58

Of the most holy bishop Augustine. From the same, from the letter to Volusianus. Now he has appeared as a mediator between God and men, so that he, in the unity of his person, joins both natures, and joining things of custom to things of truth, and blending things of truth with things of custom. From the same, in his exposition of the Gospel according to Saint John. What then, heretic, since Christ is God and man, but if as man, you slander God? He exalts the human nature in himself, but you dare to cheapen his divine nature. From the same, in the sermon on the exposition of the faith. For it is ours to believe, but his to know, and thus God the Word himself, having received all that is of man, let him be man, and the man who was assumed, having received all that is of God, let him be nothing other than what God is. But not because he is said to be incarnate and mixed should his 181 substance be thought to be diminished. God knows how to mix himself without his own corruption, and he is indeed mixed according to truth. He knows how to receive in himself in such a way that he is increased by no addition, just as he knows, he poured his whole self, so that no diminution befell him. Let us not therefore, according to the notion of our weakness and conjecturing from the perceptible teachings of experience, think that God and man are mixed from equal created things that are mixed with each other, and believe that in such a confusion of the Word and the flesh, something like a body was produced, lest we should think that in the manner of things that are confused, two natures have been brought into one hypostasis; for such a mixture is the corruption of each part. But God who contains, but is not contained, who searches, but is not searched, who fills, but is not filled, being whole everywhere at once and pervading through all by pouring out his own power, as merciful, was mixed with the human nature, but the human nature was not mixed with the divine. Of Severian, Bishop of Gabala. On the birth of Christ. O mystery truly heavenly and earthly, contained and not contained, seen and not appearing. For such also was the born Christ, heavenly and earthly, contained and not contained, seen and unseen; heavenly according to the nature of his divinity, but earthly according to the nature of his humanity; seen according to the flesh, unseen according to the spirit; contained according to the body, uncontainable according to the Word. Of Atticus, Bishop of Constantinople. From the letter to Eupsychius. What then was it necessary for the all-wise One to accomplish? By the mediation of the assumed flesh and by the union of God the Word with the man 182 from Mary, both things come to pass, so that Christ, united from both, while being disposed by his divinity to remain in the proper dignity of his impassible nature, yet in the flesh conversed with death, at once to show to the connatural nature of the flesh the contempt of death through death, and at the same time for the ordinances of the new covenant to be confirmed by his death. Of Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria. From the letter to Nestorius. And that while the natures brought together into a true unity are different, there is one God and Son from both, not as if the difference of the natures was abolished because of the union. From the same, from the letter to the Orientals. For a union of two natures has been made; therefore we confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord. According to this understanding of the unconfused union, we confess the holy virgin to be Theotokos, because God the Word was made flesh and became man, and from the very conception united to himself the temple taken from her. From the same, from the same letter. For there is one Lord Jesus Christ, even if the difference of the natures is not unknown, from which we say the ineffable union was made. From the same. Understanding therefore, as I said, the of the incarnation

