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passion; but the boiling of the blood, when clearly moved, works the spirited part; and having arrived, as one living and moving and being in Christ, he has put off from himself the strange [and strange] generation of unequal things; not bearing in himself, as male and female, the contrary dispositions, as I have said, of these passions; so that the reason may not be enslaved to them, being altered by their unstable changes, to which the reverence of the divine image is naturally admixed, persuading the soul to be refashioned (15Γ_242> according to its will towards the divine likeness, and to become part of the great kingdom which subsists essentially with God and Father of all, as a most radiant dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit, receiving wholly, if it is permissible to say, according to its capacity, the power of knowledge of the divine nature; by which the generation of worse things is naturally brought to an end, and that of better things comes into being, with the soul, like God, through the grace of its calling, guarding inviolate within itself the substance of the good things that have been given; by which Christ, ever willing, is mystically born, becoming incarnate through those who are being saved; and making the soul that gives birth a virgin mother, not having, to put it briefly, in its condition, like male and female, the characteristics of a nature subject to corruption and generation.

Let no one be surprised, hearing corruption placed before generation. For whoever dispassionately, with right reason, examines the nature of things that come into being and pass away, will find clearly that generation begins from corruption and ends in corruption; of which Christ does not have the significant passions, as I have said; that is, the life and reason of Christ and according to Christ; if indeed he who says is true, For in Christ Jesus, there is neither male nor female; that is, indicating the signs and the passions of the nature subject to corruption and generation; but only a godlike reason, qualified by divine knowledge, and a monadic movement of the will, choosing virtue alone.

0892 Neither Greek nor Jew, by which is signified the different reasoning concerning the glory of God; or, to speak more truly, the opposed reasoning. The one [Marg. The Greek reasoning] foolishly introducing a plurality of principles, and dividing the one principle into opposing energies and powers; and fabricating a polytheistic worship, both rent by faction due to the multitude of those worshipped, and made ridiculous by the different (15Γ_244> manner of worship. But the other [Marg. The Jewish reasoning], though one, is narrow and imperfect, and almost without subsistence, as being devoid of reason and life, falling through opposites into an equal evil with the former reasoning, namely atheism; circumscribing the one principle in one person, and this subsisting without the Word and the Spirit; or being qualified by the Word and the Spirit; not perceiving that what God would be, deprived of these? or how God would partake, similarly to rational beings under generation, being endowed with these as accidents; of which in Christ there is, as I have said(4), absolutely none; but only a reasoning of true piety, and a firm institution of mystical theology, both sending away the division of the divinity of the former reasoning and not accepting the contraction of the second; so that it is not factious by a natural plurality, for that is Greek; nor passible by being one in hypostasis, for that is Jewish, as deprived of Word and Spirit, or being qualified by Word and Spirit; but the divine is not venerated as being Mind and Word and Spirit; and teaching us, who by a call of grace according to faith have been made for the full knowledge of truth, to know one nature and power of divinity; that is, one God contemplated in Father and Son and Holy Spirit; as, that is, the only uncaused Mind subsisting essentially, begetter of the only essentially subsisting unoriginate Word, and the source of the only eternally and essentially subsisting life, as the Holy Spirit; in the Monad a Trinity, and in the Trinity a Monad; not one in another; for the Trinity is not an accident in the Monad as in a substance; nor the reverse, a Monad in a Trinity; for it is without quality.

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πάθος· αἵματος δέ ζέσιν, κινούμενον σαφῶς τό θυμικόν ἀπεργάζεται· καί φθάσας οἷα δή ζῶν ἐν Χριστῷ καί κινούμενος καί ὤν, ἑαυτοῦ τήν τῶν ἀνίσων ἀλλόκοτον [καί ἀλλοκότων] ἀπέθετο γένεσιν· μή φέρων ἐν ἑαυτῷ καθάπερ ἄῤῥεν καί θῆλυ, τάς ἐναντίας, ὡς ἔφην, τούτων τῶν παθῶν διαθέσεις· ἵνα μή δουλωθῇ τούτοις ὁ λόγος, ταῖς αὐτῶν ἀστάτοις μεταβολαῖς ἀλλοιούμενος, ᾧ φυσικῶς τό τῆς θείας εἰκόνος ἐγκέκραται σέβας, πεῖθον τήν ψυχήν μεταπλασθῆναι (15Γ_242> κατά τήν γνώμην πρός τήν θείαν ὁμοίωσιν, καί γενέσθαι τῆς συνυφισταμένης οὐσιωδῶς τῷ Θεῷ καί Πατρί τῶν ὅλων μεγάλης βασιλείας, ὡς Πνεύματος ἁγίου παμφαές οἰκητήριον, ὅλην δεχόμενον, εἰ θέμις εἰπεῖν, τῆς θείας φύσεως κατά τό δυνατόν, τήν ἐξουσίαν τῆς γνώσεως· καθ᾿ ἥν ἡ μέν τῶν χειρόνων ἀπογίνεσθαι, τῶν δέ κρειττόντων ὑφίστασθαι πέφυκε γένεσις, ἴσα Θεῷ τῆς ψυχῆς κατά τήν χάριν τῆς κλήσεως ἄσυλον φυλαττούσης ἐν ἑαυτῇ τῶν δωρηθέντων καλῶν τήν ὑπόστασιν· καθ᾿ ἥν ἀεί θέλων Χριστός γεννᾶται μυστικῶς, διά τῶν σωζομένων σαρκούμενος· καί μητέρα παρθένων ἀπεργαζόμενος τήν γεννῶσαν ψυχήν, οὐκ ἔχουσαν, ἵνα συνελών εἴπω, κατά τήν σχέσιν, ὥσπερ ἄῤῥεν καί θῆλυ, τά γνωρίσματα τῆς ὑπό φθοράν καί γένεσιν φύσεως.

