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of the Incarnation; confirming the truth of which, He has done all things for our sake, and acted willingly on our behalf, in no way falsifying either our essence, or any of its irreproachable and natural properties; even though He deified this with all of those, like iron made white-hot, rendering it entirely divine-working, as having wholly and completely interpenetrated it through the union; and becoming one with it without confusion and the same one hypostasis.

Whence His humanity, not because of the principle of its nature, but because of the novel manner of its generation, differs from ours; being the same in essence, but not the same with respect to its being without seed, since it was not a mere, but truly belonged to Him who for our sakes became incarnate. Therefore, His willing, while properly natural according to us, is divinely fashioned beyond us. For it is clear that being without seed and with seed do not divide a nature; but are divided within the same nature, just as unbegottenness and generation.

For if, as a man, the Logos had a difference with respect to our nature because of being without seed, He will surely also have one with respect to the Father's essence, because of His generation. For unbegottenness and generation are not the same. And we too will have a difference with respect to the old Adam and Eve, who came to be without seed; (61) for the one was a formation of the Former, and the other, a part of the formation. But indeed the Son is the same as the Father because of His Divinity; for He is God and consubstantial; just as we, with respect to Adam and Eve, and to God Himself who for our sakes was enfleshed, are kin because of our humanity and consubstantial. For just as "unbegotten" and "begotten" are not the essence of God (for who would say so?), so neither are "with seed" and "without seed" in any way the nature of humanity.

Therefore the great theologian Gregory offers no suggestion that the Savior's humanity is other in nature from ours, even if some have thought so, when he says, "We would have said that the reason is fashioned by man; not the one understood according to the Savior, for His willing, having been wholly deified, is in no way opposed to God; but the one according to us, as the human will does not always follow the divine, but for the most part opposes and struggles against it." For it is properly His and is so called, not as being of another or from another apart from our essence and nature, but as having come to be for Him and in Him, according to the one and same hypostasis, and not subsisting separately on its own, or acting for its own sake, as we do. Whence the introduced mode of generation, innovating its own kind of seed, had the Logos Himself, which at the same time as it existed naturally, also had by lot its divine subsistence in Him, so that both what is ours might be confirmed, and what is beyond us might be believed. For it is necessary in all things, both on the part of the incarnate and for our sakes perfectly enfleshed God the Logos, to preserve the assumed nature along with its natural properties; without which it is not a nature at all, but only an empty phantasm, and to guard the union; the one being preserved in its natural otherness, and the other again being known in its hypostatic identity; and thus wisely and piously at the same time, to declare the whole account of the economy to be both unconfused and undivided.

Proclaiming this orthodoxly, you will have Him proclaiming according to the promise, and granting enjoyment of His own gifts, as through hope here, so through experience there; entreat that I too may partake of it, hallowed Father, bringing me through your mediation to Him who calls and saves; and as a reward for the sympathy of kindred for one another, to the

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τῆς ἐνανθρωπήσεως· ἧς ἐπικυρῶν τήν ἀλήθειαν, πάντα γέγονε δι᾿ ἡμᾶς, καί δέδρακεν ἑκουσίως ὑπέρ ἡμῶν, μήτε τήν ἡμετέραν οὐσίαν, μήτε τι τῶν αὐτῆς ἀδιαβλήτων καί φυσικῶν τό παράπαν ψευσάμενος· εἰ καί ταύτην μετ᾿ ἐκείνων ἁπάντων ἐθέωσε, πυρακτωθέντος δίκην σιδήρου, πᾶσαν θεουργόν ἀποφήνας, ὡς διόλου κατ᾿ ἄκρον αὐτῇ περιχωρήσας διά τήν ἕνωσιν· καί ἕν μετ᾿ αὐτῆς ἀσυγχύτως καί τήν αὐτήν καί μίαν ὑπόστασιν γεγονώς.

Ὄθεν τό κατ᾿ αὐτόν ἀνθρώπινον, οὐ διά τόν λόγον τῆς φύσεως, ἀλλά διά τόν καινοπρεπῆ τῆς γενέσεως τρόπον, πρός τό ἡμέτερον παραλλάττει· ταυτόν μέν ὑπάρχον κατά τήν οὐσίαν· οὐ ταυτόν δέ κατά τήν ἀσπορίαν ἐπεί μή ψιλή, ἀλλ᾿ αὐτοῦ κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν τοῦ δι᾿ ἡμᾶς ἐνανθρωπήσαντος ἦν. Ὥσπερ οὖν καί τό θέλειν αὐτοῦ κυρίως μέν ὄν φυσικόν καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς, τυπούμενον δέ θεϊκῶς ὑπέρ ἡμᾶς. ∆ῆλον γάρ ὡς ἀσπορία καί σπορά, φύσιν οὐ τέμνει· περί δέ τήν αὐτήν τέμνεται φύσιν, ὥσπερ οὖν καί ἀγεννησία καί γέννησις.