58

ἁγιωτάτου ἐπισκόπου Αὐγουστίνου. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῆς ἐπιστολῆς τῆς πρὸς Βολουσιανόν. Νῦν δὲ οὗτος μεταξὺ θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων ἀνεφάνη μεσίτης, ὥστε αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ τοῦ προσώπου ἑνότητι συνάπτειν ἑκατέραν τὴν φύσιν, καὶ τὰ ἐν ἔθει αὔξοντα τοῖς ἀληθέσι, καὶ τὰ ἀληθῆ συγκεράσαντα τοῖς ἐξ ἔθους. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ ἐκθέσει τοῦ εὐαγγελίου τοῦ κατὰ τὸν ἅγιον Ἰωάννην. Τί τοίνυν, αἱρετικέ, ἐπειδὴ Χριστός ἐστι θεὸς καὶ ἄνθρωπος, ἀλλ' εἰ μὲν ὡς ἄνθρωπος, συκοφαντεῖς δὲ θεόν; Ἐκεῖνος ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην φύσιν ὑψοῖ, σὺ δὲ ἐκείνου τολμᾷς ἐξευτελίσαι τὴν θείαν. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τῷ περὶ τῆς ἐκθέσεως τῆς πίστεως. Καὶ γὰρ ἡμέτερόν ἐστι τὸ πιστεύειν, ἐκείνου δὲ τὸ εἰδέναι, καὶ οὕτως αὐτὸς ὁ θεὸς λόγος τὸ πᾶν ὑποδεξάμενος ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἀνθρώπου, ἄνθρωπος ἔστω, καὶ ὁ προσληφθεὶς ἄνθρωπος ὑποδεξάμενος ἅπαν ὅπερ ἐστὶ θεοῦ, ἄλλο τι μὴ ἔστω πλὴν ὅπερ θεός. Ἀλλὰ μὴ ἐπειδὴ σεσαρκωμένος εἶναι λέγεται καὶ μικτός, μεμειῶσθαι τὴν αὐτοῦ 181 οὐσίαν νομιστέον. Οἶδε μιγνύναι θεὸς ἑαυτὸν δίχα τῆς οἰκείας φθορᾶς, καὶ μίγνυται μέν γε κατὰ ἀλήθειαν. Οἶδεν οὕτως ἐν ἑαυτῷ ὑποδέξασ θαι, ὥστε μηδὲν αὐτῷ προσθήκης αὐξάνεσθαι, καθὼς οἶδεν, ἑαυτὸν ὅλον ἐνέχεεν, ὥστε μηδὲν αὐτῷ συμβῆναι μειώσεως. Μὴ τοίνυν κατὰ τὴν τῆς ἡμετέρας ἀσθενείας ἔννοιαν, καὶ τὰ αἰσθητὰ τῆς πείρας διδάγματα στοχαζόμενοι ἐκ τῶν ἴσων τῶν ἑαυτοῖς μιγνυμένων κτισμάτων μεμίχθαι νομίσωμεν θεὸν καὶ ἄνθρωπον, καὶ τῇ τοιαύτῃ συγχύσει τοῦ τε λόγου καὶ τῆς σαρκὸς ὡσανεί τι σῶμα γενόμενον οὕτω πιστεύειν, μή πως τῷ τρόπῳ τῶν συγχυνομένων δύο φύσεις εἰς μίαν ὑπόστασιν ἐνηνέχθαι νομίσωμεν· ἡ γὰρ τοιαύτη μίξις ἐστὶν ἑκατέ ρου μέρους φθορά. Ὁ δὲ θεὸς ὁ χωρῶν, ἀλλὰ οὐ χωρούμενος, ἐρευνῶν, οὐκ ἐρευνώμενος, πληρῶν, ἀλλ' οὐ πληρούμενος, ἁπανταχοῦ ὁμοῦ ὢν ὅλος καὶ δι' ὅλου χωρῶν διὰ τοῦ ἐγχέαι τὴν ἑαυτοῦ δύναμιν, ὡς οἰκτίρ μων, ἐμίγη τῇ φύσει τῇ ἀνθρωπείᾳ, οὐ μὴν ἡ ἀνθρώπου φύσις ἐμίγη τῇ θείᾳ. Σευηριανοῦ ἐπισκόπου Γαβάλων. Εἰς τὴν γένναν τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Ὢ μυστηρίου ἀληθῶς οὐρανίου καὶ ἐπιγείου, κρατουμένου καὶ μὴ κρατουμένου, ὁρωμένου καὶ μὴ φαινομένου. Τοιοῦτος γὰρ ἦν καὶ ὁ γεννηθεὶς Χριστός, οὐράνιος καὶ ἐπίγειος, κρατούμενος καὶ μὴ κρατούμενος, ὁρώμενος καὶ ἀόρατος· οὐράνιος κατὰ τὴν τῆς θεότητος φύσιν, ἐπίγειος δὲ κατὰ τὴν τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος φύσιν· ὁρώμενος κατὰ τὴν σάρκα, ἀόρατος κατὰ τὸ πνεῦμα· κρατούμενος κατὰ τὸ σῶμα, ἀκράτητος κατὰ τὸν λόγον. Ἀττικοῦ ἐπισκόπου Κωνσταντινουπόλεως. Ἐκ τῆς πρὸς Εὐψύχιον ἐπιστολῆς. Τί τοίνυν ἐχρῆν τὸν πάνσοφον πραγματεύσασθαι; Μεσιτείᾳ τῆς προσληφθείσης σαρκὸς καὶ ἑνώσει τοῦ θεοῦ λόγου πρὸς τὸν ἐκ 182 Μαρίας ἄνθρωπον ἑκάτερα γίνεται, ὥστε τὸν ἐξ ἀμφοῖν ἡνωμένον Χριστόν, θεότητι μὲν διατιθέμενον ἐπὶ τοῦ οἰκείου μεῖναι τῆς ἀπα θοῦς φύσεως ἀξιώματος, σαρκὶ δὲ θανάτῳ προσομιλήσαντα, ὁμοῦ μὲν ἀποδεῖξαι τῇ ὁμοφύλῳ τῆς σαρκὸς φύσει τὴν κατὰ τοῦ θανάτου διὰ τοῦ θανάτου ὑπεροψίαν, ὁμοῦ δὲ κρατύνεσθαι τῇ τελευτῇ τῆς καινῆς διαθήκης τὰ δίκαια. Κυρίλλου ἐπισκόπου Ἀλεξανδρείας. Ἐκ τῆς πρὸς Νεστόριον ἐπιστολῆς. Καὶ ὅτι διάφοροι μὲν αἱ πρὸς ἑνότητα τὴν ἀληθινὴν συνενεχθεῖσαι φύσεις, εἷς δὲ ἐξ ἀμφοῖν θεὸς καὶ υἱός, οὐχ ὡς τῆς τῶν φύσεων δια φορᾶς ἀνῃρημένης διὰ τὴν ἕνωσιν. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῆς πρὸς τοὺς Ἀνατολικοὺς ἐπιστολῆς. ∆ύο γὰρ φύσεων ἕνωσις γέγονε· διὸ ἕνα Χριστόν, ἕνα υἱόν, ἕνα κύριον ὁμολογοῦμεν. Κατὰ ταύτην τὴν τῆς ἀσυγχύτου ἑνώσεως ἔννοιαν ὁμο λογοῦμεν τὴν ἁγίαν παρθένον θεοτόκον, διὰ τὸ τὸν τοῦ θεοῦ λόγον σαρκωθῆναι καὶ ἐνανθρωπῆσαι, καὶ ἐξ αὐτῆς τῆς συλλήψεως ἑνῶσαι ἑαυτῷ τὸν ἐξ αὐτῆς ληφθέντα ναόν. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς ἐπιστολῆς. Εἷς γὰρ κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, κἂν ἡ τῶν φύσεων μὴ ἀγνοῆται διαφορά, ἐξ ὧν τὴν ἀπόρρητον ἕνωσιν πεπράχθαι φαμέν. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ. Ἐννοοῦντες τοίνυν, ὡς ἔφην, τῆς ἐνανθρωπήσεως τὸν