53

Therefore, as this divine man says, according to the truth, it is not a natural energy of the flesh, and a power of humanity that paralyzes Satan; nor does the nature of the flesh effect this; since all men, being in the flesh, and one according to the principle of humanity, if they had chosen to act, would also have had power over spirits. Having taught these things clearly, he has therefore stood by them, and has become the interpreter of his own words, that by indwelling, which is to be united according to one hypostasis, and not by being flesh, existing only in its own principles, it is holy and life-giving, having power over every disease. Let us, therefore, also guard, according to the teaching of the saints, the principle of the difference unharmed, preserving the natures themselves, and what belongs to them essentially even after the union; and the mode of the economy completely inseparable, preserving the supreme connaturality of the united things as one; and let us cast out all our division and confusion.

But if we do not piously accept and understand in this way the expressions spoken singularly by the saints, both the Theandric and the One and cognate, according to the principle of the union, but suppose this to be either natural, or again hypostatic, we shall of necessity dogmatize that Christ is one nature; participating in neither of the things from which he is composed at all, because Christ exists as neither nature by nature. For nature could never communicate with nature by nature; but, unparticipating, it is in every way essentially different from every other. This will be the conclusion for us, for those who say the energy is natural; but if again hypostatic, we shall estrange him from the Father and the Spirit according to the energy. For in no characteristic (109) of his own hypostasis would the Son ever communicate with the Father and the Spirit.

Let us therefore in no way be willing to confess a natural or hypostatic energy in the incarnate Word himself, who was perfectly made man. For none of the holy Fathers from his divine condescension to us until now has handed down the confession of a natural or hypostatic energy in him; nor indeed one explicitly, as far as I know, except only the divine Cyril; which we accept with our whole soul, although it belongs to him alone, for the sake of the union; how is it not fitting to receive with great joy also the dual expressions of almost all the holy Fathers, and again of him too, on account of the natural difference; so that by our inclination and acceptance of his one and only expression, we do not cause the expulsion and invalidation of the words of this and other saints; as if the pious exactness of the preaching were entrusted to none other of them, but only to Cyril; and this not in his other words, which indicate the difference, but only in the one and cognate energy.

Besides, how do some say that the energy in Christ the God is simply one? For it must necessarily belong either to his parts, or certainly to him as a whole. But if to the parts, it will be divided, being cut, that is, towards both; and suffering this, it will certainly be dissolved, and will dissolve with itself the things united in it. But if of the whole, it will be receptive of contraries, being mortal and immortal, created and uncreated, circumscribed and uncircumscribed. And if this, Christ had his own energy according to possession and privation, being and not being; on account of which, as acting suitably in it, he is receptive of contraries at the same time; but not according to one and another; than which, what is more impious?

The same can also be said concerning the will. And how then did the Word take his own flesh as a co-worker, according to the wise Cyril, if it did not have its natural energy? For that which has neither energy nor natural motion is certainly dead and inanimate.

53

Ὥστε, ᾗ φησιν ὁ θεῖος οὗτος ἀνήρ, κατά τό ἀληθές, οὐ σαρκός ἐνέργεια φυσική, καί ἀνθρωπότητος δύναμις παραλύει τόν Σατανᾶν· οὐδέ τοῦτο ἐνεργεῖ σαρκός ἡ φύσις· ἐπεί καί πάντες ἄνθρωποι ἐν σαρκί ὄντες, καί εἷς κατά τόν τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος λόγον, ἑλόμενοι ἄν ἐνεργεῖν, καί τήν κατά πνευμάτων εἶχον ἰσχύν. Ταῦτα γοῦν διδάξας σαφῶς παρέστηκε, καί τῶν ἰδίων ἑρμηνευτής γέγονε λόγων, ὡς τῷ ἐνοικεῖν, ὅπερ ἐστίν ἡνῶσθαι καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν μίαν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τῷ σάρξ, ὑπάρχειν, ἐν μόνοις οὖσα τοῖς ἰδίοις λόγοις, ἁγία ἐστί καί ζωοποιός, κατά πάσης νόσου τήν δύναμιν ἔχουσα. Φυλάξωμεν τοιγαροῦν καί ἡμεῖς κατά τήν τῶν ἁγίων ὑφήγησιν, τόν τε τῆς διαφορᾶς λόγον ἀλώβητον, τάς φύσεις αὐτάς, καί τά προσόντα κατ᾿ οὐσίαν αὐταῖς διασώζοντα καί μετά τήν ἕνωσιν· καί τόν τῆς οἰκονομίας τρόπον παντελῶς ἀδιάσπαστον, τήν ἄκραν τῶν ἡνωμένων συμφυΐαν ἐνοειδῆς συντηροῦντα· καί τήν πᾶσαν ἡμῶν ἐξελάσωμεν διαίρεσίν τε καί σύγχυσιν.

