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of the Lord's economy, tell us who ask: If nature and hypostasis are the same, you who confess Christ from two natures, will you not also be compelled to say from two hypostases? And either you will never dare to speak of two natures in Christ, or you will be forced by our positions to speak of two hypostases in him. If nature and hypostasis are the same, and you say one nature of his divinity and another of his flesh, then say one hypostasis of his divinity and another of his humanity. 7 If nature and hypostasis are the same, and Christ is consubstantial with God the Father and consubstantial with us, he will also be of one hypostasis with the Father and with us, and the hypostases of the divinity and of the humanity will be of one hypostasis. If nature and hypostasis are the same, why do you not affirm a difference of hypostases as also of natures in Christ? - That nature and hypostasis are not the same has been sufficiently demonstrated to those who are not blind in their understanding. 8 I say hypostasis in the sense of 'in itself'; for the name of hypostasis is homonymous. For sometimes it signifies that which is self-subsistent and self-existent and does not have its existence in another nor is an accident, as also the holy fathers rarely used it for substance, and sometimes that which subsists in itself, that is, the individual, and sometimes that which is not in a subject nor non-existent, and sometimes the subject of a category. 9 Therefore, having abandoned what is awkward, rightly divide the word of truth; for you do not say, as the holy fathers have said, that nature and hypostasis are the same, but rather you confess a particular nature as also the hypostasis in itself. That one should not speak of particular natures, we shall know from this. 10 If you confess particular natures in the holy trinity, you believe it to be of different substance, and Arius is raised up again. But if you give a particular substance to each of the divine hypostases of the holy trinity—but you will confess them to be consubstantial according to the common substance, and substance and hypostasis are the same—there will be according to you a tetrad of hypostases, three particular, one common, and likewise a tetrad of substances. And each of the hypostases will be of two natures and hypostases, one common, one particular, and they will be consubstantial and of different substance, of one hypostasis and of different hypostases. And who would not laugh, or rather lament, at the excess of this madness? Is this not nonsense and the fiction of an evil mind, a dark invention of demons and a monstrous product of Greek trickery? Which of the God-bearers has ever said this, unless perhaps you introduce to us your saint Aristotle as a thirteenth apostle and prefer the idolater to the divinely inspired? But let us return to the matter at hand. 11 For if there is no nature without hypostasis, nor indeed a substance without a person, nor again a hypostasis and person without substance—for there is not—yet substance and hypostasis are not the same, nor nature and person. For substance and that which is in substance are not the same, nor that which is in a hypostasis and hypostasis. For 'that which is in something' is one thing, and 'that in which it is' is another; for that which is in substance is what is observed in the substance, that is, the collection of accidents, which indicates the hypostasis, not the substance itself. But 'in a hypostasis' is not the hypostasis, but what is seen in a hypostasis. Substance, however, that is, what exists in some way, whether in itself, or with another, or in another: in itself, as the substance of fire; with others, as soul and body (for together they have their hypostasis); in another, as fire in a wick and as the flesh of the Lord in his eternal hypostasis. For hypostasis indicates the 'someone' or 'this,' what is shown with the pointing of a finger, but that which is in a hypostasis [indicates] the substance. And hypostasis defines a person by its characteristic properties, but