Ἐπεί τυχόν εἰ διαφοράν πρός τήν ἡμετέραν φύσιν ὡς ἄνθρωπος εἶχεν ὁ Λόγος διά τήν ἀπορίαν· ἕξει γε πάντως, καί πρός τήν τοῦ Πατρός οὐσίαν, διά τήν γέννησιν. Οὐ γάρ ταυτόν ἀγεννησία καί γέννησις. Ἕξομεν δέ καί ἡμεῖς πρός τε τόν παλαιόν Ἀδάμ καί τήν Εὔαν, δίχα σπορᾶς γενομένους· (61) ὁ μέν γάρ, πλάσμα τοῦ πλάσαντος· ἡ δέ, τμῆμα τοῦ πλάσματος. Ἀλλά μήν ταυτόν ὁ Υἱός τῷ Πατρί διά τήν Θεότητα· Θεός γάρ καί ὁμοούσιος· ὥσπερ οὖν καί ἡμεῖς, πρός τε τόν Ἀδάμ καί τήν Εὔαν, καί αὐτόν τόν δι' ἡμᾶς σαρκωθέντα Θεόν, συγγενεῖς διά τήν ἀνθρωπότητα καί ὁμοούσιοι. Ὡς γάρ οὐκ οὐσία Θεοῦ τό ἀγέννητον καί γεννητόν (τίς γάρ ὁ λέγων), οὕτως οὐδέ σπορά καί ἀσπορία φύσις καθοτιοῦν ἀνθρωπότητος.

Οὐδεμίαν οὖν ὁ μέγας θεολόγος Γρηγόριος ἔμφασιν παρέχει, τοῦ ἄλλο εἶναι κατά τήν φύσιν τό κατά τόν Σωτῆρα ἀνθρώπινον, καί ἄλλο τό καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς, εἰ καί τισιν ἐνομίσθη, τῶ φάσκειν αὐτόν, " Εἴπαμεν ἄν ὡς παρά τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τυποῦσθαι τόν λόγον· οὐ τοῦ κατά τόν Σωτῆρα νοουμένου· τό γάρ ἐκείνου θέλειν, οὐδέν ὑπεναντίον Θεῷ θεωθέν ὅλον· ἀλλά τοῦ καθ' ἡμᾶς· ὡς τοῦ ἀνθρωπίνου θελήματος, οὐ πάντως ἑπομένου τῷ θείῳ, ἀλλ' ἀντιπίπτοντος ὡς τά πολλά καί ἀντιπαλαίοντος." Αὐτοῦ γάρ ἐστιν κυρίως καί λέγεται, οὐχ ὡς ἑτέρας ἤ ἐξ ἑτέρας ὅν πάρεξ τῆς ἡμετέρας οὐσίας καί φύσεως· ἀλλ᾿ ὡς δι᾿ ἐκεῖνον καί ἐν ἐκείνῳ, κατά τήν αὐτήν καί μίαν ὑπόστασιν γεγονός· καί οὐ καθ᾿ ἑαυτό χωρίς, ἤ δι᾿ ἑαυτό πραχθέν, ὥσπερ ἡμεῖς. Ὄθεν καί σποράν οὐκείαν καινοτομοῦντα τόν ἐπεισαχθέντα τῆς γεννήσεως τρόπον αὐτόν ἔσχε τόν Λόγον, ἅμα τῷ εἶναι φυσικῶς, καί τό ὑποστῆναι θεϊκῶς ἐν αὐτῷ κληρωσάμενον· ἵνα καί τό ἡμέτερον κυρωθῇ· καί τό ὑπέρ ἡμᾶς πιστευθῇ . ∆εῖ γάρ ἐν πᾶσιν καί τήν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ τοῦ σαρκωθέντος καί τελείως δι᾿ ἡμᾶς ἐνανθρωπήσαντος Θεοῦ Λόγου, καί τήν προσληφθεῖσαν φύσιν μετά τῶν αὐτῆς φυσικῶν συντηρεῖν· ὧν ἄνευ τό παράπαν οὔτε φύσις ἐστίν, ἀλλά φαντασία μόνη διάκενος, καί τήν ἕνωσιν διαφυλάττειν· τήν μέν, ἐν ἑτερότητι φυσικῇ σωζομένην· τήν δέ πάλιν, ἐν ὑποστατικῇ γνωριζομένην ταυτότητι· καί οὕτω τε σοφῶς ἅμα καί εὐσεβῶς, ὅλο διόλου τόν τῆς οἰκονομίας λόγον, ἄφυρτον ὁμοῦ καί ἀδιαίρετον ἀποφαίνειν.

Ὅν αὐτός ὀρθοδόξως κηρύττων, ἕξεις ἀνακηρύττοντα κατά τήν ὑπόσχεσιν, καί τῶν οἰκείων δωρούμενον ὥσπερ δι᾿ ἐλπίδος ἐνταῦθα, οὕτω διά πείρας ἐκεῖ τήν ἀπόλαυσιν· ἧς κἀμέ μετασχεῖν ἱκέτευσον, Πάτερ ἡγιασμένε, διά τῆς σῆς μεσιτείας προσάγων αὐτῷ τῷ καλοῦντι καί σώζοντι· καί μισθόν τῆς εἰς ἀλλήλους τῶν ὁμογενῶν συμπαθείας, τῷ