Εἰ δέ μή οὕτως τάς μοναδικῶς εἰρημένας τοῖς ἁγίοις φωνάς, τήν τε Θεανδρικήν καί τήν Μίαν τε καί συγγενῆ, κατά τόν τῆς ἑνώσεως λόγον εὐσεβῶς ἐκδεξώμεθα καί νοήσωμεν, ἀλλ᾿ ἤ ταύτην ὡς φυσικήν, ἤ πάλιν ὑποστατικήν ὑπολάβωμεν, φύσιν μίαν ἐξ ἀνάγκης τόν Χριστόν δογματίσομεν· μηδετέρας τῶν ἐξ ὧν συνέστηκε τό παράπαν μετέχουσαν, ὅτι μηδεμία κατά φύσιν ὑπάρχει Χριστός. Φύσις γάρ πρός φύσιν οὐκ ἄν κοινωνήσῃ κατά φύσιν ποτ᾿ ἄν· ἀλλ᾿ ἀμέτοχος, πάντη κατ᾿ οὐσίαν πρός πᾶσάν ἐστι διάφορος · τοῦτο μέν ἡμῖν συναχθήσεται, φυσικήν τήν ἐνέργειαν λέγουσι· εἰ δέ πάλιν ὑποστατικήν, ἀλλοτριώσομεν αὐτόν τοῦ Πατρός καί τοῦ Πνεύματος κατά τήν ἐνέργειαν. Οὐδενί γάρ χαρακτηριστικῷ (109) τῆς ἰδίας ὑποστάσεως· κοινωνήσοι ποτ᾿ ἄν Πατρί καί Πνεύματι ὁ Υἱός.

Μηδαμῶς τοιγαροῦν βουληθῶμεν φυσικήν ἤ ὑποστατικήν ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῦ τοῦ σαρκωθέντος Λόγου, καί τελείως ἐνανθρωπήσαντος ὁμολογεῖν τήν ἐνέργειαν. Οὐδείς γάρ τῶν ἀπό τῆς θείας αὐτοῦ πρός ἡμᾶς καταβάσεως μέχρι νῦν ἁγίων Πατέρων, φυσικήν ἤ ὑποστατικήν ὁμολογεῖν ἐνέργειαν ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῦ παραδέδωκεν· ἀλ᾿ οὐδέ μίαν ῥητῶς, ὡς ἐμέ γινώσκειν, ἤ μόνον Κύριλλος ὁ θεσπέσιος· ἥν ὥσπερ ὁλοψύχως δεχόμεθα, καίπερ αὐτοῦ μόνου τυγχάνουσαν, τῆς ἑνώσεως χάριν· πῶς οὐχί καί τάς τῶν ὅλων σχεδόν ἁγίων Πατέρων, καὐτοῦ δέ πάλιν δέχεσθαι περιχαρῶς προσήκει δυϊκάς φωνάς, τῆς φυσικῆς ἕνεκεν διαφορᾶς· ἵνα μή τῆς περί τήν μίαν καί μόνον αὐτοῦ λέξιν προσκλήσει καί παραδοχῇ, τούτου τε καί ἄλλων ἁγίων τήν ἐκβολήν καί τήν ἀκυρωσίαν τῶν λόγων ποιήσωμεν· ὡς μή ἄλλου τινός αὐτῶν, ἤ μόνου Κυρίλλου τήν εὐσεβῆ τοῦ κηρύγματος πιστευθέντος ἀκρίβειαν· καί ταύτην οὐκ ἐν τοῖς ἄλλοις λόγοις αὐτοῦ, τοῖς τήν διαφοράν δηλοῦσιν, ἀλλ᾿ ἤ μόνον ἐν τῇ μίᾳ καί συγγενεῖ ἐνεργείᾳ.

Ἄλλως τε, πῶς μίαν ἁπλῶς ἐπί Χριστοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ τινές φασι τήν ἐνέργειαν; Ἀνάγκη γάρ ἤ τῶν αὐτοῦ ταύτην ὑπάρχειν μερῶν, ἤ αὐτοῦ πάντως ὡς ὅλου. Ἀλλ᾿ εἰ μέν τῶν μερῶν, μερισθήσεται πρός ἄμφω δηλαδή τεμνομένη· τοῦτο δέ πάσχουσα, λυθήσεται πάντως, καί συνδιαλύσει τά κατ᾿ αὐτήν ἡνωμένα. Εἰ δέ τοῦ ὅλου, τῶν ἐναντίων ἔσται δεκτική, θνητή καί ἀθάνατος οὖσα, κτιστή καί ἄκτιστος, περιγραπτή καί ἀπερίγραφος. Καί εἰ τοῦτο, καθ᾿ ἕξιν καί στέρησιν οὖσαν καί μή οὖσαν τήν οἰκείαν ὁ Χριστός εἶχεν ἐνέργειαν· δι᾿ ἥν, ὡς κατ᾿ αὐτήν προσφυῶς ἐνεργῶν, τῶν ἐναντίων κατά τό αὐτό δεκτικός· ἀλλ᾿ οὐ κατ' ἄλλο καί ἄλλο· οὗ τί δυσσεβέστερον;

Τό αὐτό δέ καί περί θελήματος ἔστιν εἰπεῖν. Πῶς δέ ἄρα συνεργάτιν τήν οἰκείαν ὁ Λόγος παρελάμβανε σάρκα, κατά Κύριλλον τόν σοφόν, οὐκ ἔχουσαν τήν κατά φύσιν ἐνέργειαν; Τό γάρ μή ἔχον ἐνέργειαν μήτε κίνησιν φυσικήν, νεκρόν πάντως καί ἄψυχον·