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You say Christ, why in vain do you say he is of one nature after the union? But if while asserting he is of two natures before the union, you confess one after the union, you openly fight against the truth; for before the union, that is, of the divine incarnation, being one hypostasis of one simple nature, that is, the divine, he was not even Christ. Either therefore you will completely abolish the two natures in Christ or you will say Christ was of two natures before the incarnation from the virgin, since you cannot bear to grant him his two natures which are properly his after the union. For we, standing in the harbor of piety and driving away every storm of heretical evil-mindedness with the breezes of the Spirit, concerning the holy and all-hymned Trinity, we venerate one ousia, one nature of divinity, and three perfect hypostases, confessing that they possess no essential difference with respect to one another, and all the divine names in common and as one and identically and simply and indivisibly and wholly we take to apply to the whole Godhead, that is, of the three hypostases the ousia or rather nature, the lordship and the holiness, the kingdom, the power, the energy, the will, the authority, but distinctly we know Father, Son, and Spirit, I mean the unbegotten and the begotten and the proceeding, knowing the Father alone as unbegotten, the Son alone as begotten, the Holy Spirit alone as proceeding, without the property of each changing or being moved, knowing these not as accidents—for nothing accidental happens to God—but as properties characteristic of each hypostasis—perfect God the Father, perfect God the Son, perfect God the Holy Spirit, God and God and God, but the three are one God when conceived and known with one another, not being blended into one person and one hypostasis—perish the thought—but with the Son and Spirit being referred to one cause, the Father. For God is one, because the Godhead is one, and not three gods as there are three men; for they are not cut by ousia, not separated by power, not by place, not by energy, not divided by will, having an unceasing indwelling and coinherence in one another. For where will they be if not abiding in one another? For thus each would be circumscribed. One God, therefore, from three perfect hypostases, so that the nature might not be thought composite from imperfect parts, but one from three perfect ones, simple and uncompounded, super-perfect and pre-perfect. 79 But concerning the saving economy which surpasses all comprehension, we confess that the one of the Holy Trinity, the only-begotten Son and Word of God, by the good pleasure of the Father, was made flesh from the Holy Spirit and Mary the holy ever-virgin and Theotokos. And we venerate his two births, one pre-eternal and everlasting without cause from the Father without a mother, and one from a virgin mother without a father for our salvation, saying neither that the Father was incarnate and born nor the Holy Spirit; for the property of sonship is unmoved. Therefore, being Son, he became Son again; for being Son of God and the Father he became Son of man, one composite hypostasis from two natures. For being a hypostasis in a nature, he assumed an enhypostatic nature, the first-fruits of our compound. And we say enhypostatic, not as having existed by itself nor as having had its own hypostasis, but as having existed in the hypostasis of the Word. For at the same time flesh, at the same time flesh of God the Word; at the same time flesh ensouled with reason, at the same time flesh of God the Word ensouled with reason, the difference of the natures not being abolished in any way through the union; for there remained those things from which the one Christ and Lord is, without change and without alteration, but they having run together into one composite hypostasis without confusion and without division; for we profess the union according to hypostasis. But the union according to hypostasis both preserves the difference of the substances that have come together and knows how to keep the of the person

