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For the Lord, hinting in the Gospels, cried out beforehand, as if securing the faithful, saying: Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. By their fruits you will know them. And concerning these very ones, the holy Evangelist John also, in his first catholic epistle, making the pious more sober-minded, says, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that does not confess that the Lord Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God; and this is and now is in the world.

Remembering these words always, I beg you, blessed ones, to hold fast to piety, than which nothing is more proper for men to be reconciled to God, with all attention and care I want everyone with all their power turning away from those who do not 15Β_212 accept the pious and saving dogmas of the Church; and especially having learned that it is the teaching of the Antichrist, Not to confess in the flesh our Lord 0500 and God Jesus Christ, as the great evangelist John expressly cries out; which those now warring against the Church of God manifestly proclaim, denying the nature of the flesh, by not enduring to confess that it is both saved and exists in Christ; and they do not even shudder, to say the more shocking, or rather, the more audacious, thing, putting themselves forward as heralds of a doctrine opposed to God. But these, having chosen to be so perilously disposed with regard to the faith, reap a fruit worthy of their folly; to possess the proof of their impiety, which is easily detected by all.

A BRIEF EXPOSITION OF THE ACCEPTANCE OF THOSE THINGS ORTHODOXLY [SAID] CONCERNING CHRIST ACCORDING TO THE

CATHOLIC ... A brief exposition of the acceptance of those things orthodoxly [said] concerning Christ according to the catholic

Church's confessed expressions of the faith. But we, to speak with God, who feed on the divine and pure grass of ecclesiastical

teaching, having the indestructible glory of piety, we dare to confess piously all the pious expressions of the Fathers concerning Christ before God and men, receiving each with pious understanding and fitting reason; just as from above and from the beginning through those who became ministers of grace, we were taught the saving word of faith. We confess, therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ to be composed of two natures, that is, of divinity and humanity; knowing him to be in two natures, that is, in divinity and humanity. For just as by saying "of two natures," we profess that he is of Divinity and humanity, so also by saying "in two natures," we signify that he reasonably subsists in divinity and humanity; as being in no way 15Β_214 separated after the union from the natures of which he is composed, but in them, from which he also always is, both existing and being known. We confess him again as two natures united hypostatically without division, believing that he is truly the same one, both God and man, the names being verified by the very facts. For as we believe him to be and to be called Son of God and God by nature and in truth, because of the identity of substance with God the Father; So also [we believe] him to be and to be called Son of man, and to have become man,

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Εὐαγγελίοις γάρ ὁ Κύριος αἰνιττόμενος, προαναιφώνησε, τούς πιστούς οἷον ἀσφαλιζόμενος, λέγων· Προσέχετε ἀπό τῶν ψευδοπροφητῶν, οἵτινες ἔρχονται πρός ὑμᾶς ἐν ἐνδύμασι προβάτων· ἔσωθεν δέ εἰσι λύκοι ἅρπαγες. Ἀπό τῶν καρπῶν αὐτῶν ἐπιγνώσεσθε αὐτούς. Περί τούτων δέ αὐτῶν καί ὁ ἅγιος Εὐαγγελιστής Ἰωάννης ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ αὐτοῦ καθολικῇ, νηφαλαιοτέρους τούς εὐσεβεῖς ἐργαζόμενος, φησίν, Ἀγαπητοί μή παντί πνεύματι πιστεύητε, ἀλλά δοκιμάζετε τά πνεύματα, εἰ ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ εἰσιν· ὅτι πολλοί ψευδοπροφῆται ἐξεληλύθασιν εἰς τόν κόσμον. Ἐν τούτῳ γινώσκετε τό Πνεῦμα τοῦ Θεοῦ. Πᾶν πνεῦμα ὅ ὁμολογεῖ Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν ἐν σαρκί ἀληλυθότα, ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐστι. Καί πᾶν πνεῦμα ὅ οὐχ ὁμολογεῖ Κύριον Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν ἐν σαρκί ἐληλυθέναι, τοῦ Θεοῦ οὐκ ἔστι· καί τοῦτό ἐστι καί νῦν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἐστίν.

