with us, he clearly effects a certain separation and division by such a distinction in his argument. For he did not say that his body both remains in heaven and is with us, but with the body being in heaven, and we not being in heaven. So he has believed that someone other than the body that is in the heavens is with us who are on the earth. These are the lofty teachings of Apollinarius. But we say that after saying these things he was taken up, and he who was taken up is with us, and there is no division in him; but just as he is in us, present with each and 3,1.233 coming into our midst, so also he extends to all the ends of creation, appearing equally to all the parts of the world. If to us who are corporeal he is incorporeal, not even to those beyond the world is he in a body. But as it is he says that the Lord, thus divided, exists unsuitably in opposite ways among his subjects, to the carnal incorporeal, and to the incorporeal in a body. For having established the flesh in heaven, he spiritually mingles himself with men. But whatever things he, in his death-throes toward the end of his argument, as if with certain gasps, is caught up in insubstantial thoughts, I think I must pass over unexamined, in which, being hard-pressed, he calls on the Greeks for the advocacy of his own myths, and whatever else is similar to these things. Whoever wishes to understand the weakness of the heresy throughout, let him go through the writings themselves; but we do not have so much leisure as to delve into such arguments, which have the refutation of their absurdity manifest from themselves even before examination.

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ἀναγνώσεως ἐλέγχοντα τὸ πεπλανημένον τοῦ δόγματος αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀσύστατον παραδραμοῦμαι τῷ λόγῳ· ἐκείνου δὲ μόνου ἐπιμνησθήσομαι· Ὁ σωτήρ, φησί, πέπονθε πεῖναν καὶ δίψαν καὶ κάματον καὶ ἀγωνίαν καὶ λύπην. τίς ὢν ὁ σωτήρ; θεός, φησὶν ἐν τοῖς πρὸ τούτου, οὐ δύο πρόσωπα ὡς ἑτέρου μὲν ὄντος θεοῦ, ἑτέρου δὲ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου. οὐκοῦν ὁ θεὸς πέπονθεν, ἅπερ παθεῖν αὐτὸν εἴρηκε, καὶ πάσχει τὸ ἀπαράδεκτον πάθους οὐκ ἀνάγκῃ φύσεως ἀβουλήτου, καθάπερ ἄνθρωπος, ἀλλ' ἀκολουθίᾳ φύσεως. ἆρα τίς ἐπαρκέσει διελέγχων τὰ μάταια; ἐν τίνι διαφέρειν βλέπει τὴν ἀνάγκην τῆς φύσεως καὶ τὴν ἀκολουθίαν τῆς φύσεως; ἡ γὰρ ἀλήθεια ταὐτὸν ἐν ἑκατέρῳ βλέπει τὸ σημαινόμενον, οἷόν τι λέγω, ἀκόλουθόν ἐστι τὸν μὴ ὑγιαίνοντα τὰς ὄψεις ἀσθενῶς ἔχειν περὶ τὴν ὅρασιν καὶ πάλιν τὸ αὐτὸ τοῦτό φημι, ὅτι ἀναγκαῖόν ἐστιν, εἰ μή τις ὑγιῶς ἔχοι τῶν ὄψεων, ἀσθενεῖν τοῦτον περὶ τὴν ὅρασιν. ἆρ' οὐ ταὐτὸν ἐν ἑκατέροις ἐστίν; ὅ τε γὰρ τὴν 3,1.232 ἀνάγκην εἰπὼν τὸ ἐξ ἀκολούθου συμβαῖνον ἐνέδειξεν· ὅ τε τοῦ ἀκολούθου μνησθεὶς τὸ ἀναγκαῖον ἐσήμανεν. τί οὖν βούλεται ἡ σοφία τοῦ λογογράφου μὴ ἀνάγκῃ φύσεως, ἀλλ' ἀκολουθίᾳ φύσεως τῷ σωτῆρι προσάπτειν τὰ πάθη τῆς φύσεως; Ἔδει, φησί, καθ' ὁμοιότητα τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὰ πάθη κινηθῆναι. ὁ τὸ ἔδει εἰπὼν οὐ φανερῶς τὴν ἀνάγκην ἐβόησεν; οὐχ αὕτη τῆς γραφῆς ἡ χρῆσίς ἐστιν; καὶ ἐξ αὐτῶν δὲ τῶν εὐαγγελίων πάρεστι τὰς ἀποδείξεις τοῦ λόγου λαβεῖν.

