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of the poor and needy, who were so lifted from the earth by the grace of God, and exalted, that their life to the Word, and their mind to the Lord of things here, and

be raised above the things here; assimilating and uniting the image to the archetype; or rather, to speak more truly, wishing to make the voluntary condescension of your supreme beauty an indication of height, so that by your abundance you might also lead us to the measure of God the Word, who by his emptying toward us indescribably demonstrated the height of his own glory; for which reason he longed to remold us all the more, inasmuch as for our sake he fashioned himself in the flesh toward what is more humble; becoming by nature man without change and without confusion, he who is preeminently the lover of mankind; leaving out nothing in his assumption of what is ours, lest he should diminish the grace for himself and the salvation for us, not giving it wholly to the nature, by not having taken the whole nature; but diminishing that grace in that respect in which he did not assume this nature. "For what is not assumed is not healed," says the great Gregory. For how could the super-essential God the Word, incarnate for us from the Holy Spirit and Mary the Ever-Virgin and Theotokos by the assumption of flesh having an intellectual and rational soul, and being designated by nature and becoming a new man, renew the old, if he did not take him wholly and entirely, without sin alone, from which comes the state of oldness; and for which death was condemned upon nature, having us as food to the extent that we have tasted of that, being bitterly filled with the tree of transgression. And how could he, having emptied himself, raise the one who has fallen, if he had not wholly and entirely from the very moment of conception united him to himself hypostatically, without the slip alone, from which comes the shattering, (157) and for which the penalty? For this reason indeed, having assumed an intellectual and rational soul together with its connatural body, that is, a perfect man without any blemish, and having united him to himself hypostatically, he, the God who is above nature, and having taken its natural property, certainly had a self-determining will. If, in transgressing the commandment, we transgressed not because of the will, but not without the will, we needed healing with respect to it; the like being healed by the assumption of the like, by God himself who was incarnate; and having assumed it, he would also have its rational and vital energy; by which, having, would that we had not, conceived and perpetrated sin, we were in need of salvation with respect to it, by the assumption of him who cleanses it from all defilement, and who by the incarnation deifies our whole nature. For if God the Word, being God, created this nature as essentially having these things—I mean both the will and the energy—and established the one as self-determining, and the other as active, it is clear that in this way, having taken the nature, he united it to himself hypostatically, as he had created it from the beginning, that is, as by nature possessing will and energy; lest, if he had assumed only the suffering nature but not its innate powers, he would not have assumed the nature at all, but would have made the economy a fantasy. For it is impossible for our nature, or that of any other existing things, ever to be or to be called a nature without its innate powers, by which everyone is by nature essentially characterized. Therefore our nature is not without a will, since otherwise it would not even be a human nature. Nor indeed without energy, since it is not even soulless. But if what is ours was without will and without energy, as it has seemed to some heretics of old and of today, then he who is for us has not become according to us at all, not confirming what is ours by our own properties, and by those with which he himself, having created him from the beginning, naturally characterized man, making him by nature self-determining and active. And yet, the composition of the holy Gospels confirms that he has incontrovertibly assumed the power of both of these, in which it introduces the super-essential Word as a man for our sakes, willing and acting, in one place crying out: And about the fourth

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πτωχοῦ τε καί πένητος, οἱ τοσοῦτον ἀπό γῆς ἀρθέντες κατά θεοῦ χάριν, καί ὑψωθέντες, ὥστε τόν βίον τῷ λόγῳ, καί τόν νοῦν τῷ Κυρίῳ τῶν τῇδε, καί

