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not as with something, where the denial of the extremes constitutes an affirmation of some middle. For there is no middle in Christ that is affirmed by the denial of the extremes. "New," indeed, as characteristic of a common mystery, of which the ineffable (14∆_048> mode 1057 of the connatural union is the account. For who has known how God is enfleshed, and remains God? how, remaining true God, is he true man? showing himself to be truly both by natural existence, and the one through the other, and being changed in neither. Faith alone comprehends these things, honoring in silence the Word, to whose nature no logos of existing things is connatural. And "theandric," not as simple, nor as some composite thing, and existing either of bare divinity alone according to nature, or of mere humanity alone, or pertaining to a composite nature in the middle ground between certain extremes, but most fitting to God who became man, that is, who became perfectly incarnate. Nor again one, as if "the new" could not be understood otherwise, as it seemed to some, than as "being one"; for "newness" is of quality, not of quantity; since it would also of necessity introduce along with itself such a nature; if indeed the definition of every nature is established as the principle of its essential energy, which one who prides himself on myths of goat-stags would never call double.

And how, even if this is granted, will he who is by nature such, having one energy, and this a natural one, accomplish with the same [energy] the miracles and the passions, which differ from each other by the principle of nature, without a privation supervening upon the cessation of the state? For none of existing things is by nature able to do contrary things with one and the same energy, being contained by the definition and principle of nature. Therefore it is not lawful to speak simply of one or a natural energy of the divinity and flesh in Christ, if divinity and flesh are not the same in natural quality, and also in nature, and the Trinity will become a Tetrad. For neither according to nature, nor according to power, nor according to energy, has he become the same, he says, as the flesh. For in no way in which the Son is by nature the same as the Father and the Spirit on account of the one substance, has he become the same as the flesh on account of the union, even if he has made it life-giving by union with himself, (14∆_050> though it has what is by nature mortal. Since he will also be shown to be of a mutable nature, having altered the substance of the flesh into that which it was not, and having made the union the same as nature.

For let us understand the theandric energy, as it was rendered; by which, conducting his life for us, not for himself, he made nature new by the things beyond nature. For a "politeia" is a life conducted according to the law of nature. And the Lord, being double in nature, was seen to have a fitting life, composed unconfusedly at the same time according to both divine and human law; itself also new, not as only strange to those on earth and paradoxical, and thus distinguished from the nature of existing things, but also as a characteristic of the new energy of him who lived in a new way. Which he who devised a fitting name for this mystery perhaps called 'theandric,' in order to show the mode of the communication of properties according to the ineffable union, how the things naturally belonging to each part of Christ were made the other's by interchange, without the change and confusion of each part into the other according to the natural 1060 principle.

For just as of the red-hot sword the cutting has become burning, and the burning cutting (for the fire was united, as it were, to the iron), so also to the cutting of the iron [is added] the burning of the fire, and the iron has indeed become burning by union with the fire, and the fire cutting by union with the iron; but neither has been affected in any way towards the other by the communication through union, but each, even in the property of the composite through union, has remained without falling away from its own natural property; so also in the mystery of the divine incarnation divinity and humanity were united according to hypostasis, with neither departing from its natural energy because of the union, nor yet possessing it unrelatedly after the union, and as something distinguished from that which is composite and co-subsistent. For with the whole active power of his own divinity

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οὐχ ὥς τινι, ἀποφάσει τῶν ἄκρων τινός μέσου ποιουμένου κατάφασιν. Οὐκ ἔστι γάρ τι μέσον ἐπί Χριστοῦ, τῇ τῶν ἄκρων ἀποφάσει καταφασκόμενον. " Καινήν μέν», ὡς κοινοῦ μυστηρίου χαρακτηριστικήν, οὗ λόγος ἐστίν ὁ ἀπόῤῥητος (14∆_048> τρόπος 1057 τῆς συμφυΐας. Τίς γάρ ἔγνω πῶς σαρκοῦται Θεός, καί μένει Θεός; πῶς μένων Θεός ἀληθής, ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν ἀληθής; ἄμφω δεικνύς ἑαυτόν ἀληθῶς ὑπάρξει φυσικῇ, καί δι' ἐκατέρου θάτερον, καί μηδετέρῳ τρεπόμενος. Ταῦτα μόνη πίστις χωρεῖ, σιγῇ τιμῶσα τόν Λόγον, οὗτινος τῇ φύσει τῶν ὄντων ἐμπέφυκε λόγος οὐδείς. "Θεανδρικήν" δέ, οὐχ ὡς ἁπλῆν, οὐδέ πρᾶγμά τι σύνθετον, καί ἤ μόνης γυμνῆς κατά φύσιν θεότητος, ἤ μόνης ψιλῆς ὑπάρχουσαν ἀνθρωπότητος, ἤ συνθέτῳ φύσει τινῶν ἄκρων μεταιχμίῳ προσήκουσαν, ἀλλ᾿ ἀνδρωθέντι Θεῷ, τουτέστι τελείως ἐνανθρωπήσαντι, προσφυεστάτην. Οὐδ᾿ αὖ πάλιν μίαν, ὡς οὐκ ἄν ἄλλως νοηθῆναι "τῆς καινῆς" καθά τισιν ἔδοξεν, ἤ "μιᾶς δυναμένης»· ποιότητος γάρ, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ ποσότητος ἡ "καινότης»· ἐπεί καί φύσιν ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἑαυτῇ συνεισάξει τοιαύτην· εἴπερ πάσης φύσεως ὅρος ὁ τῆς οὐσιώδους αὐτῆς ἐνεργείας καθέστηκε λόγος, ἥν οὐ διπλῆν εἴποι ποτ᾿ ἄν τραγελάφων μύθοις φιλοτιμούμενος.

