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creatures. These, since they required a greater assistance, also receive a greater one. And this was the Word of God Himself, the pre-eternal, the invisible, the incomprehensible, the incorporeal, the beginning from the beginning, the light from the light, the fount of life and immortality, the express image of the archetypal beauty, the immovable seal, the unchangeable image, the Father’s definition and Word; He comes to His own image, and wears flesh for the sake of flesh, and is mingled with a rational soul for the sake of my soul, purifying like by like. And He becomes all things, except sin, a man; conceived, on the one hand, from the Virgin, whose soul and flesh were pre-purified by the Spirit (for it was necessary both that birth be honored, and that virginity be preferred); and having come forth, on the other hand, God with that which He assumed, one from two contraries, flesh and Spirit; of which, the one deified, and the other was deified. O the new mixture! O the paradoxical blending! He who is, becomes, and the uncreated is created, and the uncontainable is contained, through the medium of a rational soul mediating between divinity and the denseness of flesh. And He who enriches, becomes poor; for He becomes poor in my flesh, that I might be enriched by His divinity. And He who is full, is emptied; for He is emptied of His own glory for a little while, that I might partake of His fullness. What is the wealth of goodness? What is this mystery concerning me? I partook of the image, and I did not guard it; He partakes of my flesh, both to save the image, and to make the flesh immortal. He enters into a second communion, much more paradoxical than the first; inasmuch as then He imparted of the better, but now He partakes of the worse. This is more godlike than the former; this is loftier to those who have understanding. 36.328 14. To these things what do the slanderers say to us, the bitter reasoners against the divinity, the accusers of what is praised, those who are dark concerning the light, the uninstructed concerning wisdom, for whom Christ died for nothing, the ungrateful creatures, the fabrications of the Evil One? Do you charge God with this, His good deed? Is He for this reason small, because for your sake He is humble? Because the good shepherd, who lays down His life for the sheep, came for the one that had strayed, upon the mountains and the hills where you were sacrificing, and found it wandering; and having found it, took it upon His shoulders, upon which also was the wood; and having taken it, He brought it back to the life above; and having brought it back, He numbered it with those that remained? Because He lit a lamp, His own flesh, and swept the house, cleansing the world of sin, and sought the drachma, the royal image buried in passions, and calls