62

advocates for the ecclesiastical faith, the voices of the Fathers, I was for the present unable to insert in my letter, 0533 on account of the great lack of books where I am. For there you have my blessed (15B_262> master, father and teacher, the lord Abba Sophronius, the truly temperate and wise advocate of the truth, and invincible champion of the divine dogmas, able to contend both in deed and word against every heresy, who, among all other good things, is rich in a multitude of divine books, and who zealously enriches those wishing to learn divine things. By resorting to him, therefore, you will, I know well, obtain all the right and unerring knowledge of the divine and saving dogmas. Farewell.

EPISTLE 14. ... TO THE SAME, A DOGMATIC EPISTLE. 14. Of the same, to the same, a dogmatic epistle. (15B_264> God, being good by nature, nothing of what He is by nature to do

is evil. But man, becoming good by the care of his will, is always shown rejoicing in those things that God is by nature to do. For man has no other discernment for being good, than only the disposition towards what is done by God. For the making of good things is proper to God; but to man, the disposition towards them. For the virtue of a man is to show that what has been made by God is loved by a disposition of the will. Therefore, if everything that has God as the cause of its own generation is good, then it is reasonable that the union of things separated is good, and the greatest of good things, because it has been established as a manifest work of God. And if this is altogether true, I know that you rejoice, being good, at seeing those who were scattered gathered into one, because of your disposition towards good things.

Receive then, I beseech you who are guarded by God, as good men, the most God-beloved deacon my lord 0536 Cosmas who brings this humble letter of mine, a good and intelligent man, and adorned with morals according to God, and number him among your own friends; and if there should be a need to present a petition on his behalf to the God-honored Pope, that he may recover his own rank of the diaconate, in which Church he was appointed, do not hesitate. For so genuinely has he accepted the pious (15B_266> account of the divine dogmas of the Church, that he both ardently champions it, and knows this to be the definition and rule of piety: to deny thinking nothing of what Christ is after the ineffable union; God and man at the same time, truly the same one. For He did not cast off what He was, when He truly became what He was not; for He is unchangeable. Nor did He alter what He became, while remaining what He was; for He is a lover of mankind; but He is wholly both by nature according to hypostasis; as one from both, and through His one self saving both, without change and diminution, as truly being them in a union according to hypostasis. For the hypostatic union, having its opposition to division, but not to the natural difference of the things united in it, brings about the complete abolition of the one, and effects the firm preservation of the other; of which the number is a declaration. Since one could never conceive of a difference entirely devoid of quantity; even if one were most wise in arguments and most hard to refute. For as long as the parts of the composite whole, from which the whole is constituted, are preserved without confusion, the natural difference towards one another of the parts of the whole preserved in union is not unknown. And as long as the principle of the essential difference of the parts remains preserved in the whole, it is impossible for the quantity of the parts of the whole, which differ essentially from one another, to be unknown, of which number is by nature to make a declaration, but not a division, except that of the relation of things, that is, of union or of division, but only of the simply, but not of the

62

συνηγόρους τῆς ἐκκλησιαστικῆς πίστεως τῶν Πατέρων φωνάς, τέως οὐκ ἠδυνήθην ἐνθεῖναι τῷ γράμματι, 0533 διά τήν παρ᾿ ἐμοί τῶν βίβλων πολλήν ἀπορίαν. Αὐτόθι γάρ τόν εὐλογημένον (15Β_262> μου δεσπότην ἔχετε, Πατέρα τε καί διδάσκαλον κύριον ἀββᾶν Σωφρόνιον τόν ὄντως σώφρονα καί σοφόν τῆς ἀληθείας συνήγορον, καί ἀήττητον τῶν θείων δογμάτων ὑπέρμαχον, καί ἔργῳ καί λόγῳ κατά πάσης αἱρέσεως δυνατόν ἀγωνίζεσθαι, μετά πάντων τῶν ἄλλων καλῶν, καί πλήθει βίβλων θείων πλουτοῦντα, καί τούς βουλομένους μανθάνειν τά θεῖα προθύμως πλουτίζοντα. Πρός αὐτόν οὖν φοιτῶντες, πᾶσαν τῶν θείων καί σωτηρίων δογμάτων, εὖ οἶδα, κομίσεσθε τήν ὀρθήν καί ἄπταιστον γνῶσιν. Ἔῤῥωσθε.

ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΗ Ι∆'. ... ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟΝ ΑΥΤΟΝ, ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΗ ∆ΟΓΜΑΤΙΚΗ. Ι∆´. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ, πρός τόν αὐτόν, ἐπιστολή δογματική. (15Β_264> Ὁ μέν Θεός κατά φύσιν ὑπάρχων ἀγαθός, οὐδέν ὧν ποιεῖν

