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you might unchangeably sharpen, I having with all my strength cast off the burden of sluggishness and negligence which weighs me down so very much more than all others; and having admired you, o blessed one, on account of the wise economy and providence concerning me, the poor one, [for] your preservation for many years and in more divine virtues, of you the good and noble shepherd and father, with tears, though I am exceedingly sinful, I have earnestly besought our Lord and God that it be granted to me and to all; so that having you, especially now, when the truth of the outcome of events has clearly confirmed the prediction of the truth which is by nature and in reality; and a tribulation, such as has never once been from the foundation of the world, nor ever shall be, has overtaken all people everywhere on account of their sins; you both strengthening and invigorating with the all-powerful staff of God-persuading prayers, and guiding well and illuminating with the all-holy pipe of God-wise teaching, and making us to dwell in a place of green pasture of the ever-living state of the virtues through practice; and nurturing us by the water of repose of the ever-gushing streams of the sacred provisions in the dogmas through knowledge; and safely preserving into a strong place and a high fold, the Catholic Church, and to the Lord who espoused her to himself by his will through his own and life-giving blood, we may be freed from the incursion of the adversaries; who, seizing the opportune moment of the universal turmoil and confusion, contrive to confound the great and ineffable mystery of the saving economy of Christ our God for all, a mystery which naturally circumscribes all ages and times, and those things in ages and time, (93); such that the holy flesh from us, animated intellectually and rationally, assumed by him according to the good pleasure of the Father and the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, and united to him in one and the same hypostasis, does not have after the union the properties natural to it, apart from sin alone; because neither was it of its nature; or rather, of the Word himself who was incarnate, and for our sakes became man, not perfectly preserving those things that essentially characterize our nature as it is in us; but either having transformed these into his own divine nature; and by this, having shown the deficiency of his own divinity, as needing some addition for its essential perfection; or having made them pass completely into non-existence, as if they were not very good, and having obliterated the work of his own creation by not making them and uniting them hypostatically to himself according to a certain reason and wisdom; for how can that which came to be by reason and wisdom not be indivisibly preserved in union within reason and wisdom itself? or how, being preserved even after the union, is it not confessed? and for what reason, except that by the confession that he who is by nature God became man, he might be believed in truth? Or perhaps not even at the beginning having assumed the natural properties with the nature? But having taken some inanimate and irrational flesh, and in no way from us, or being consubstantial with us, or not even having taken it, but having brought down from above flesh co-essential with him from the beginning, he united it to himself; and he made the economy for us and towards us a phantasm, approaching us in a human form, but not conversing in a human nature, so that the entire race might be saved from the ancient transgression, and freed from the condemnation on account of it.

For these things, and more than these, are the opinions of all those who do not orthodoxly confess, according to the holy Fathers, that in Christ our God the natural properties, apart from sin, are completely preserved, (96) just as the natures themselves are, and after the union. For we neither perceive the divine and uncreated nature as non-existent and without will or without energy; nor indeed do we recognize the created human essence which is according to us as non-existent and without will or without energy. And if we know neither of these to be bereft of natural existence,