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Χριστόν φατε, τί μάτην μιᾶς αὐτὸν φύσεως μετὰ τὴν ἕνωσιν λέγετε; Εἰ δὲ πρὸ τῆς ἑνώσεως δύο φύσεων αὐτὸν φάσκοντες, μιᾶς ὁμολογεῖτε μετὰ τὴν ἕνωσιν, ἄντικρυς πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἀπομάχεσθε· πρὸ γὰρ τῆς ἑνώσεως ἤτοι τῆς θείας σαρκώσεως μιᾶς φύσεως ἁπλῆς ἤτοι τῆς θείας μία τελῶν ὑπόστασις οὐδὲ Χριστὸς ἦν. Ἢ τοίνυν παντελῶς τὰς δύο φύσεις ἐπὶ Χριστοῦ ἀναιρήσετε ἢ διφυᾶ πρὸ τῆς ἐκ παρθένου τὸν Χριστὸν σαρκώσεως λέξετε, μὴ διδόναι αὐτῷ τὰς κυρίως οὔσας αὐτοῦ δύο φύσεις μετὰ τὴν ἕνωσιν ἀνεχόμενοι. Ἡμεῖς γὰρ ἐν τῷ λιμένι τῆς εὐσεβείας ἱστάμενοι καὶ πᾶσαν αἱρετικῆς κακονοίας ἀποκρουόμενοι καταιγίδα ταῖς αὔραις τοῦ πνεύματος ἐπὶ μὲν τῆς ἁγίας καὶ ὑπερυμνήτου τριάδος μίαν οὐσίαν, μίαν φύσιν θεότητος, τρεῖς δὲ τελείας τὰς ὑποστάσεις σέβομεν μηδεμίαν αὐτὰς πρὸς ἀλλήλας οὐσιώδη κεκτῆσθαι διαφορὰν ὁμολογοῦντες, πάσας δὲ κοινῶς καὶ ἑνιαίως καὶ ταυτῶς καὶ ἁπλῶς καὶ ἀμερῶς καὶ ὁλικῶς τὰς θεωνυμίας ἐπὶ πάσης τῆς θεότητος ἐκλαμβάνομεν ἤτοι τῶν τριῶν ὑποστάσεων τὴν οὐσίαν εἴτ' οὖν φύσιν, τὴν κυριότητα καὶ τὴν ἁγιότητα, τὴν βασιλείαν, τὴν δύναμιν, τὴν ἐνέργειαν, τὴν θέλησιν, τὴν ἐξουσίαν, διακεκριμένως δὲ τὸ πατήρ, τὸ υἱὸς καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα γινώσκομεν, τὸ ἀγέννητόν φημι καὶ τὸ γεννητὸν καὶ τὸ ἐκπορευτόν, μόνον ἀγέννητον τὸν πατέρα εἰδότες, μόνον γεννητὸν τὸν υἱόν, μόνον ἐκπορευτὸν τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, μὴ μεταπιπτούσης ἢ κινουμένης τῆς ἑκάστου ἰδιότητος, οὐ συμβεβηκότα ταῦτα γινώσκοντες- οὐδὲν γὰρ ἐπισυμβαίνει θεῷ, ἀλλὰ χαρακτηριστικὰ τῆς ἑκάστου ὑποστάσεως ἰδιώματα-, θεὸν τέλειον τὸν πατέρα, θεὸν τέλειον τὸν υἱόν, θεὸν τέλειον τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, θεὸν καὶ θεὸν καὶ θεόν, ἀλλ' ἕνα τὰ τρία θεὸν σὺν ἀλλήλοις νοούμενά τε καὶ γινωσκόμενα, οὐ συναλειφόμενα εἰς ἓν πρόσωπον καὶ μίαν ὑπόστασιν-ἄπαγε-, ἀλλ' εἰς ἓν αἴτιον τὸν πατέρα ἀναφερομένου υἱοῦ τε καὶ πνεύματος. Εἷς γὰρ θεός, ἐπειδὴ μία θεότης, οὐ τρεῖς δὲ θεοὶ ὥσπερ τρεῖς ἄνθρωποι· οὐδὲ γὰρ οὐσίᾳ τέμνονται, οὐ δυνάμει χωρίζονται, οὐ τόπῳ, οὐκ ἐνεργείᾳ, οὐ βουλήσει μερίζονται, ἀνεκφοίτητον ἔχοντες τὴν ἐν ἀλλήλοις ἵδρυσίν τε καὶ περιχώρησιν. Ποῦ γὰρ ἔσονται μὴ ἐν ἀλλήλοις μένοντα; Περιγραπτὸν γὰρ ἂν εἴη οὕτως ἑκάτερον. Εἷς οὖν θεὸς ἐκ τριῶν τελείων τῶν ὑποστάσεων, ἵνα μὴ σύνθετος ἐξ ἀτελῶν φύσις νομίζοιτο, μία δὲ ἐκ τριῶν τελείων ἁπλῆ καὶ ἀσύνθετος, ὑπερτελὴς καὶ προτέλειος. 79 Ἐπὶ δέ γε τῆς σωτηρίου οἰκονομίας καὶ πᾶσαν ὑπεραιρούσης κατάληψιν ὁμολογοῦμεν τὸν ἕνα τῆς ἁγίας τριάδος τὸν μονογενῆ υἱὸν καὶ λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ εὐδοκίᾳ τοῦ πατρὸς σεσαρκῶσθαι ἐκ πνεύματος ἁγίου καὶ Μαρίας τῆς ἁγίας ἀειπαρθένου καὶ θεοτόκου. Καὶ δύο αὐτοῦ τὰς γεννήσεις σέβομεν, μίαν τὴν προαιώνιον καὶ ἀίδιον ἀναιτίως ἐκ πατρὸς ἄνευ μητρὸς καὶ μίαν τὴν ἐκ παρθένου μητρὸς ἄνευ πατρὸς διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν σωτηρίαν, οὔτε τὸν πατέρα σεσαρκῶσθαι καὶ γεγεννῆσθαι λέγοντες οὔτε τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον· ἡ γὰρ ἰδιότης ἀκίνητος τῆς υἱότητος. Υἱὸς οὖν ὑπάρχων υἱὸς πάλιν γέγονεν· υἱὸς γὰρ ὢν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ πατρὸς υἱὸς ἀνθρώπου ἐγένετο ἐκ δύο φύσεων μία ὑπόστασις σύνθετος. Ὑπόστασις γὰρ ὑπάρχων ἐνούσιος φύσιν ἀνέλαβεν ἐνυπόστατον ἀπαρχὴν τοῦ ἡμετέρου φυράματος. Ἐνυπόστατον δέ φαμεν, οὐχ ὡς ἰδιοσυστάτως ὑπάρξασαν οὐδ' ὡς ἰδίαν ἐσχηκυῖαν ὑπόστασιν, ἀλλ' ἐν τῇ τοῦ λόγου ὑποστάσει ὑπάρξασαν. Ἅμα γὰρ σάρξ, ἅμα θεοῦ λόγου σάρξ· ἅμα σὰρξ ἔμψυχος λογική, ἅμα θεοῦ λόγου σὰρξ ἔμψυχος λογική, οὐδαμῶς τῆς τῶν φύσεων διαφορᾶς ἀνῃρημένης διὰ τὴν ἕνωσιν· μεμένηκε γὰρ τὰ ἐξ ὧν ὁ εἷς Χριστός τε καὶ κύριος ἄτρεπτα καὶ ἀμετάβλητα, ἀλλ' εἰς μίαν ὑπόστασιν σύνθετον συνδραμουσῶν ἀσυγχύτως καὶ ἀδιαιρέτως· καθ' ὑπόστασιν γὰρ τὴν ἕνωσιν δογματίζομεν. Ἡ δὲ καθ' ὑπόστασιν ἕνωσις καὶ τῶν συνελθουσῶν οὐσιῶν φυλάττει τὴν διαφορὰν καὶ τοῦ προσώπου τηρεῖν οἶδε τὴν