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of the poor and the needy, who were so lifted from the earth by the grace of God, and exalted, as to raise your life to the Word, and your mind to the Lord of things here, and above things here; both assimilating and uniting the image to the archetype; or rather to speak more truly, wishing to make a demonstration of height by the voluntary submission of your supreme beauty, so that by your pre-eminence you might also lead us to the measure of God the Word, who by His emptying towards us shows the indescribable height of His own glory; on which account it is so much more desirable to refashion us, by how much He, for our sake, in the flesh fashioned Himself towards what is more humble; becoming man by nature without change and without confusion, He who is pre-eminently the lover of mankind; lacking nothing in the assumption of what is ours, so that He might not lack grace for Himself, nor salvation for us, not giving it to the whole nature, as not having taken the whole nature; but diminishing the former in that respect, by which He did not assume the latter. "For what is not assumed is not healed," says the great Gregory.

For how could the supersubstantial God the Word, incarnate for our sakes from the Holy Spirit and Mary the Ever-virgin and Mother of God by the assumption of flesh having an intellectual and rational soul, and being newly named by nature and having become man, renew the old, not taking him through and through, except for sin alone, from which comes the state of oldness, and on account of which death was condemned upon nature, having us as food, just as we have tasted of that, having been bitterly filled from the tree of transgression. And how could He, being emptied, raise the one who had fallen, if He had not, through and through, from the very moment of conception, united him to Himself hypostatically, except only for the slip, from which comes the shattering, 0157 and on account of which the penalty? For this reason, indeed, having assumed an intellectual and rational soul with its connatural body, that is, a perfect man without any blemish, and having united him to Himself hypostatically, He Himself, the God who is above nature, having taken its natural will, also certainly had a self-determining will. If we, transgressing the commandment, did not transgress without a will, but with a will, we were in need of healing in respect to it; by the assumption of the like, the like is healed, by God Himself incarnate; and having assumed it, He also had its rational and vital energy; by which we, having reasoned out and performed sin—would that it had never been—were in need of salvation in respect to it, by the assumption cleansing it from all defilement, and by the incarnation deifying our whole nature.

For if God the Word, being God, created this nature having these things essentially, I mean both the will and the energy, and presented the one as self-determining, the other as active, it is clear that He, having thus taken the nature, united it to Himself hypostatically, as He created it from the beginning, that is, volitional by nature and energetic; so that He might not have assumed only the suffering nature, but not also its innate faculties, He would not even have assumed the nature, but would have made the economy a fantasy. For it is impossible for our nature, or that of other beings, ever to be or to be called a nature, without its innate faculties, by which every being is naturally characterized essentially. Therefore our nature is not without will, since it is not that of a non-man. Nor indeed is it without energy, since it is not inanimate. But if what is according to us was without will and without energy, as it seemed to some heretics of old and now, He who is above us has not become according to us at all, not confirming what is ours by what is ours, and by which He Himself, 15Α_206 having created him from the beginning, characterized him naturally, making man self-determining and active by nature. And yet He is confirmed to have irrefutably assumed the faculty of both of these, in that the composition of the holy Gospels introduces the supersubstantial Word as a man for our sake, both willing and acting, in one place crying out: And about the fourth

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πτωχοῦ τε καί πένητος, οἱ τοσοῦτον ἀπό γῆς ἀρθέντες κατά θεοῦ χάριν, καί ὑψωθέντες, ὥστε τόν βίον τῷ λόγῳ, καί τόν νοῦν τῷ Κυρίῳ τῶν τῇδε, καί ὑπέρ τῶν τῇδε διᾶραι· τῷ ἀρχετύπῳ τήν εἰκόνα προσοικειούμενοί τε καί ἑνίζοντες· ἤ μᾶλλον εἰπεῖν ἀληθέστερον, ἔνδειξιν ἐθέλοντες ὕψους ποιεῖσθαι τήν αὐθαίρετον ὕφεσιν τῆς ὑπερτάτης ὑμῶν καλλονῆς, ὡς ἄν τῷ περιόντι καί ἡμᾶς ἀγάγοιτε πρός τό μέτρον τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου, κενώσει τῇ πρός ἡμᾶς τό τῆς οἰκείας δόξης ἀπεριγράφως ὕψος ἐπιδεικνύντος· ἐφ᾿ ᾧ τε μεταπλάσαι τοσοῦτον ἡμᾶς ἐπιποθέστερον, ὅσῳπερ ἄν σαρκί δι' ἡμᾶς αὐτός ἑαυτόν ἐπλαστούργησε πρός τό ταπεινότερον· φύσει γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος δίχα τροπῆς καί συγχύσεως, ὁ διαφερόντως φιλάνθρωπος· ἐλλείψας οὐδέν εἰς πρόσληψιν τῶν ἡμετέρω, ἵνα μή καί ἑαυτῷ τήν χάριν, καί ἡμῖν ἐλλείψῃ τήν σωτηρίαν, οὐχ ὅλην τῇ φύσει διδούς, ὡς μή ὅλην τήν φύσιν λαβών· ἀλλά κατ᾿ ἐκεῖνο μειώσας ἐκείνην, καθ᾿ ὅπερ ἄν οὐ προσείληφε ταύτην. "Τό γάρ ἀπρόσληπτον, ἀθεράπευτον», φησίν ὁ ἱέγας Γρηγόριος.

