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powers, he showed that the terrestrial and celestial powers are one festival for the distribution of divine gifts; human nature in exultation according to one and the same will resounding with the powers above the glory of God; but also that after the fulfillment of the economy on our behalf, having been taken up with the body that was assumed, he united heaven and earth through himself; and he joined the intelligible to the perceptible, and showed the one created nature, in the extremities of its parts, through virtue and the knowledge of the first cause, to be bound to itself; showing, I think, through what he mystically accomplished, how reason is the union of things divided, while unreason is the division of things united; and may we learn to partake of reason through practice, so that we may be united not only to angels in virtue, but also to God in knowledge through the abstraction of beings.

And he makes a partaking of divine life, preparing himself as food, as he himself knows, and those who from him have received such an intelligible 15Γ_226 sense, so that by tasting this food, they might know, in true knowledge, that the Lord is good, transforming those who eat toward deification by a divine quality; such as he who is clearly both being and called the bread of life and power.

And he restores nature to itself, not only because, having become man, he kept his will impassible and unconflicted with respect to nature; nor was its natural foundation shaken at all, even toward those who crucified him; but on the contrary, rather choosing death on their behalf instead of life; by which the voluntary character of his passion is also shown, 0880 being confirmed by the philanthropic disposition of the one who suffered; but also because he abolished the enmity, nailing the handwriting of sin to the cross, through which nature was implacably at war with itself; and having called those far and those near, that is, those under the law and those outside the law; and having broken down the middle wall of the partition, that is, clarifying the law of the commandments in dogmas; he created the two into one new man, making peace and reconciling us through himself to the Father, and to one another, no longer having a will opposed to the law of nature; but just as nature, so also being unchangeable in will.

And he establishes nature pure from the law of sin, not allowing pleasure to precede his incarnation for our sake; for the conception was wondrously without seed, and the birth incorruptibly beyond nature; that is, God who was born tightened for his mother, more than nature, the bonds of virginity through his birth; and liberating all nature from the dominion of the prevailing 15Γ_228 law, in those who are willing, through the mortification, according to the senses, of the members on earth, for those who imitate his voluntary death. For the mystery of salvation belongs to those who are willing, not to those who are tyrannized.

And he brings about the destruction of the wicked tyranny that prevailed over us through deceit, by putting forth as a weapon against him the flesh that was conquered in Adam, and conquering; so that he might show that she who was formerly captured unto death captured him who captured her, and by a natural death destroyed his life; and she became poison to him, so that he would vomit up all whom he had swallowed in his strength, as one having the power of death; but life for the human race, pushing the whole of nature, like a leavened dough, toward the resurrection of life, for the sake of which especially the Word, being God, 0881 becomes man (a truly strange deed and report) and willingly accepts the death of the flesh. The argument of the prayer will be found to contain a petition for all these things, as I have said.

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δυνάμεις, μίαν πρός τήν τῶν θείων δώρων διανομήν τῶν ἐπιγείων καί οὐρανίων δυνάμεων ἀπέδειξεν οὖσαν πανήγυριν· τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως ἐν ἀγαλλιάσει κατά τό ἕν καί τό αὐτό θέλημα ταῖς ἄνω δυνάμεσι τήν δόξαν τοῦ Θεοῦ συνεπηχούσης· ἀλλ᾿ ὅτι καί μετά τήν πλήρωσιν τῆς ὑπέρ ἡμῶν οἰκονομίας, μετά τοῦ προσληφθέντος ἀναληφθείς σώματος, οὐρανόν καί γῆν ἥνωσε δι᾿ ἑαυτοῦ· καί τοῖς νοητοῖς συνῆψε τά αἰσθητά, καί μίαν ἔδειξε τήν κτιστήν φύσιν ταῖς τῶν ἑαυτῆς ἀκρότησι μερῶν, κατ᾿ ἀρετήν τε καί τῆς πρώτης αἰτίας ἐπίγνωσιν, πρός ἑαυτήν συνδεομένην· δεικνύς, οἶμαι, δι᾿ ὧν ἐπετέλει μυστικῶς, ὡς ὁ μέν λόγος ἐστί τῶν διεστώτων ἕνωσις· ἡ δέ ἀλογία, τῶν ἡνωμένων διαίρεσις· καί μάθωμεν λόγου μεταποιεῖσθαι διά τῆς πράξεως, ἵνα μή μόνον ἀγγέλοις κατ᾿ ἀρετήν, ἀλλά καί Θεῷ γνωστικῶς κατά τήν τῶν ὄντων ἑνωθῶμεν ἀφαίρεσιν.

Ζωῆς δέ θείας μεταποιεῖται μετάδοσιν, ἐδώδιμον ἑαυτόν ἐργαζόμενος, ὡς οἶδεν αὐτός, καί οἱ παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ τοιαύτην αἴσθησιν 15Γ_226 νοεράν εἰληφότες, ὥστε τῇ γεύσει ταύτης τῆς βρώσεως, εἰδέναι, κατ᾿ ἐπίγνωσιν ἀληθῶς, ὅτι χρηστός ὁ Κύριος, ποιότητι θείᾳ πρός θέωσιν μετακιρνῶν τούς ἐσθίοντας· οἷα δή σαφῶς ζωῆς καί δυνάμεως ἄρτος καί ὤν καί καλούμενος.