Ξενιζέσθω δέ μηδείς, τήν φθοράν τῆς γενέσεως ἀκούων προταττομένην. Ἀπαθῶς γάρ σύν ὀρθῷ λόγῳ τήν τῶν γινομένων καί ἀπογινομένων φύσιν διασκοπήσας, εὑρήσει σαφῶς ἐκ φθορᾶς καί εἰς φθοράν τήν γένεσιν ἀρχομένην καί λήγουσαν· ἧς τά σημαντικά πάθη, καθάπερ ἔφην, οὐκ ἔχει Χριστός· ἤγουν ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ τε καί κατά Χριστόν βίος τε καί λόγος· εἴπερ ὁ λέγων ἐστίν ἀληθής, Ἐν γάρ Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, οὐκ ἔστιν ἄῤῥεν καί θῆλυ· τά σημεῖα δηλαδή, καί τά πάθη δηλῶν τῆς ὑπό φθοράν καί γένεσιν φύσεως· ἀλλ᾿ ἤ μόνον θεοειδῆς λόγος γνώσει θείᾳ, πεποιωμένος, καί γνώμης μοναδική κίνησις, μόνην αἱρουμένη τήν ἀρετήν.

0892 Οὔτε Ἕλλην καί Ἰουδαῖος, δι᾿ ὧν τῆς περί Θεοῦ δόξης ὁ διάφορος σημαίνεται λόγος· ἤ, τό γε μᾶλλον ἀληθέστερον εἰπεῖν, ἀντικείμενος. Ὁ μέν [Marg. Ἑλληνικός λόγος] ἀφρόνως εἰσηγούμενος πολυαρχίαν, καί τήν μίαν ἀρχήν ἀντικειμέναις ἐνεργείαις τε καί δυνάμεσι καταμερίζων· καί πλαττόμενος σέβας πολύθεον, τῷ τε πλήθει τῶν προσκυνουμένων στασιαζόμενον, καί τῷ διαφόρῳ (15Γ_244> τῆς προσκυνήσεως τρόπῳ γελώμενον. Ὁ δέ [Marg. Ἰουδαϊκός λόγος] μίαν μέν, στενήν δέ καί ἀτελῆ, καί σχεδόν ἀνυπόστατον, ὡς λόγου καί ζωῆς ἔρημον, πρός ἴσον κακόν τῷ προτέρῳ λόγῳ διά τῶν ἐναντίων ἐκπίπτων, τήν ἀθεΐαν· ἑνί περιγράφων προσώπῳ τήν μίαν ἀρχήν, καί ταύτην δίχα Λόγου καί Πνεύματος ὑφισταμένην· ἤ Λόγῳ καί Πνεύματι πεποιωμένην· μή συνορῶν, ὅτι τίς Θεός, τούτων ἠμοιρημένος· ἤ πῶς Θεός μεθέξει παραπλησίως τοῖς ὑπό γένεσιν λογικοῖς ὡς συμβεβηκότων τούτων μεμοιραμένος· ὧν ἐν Χριστῷ τό παράπαν, ὡς ἔφην(4), οὐδείς· ἀλλά μόνος ἀληθοῦς εὐσεβείας λόγος, καί πάγιος μυστικῆς θεολογίας θεσμός, τήν τε τοῦ προτέρου λόγου διαστολήν τῆς θεότητος ἀποπεμπόμενος καί τήν τοῦ δευτέρου μή παραδεχόμενος συστολήν· ἵνα μή τῷ φυσικῷ πλήθει στασιαστικόν· Ἑλληνικόν γάρ ἤ τῷ καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ἑνικῷ παθητόν· Ἰουδαϊκόν γάρ, ὡς Λόγου καί Πνεύματος ἐστερημένον, ἤ Λόγῳ καί Πνεύματι πεποιωμένον· ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ὄν νοῦς καί Λόγος καί Πνεῦμα τό θεῖον πρεσβεύεται· καί διδάσκων ἡμᾶς, τούς κλήσει χάριτος κατά πίστιν εἰσπεποιημένους εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν ἀληθείας, μίαν εἰδέναι θεότητος φύσιν καί δύναμιν· ἤγουν, ἕνα Θεόν ἐν Πατρί καί Υἱῷ καί ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι θεωρούμενον· οἷα δή μόνον ἀναίτιον νοῦν οὐσιωδῶς ὑφεστῶτα, μόνου κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ὑφεστῶτος ἀνάρχου Λόγου γεννήτορα, καί μόνης ἀϊδίου ζωῆς οὐσιωδῶς ὑφεστώσης, ὡς Πνεύματος ἁγίου πηγήν· ἐν μονάδι Τριάδα, καί ἐν Τριάδι μονάδα· οὐκ ἄλλην ἐν ἄλλῃ· οὐ γάρ ὡς ἐν οὐσίᾳ τῇ μονάδι συμβεβηκός ἐστιν ἡ Τριάς· ἤ τό ἔμπαλιν, ἐν Τριάδι μονάς· ἄποιος γάρ.