7

Of God truly made substantial among us we say the name 'man'. For He is not man only, because He is also God, the same one, since He is neither a mere man nor a bare God, "but truly a man who is preeminently a lover of mankind." For with an infinite longing for human beings, He became that which is truly by nature the object of longing, neither suffering anything in His own substance from the ineffable emptying, nor changing or diminishing at all anything of the human nature through the ineffable assumption, of which the principle is properly its constitution.

"Beyond men," because divinely without a man; "and according to men," humanly because by the law of gestation. "From the substance of men, the super-essential was made substantial;" for He did not present to us in Himself merely a phantom formation in the appearance of flesh, according to the trifles of the Manicheans, nor did He bring down with Himself from heaven flesh consubstantial with Himself, according to the myths of Apollinaris, but He Himself in His whole essence truly became man, clearly by the assumption of flesh intelligently ensouled, united to Him hypostatically.

"And He who is ever super-essential is no less super-full of super-essentiality." For He was not subjected to nature by becoming man, but on the contrary He rather 1049 raised nature up with Himself, making it another mystery, while He Himself remained altogether incomprehensible, and showed His own incarnation, which had a super-essential generation, to be more incomprehensible than any mystery, having become comprehensible through it only insomuch as He was known through it to be more incomprehensible. "For He is hidden even after the manifestation," says the teacher, "or, to speak more divinely, even in the manifestation. For this of Jesus is also hidden, and by no word or mind has the mystery concerning Him been brought forth, but even when spoken of it remains ineffable, and when conceived of, unknowable." What could be more demonstrative of the divine super-essentiality than this, showing the hidden by the manifestation, and the unspeakable by word, and the unknowingness by preeminence by the mind, and, to say what is greater, the super-essential by the substantialization? "Indeed, by the abundance of this, even coming truly into substance, He was made substantial beyond substance;" that is, having innovated the laws of natural generation, and without the seed from a man in appearance, truly becoming man. And a Virgin shows Him, supernaturally conceiving the super-essential Word without a man, humanly from her own virginal blood, being formed by a rule strange and beyond nature.

"And He worked the things of man in a way beyond man;" impassibly innovating the nature of the elements with His steps. And unstable water clearly shows it, bearing the weight of material and earthly feet and not yielding, but being held together with supernatural power so as not to be poured out; if indeed with unwet feet, having a bodily bulk and the weight of matter, He traversed the moist and unstable substance in transit, walking upon the sea as upon the ground, and by the power of His own divinity inseparably through the transit co-manifesting the natural energy of His own flesh; if indeed the transitive motion is by nature of this flesh, but not of the hypostatically united, super-infinite and super-essential divinity. For once the super-essential Word was humanly made substantial with the human substance, He had undiminished, as His own, also the motion of the substance which generally characterizes Him as man, being specified in all things in which He acted naturally as man; if indeed He truly became man, breathing, speaking, walking, moving His hands, using the senses appropriately for the perception of sensible things, hungering, thirsting, eating, sleeping, wearying, weeping, agonizing, although being self-subsistent power, and all the other things by which, self-actingly, in the manner of a soul naturally moving the connatural body, moving the assumed nature as His own and having truly become and being called, or

7

Θεοῦ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ἀληθῶς οὐσιωθέντος τό ἄνθρωπος ὄνομα λέγομεν. Οὐδέ γάρ ἄνθρωπος μόνον, ὅτι καί Θεός ὁ αὐτός, εἴπερ μή ψιλός ἄνθρωπος μήτε γυμνός ὑπάρχει Θεός, "ἀλλ᾿ ἄνθρωπος ἀληθῶς ὁ διαφερόντως φιλάνθρωπος». Ἀπείρῳ γάρ πόθῳ τῷ πρός ἀνθρώπους ὅπερ ἐστίν ἀληθῶς αὐτό φύσει τό ποθούμενον γέγονε, μήτε τι πεπονθώς εἰς τήν ἰδίαν οὐσίαν πρός τῆς ἀφθέγκτου κενώσεως, μήτε τι τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης διά τήν ἀπόρρητον πρόσληψιν ἀμείψας, ἤ μειώσας τό σύνολον φύσεως, ὧν ὁ λόγος κυρίως αὐτῆς καθέστηκε σύστασις.

" Ὑπέρ ἀνθρώπους», ὅτι θεϊκῶς ἀνδρός χωρίς "καί κατά ἀνθρώπους», ἀνθρωπικῶς ὅτι νόμῳ κυήσεως. " Ἐκ τῆς ἀνθρώπων οὐσίας ὁ ὑπερούσιος οὐσιωμένος· " οὐ γάρ ψιλήν μόνην ἐφάντασεν ἡμῖν ἐν ἑαυτῷ τήν ἐν εἴδει σαρκός διαμόρφωσιν, κατά τούς τῶν Μανιχαίων λήρους, ἤ σάρκα συνουσιωμένην (14∆_036> οὐρανόθεν ἑαυτῷ συγκατήγαγε, κατά τούς Ἀπολιναρίου μύθους, ἀλλ᾿ αὐτό κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ὅλην ἀληθῶς ἄνθρωπος γεγονώς, προσλήψει δηλονότι σαρκός νοερῶς ἐψυχωμένης, ἑνωθείσης αὐτῷ καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν.