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τοῦ κυρίου οἰκονομίας, εἴπατε ἡμῖν διερωτῶσιν· Εἰ ταὐτὸν φύσις καὶ ὑπόστασις, ἐκ δύο φύσεων τὸν Χριστὸν ὁμολογοῦντες, οὐχὶ καὶ ἐκ δύο λέγειν ἀναγκασθήσεσθε ὑποστάσεων καὶ ἢ οὐδέποτε δύο λέγειν φύσεις ἐπὶ Χριστοῦ θρασυνθήσεσθε ἢ καὶ δύο λέγειν ἐπ' αὐτοῦ τὰς ὑποστάσεις ὑπὸ τῶν ἡμετέρων ἐκβιασθήσεσθε θέσεων; Εἰ ταὐτὸν φύσις ἐστὶ καὶ ὑπόστασις, ἄλλην δὲ φύσιν τῆς θεότητος καὶ ἑτέραν τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ λέγετε, εἴπατε ἄλλην ὑπόστασιν τῆς αὐτοῦ θεότητος καὶ ἑτέραν τῆς αὐτοῦ ἀνθρωπότητος. 7 Εἰ ταὐτὸν φύσις ἐστὶ καὶ ὑπόστασις, ὁμοούσιος δὲ ὁ Χριστὸς τῷ θεῷ καὶ πατρὶ καὶ ὁμοούσιος ἡμῖν, ἔσται καὶ τῷ πατρὶ καὶ ἡμῖν ὁμοϋπόστα τος, καὶ ἔσονται αἵ τε τῆς θεότητος αἵ τε τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος ὑποστάσεις μιᾶς ὑποστάσεως. Εἰ ταὐτόν ἐστι φύσις καὶ ὑπόστασις, τί μὴ διαφορὰν ὑποστάσεων ὡς καὶ τῶν φύσεων ἐπὶ Χριστοῦ καταφάσκετε; - Ὅτι μὲν οὐ ταὐτὸν φύσις ἐστὶ καὶ ὑπόστασις, ἱκανῶς ἀποδέδεικται τοῖς μὴ τυφλώττουσι τὴν διάνοιαν. 8 Ὑπόστασιν δέ φημι τὴν καθ' αὑτό· ὁμώνυμον γὰρ τὸ τῆς ὑποστάσεως ὄνομα. Ποτὲ μὲν γὰρ τὸ αὐθυπόστατον σημαίνει καὶ αὐθύπαρκτον καὶ τὸ μὴ ἐν ἑτέρῳ ἔχειν τὴν ὕπαρξιν μηδὲ συμβεβηκὸς εἶναι, ὡς καὶ σπανίως οἱ ἅγιοι πατέρες ἐπὶ τῆς οὐσίας ἐχρήσαντο, ποτὲ δὲ τὸ καθ' αὑτὸ ὑφεστὸς ἤτοι τὸ ἄτομον, καὶ ποτὲ μὲν τὸ μὴ ἐν ὑποκειμένῳ εἶναι μηδὲ ἀνύπαρκτον, ποτὲ δὲ τὸ πρὸς κατηγορίαν ὑποκείμενον. 9 Ἀφέντες τοίνυν τὸ περισκελὲς τὸν λόγον τῆς ἀληθείας ὀρθοτομήσατε· οὐ γάρ, ὡς οἱ ἅγιοι πατέρες εἰρήκασι, ταὐτὸν λέγετε φύσιν καὶ ὑπόστασιν, μερικὴν δὲ μᾶλλον τὴν φύσιν ὡς καὶ τὴν καθ' αὑτὸ ὁμολογεῖτε ὑπόστασιν. Ὅτι δὲ οὐ μερικὰς φύσεις λέγειν ἐχρῆν, ἐντεῦθεν εἰσόμεθα. 10 Εἰ μερικὰς φύσεις ἐπὶ τῆς ἁγίας τριάδος ὁμολογεῖτε, ἑτεροούσιον ταύτην δοξάζετε, καὶ πάλιν ἐγήγερται Ἄρειος. Εἰ δὲ ἑκάστῃ τῶν τῆς ἁγίας τριάδος θεαρχικῶν ὑποστάσεων ἰδιάζουσαν δῶτε οὐσίαν-ὁμοουσίους δὲ ταύτας κατὰ τὴν κοινὴν οὐσίαν ὁμολογήσετε, ταὐτὸν δὲ οὐσία τε καὶ ὑπόστασις-, ἔσται καθ' ὑμᾶς τετρὰς ὑποστάσεων, τριῶν μὲν μερικῶν, μιᾶς δὲ κοινῆς, καὶ οὐσιῶν ὁμοίως τετράς. Καὶ ἑκάστη τῶν ὑποστάσεων δύο φύσεών τε καὶ ὑποστάσεων, μιᾶς μὲν κοινῆς, μιᾶς δὲ μερικῆς, καὶ ἔσονται ὁμοούσιοι καὶ ἑτεροούσιοι, ὁμοϋπόστατοί τε καὶ ἑτεροϋπόστατοι. Καὶ τίς οὐ γελάσεται, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀποδύρεται τῆς μανίας τὴν ὑπερβολήν; Οὐκ ἔστι τοῦτο φλήναφος καὶ διανοίας ἀνάπλασμα κακοδαίμονος, δαιμόνων εὕρημα σκοτεινὸν καὶ τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς τερθρείας τεράτευμα; Τίς τοῦτο τῶν θεοφόρων εἴρηκε πώποτε, εἰ μή που τὸν παρ' ὑμῖν ἅγιον Ἀριστοτέλην ἡμῖν ὡς τρισκαιδέκατον ἀπόστολον εἰσαγά γοιτε καὶ τῶν θεοπνεύστων τὸν εἰδωλολάτρην προκρίνοιτε; Ἀλλ' ἐπὶ τὸ προκείμενον ἐπανίωμεν. 11 Εἰ γὰρ μή ἐστι φύσις ἀνυπόστατος, οὔτε μὴν οὐσία ἀπρόσωπος οὐδ' αὖ πάλιν ἀνούσιος ὑπόστασίς τε καὶ πρόσωπον-οὐ γάρ ἐστιν-, ἀλλ' οὐ ταὐτὸν οὐσία τε καὶ ὑπόστασις οὐδὲ φύσις καὶ πρόσωπον. Οὐ γὰρ ταὐτὸν οὐσία τε καὶ ἐνούσιον οὐδ' ἐνυπόστατον καὶ ὑπόστασις. Ἕτερον γάρ ἐστι τὸ ἔν τινι καὶ ἕτερον τὸ ἐν ᾧ· ἐνούσιον μὲν γάρ ἐστι τὸ ἐν τῇ οὐσίᾳ θεωρούμενον, τουτέστι τὸ τῶν συμβεβηκότων ἄθροισμα, ὃ δηλοῖ τὴν ὑπόστασιν, οὐκ αὐτὴν τὴν οὐσίαν. Ἐνυπόστατον δὲ οὐχ ἡ ὑπόστασις, τὸ ἐν ὑποστάσει δὲ καθορώμενον. Οὐσία δέ, τουτέστιν ὁπωσοῦν ὑπάρχει, εἴτε καθ' ἑαυτὴν εἴτε σὺν ἑτέρῳ εἴτε ἐν ἑτέρῳ· καθ' αὑτὴν μὲν ὡς πυρὸς οὐσία, σὺν ἑτέροις δὲ ὡς ψυχὴ καὶ σῶμα (σὺν ἀλλήλοις γὰρ ταῦτα τὴν ὑπόστασιν ἔχει), ἐν ἑτέρῳ δὲ ὡς πῦρ ἐν θρυαλλίδι καὶ ὡς ἡ σὰρξ τοῦ κυρίου ἐν τῇ ἀνάρχῳ αὐτοῦ ὑποστάσει. Ἡ μὲν γὰρ ὑπόστασις τὸν τινὰ ἢ τόδε δηλοῖ τὸ ἅμα τῇ τοῦ δακτύλου ἀνατάσει δεικνύμενον, τὸ δὲ ἐνυπόστατον τὴν οὐσίαν. Καὶ ἡ μὲν ὑπόστασις πρόσωπον ὁρίζει τοῖς χαρακτηριστικοῖς ἰδιώμασιν, τὸ δέ γε