together His friendly powers at the finding of the drachma, and makes them partakers of the joy, whom He had also made initiates of His economy? Because the most brilliant light follows the forerunner lamp, and the Word follows the voice, and the bridegroom follows the friend of the bridegroom, preparing for the Lord a chosen people, and pre-cleansing them for the Spirit through water? Do you charge God with these things? For these reasons do you suppose Him inferior, because He girds Himself with a towel, and washes the feet of the disciples, and shows the best way of exaltation, humility? Because for the soul that was bent to the ground He is humbled, that He might also raise up with Himself that which was stooping downward under sin? But why do you not accuse Him of this, that He both eats with tax collectors, and at the homes of tax collectors, and makes tax collectors His disciples, that He Himself might also gain something? What is this? The salvation of sinners; unless one might also blame a physician, because he bends over sufferings, and endures foul smells, that he might give health to the sick; and him who leans over a pit out of philanthropy, that he might rescue the beast that has fallen in, according to the law. 15. He was sent, on the one hand, but as a man; for He was twofold; since He also grew weary, and was hungry, and was thirsty, and was in agony, and wept according to the law of the body; but if also as God, what of this? Consider the good pleasure of the Father to be a mission, to whom He refers His own works, both as honoring an eternal origin, and so as not to seem to be an opposing God. Since He is also said to have been delivered up, but it is also written that He delivered Himself up; and to have been raised

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κτίσματα. Ταῦτα ἐπειδὴ μείζονος ἐδεῖτο τοῦ βοηθήματος, μείζονος καὶ τυγ χάνει. Τὸ δὲ ἦν αὐτὸς ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος, ὁ προαιώνιος, ὁ ἀόρατος, ὁ ἀπερίληπτος, ὁ ἀσώματος, ἡ ἐκ τῆς ἀρχῆς ἀρχὴ, τὸ ἐκ τοῦ φωτὸς φῶς, ἡ πηγὴ τῆς ζωῆς καὶ τῆς ἀθανασίας, τὸ ἐκμαγεῖον τοῦ ἀρ χετύπου κάλλους, ἡ μὴ κινουμένη σφραγὶς, ἡ ἀπαράλλακτος εἰκὼν, ὁ τοῦ Πατρὸς ὅρος καὶ λόγος· ἐπὶ τὴν ἰδίαν εἰκόνα χωρεῖ, καὶ σάρκα φορεῖ διὰ τὴν σάρκα, καὶ ψυχῇ νοερᾷ διὰ τὴν ἐμὴν ψυχὴν μίγνυται, τῷ ὁμοίῳ τὸ ὅμοιον ἀνακαθαίρων. Καὶ πάντα γίγνεται, πλὴν τῆς ἁμαρτίας, ἄνθρω πος· κυηθεὶς μὲν ἐκ τῆς Παρθένου, καὶ ψυχὴν καὶ σάρκα προκαθαρθείσης τῷ Πνεύματι (ἔδει γὰρ καὶ γέννησιν τιμηθῆναι, καὶ παρθενίαν προτιμηθῆναι)· προελθὼν δὲ Θεὸς μετὰ τῆς προσλήψεως, ἓν ἐκ δύο τῶν ἐναντίων, σαρκὸς καὶ Πνεύματος· ὧν, τὸ μὲν ἐθέωσε, τὸ δὲ ἐθεώθη. Ὢ τῆς καινῆς μίξεως! ὢ τῆς παραδόξου κράσεως! ὁ ὢν γίνεται, καὶ ὁ ἄκτιστος κτίζεται, καὶ ὁ ἀχώρητος χωρεῖται, διὰ μέσης ψυχῆς νοερᾶς μεσιτευούσης θεότητι, καὶ σαρκὸς παχύτητι. Καὶ ὁ πλουτίζων, πτωχεύει· πτωχεύει γὰρ τὴν