Τήν φύσιν δέ πρός ἑαυτήν ἀποκαθίστησιν, οὐ καθότι μόνον γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος, ἀπαθῆ τήν γνώμην πρός τήν φύσιν ἐτήρησε καί ἀστασίαστον· μηδέ πρός αὐτούς τούς σταυρώσαντας τῆς κατά φύσιν οἰκείας σαλευομένην τό σύνολον βάσεως· τοὐναντίον δέ μᾶλλον αἱρουμένην ἀντί ζωῆς τόν ὑπέρ αὐτῶν θάνατον· καθ᾿ ὅ καί τό τοῦ πάθους ἑκούσιον δείκνυται, 0880 τῇ τοῦ πάσχοντος φιλανθρώπῳ διαθέσει κυρούμενον· ἀλλ᾿ ὅτι καί τήν ἔχθραν κατήργησε, προσηλώσας τῷ σταυρῷ τό τῆς ἁμαρτίας χειρόγραφον, δι᾿ ὅ πρός ἑαυτήν ἀσπόνδως εἶχεν ἡ φύσις τόν πόλεμον· καί τούς μακράν καί τούς ἐγγύς καλέσας, τούς ὑπό νόμον δηλαδή καί τούς ἔξω νόμου· καί τό μεσότοιχον τοῦ φραγμοῦ λύσας, τόν νόμον δηλονότι τῶν ἐντολῶν σαφηνίσας ἐν δόγμασι· τούς δύο ἔκτισεν εἰς ἕνα καινόν ἄνθρωπον, ποιῶν εἰρήνην καί ἀποκαταλλάσσων ἡμᾶς δι᾿ ἑαυτοῦ τῷ Πατρί, καί ἀλλήλοις, οὐκ ἔχοντας ἔτι τήν γνώμην ἀνθισταμένην τῷ λόγῳ τῆς φύσεως· ἀλλ᾿ ὥσπερ τήν φύσιν, οὕτω καί τήν γνώμην ὄντας ἀναλλοιώτους.

Καθαράν δέ τοῦ νόμου τῆς ἁμαρτίας τήν φύσιν καθίστησιν, ἡδονήν προκαθηγεῖσθαι τῆς δι᾿ ἡμᾶς αὐτοῦ μή συγχωρήσας σαρκώσεως· ἄσπορος γάρ γέγονε παραδόξως ἡ σύλληψις, καί ἄφθορος ὑπέρ φύσιν ἡ γέννησις· ἐπισφίγγοντος δηλαδή τοῦ τεχθέντος Θεοῦ τῇ μητρί, πλέον τῆς φύσεως, τά δεσμά τῆς παρθενίας διά γεννήσεως· καί τήν φύσιν ἅπασαν, τῆς τοῦ κρατήσαντος 15Γ_228 νόμου δυναστείας, ἐν τοῖς βουλομένοις ἐλευθεροῦντος τῇ κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν νεκρώσει τῶν ἐπί γῆς μελῶν, τόν αὐτοῦ μιμουμένοις αὐθαίρετον θάνατον. Βουλομένων γάρ, οὐ τυραννουμένων τό τῆς σωτηρίας μυστήριον.

Τῆς δέ τοῦ κρατήσαντος ἡμῶν δι᾿ ἀπάτης πονηροῦ τυραννίδος ποιεῖται καθαίρεσιν, τήν σάρκα τήν νικηθεῖσαν ἐν τῷ Ἀδάμ, ὅπλον κατ᾿ αὐτοῦ προβαλλόμενος, καί νικῶν· ἵνα δείξῃ τήν πρότερον ἁλοῦσαν πρός θάνατον, ἑλοῦσαν τόν ἑλόντα, καί θανάτῳ φυσικῷ τήν ἐκείνου ζωήν διαφθείρουσαν· καί γινομένην, αὐτῷ μέν δηλητήριον, πρός τό πάντας οὕς κατέπιεν ἰσχύσας, ὡς ἔχων τοῦ θανάτου τό κράτος, ἐμέσαι· ζωήν δέ τῷ γένει τῶν ἀνθρώπων, πᾶσαν ὥσπερ φύραμα τήν φύσιν πρός ἀνάστασιν ὠθοῦσαν ζωῆς, ὑπέρ ἧς μάλιστα Θεός ὤν ὁ Λόγος, 0881 ἄνθρωπος γίνεται (τό ξένον ὄντως πρᾶγμα καί ἄκουσμα) καί τόν σαρκός θέλων καταδέχεται θάνατον. Τούτων ἁπάντων, ὡς ἔφην, αἴτησιν ἔχων ὁ τῆς προσευχῆς εὑρεθήσεται λόγος.