Πῶς δέ καί τούτου δοθέντος ὁ τοῦτο πεφυκώς μίαν ἔχων ἐνέργειαν, καί ταύτην φυσικήν, ἐπιτελέσει τῇ αὐτῇ τά θαύματα καί τά πάθη, λόγῳ φύσεως ἀλλήλων διαφέροντα, δίχα στερήσεως ἐπισυμβαινούσης τῇ ἀπογενέσει τῆς ἕξεως; Οὐδέν γάρ τῶν ὄντων μιᾷ καί τῇ αὐτῇ ἐνεργείᾳ τἀναντία πέφυκε δρᾷν, ὅρῳ τε καί λόγῳ συνεχόμενον φύσεως. ∆ιό μίαν ἁπλῶς ἤ φυσικήν ἐπί Χριστοῦ θεότητος καί σαρκός ἐνέργειαν λέγειν οὐ θέμις, εἴπερ μή ταυτόν ποιότητι φυσικῇ θεότης καί σάρξ, ἐπί καί φύσιν, καί γενήσεται τετράς ἡ τριάς. Οὔτε γάρ κατά φύσιν, οὔτε κατά δύναμιν, οὔτε κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν, γέγονε ταυτόν, φησί, τῇ σαρκί. Οὐδενί γάρ ᾦ πέφυκεν εἶναι διά τήν μίαν οὐσίαν Πατρί καί Πνεύματι ταυτόν ὁ Υἱός, γέγονε ταυτόν τῇ σαρκί διά τήν ἕνωσιν, κἄν πεποίηκεν αὐτήν ζωοποιόν ἑνώσει τῇ πρός αὐτόν, (14∆_050> ἔχουσαν τό φύσει θνητόν. Ἐπεί καί τρεπτῆς ὑπάρχων δειχθήσεται φύσεως, καί τήν οὐσίαν τῆς σαρκός εἰς ὅπερ οὐκ ἦν ἀλλοιώσας, καί ταυτόν πεποιηκώς τῇ φύσει τήν ἕνωσιν.

Τήν γάρ θεανδρικήν ἐνέργειαν, ὡς ἀπεδόθη νοήσωμεν· ἥν ἡμῖν οὐχ ἑαυτῷ πολιτευσάμενος τήν φύσιν τοῖς ὑπέρ φύσιν ἐκαίνισε. Πολιτεία γάρ ἐστι βίος κατά νόμον φύσεως διεξαγόμενος. ∆ιπλοῦς δέ ὤν τήν φύσιν ὁ Κύριος, εἰκότως βίον ἔχων ἐφάνη κατάλληλον, νόμῳ τε θείῳ καί ἀνθρωπίνῳ, κατά ταυτόν ἀσυγχύτως συγκεκροτημένον· καινόν καί αὐτόν, οὐχ ὡς μόνον ξένον τοῖς ἐπί γῆς καί παράδοξον, καί οὕτω τῇ φύσει τῶν ὄντων διεγνωσμένον, ἀλλά καί χαρακτῆρα καινῆς τοῦ καινῶς βιώσαντος ἐνεργείας. Ἥν θεανδρικήν τυχόν προσηγόρευσεν ὁ τῷ μυστηρίῳ τούτῳ κλῆσιν ἐπινοήσας ἁρμόδιον, ἵνα δείξῃ τόν κατά τήν ἀπόῤῥητον ἕνωσιν τῆς ἀντιδόσεως τρόπον, κατ᾿ ἐπαλλαγήν τά φυσικῶς ἑκατέρῳ μέρει τοῦ Χριστοῦ προσόντα θατέρῳ πεποιημένον, χωρίς τῆς ἑκατέρου μέρους πρός θάτερον κατά τόν φύσει 1060 λόγον μεταβολῆς καί συμφύρσεως.

Ὥσπερ γάρ τοῦ πυρακτωθέντος ξίφους τό τμητικόν γέγονε καυστικόν, καί τό καυστικόν τμητικόν (ἡνώθη γάρ ὥσπερ σιδήρῳ τό πῦρ), οὕτω καί τῷ τοῦ σιδήρου τμητικῷ τό τοῦ πυρός καυστικόν, καί γέγονε μέν καυστικός ὁ σίδηρος ἑνώσει τῇ πρός τό πῦρ, καί τμητικόν τό πῦρ ἑνώσει τῇ πρός τόν σίδηρον· οὐδέτερον δέ τρόπον τῇ καθ᾿ ἕνωσιν ἀντιδόσει πρός θάτερον πέπονθεν, ἀλλ᾿ ἑκάτερον κἀν τῇ τοῦ συγκειμένου καθ᾿ ἕνωσιν ἰδιότητι μεμένηκε τῆς κατά φύσιν οἰκείας ἀνέκπτωτον· οὕτω κἀν τῷ μυστηρίῳ τῆς θείας σαρκώσεως θεότης καί ἀνθρωπότης ἡνώθη καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν, μηδετέρας τῆς φυσικῆς ἐκστάσης ἐνεργείας διά τήν ἕνωσιν, μήτε μήν ἄσχετον αὐτήν κεκτημένης μετά τήν ἕνωσιν, καί τῆς συγκειμένης καί συνυφεστώσης διακεκριμμένην. Ὅλῃ γάρ τῇ δραστικῇ δυνάμει τῆς οἰκείας θεότητος