ἐμὴν σάρκα, ἵν' ἐγὼ πλουτήσω τὴν αὐτοῦ θεότητα. Καὶ ὁ πλήρης, κενοῦται· κενοῦται γὰρ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ δόξης ἐπὶ μικρὸν, ἵν' ἐγὼ τῆς ἐκείνου μεταλάβω πληρώσεως. Τίς ὁ πλοῦτος τῆς ἀγαθότητος; Τί τὸ περὶ ἐμὲ τοῦτο μυστήριον; Μετέλαβον τῆς εἰκόνος, καὶ οὐκ ἐφύλαξα· μεταλαμ βάνει τῆς ἐμῆς σαρκὸς, ἵνα καὶ τὴν εἰκόνα σώσῃ, καὶ τὴν σάρκα ἀθανατίσῃ. ∆ευτέραν κοινωνεῖ κοινωνίαν, πολὺ τῆς προτέρας παραδοξοτέραν· ὅσῳ τότε μὲν τοῦ κρείττονος μετέδωκε, νῦν δὲ μεταλαμ βάνει τοῦ χείρονος. Τοῦτο τοῦ προτέρου θεοειδέστε ρον· τοῦτο τοῖς νοῦν ἔχουσιν ὑψηλότερον. 36.328 Ι∆ʹ. Πρὸς ταῦτα τί φασιν ἡμῖν οἱ συκοφάνται, οἱ πικροὶ τῆς θεότητος λογισταὶ, οἱ κατήγοροι τῶν ἐπαινουμένων, οἱ σκοτεινοὶ περὶ τὸ φῶς, οἱ περὶ τὴν σοφίαν ἀπαίδευτοι, ὑπὲρ ὧν Χριστὸς δωρεὰν ἀπέ θανε, τὰ ἀχάριστα κτίσματα, τὰ τοῦ Πονηροῦ πλάσματα; Τοῦτο ἐγκαλεῖς Θεῷ, τὴν εὐεργεσίαν; ∆ιὰ τοῦτο μικρὸς, ὅτι διὰ σὲ ταπεινός; Ὅτι ἐπὶ τὸ πλα νώμενον ἦλθεν ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλὸς, ὁ τιθεὶς τὴν ψυχὴν ὑπὲρ τῶν προβάτων, ἐπὶ τὰ ὄρη καὶ τοὺς βουνοὺς, ἐφ' ὧν ἐθυσίαζες, καὶ πλανώμενον εὗρε· καὶ εὑρὼν, ἐπὶ τῶν ὤμων ἀνέλαβεν, ἐφ' ὧν καὶ τὸ ξύλον· καὶ λαβὼν, ἐπανήγαγεν ἐπὶ τὴν ἄνω ζωήν· καὶ ἀναγαγὼν, τοῖς μένουσι συνηρίθμησεν; Ὅτι λύχνον ἧψε τὴν ἑαυτοῦ σάρκα, καὶ τὴν οἰκίαν ἐσάρωσε, τῆς ἁμαρτίας τὸν κόσμον ἀποκαθαίρων, καὶ τὴν δραχμὴν ἐζήτησε, τὴν βασιλικὴν εἰκόνα συγκεχωσμένην τοῖς πάθεσι, καὶ συγκαλεῖ τὰς φίλας αὐτῷ δυνάμεις ἐπὶ τῇ τῆς δραχμῆς εὑρέσει, καὶ κοινωνοὺς ποιεῖται τῆς εὐφροσύνης, ἂς καὶ τῆς οἰκονομίας μύστιδας πεποίητο; Ὅτι τῷ προδρόμῳ λύχνῳ τὸ φῶς ἀκο λουθεῖ τὸ ὑπέρλαμπρον, καὶ τῇ φωνῇ ὁ Λόγος, καὶ τῷ νυμφαγωγῷ ὁ νυμφίος, κατασκευάζοντι Κυρίῳ λαὸν περιούσιον, καὶ προκαθαίροντι ἐπὶ τὸ Πνεῦμα διὰ τοῦ ὕδατος; Ταῦτα ἐγκαλεῖς τῷ Θεῷ; ∆ιὰ ταῦτα ὑπολαμβάνεις χείρονα, ὅτι λεντίῳ διαζών νυται, καὶ νίπτει τοὺς πόδας τῶν μαθητῶν, καὶ δείκνυσιν ἀρίστην ὁδὸν ὑψώσεως, τὴν ταπείνωσιν; Ὅτι διὰ τὴν συγκύπτουσαν χαμαὶ ψυχὴν τα πεινοῦται, ἵνα καὶ συνανυψώσῃ τὸ κάτω νεῦον ὑπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας; Ἐκεῖνο δὲ πῶς οὐ κατηγορεῖς, ὅτι καὶ μετὰ τελώνων ἐσθίει, καὶ παρὰ τελώναις, καὶ μαθητεύει τελώνας, ἵνα καὶ αὐτός τι κερδάνῃ; Τί τοῦτο; Τὴν τῶν ἁμαρτωλῶν σωτηρίαν· εἰ μὴ καὶ τὸν ἰατρὸν αἰτιῷτό τις, ὅτι συγκύπτει ἐπὶ τὰ πάθη, καὶ δυσωδίας ἀνέχεται, ἵνα δῷ τὴν ὑγίειαν τοῖς κάμνουσι· καὶ τὸν ἐπικλινόμενον βόθρῳ διὰ φιλανθρωπίαν, ἵνα τὸ ἐμπεπτωκὸς κτῆνος, κατὰ τὸν νόμον, ἀνασώσηται. ΙΕʹ. Ἀπεστάλη μὲν, ἀλλ' ὡς ἄνθρωπος· διπλοῦς γὰρ ἦν· ἐπεὶ καὶ ἐκοπίασε, καὶ ἐπείνησε, καὶ ἐδί ψησε, καὶ ἠγωνίασε, καὶ ἐδάκρυσε νόμῳ σώμα τος· εἰ δὲ καὶ ὡς Θεὸς, τί τοῦτο; Τὴν εὐδοκίαν τοῦ Πατρὸς, ἀποστολὴν εἶναι νόμισον, ἐφ' ὃν ἀνα φέρει τὰ ἑαυτοῦ, καὶ ὡς ἀρχὴν τιμῶν ἄχρονον, καὶ τοῦ μὴ δοκεῖν εἶναι ἀντίθεος. Ἐπεὶ καὶ παρα δεδόσθαι λέγεται, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἑαυτὸν παραδεδωκέναι γέγραπται· καὶ ἐγηγέρθαι