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ἀτρέπτως στομώσῃς, τῆς πάμπολύ με παρά πάντας βαρούσης νωθείας τε καί ἀμελείας τόν φόρτον εἰς δύναμιν ἀποῤῥιψάμενον· καί σε τῆς περί ἐμέ τόν πτωχόν σοφῆς οἰκονομίας καί προμηθείας χάριν ἀποθαυμάσας, μακάριε, τήν ἐν πλείοσιν ἔτεσι καί ἀρεταῖς θειοτέραις διατήρησιν, σοῦ τοῦ καλοῦ καί ἀγαθοῦ ποιμένος τε καί πατρός, μετά δακρύων, καίτοι λίαν ὑπάρχων ἁμαρτωλός, χαρισθῆναι μοι καί πᾶσιν ἐντενῶς καθικέτευσα τόν Κύριον ἡμῶν καί Θεόν· ἵνα ἔχοντές σε μάλιστα νῦν, ὅ τε τῆς φύσει καί ὄντως ἀληθείας τήν πρόῤῥησιν, ἡ κατά τήν ἔκβασιν τῶν πραγμάτων ἀλήθεια σαφῶς ἐπιστώσατο· καί θλίψις, οἵα καθάπαξ οὐ γέγονεν ἀπό καταβολῆς κόσμου, οὐδ᾿ οὐ μή γένηται, πάντας πανταχῆ διά τάς ἁμαρτίας κατέλαβε· τῇ τε πανσθενεῖ βακτηρίᾳ τῶν θεοπειθῶν προσευχῶν δυναμοῦντά τε καί ῤωννύοντα, καί τῇ πανιέρῳ σύριγγι τῆς θεοσόφου διδασκαλίας ὁδηγοῦντα καλῶς καί φωτίζοντα, καί εἰς τόπον χλόης τῆς ἀειζώου τῶν ἀρετῶν ἕξεως κατασκηνοῦντα διά τῆς πράξεως· καί ἐπί ὕδατος ἀναπαύσεως τῆς ἀειβλύστου τῶν ἱερῶν ἐν τοῖς δόγμασι χορηγίας ναμάτων ἐκτρέφοντα διά τῆς γνώσεως· καί εἰς τόπον ὀχυρόν καί μάνδραν ὑψηλήν τήν καθολικήν Ἐκκλησίαν, καί τόν ταύτην δι᾿ αἵματος οἰκείου καί ζωοποιοῦ κατά θέλησιν ἁρμοσάμενον Κύριον ἀσφαλῶς διασώζοντα, τῆς τῶν ἐναντίων ἐλευθερωθῶμεν καταδρομῆς· οἱ προσφόρου καιροῦ τῆς τοῦ παντός δραξάμενοι ταραχῆς καί συγχύσεως, τό μέγα τῆς τῶν ἁπάντων σωστικῆς οἰκονομίας Χριστοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ καί ἀπόῤῥητον, ὡς πάντας αἰῶνας καί χρόνους, καί τούς ἐν αἰῶσι καί χρόνῳ φυσικῶς περιγράφον, (93) συγχεῖν μηχανῶνται μυστήριον· οἷα τῆς ἐξ ἡμῶν νοερῶς τε καί λογικῶς ἐψυχωμένης, ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ κατ' εὐδοκίαν Πατρός καί συνέργειαν ἁγίου Πνεύματος προσληφθείσης, καί αὐτῷ κατά μίαν καί τήν αὐτήν ὑπόστασιν ἑνωθείσης ἁγίας σαρκός, οὐκ ἐχούσης μετά τήν ἕνωσιν τά προσόντα κατά φύσιν αὐτῇ, δίχα μόνης τῆς ἁμαρτίας· ὅτι μηδέ τῆς φύσεως ἦν· μᾶλλον δέ, αὐτοῦ τοῦ σαρκωθέντος Λόγου, καί δι᾿ ἡμᾶς ἐνανθρωπήσαντος, τά τήν ἡμετέραν φύσιν οὐσιωδῶς χαρακτηρίζοντα καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς τελείως οὐ σώζοντα· ἀλλ᾿ ἤ ταῦτα πρός τήν ἑαυτοῦ θείαν μετασκευάσαντος φύσιν· καί ταύτῃ, τό ἐλλιπές τῆς οἰκείας θεότητος δείξαντος, δεομένης παρενθήκης τινός πρός τήν κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ἐντέλειαν· ἤ πάμπαν εἰς ἀνυπαρξίαν μεταχωρῆσαι ποιήσαντος, ὡς οὐ λίαν καλά, καί τῆς αὐτοῦ δημιουργίας τό ἔργον ἐξαφανίσαντος τῷ μή κατά λόγον τινα καί σοφίαν αὐτά ποιῆσαι, καί ἑνῶσαι πρός ἑαυτόν καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν· ἐπεί πῶς, τό λόγῳ καί σοφίᾳ γενόμενον, ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ λόγῳ καί τῇ σοφίᾳ καθ᾿ ἕνωσιν ἀδιασπάστως οὐ σώζεται; ἤ πῶς σωζόμενον 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.

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 (96) 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,