Ἀνάγκη ἐλθεῖν τὰ σκάνδαλα· καὶ γὰρ δεῖ γενέσθαι ταῦτα. οὐχὶ μία ἑκατέρας ἐστὶ τῆς φωνῆς ἡ διάνοια; ὁ γὰρ εἰπὼν ἀνάγκην εἶναι ἐλθεῖν τὰ σκάνδαλα τὸ δεῖν ἐλθεῖν τὰ σκάνδαλα διὰ τῆς φωνῆς ἐνεδείξατο. καὶ ὁ εἰπὼν δεῖ γενέσθαι ταῦτα τὸ ἀναγκαίως ὀφεῖλον εἰς ἔργον ἐλθεῖν προεμήνυσεν. Ἀλλὰ πάλιν καὶ τὸν ἐφεξῆς ὑπερβήσομαι ὕθλον χύδην καὶ ὡς ἔτυχεν ἐκ ματαίων λογισμῶν συμπεφορημένον. φησὶ δὲ πρὸς τῷ τέλει τοῦ λόγου ὅτι Καὶ ἐν οὐρανῷ ὄντος τοῦ σώματος μεθ' ἡμῶν ἐστι μέχρι τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος. τίς ὁ μεθ' ἡμῶν ὤν; σαφῶς ὁ λογογράφος μερίζων τὸ ἀμέριστον οὐ συνίησιν. εἰ γὰρ τὸ μὲν σῶμα τῷ οὐρανίῳ ἀποτίθεται, μεθ' ἡμῶν δὲ εἶναί φησι τὸν κύριον, φανερῶς διάζευξίν τινα καὶ μερισμὸν τῇ τοιαύτῃ τοῦ λόγου διαστολῇ κατεργάζεται. οὐ γὰρ εἶπεν, ὅτι τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐν οὐρανῷ μένει καὶ μεθ' ἡμῶν ἐστιν, ἀλλὰ τοῦ σώματος ἐν οὐρανῷ ὄντος, ἡμῶν δὲ οὐκ ἐν οὐρανῷ ὄντων. ἄρα ἕτερόν τινα παρὰ τὸ ἐν οὐρανοῖς ὂν σῶμα μεθ' ἡμῶν τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς ὄντων πεπίστευκεν. ταῦτα τὰ ὑψηλὰ τοῦ Ἀπολιναρίου διδάγματα. ἡμεῖς δέ φαμεν, ὅτι ταῦτα εἰπὼν ἀνελήφθη καὶ ὁ ἀναληφθεὶς μεθ' ἡμῶν ἐστι καὶ μερισμὸς ἐν ἐκείνῳ οὐδείς· ἀλλ' ὥσπερ ἐν ἡμῖν ἐστιν ἑκάστῳ παρὼν καὶ 3,1.233 ἐν μέσῳ γινόμενος, οὕτω καὶ ἐπὶ πάντα διήκει τὰ τῆς κτίσεως πέρατα, ὁμοτίμως πᾶσι τοῖς τοῦ κόσμου μέρεσιν ἐμφαινόμενος. εἰ ἡμῖν τοῖς σωματικοῖς ἀσωμάτως, οὐδὲ τοῖς ὑπερκοσμίοις ἐν σώματι. νυνὶ δέ φησιν οὕτως μερισθέντα τὸν κύριον ἀκαταλλήλως ἐν τοῖς ὑποχειρίοις διὰ τῶν ἐναντίων γίνεσθαι, τοῖς μὲν σαρκίνοις ἀσώματον, τοῖς δὲ ἀσωμάτοις ἐν σώματι. ἐν γὰρ τῷ οὐρανῷ καθιδρύσας τὴν σάρκα πνευματικῶς τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἑαυτὸν καταμίγνυσιν. ὅσα δὲ ψυχορραγῶν πρὸς τῷ τέλει τοῦ λόγου ὥσπερ τισὶν ἄσθμασι τοῖς ἀνυποστάτοις νοήμασιν ἐνσυνέχεται, παραδραμεῖν οἶμαι δεῖν ἀνεξέταστα, ἐν οἷς στενοχωρούμενος τοὺς Ἕλληνας πρὸς συνηγορίαν τῶν ἰδίων μύθων καλεῖ καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα τούτοις ἐστὶ παραπλήσια. ὅτῳ φίλον τὴν διὰ πάντων τῆς αἱρέσεως ἀτονίαν κατανοῆσαι, αὐτοῖς ἐπεξίτω τοῖς γεγραμμένοις· ἡμῖν δὲ οὐ τοσαύτη σχολὴ ὥστε τοῖς τοιούτοις λόγοις ἐμβαθύνειν, ἃ πρόδηλον ἀφ' ἑαυτῶν καὶ πρὸ τῆς ἐξετάσεως ἔχει τῆς ἀτοπίας τὸν ἔλεγχον.