" Ἔστι δέ οὐδέν ἦττον ὑπερουσιότητος ὑπερπλήρης ὁ ἀεί ὑπερούσιος». Οὐ γάρ ὑπεζεύχθη τῇ φύσει γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος, τοὐναντίον δέ μᾶλλον 1049 συνεπῆρεν ἑαυτῷ τήν φύσιν, ἕτερον αὐτήν ποιήσας μυστήριον, αὐτός δέ μείνας παντάπασιν ἄληπτος, καί τήν οἰκείαν σάρκωσιν λαχοῦσαν γένεσιν ὑπερούσιον μυστηρίου παντός δείξας ἀληπτοτέραν, τοσοῦτον καταληπτός δι᾿ αὐτήν γεγονώς ὅσον πλέον ἐγνώσθη δι' αὐτῆς ἀληπτότερος. " Κρύφιος γάρ ἐστι καί μετά τήν ἔκφανσιν», φησίν ὁ διδάσκαλος, " ἤ, ἵνα τό θειότερον εἴπω, καί ἐν τῇ ἐκφάνσει. Καί τοῦτο γάρ Ἰησοῦ κέκρυπται, καί οὐδενί λόγῳ, οὐδέ νῷ τό κατ᾿ αὐτόν ἐξῆκται μυστήριον, ἀλλά καί λεγόμενον ἄῤῥητον μένει, καί νοούμενον, ἄγνωστον». Τί τούτου πρός ἀπόδειξιν θείας ὑπερουσιότητος γένοιτ᾿ ἄν ἀποδεικτικώτερον, ἐκφάνσει τό κρύφιον καί λόγῳ τήν ἀφασίαν καί νῷ δηλούσης τήν καθ᾿ ὑπεροχήν ἀγνωσίαν, καί τό δή μεῖζον εῖπεῖν, οὐσιώσει τό ὑπερούσιον; "Ἀμέλει τῇ ταύτης περιουσίᾳ καί εἰς οὐσίαν ἀληθῶς ἐλθών ὑπέρ οὐσίαν οὐσιώθη»· τούς νόμους δηλαδή καινοτομήσας τῆς κατά φύσιν γενέσεως, καί δίχα τῆς ἐξ ἀνδρός ἐν εἴδει σπορᾶς ἀληθῶς γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος. Καί δηλοῖ Παρθένος αὐτόν ὑπερφυῶς κύουσα τόν ὑπερούσιον Λόγον χωρίς ἀνδρός ἐκ τῶν αὐτῆς παρθενικῶν αἱμάτων ἀνθρωπικῶς, ξένῳ παρά τήν φύσιν θεσμῷ, διαπλαττόμενον.

" Καί ὑπέρ ἄνθρωπον ἐνήργει τά ἀνθρώπου»· τήν τῶν στοιχείων ἀπαθῶς καινοτομήσας φύσιν ταῖς βάσεσι. Καί δηλοῖ σαφῶς ὕδωρ ἄστατον, ὑλικῶν καί γεηρῶν ποδῶν ἀνέχον βάρος καί μή ὑπεῖκον, ἀλλ᾿ ὑπερφυεῖ δυνάμει πρός τό ἀδιάχυτον (14∆_038> συνιστάμενον· εἴπερ ἀληθῶς ἀβρόχοις ποσί, σωματικόν ὄγκον ἔχουσι, καί ὕλης βάρος, τήν ὑγράν καί ἄστατον οὐσίαν μεταβατικῶς ἐπεπόρευτο, περιπατῶν ἐπί θαλάσσης ὡς ἐπ᾿ ἐδάφους, καί τῇ δυνάμει τῆς ἑαυτοῦ θεότητος ἀχωρίστως διά τῆς μεταβάσεως συνεκφαίνων τῆς οἰκείας σαρκός τήν κατά φύσιν ἐνέργειαν· εἴπερ φύσει ταύτης ἡ μεταβατική καθέστηκε κίνησις, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τῆς ἡνωμένης αὐτῇ καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ὑπεραπείρου καί ὑπερουσίου θεότητος. Ἅπαξ γάρ ἀνθρωπικῶς οὐσιωθείς ὁ ὑπερούσιος Λόγος μετά τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης οὐσίας ἀμείωτον εἶχεν, ὡς ἰδίαν αὐτοῦ, καί τήν γενικῶς αὐτόν ὡς ἄνθρωπον χαρακτηρίζουσαν τῆς οὐσίας κίνησιν πᾶσιν οἷς ὡς ἄνθρωπος ἐνήργει φυσικῶς εἰδοποιουμένην· εἴπερ ἀληθῶς γέγονεν ἄνθρωπος, ἀναπνέων, λαλῶν, βαδίζων, χεῖρας κινῶν, προσφυῶς ταῖς αἰσθήσεσι χρώμενος εἰς ἀντίληψιν τῶν αἰσθητῶν, πεινῶν, διψῶν, ἐσθίων, ὑπνῶν, κοπιῶν, δακρύων, ἀγωνιῶν, καίτοι δύναμις ὤν αὐθυπόστατος, καί τά λοιπά πάντα οἷς αὐτουργικῶς ψυχῆς δίκην φυσικῶς τό συμφυές σῶμα κινούσης, τήν προσληφθεῖσαν φύσιν κινῶν ὡς αὐτοῦ καί γενομένην ἀληθῶς καί λεγομένην, ἤ