Τούτων ἀεί μνημονεύοντας τῶν λόγων, αὐτούμενος ὑμᾶς, εὐλογημένοι, τῆς εὐσεβείας, ἧς οὐδέν ἀνθρώποις πρός τό φιλιωθῆναι Θεῷ οἰκειότερον, διά πάσης προσοχῆς καί ἐπιμελείας ἔχεσθαι βούλομαι πάντας πάσῃ δυνάμει ἀποστρεφομένους, τούς μή 15Β_212 δεχομένους τά εὐσεβῆ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας καί σωτήρια δόγματα· καί μάλιστα μαθόντας τῆς τοῦ Ἀντιχρίστου διδασκαλίας εἶναι, Τό μή ἐν σαρκί ὁμολογεῖν τόν Κύριον 0500 ἡμῶν καί Θεόν Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν, ὡς μέγας εὐαγγελιστής διαῤῥήδην βοᾷ Ἰωάννης· ὅπερ οἱ νῦν τῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ πολεμοῦντες Ἐκκλησίᾳ προφανῶς καταγγέλλουσι, τήν φύσιν τῆς σαρκός ἀπαρνούμενοι, τῷ μή ὁμολογεῖν ἐν Χριστῷ σώζεσθαί τε καί εἶναι αὐτήν ἀνέχεσθαι· καί οὔτε φρίττουσι, τό ἐνεεινότερον, ἤ θρασύτερον, εἰπεῖν οἰκειότερον, τῆς Θεῷ ἀντικειμένης δόξης κήρυκας ἑαυτούς προβαλλόμενοι. Ἀλλ᾿ οὗτοι μέν οὕτω διακεῖσθαι ἐπισφαλῶς κατά τήν πίστιν προελόμενοι, ἄξιον τῆς αὐτῶν δρέπονται ἀνοίας καρπόν· τό παρά πᾶσιν εὐφώρατον κεκτῆσθαι τῆς δισσεβείας ἔλεγχον.

ΕΚΘΕΣΙΣ ΣΥΝΤΟΜΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΚ∆ΟΧΗΣ ΤΩΝ ΟΡΘΩΣ ΕΠΙ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥ ΚΑΤΑ ΤΗΝ

ΚΑΘΟΛΙΚΗΝ ... Ἔκθεσις σύντομος τῆς ἐκδοχῆς τῶν ὀρθῶς ἐπί Χριστοῦ κατά τήν καθολικήν

Ἐκκλησίαν ὁμολογουμένων τῆς πίστεως φωνῶν. Ἡμεῖς δέ σύν Θεῷ φᾶναι, οἱ τήν θείαν καί καθαράν τῆς ἐκκλησιαστικῆς

διδασκαλίας πόαν νεμόμενοι, ἀκαθαίρετον ἔχοντες τῆς εὐσεβείας τό κλέον, πάσας εὐσεβῶς τάς εὐσεβεῖς ἐπί Χριστοῦ τόν Πατέρων φωνάς, ὁμολογεῖν ἐνώπιον Θεοῦ καί ἀνθρώπων παῤῥησιαζόμεθα, μετ᾿ εὐσεβοῦς ἐκάστην ἐννοίας καί λογισμοῦ τοῦ πρέποντος ἐκλαμβάνοντες· καθώς ἄνωθεν αἱ ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς διά τῶν γενομένων λειτουργῶν τῆς χάριτος, τόν σωτήριον τῆς πίστεως κατηχήθημεν λόγον. Ὁμολογοῦμεν τοίνυν τόν Κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν ἐκ δύο μέν φύσεων, ὡς ἐκ θεότητος καί ἀνθρωπότητος συγκείμενον· ἐν δύο δέ φύσεσιν, ὡς ἐν θεότητι καί ἀνθρωπότητι, ὄντα γινώσκοντες. Ὥσπερ γάρ ἐκ δύο φύσεων λέγοντες, τό ἐκ Θεότητος καί ἀνθρωπότητος αὐτόν εἶναι δοξάζομεν· οὕτω καί ἐν δύο φύσεσι λέγοντες, τό ἐν θεότητι καί ἀνθρωπότητι εἰκότως αὐτόν ὑπάρχειν σημαίνομεν· ὡς μηδεμιᾶς 15Β_214 κεχωρισμένον μετά τήν ἕνωσιν τῶν ἐξ ὧν συνέστηκε φύσεων, ἀλλ᾿ ἐν αὐταῖς, ἐξ ὧν καί ἔστιν ἀεί, καί ὄντα καί γνωριζόμενον. ∆ύο φύσεις καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ἡνωμένας ἀδιαιρέτως πάλιν αὐτόν ὁμολογοῦμεν, ὡς Θεόν ἀληθῶς τόν αὐτόν ὄντα καί ἄνθρωπον, αὐτοῖς ἐπαληθεύοντα τοῖς πράγμασι τά ὀνόματα πιστεύοντες. Ὡς γάρ Υἱόν Θεοῦ καί Θεόν φύσει αὐτόν καί ἀληθείᾳ καί ὄντα καί λεγόμενον πιστεύομεν διά τήν πρό τόν Θεόν καί Πατέρα τῆς οὐσίας ταυτότητα· Οὕτω καί Υἱόν ἀνθρώπου, καί ἄνθρωπον γενόμενον εἶναί τε καί λέγεσθαι αὐτόν