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of teachers, that the One of the holy and consubstantial Trinity, the only-begotten Son, being perfect God by nature, became a perfect man by will, having truly assumed flesh consubstantial with ours from the holy Mother of God and Ever-Virgin, endowed with a rational and intellectual soul, and having properly and inseparably united it to himself hypostatically, and he is one with it just as he was before; except not composite in his hypostasis, even if simple in his nature; inasmuch as he remained God and consubstantial with the Father; and again double, as he became flesh; so that by the duality of his nature, he might be cognate in essence to the extremes, and might preserve the natural difference of the proper parts to one another; and by the unity of his person, having perfect identity in the parts, and as one and alone, might possess the personal difference with respect to the extremes; and by the undiminished natural and essential identity with them (I mean, the extremes), he might be perfect in both respects; the same one being at once God and man. Those who impiously dogmatize a reduction of his natural attributes introduce him as imperfect, and as having suffered the loss of his natural properties. For if he does not preserve without deficiency the property of each nature, sin only excepted, 15Α_098 according to the divine Fathers, of which and in which the incarnate Logos properly is, also after the union, he is an imperfect God, if indeed as a man he possesses any diminution of his natural properties.

One must not therefore, on the pretext of a union that supposedly harms nothing but only binds things together into one hypostasis, corrupt their existence by the annulment of the natural will 0076 and the essential energy. For if, as if composing a whole from parts, we should happen to melt down and fuse the two essential wills and the equal number of natural energies by composition into one will and one energy, such a thing is mythical, and will be shown to be entirely foreign and alien to communion with the Father and with us, since He does not have by nature a composite will or energy, nor, again, do we. For there is no composition of things in a subject, because their existence is not contemplated at all in themselves and outside the underlying substance. For, in addition to being graceless and utterly contemptible, it would be divided and cut in half, up and down, according to a distinction due to the natural kinship with both, while they profess the indivisible hypostatic union. Or if, again, we preserve inviolate the natural will and the essentially inherent energy of the divine nature of the incarnate Logos, but abolish and get rid of these from his human substance, in this way too we damage the supernatural union, which has nothing to bind to one hypostasis the flesh endowed with a rational and intellectual soul—that is, the substance and nature which is ours—since it would not exist and be preserved perfectly at all in the Logos. For where and what sort of nature would it be, having suffered the loss of its natural properties?

If, then, the Lord was lacking in these, or any of these, natural properties according to the flesh, he was not flesh at all, nor man. For either let those who say these things show that a man exists by 15Α_100 nature without these things, or is a man at all; or, if there is no such thing whatsoever, it is clear that the incarnate Logos did not become a man, being by nature deprived of these things or any one of them. For how and by what reason, since our nature has no lack of such things? But it is something else, entirely foreign and unknown to our substance; and, either consubstantial with him from the beginning, and descending with him when he descended from above, that which he is said to have become is clearly that very thing. And what then to us is the descent, if we are in no way joined through the holy flesh that was not assumed from us and united hypostatically? Or is the whole thing a fantasy, and a mere shape deceiving the senses, but not the substance of flesh,

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διδασκάλων, ὡς ὁ εἷς τῆς ἁγίας καί ὁμοουσίου Τριάδος, ὁ μονογενής Υἱός, τέλειος κατά φύσιν ὑπάρχων Θεός, τέλειος κατά θέλησιν ἄνθρωπος γέγονε, σάρκα τήν ἡμῶν ὁμοούσιον ἐκ τῆς ἁγίας Θεομήτορος Ἀειπαρθένου κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν προσλαβών, λογικῶς τε καί νοερῶς ἐψυχωμένην, καί καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ἑαυτῷ κυρίως ἀδιασπάστως ἑνώσας, εἷς τε μετ᾿ αὐτῆς ὑπάρχει καθά καί πρότερον· πλήν οὐκ ἀσύνθετος τήν ὑπόστασιν· εἰ καί τήν φύσιν ἁπλοῦς· ἅτε διαμείνας Θεός καί τῷ Πατρί ὁμοούσιος· καί αὖθις διπλοῦς ὡς γενόμενος σάρξ· ἵνα τῷ μέν διττῷ τῆς φύσεως, συγγενής ᾗ κατ᾿ οὐσίαν τοῖς ἄκροις, καί τήν πρός ἄλληλα φυσικήν τῶν οἰκείων μερῶν σώζῃ διαφοράν· τῶ δέ μοναδικῷ τοῦ προσώπου, τήν ἐν τοῖς μέρεσι τελείαν ἔχων ταυτότητα, καί τήν πρός τά ἄκρα προσωπικήν, ὡς εἷς καί μόνος, κέκτηται διαφοράν· καί τῷ ἀνελλιπεῖ τῆς πρός αὐτά (φημί δέ τά ἄκρα) φυσικῆς καί οὐσιώδους ἀπαραλλαξίας, τέλειος ᾖ τά ἑκάτερα· Θεός ὁμοῦ καί ἄνθρωπος ὁ αὐτός· ἀτελῆ τοῦτον εἰσάγουσι, καί τῶν κατά φύσιν παθόντα τήν ἔκπτωσιν, οἱ τήν τῶν προσόντων αὐτῷ φυσικῶς ἀπομείωσιν ἀσεβῶς δογματίζοντες. Εἰ γάρ ἑκατέρας φύσεως ἀνελλιπῶς οὐ φυλάττει τήν ἰδιότητα, χωρίς μόνης ἁμαρτίας, 15Α_098 κατά τούς θείους Πατέρας, τῶν ἐξ ὧν καί ἐν αἷς κυρίως ἐστίν ὁ σαρκωθείς Λόγος καί μετά τήν ἕνωσιν, ἐλλιπής ὑπάρχει Θεός· εἴπερ ὅλως ἄνθρωπος μείωσιν τῶν φυσικῶν κεκτημένος.