πέφυκεν, ἐστί πονηρόν. Ὁ δέ ἄνθρωπος, ἐπιμελείᾳ γνώμης γινόμενος ἀγαθός, οἷς πέφυκε ποιεῖν ὁ Θεός, ἀεί δείκνυται χαίρων. Ἄλλην γάρ ὁ ἄνθρωπος οὐκ ἔχει τοῦ ἀγαθός εἶναι διάγνωσιν, ἤ μόνην τήν πρός τό γινόμενον ὑπό τοῦ Θεοῦ συνδιάθεσιν. Θεοῦ γάρ ἴδιον ἡ τῶν ἀγαθῶν ποίησις· ἀνθρώπου δέ, ἡ πρός αὐτά συνδιάθεσις. Ἀρετή γάρ ἀνδρός ἐστι, τό δεῖξαι τό πεποιημένον ὑπό τοῦ Θεοῦ διαθέσει γνώμης στεργόμενον. Οὐκοῦν εἴπερ ἀγαθόν ἅπαν τό τόν Θεόν ἔχον τῆς οἰκείας γενέσεως αἴτιον, ἀγαθόν εἴκότως, καί τῶν ἀγαθῶν τό μέγιστον, ἡ τῶν διεστηκότων ἕνωσίς ἐστιν, ὅτι Θεοῦ προφανές ἔργον καθέστηκεν. Εἰ δέ τοῦτο πάντως ἐστί ἀληθές, οἶδ᾿ ὅτι χαίρετε θεώμενοι τούς διεσκορπισμένους συναγομένους εἰς ἕν, ἀγαθοί τυγχάνοντες, διά τήν ὑμῶν πρός τά καλά συνδιάθεσιν.

∆έξασθε τοίνυν ὡς ἀγαθούς παρακαλῶ τούς θεοφυλάκτους ὑμᾶς, τόν ταύτην μου τήν μετρίαν ἐπιφερόμενον συλλαβήν θεοφιλέστατον διάκονον κύριόν 0536 μου Κοσμᾶν, ἄνδρα καλόν καί συνετόν, καί τοῖς κατά Θεόν ἤθεσιν ὡραϊσμένον, καί εἰς τούς οἰκείους αὐτόν κατατάξασθαι φίλους· καί εἴπερ γένηται χρεία πρός τόν θεοτίμητον πάπαν ὑπέρ αὐτοῦ καταθέσθαι παράκλησιν, ἵνα τόν ἴδιον ἀπολάβῃ βαθμόν τῆς διακονίας, ἐν ᾗ τεταγμένος ἦν Ἐκκλησίᾳ, μή κατοκνῆσαι. Τοσοῦτον γάρ γνησίως τόν εὐσεβῆ (15Β_266> τῶν θείων τῆς Ἐκκλησίας δογμάτων προσήκατο λόγον, ὥστε καί διαπύρως αὐτοῦ ὑπερμάχεσθαι, καί τοῦτον εἰδέναι τῆς εὐσεβείας ὅρον τε καί θεσμόν, τή μηδέν ἠρνῆσθαι φρονεῖν ὧν ἐστι Χριστός μετά τήν ἄφραστον ἕνωσιν· Θεός ὁμοῦ κατά ταυτόν ἀληθῶς ὁ αὐτός ὑπάρχων καί ἄνθρωπος. Οὐ γάρ ἀπέβαλεν ὅπερ ἦν, γενόμενος ἀληθῶς ὅπερ οὐκ ἦν· ἄτρεπτος γάρ. Οὐδ᾿ ἠλλοίωσεν ὅπερ γέγονε, διαμείνας ὅπερ ὑπῆρχε· φιλάνθρωπος γάρ· ἀλλ᾿ ἄμφω φυσικῶς καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ὅλος ἐστίν· ὡς εἷς ἐξ ἀμφοῖν, καί δι᾿ ἑνός ἑαυτοῦ σώζων ἀμφότερα, δίχα τροπῆς καί μειώσεως, ὡς αὐτά καθ᾿ ἕνωσιν ὤν ἀληθῶς τήν καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν. Ἡ γάρ καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ἕνωσις, πρός τήν διαίρεσιν ἔχουσα τήν ἀντιδιαστολήν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ πρός τήν φυσικήν τῶν κατ᾿ αὐτήν ἡνωμένων διαφοράν, τῆς μέν ποιεῖται τελείαν ἀναίρεσιν, τῆς δέ παγίαν ἐργάζεται τήρησιν· ἧς ὁ ἀριθμός καθέστηκε δήλωσις. Ἐπειδή ποσοῦ παντελῶς ἀμοιροῦσαν οὐκ ἄν ποτέ τις διαφοράν ἐπινοήσειε· κἄν ὁ σοφώτατος ᾗ περί λόγους καί δυσμαχώτατος. Ἕως γάρ ἄν τοῦ κατά σύνθεσιν ὅλου τά μέρη σώζεται δίχα συγχύσεως, ἐξ ὧν τό ὅλον συνέστηκεν, ἡ πρός ἄλληλα φυσική τῶν καθ᾿ ἕνωσιν σωζομένων τοῦ ὅλου μερῶν οὐκ ἀγνοεῖται διαφορά. Ἕως δ᾿ ἄν ἐν τῷ ὅλῳ τῆς κατ᾿ οὐσίαν διαφορᾶς τῶν μερῶν ὁ λόγος μένῃ σωζόμενος, ἀγνοεῖσθαι τό ποσόν τῶν κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ἀλλήλων διαφερόντων τοῦ ὅλου μερῶν ἀμήχανον, οὗ ποιεῖσθαι πέφυκεν ὁ ἀριθμός δήλωσιν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ διαίρεσιν ὅτι μή τῆς σχέσεως τῶν πραγμάτων, τουτέστιν ἑνώσεως ἤ διαιρέσεως, ἀλλά μόνης τῆς ἁπλῶς, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τῆς