Πῶς γάρ ὁ ὑπερούσιος δι᾿ ἡμᾶς σαρκωθείς Θεός Λόγος ἐκ Πνεύματος ἁγίου καί Μαρίας τῆς Ἀειπαρθένου καί Θεομήτορος προσλήψει σαρκός ψυχήν ἐχούσης τήν νοεράν τε καί λογικήν, νέος τε χρηματίσας φύσει καί γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος, καινουργήσει τόν πάλαι, μή δι᾿ ὅλου καί ὅλον λαβών, μόνης δίχα τῆς ἁμαρτίας, ἐξ ἧς ἡ παλαίωσις· καί δι᾿ ἥν ὁ θάνατος κατεκρίθη τῆς φύσεως, τροφήν ἔχων τοσοῦτον ἡμᾶς, ὡς ἐκείνης γεγεύμεθα, τοῦ ξύλου πικρῶς ἐμφορηθέντες τῆς παραβάσεως. Πῶς δέ κενωθείς ὁ αὐτός ἀναστήσει τόν πεπτωκότα, μή δι᾿ ὅλου καί ὅλον ἐξ αὐτῆς ἄκρας συλλήψεως ἑνώσας ἑαυτῷ καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν, δίχα 15Α_204 μόνου τοῦ ὀλισθήματος, ἐξ οὗ τό σύντριμμα, 0157 καί δι᾿ ὅ τό ἐπιτίμιον; Ταύτῃ τοι ψυχήν νοεράν καί λογικήν μετά τοῦ συμφυοῦς αὐτῇ σώματος, τουτέστι τέλειον ἄνθρωπον παντός μώμου χωρίς προσλαβών, καί ἑνώσας ἑαυτῷ καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν, αὐτός ὁ ὑπέρ φύσιν Θεός, καί τήν αὐτῆς φυσικήν λαβών, εἶχε πάντως αὐτεξούσιον θέλησιν. Εἰ παραβάντες τήν ἐντολήν δίχα θελήσεως, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ θελήσεως δίχα, παρέβημεν, ἐδεόμεθα τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτήν ἰατρείας· τῇ προσλήψει τοῦ ὁμοίου τό ὅμοιον, αὐτοῦ δή τοῦ σαρκωθέντος Θεοῦ θεραπεύοντος· αὐτήν δ᾿ ἄν καί τήν ταύτης προσλαβών λογικήν τε καί ζωτικήν εἶχεν ἐνέργειαν· ᾗ τήν ἁμαρτίαν, ὡς εἴθε μή ποτ᾿ ἄν, λογισάμενοί τε καί ἐνεργήσαντες, ἐχρήζομεν τῆς κατ' αὐτήν σωτηρίας, τῇ προσλήψει μολυσμοῦ παντός ταύτην ἀποκαθαίροντος, καί ὅλην τῇ σαρκώσει θεουργοῦντος τήν ἡμετέραν φύσιν.

Εἰ γάρ οὐσιωδῶς ταῦτα ἔχουσαν ταύτην ἐδημιούργησε Θεός ὤν ὁ Λόγος, τήν τε θέλησίν φημι καί τήν ἐνέργειαν, καί τήν μέν αὐτεξούσιον, τήν δέ ἐνεργοῦσαν παρέστηκε, δῆλον ὡς οὕτω τήν φύσιν λαβών ἥνωσεν ἑαυτῷ τό καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν, ὡς ἀπαρχῆς ταύτην ἐδημιούργησε, τουτέστι θελητικήν φύσει καί ἐνεργητικήν· ἵνα μή τήν φύσιν μόνον παθοῦσαν, ἀλλ' οὐ καί τάς αὐτῆς ἐμφύτους δυνάμεις προσείληφεν, οὐδ᾿ ἄν τήν φύσιν προσείληφεν, ἀλλά τήν οἰκονομίαν ἐφάντασεν. Ἀδύνατον γάρ τήν ἡμετέραν, ἤ τῶν ὄντων ἑτέρων εἶναι ποτ᾿ ἄν ἤ ὀνομάζεσθαι φύσιν, τῶν αὐτῆς ἐμφύτων δίχα δυνάμεων, αἷς οὐσιωδῶς πᾶς χαρακτηρίζεσθαι πέφυκεν. Ὅθεν οὐκ ἀνεθέλητος ἡ ἡμετέρα φύσις ἐπεί μηδέ ἀνθρώπου. Οὔτε μήν ἀνενέργητος, ἐπεί μηδέ ἄψυχος. Εἰ δέ ἀνεθέλητος ἦν καί ἀνενέργητος, τό καθ'᾿ἡμᾶς, ὥς τισι τῶν πάλαι καί νῦν ἔδοξεν αἱρετικῶν, οὐδέ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ὅλως γέγονεν ὁ ὑπέρ ἡμᾶς, μή πιστούμενος τό ἡμέτερον τοῖς ἡμετέροις, καί οἷς αὐτός 15Α_206 ἀρχῆθεν δημιουργήσας ἐχαρακτήρισε φυσικῶς, αὐτεξούσιον καί ἐνεργόν ποιήσας κατά φύσιν, τόν ἄνθρωπον. Καίτοι τούτων ἑκατέρων ἀναντιῤῥήτως προσειληφέναι πιστοῦται τήν δύναμιν, οἷς ἄνθρωπον δι᾿ ἡμᾶς εἰσάγει τόν ὑπερούσιον Λόγον θέλοντά τε καί ἐνεργοῦντα τῶν ἁγίων Εὐαγγελίων ἡ σύνταξις, πῆ μέν βοῶσα· Καί περί τετάρτην