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And after the union, is it not confessed? And for what reason, so that through the confession that He who is God by nature has become man, He may be believed in truth? Or perhaps He did not in the beginning assume the very things naturally belonging to the nature along with the nature? But having taken some soulless and irrational flesh, and in no way from us, or consubstantial with us, or not having taken it, but having brought it down from above, co-essential with Him from the beginning, did He unite it to Himself; and did He make the economy for us and towards us a phantasm, approaching us in a human form, but not conversing in a human nature, in order to save the entire race from the ancient transgression and free it from the condemnation because of it.

15Α_126 For these things, and more than these, are the opinions of all those who do not in a completely orthodox manner confess, according to the holy Fathers, that in Christ the God the natural things, apart from sin, are preserved just as the natures themselves, 0096 even after the union. For neither do we see the divine and uncreated nature as non-existent and without will or without energy; nor indeed do we recognize the created, human substance which is like ours as non-existent and without will or without energy. And if we know neither of these to be destitute of natural existence, and will, and energy—I mean of these, the divine nature and the human nature—and in these and of these the hypostasis is in truth the one and only Christ and Son, how, if He is the same who is properly God by nature and properly man by nature, did He not also have a divine will and energy properly by nature, and a human will and energy properly by nature, being deficient in neither of these by nature, through which things, verifying the names by the realities, and in turn confirming the realities by these, He Himself was manifestly known, having and willing and energizing both divine and human things naturally, and from this being believed to be what He was, and in what, and of what He consisted? Since, if the natural will and the essential energy of both the divine and human substance are done away with, how will He who is of these and these and preserves them in one hypostasis be God or man? and how will He be shown to be this or that in substance, not preserving without lack the property of each nature, apart from all sin? For to depart from what is according to nature, even if it has come to be outside of substance, has no existence; because it has no natural motion. "For that which has no motion," as the divine revealer and great saint Dionysius says, "neither is, nor is anything; nor is there any position of it at all." For this very reason, we who confess the natures of Christ the God—I mean the divine and the human one which is like ours—15Α_128 for the firm assurance of their existence and for the truth of our confession concerning them, must in every way hold to the natural wills equal in number to them, and confess the essential energies to be as many; and not diminish any of them or deny them altogether on the supposed pretext of the divine hypostatic union; knowing that the hypostatic union in no way harms the natural things, just as it does not harm the natures themselves; even if it brings them into one through itself in the one hypostasis, in no way causing them to cease to be two according to the principle of nature; just as, I say, it again unites the natural properties themselves through their coalescence with each other, and does not permit either to be considered at all without the other, or outside the communion of the one with the other, according to Leo, the celebrated Pope of the Romans, it does not at all obscure their essential and natural difference, but preserves it perfectly; 0097 for by preserving it is preserved, and by conserving it is conserved. For clearly there is a union of things so long as their natural difference is preserved; since when this has ceased, that [union] also certainly ceases, having been completely obliterated by the confusion.

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καί μετά τήν ἕνωσιν, οὐχ ὁμολογεῖται; καί δι᾿ ἥντινα αἰτίαν, ἵνα διά τῆς ὁμολογίας ὅτι γέγονεν ἄνθρωπος ὁ φύσει Θεός πιστευθῆ κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν; Ἤ τυχόν οὐδέ τήν ἀρχήν αὐτά τά φύσει προσόντα τῇ φύσει προσλαβών μετά τῆς φύσεως; Ἀλλά ἄψυχόν τινα καί ἄλογον, καί οὐδαμῶς ἐξ ἡμῶν, ἤ ἡμῖν ὑπάρχουσαν ὁμοούσιον σάρκα λαβών, ἤ οὐδέ λαβών, ἀλλ᾿ ἄνωθεν καί ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς συνουσιωμένην αὐτῷ κατενέγκας, ἥνωσεν ἑαυτῷ· καί τήν δ᾿ ἡμᾶς καί πρός ἡμᾶς οἰκονομίαν ἐφάντασεν, ἀνθρωπίνῳ σχήματι προσπελάσας ἡμῖν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει προσομιλήσας, ἵνα τό γένος ἅπαν τοῦ παλαιοῦ παραπτώματος ἀνασώσηται, καί τοῦ δι᾿ αὐτό κατακρίματος ἐλευθερώσῃ.

