"Athanasius composed no tract or treatise upon the Atonement and we must consequently deduce his opinions upon this subject from his incidental statements while discussing other topics. In his discourses against Arians, there are frequent statements respecting the work of Christ, in connection with those respecting his person and dignity, and from these we select a few of the most distinct and conclusive: 'Christ as man endured death for us, inasmuch as he offered himself for that purpose to the Father.' Here, the substitutionary nature of his work is indicated. 'Christ takes our sufferings upon himself, and presents them to the Father, entreating for us that they be satisfied in him.' Here, the piacular[A] nature of his work is taught, together with his intercessory office. 'The death of the incarnate Logos is a ransom for the sins of men, and a death of death.' 'Desiring to annual our death, he took on himself a body from the Virgin Mary, that by offering this unto the Father a sacrifice for all, he might deliver us all, who by fear of death were all our life through subject to bondage.' 'Laden with guilt, the world was condemned of law, but Logos assumed the condemnation and suffering in the flesh gave salvation to all.' Here, the obligation of the guilty world is represented not as relating to Satan but to law; and the Redeemer assumes a condemnation, or in modern Protestant phraseology becomes a voluntary substitute for the guilty, for purposes of legal satisfaction." [Footnote A: "Piacular"--expiatory.] "If we examine the soteriology of the Greek church during the last half of the fourth and the first half of the fifth centuries, we meet with very clear conceptions of the atonement of Christ. The distinctiveness of the views of Athanasius upon this subject undoubtedly contributed to this; for this great mind exerted as powerful an influence upon the Eastern doctrinal system, generally, as Augustine exercised over the Western." _5. Soteriology of Augustine and Gregory the Great:_ "Augustine (430): Augustine's view of the work of the Christ is essentially that of the fathers who had preceded him, neither falling short nor making any marked advance in scientific respects. * * * 'All men,' he says, 'are separated from God by sin. Hence they can be reconciled with him, only through the remission of sin, and this only through the grace of a most merciful Savior, and this grace through the one only victim of the most true and only priest.' In another place, alluding to our Lord's comparison of his own crucifixion with the lifting up of the serpent by Moses, Augustine thus expresses himself: 'Our Lord did not, indeed, transfer sin itself into his flesh as if it were the poison of the serpent, but he did transfer death; so that there might be, in the likeness of human flesh, the punishment of sin without its personal guilt, whereby both the personal guilt and punishment of sin might be abolished from human flesh.'