Οὐ χρή τοιγαροῦν προφάσει δῆθεν ἑνώσεως μηδενί λυμαινομένης, ἀλλά μόνον εἰς ἕν καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν συνδεούσης τά πράγματα, τήν ὕπαρξιν αὐτῶν παραφθείρειν, τῇ ἀναιρέσει τοῦ τε φυσικοῦ θελήματος 0076 καί τῆς οὐσιώδους ἐνεργείας. Εἴτε γάρ ὡς ἐκ μερῶν ὅλον τι, τά τε οὐσιώδη δύο θελήματα καί τάς ἰσαρίθμους φυσικάς ἐνεργείας κατά σύνθεσιν εἰς ἕν θέλημα καί μίαν ἐνέργειαν ἐκτήξομεν τυχόν καί χωνεύσομεν, μυθικόν τό τοιοῦτον, καί τῆς πρός τόν Πατέρα καί ἡμᾶς ξένον τε πάντη καί ἀλλότριον δειχθήσεται κοινωνίας· ὡς οὐ σύνθετον ἐκείνου κατά φύσιν ἔχοντος θέλημα, ἤ ἐνέργειαν· οὐδέ πάλιν ἡμῶν. Οὐδεμίαν γάρ τῶν ἐν ὑποκειμένῳ σύνθεσις· ὅτι μηδέ καθ᾿ ἑαυτά τό παράπαν ὕπαρξις θεωρεῖται, καί τῆς ὑποκειμένης οὐσίας ἐκτός. Πρός γάρ τῷ ἄχαρι καί λίαν κατάπτυστον, ἄνω τε καί κάτω διά τήν φυσικήν πρός ἄμφω συγγένειαν κατά διαστολήν ἐξ ἡμισείας μερίζεσθαί τε καί τέμνεσθαι, προσομολογούντων· καί ταῦτα τήν καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ἀδιάσπαστον ἕνωσιν. Εἴτε πάλιν τῆς θείας τοῦ σαρκωθέντος Λόγου φύσεως ἀλώβητον, τό τε φυσικόν θέλημα, καί τήν οὐσιωδῶς προσοῦσαν ἐνέργειαν συντηρήσομεν, τῆς δέ κατ᾿ αὐτόν ἀνθρωπίνης οὐσίας ἀνέλωμεν ταῦτα καί ἀποσκευάσομεν· καί οὕτως τήν ὑπερφυᾶ παραβλάπτομεν ἕνωσιν, οὐκ ἔχουσαν ὅ τι καί δήσει πρός μίαν ὑπόστασιν, τῆς λογικῶς τε καί νοερῶς ἐψυχωμένης σαρκός, ἤγουν τῆς καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς οὐσίας καί φύσεως, ἐν τῷ Λόγῳ τό παράπαν οὐκ οὔσης τελείως καί σωζομένης. Ποῦ γάρ καί ποία φύσις, τῶν κατά φύσιν παθοῦσα τή ἔκπτωσιν;

Εἰ οὖν τούτων, ἤ τινος τούτων ἐλλιπής ἦν κατά σάρκα τῶν φυσικῶν ἰδιωμάτων ὁ Κύριος, οὐδέ σάρξ ὅλως ὑπῆρχε καί ἄνθρωπος· ἤ γάρ δείξωσιν οἱ ταῦτα λέγοντες, ἄνθρωπον ὄντα κατά 15Α_100 φύσιν τούτων ἐκτός, ἤ ὅλως ἄνθρωπον· ἤ, εἴπερ οὐδαμῶς τό παράπαν ἐστί, δῆλον ὥς οὐκ ἄνθρωπος, τούτων ἤ τινος αὐτῶν κατά φύσιν ἐστερημένος, σαρκωθείς ὁ Λόγος γεγένηται. Πῶς γάρ καί τίνι λόγῳ, μηδεμίαν ἔλλειψιν τῶν τοιούτων ἐχούσης τῆς φύσεως; ἀλλ᾿ ἕτερόν τι ξένον παντάπασι τῆς ἡμετέρας οὐσίας ὑπάρχει καί ἄγνωστον· καί, ἤ ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς συνουσιωμένον αὐτῷ, καί ἄνωθεν κατελθόντι συγκατελθόν αὐτῷ, ἐκεῖνο σαφῶς ὅπερ λέγεται γεγονέναι· καί τί λοιπόν πρός ἡμᾶς ἡ κατάβασις, οὐδαμῶς συνελθόντας διά τῆς οὐκ ἐξ ἡμῶν προσληφθείσης, καί καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ἑνωθείσης ἁγίας σαρκός; ἤ φαντασία τό πᾶν, καί σχῆμα μόνον φαινακίζον τήν αἴσθησιν, ἀλλ' οὐκ οὐσία σαρκός,