15Α_126 Ταῦτα γάρ, καί τούτων πλείω δοξάζουσιν, ὅσοι μή παντελείως ἐν Χριστῷ τῷ Θεῷ τά φυσικά, καί δίχα τῆς ἁμαρτίας, ὥσπερ καί τάς φύσεις αὐτάς σώζεσθαι 0096 κατά τούς ἁγίους Πατέρας ὀρθοδόξως ὁμολογοῦσι· καί μετά τήν ἕνωσιν. Οὐδέ γάρ τήν θείαν φύσιν καί ἄκτιστον ἀνύπαρκτόν τε καί ἀθέλητον ἤ ἀνενέργητον καθορῶμεν· οὔτε μήν τήν κτιστήν καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς καί ἀνθρωπίνην οὐσίαν ἀνύπαρκτόν τε καί ἀθέλητον ἤ ἀνενέργητον ἐπιγινώσκομεν. Καί εἰ μηδεμίαν τούτων ἔρημον ἐπιστάμεθα φυσικῆς ὑπάρξεως, θελήσεώς τε καί ἐνεργείας, ἐκ τούτων, δέ θείας φύσεως καί ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως λέγω, καί ἐν ταύταις, καί τούτων ὑπόστασις ἐστι κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν ὁ εἷς καί μόνος Χριστός καί Υἱός, πῶς, εἴπερ φύσει κυρίως Θεός, καί φύσει κυρίως ἄνθρωπος ὁ αὐτός, οὐχί καί θεῖον θέλημα καί ἐνέργειαν φύσει κυρίως, καί ἀνθρώπινον θέλημα, καί ἐνέργειαν φύσει κυρίως εἶχε, μηδετέρου τούτων κατά φύσιν ὤν ἐλλιπής, δι᾿ ὧν ἐπαληθεύων τοῖς πράγμασι τά ὀνόματα, καί τούτοις αὖθις ἐπικυρῶν τά πράγματα, προδήλως ὁ αὐτός ἐγνωρίζετο, τά τε θεῖα καί ἀνθρώπινα φυσικῶς ἔχων καί θέλων καί ἐνεργῶν, κἀκ τούτου τά ἐξ ὧν, καί ἐν οἷς, καί ἅπερ ὑπῆρχε, πιστευόμενος; Ἐπεί, τοῦ φυσικοῦ θελήματος καί τῆς οὐσιώδους ἐνεργείας ἀναιρουμένων, τῆς τε θείας καί ἀνθρωπίνης οὐσίας, τοῦ ἐκ τούτων καί ταύτας ὄντος καί σώζοντος κατά μίαν ὑπόστασιν, πῶς Θεός ἤ ἄνθρωπος ἔσται; καί πῶς τοῦτο, ἤ ἐκεῖνο κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ὑπάρχων δειχθήσεται, μή σώζων ἑκατέρας φύσεως ἀνελλιπῶς τήν ἰδιότητα, πάσης ἁμαρτίας χωρίς; Τό γάρ τῶν κατά φύσιν ἐκστᾷν, κἄν τῆς ἔξω τῆς οὐσίας γεγένηται, μηδεμίαν ὕπαρξιν ἔχον· ὅτι μηδέ κίνησιν φυσικήν. "Τό γάρ μηδεμίαν κίνησιν ἔχον», ᾗ φησιν ὁ θεοφάντωρ καί μέγας ἅγιος ∆ιονύσιος, "οὔτε ἔστιν, οὔτε τί ἐστιν· οὔτε ἔστι τις αὐτοῦ παντελῶς θέσις». ∆ιά τοι τοῦτο τάς Χριστοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ φύσεις ὁμολογοῦντας ἡμᾶς, τήν θείαν φημί καί τήν καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ἀνθρωπίνην, 15Α_128 πρός βεβαίαν τῆς τε τούτων ὑπάρξεως πίστωσιν, καί τῆς ἡμῶν περί αὐτῶν ὁμολογίας ἀλήθειαν, καί τά φυσικά τούτων ἰσαρίθμως δεῖ πάντως πρεσβεύειν θελήματα, καί τάς οὐσιώδεις τοσαύτας ἐνεργείας ὁμολογεῖν· καί μηδέν αὐτῶν προφάσει δῆθεν τῆς καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν θείας ἑνώσεως ἀπομειοῦν ἤ ἐξαρνεῖσθαι τό σύνολον· γινώσκοντας, ὡς ἡ καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ἕνωσις οὐδέν παραβλάπτει τῶν φυσικῶν, καθάπερ οὐδέ τάς φύσεις αὐτάς· εἰ καί ταύτας εἰς ἕν ἄγει δι᾿ ἑαυτῆς κατά τήν μίαν ὑπόστασιν· τοῦ δύο, τῷ φυσικῷ λόγῳ ὑπάρχειν οὐδαμῶς ἐξιστῶσα· ὥσπερ οὖν καὐτά δή λέγω τά φυσικά ἰδιώματα, τῇ πρός ἄλληλα συμφυΐᾳ διόλου πάλιν ἑνίζουσα, καί μηδέτερον τοῦ ἑτέρου χωρίς, ἤ τῆς θατέρου πρός θάτερον κοινωνίας ἐκτός, κατά τόν τῶνῬωμαίων πάπαν ἀοίδιμον Λέοντα θεωρεῖσθαι καθοτιοῦν συγχωροῦσα, τήν τούτων οὐσιώδη καί φυσικήν οὐκ ἀμαυροῖ παντελῶς, ἀλλά τελείως φυλάττει διαφοράν· 0097 τῷ γάρ φυλάττειν φυλάττεται, καί τῷ συντηρεῖν συντηρεῖται. Μέχρι γάρ τότε σαφῶς ἕνωσις πραγμάτων ἐστίν, ἕως ἄν ἡ τούτων σώζηται φυσική διαφορά· ἐπεί ταύτης παυσαμένης, παύεται πάντως κἀκείνη, τῇ συγχύσει τελείως ἀφανισθεῖσα.