ὑπέρ τῶν τῇδε διᾶραι· τῷ ἀρχετύπῳ τήν εἰκόνα προσοικειούμενοί τε καί ἑνίζοντες· ἤ μᾶλλον εἰπεῖν ἀληθέστερον, ἔνδειξιν ἐθέλοντες ὕψους ποιεῖσθαι τήν αὐθαίρετον ὕφεσιν τῆς ὑπερτάτης ὑμῶν καλλονῆς, ὡς ἄν τῷ περιόντι καί ἡμᾶς ἀγάγοιτε πρός τό μέτρον τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου, κενώσει τῇ πρός ἡμᾶς τό τῆς οἰκείας δόξης ἀπεριγράφως ὕψος ἐπιδεικνύντος· ἐφ᾿ ᾧ τε μεταπλάσαι τοσοῦτον ἡμᾶς ἐπιποθέστερον, ὅσῳπερ ἄν σαρκί δι' ἡμᾶς αὐτός ἑαυτόν ἐπλαστούργησε πρός τό ταπεινότερον· φύσει γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος δίχα τροπῆς καί συγχύσεως, ὁ διαφερόντως φιλάνθρωπος· ἐλλείψας οὐδέν εἰς πρόσληψιν τῶν ἡμετέρω, ἵνα μή καί ἑαυτῷ τήν χάριν, καί ἡμῖν ἐλλείψῃ τήν σωτηρίαν, οὐχ ὅλην τῇ φύσει διδούς, ὡς μή ὅλην τήν φύσιν λαβών· ἀλλά κατ᾿ ἐκεῖνο μειώσας ἐκείνην, καθ᾿ ὅπερ ἄν οὐ προσείληφε ταύτην. "Τό γάρ ἀπρόσληπτον, ἀθεράπευτον," φησίν ὁ ἱέγας Γρηγόριος. Πῶς γάρ ὁ ὑπερούσιος δι᾿ ἡμᾶς σαρκωθείς Θεός Λόγος ἐκ Πνεύματος ἁγίου καί Μαρίας τῆς Ἀειπαρθένου καί Θεομήτορος προσλήψει σαρκός ψυχήν ἐχούσης τήν νοεράν τε καί λογικήν, νέος τε χρηματίσας φύσει καί γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος, καινουργήσει τόν πάλαι, μή δι᾿ ὅλου καί ὅλον λαβών, μόνης δίχα τῆς ἁμαρτίας, ἐξ ἧς ἡ παλαίωσις· καί δι᾿ ἥν ὁ θάνατος κατεκρίθη τῆς φύσεως, τροφήν ἔχων τοσοῦτον ἡμᾶς, ὡς ἐκείνης γεγεύμεθα, τοῦ ξύλου πικρῶς ἐμφορηθέντες τῆς παραβάσεως. Πῶς δέ κενωθείς ὁ αὐτός ἀναστήσει τόν πεπτωκότα, μή δι᾿ ὅλου καί ὅλον ἐξ αὐτῆς ἄκρας συλλήψεως ἑνώσας ἑαυτῷ καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν, δίχα μόνου τοῦ ὀλισθήματος, ἐξ οὗ τό σύντριμμα, (157) καί δι᾿ ὅ τό ἐπιτίμιον; Ταύτῃ τοι ψυχήν νοεράν καί λογικήν μετά τοῦ συμφυοῦς αὐτῇ σώματος, τουτέστι τέλειον ἄνθρωπον παντός μώμου χωρίς προσλαβών, καί ἑνώσας ἑαυτῷ καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν, αὐτός ὁ ὑπέρ φύσιν Θεός, καί τήν αὐτῆς φυσικήν λαβών, εἶχε πάντως αὐτεξούσιον θέλησιν. Εἰ παραβάντες τήν ἐντολήν δίχα θελήσεως, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ θελήσεως δίχα, παρέβημεν, ἐδεόμεθα τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτήν ἰατρείας· τῇ προσλήψει τοῦ ὁμοίου τό ὅμοιον, αὐτοῦ δή τοῦ σαρκωθέντος Θεοῦ θεραπεύοντος· αὐτήν δ᾿ ἄν καί τήν ταύτης προσλαβών λογικήν τε καί ζωτικήν εἶχεν ἐνέργειαν· ᾗ τήν ἁμαρτίαν, ὡς εἴθε μή ποτ᾿ ἄν, λογισάμενοί τε καί ἐνεργήσαντες, ἐχρήζομεν τῆς κατ' αὐτήν σωτηρίας, τῇ προσλήψει μολυσμοῦ παντός ταύτην ἀποκαθαίροντος, καί ὅλην τῇ σαρκώσει θεουργοῦντος τήν ἡμετέραν φύσιν. Εἰ γάρ οὐσιωδῶς ταῦτα ἔχουσαν ταύτην ἐδημιούργησε Θεός ὤν ὁ Λόγος, τήν τε θέλησίν φημι καί τήν ἐνέργειαν, καί τήν μέν αὐτεξούσιον, τήν δέ ἐνεργοῦσαν παρέστηκε, δῆλον ὡς οὕτω τήν φύσιν λαβών ἥνωσεν ἑαυτῷ τό καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν, ὡς ἀπαρχῆς ταύτην ἐδημιούργησε, τουτέστι θελητικήν φύσει καί ἐνεργητικήν· ἵνα μή τήν φύσιν μόνον παθοῦσαν, ἀλλ' οὐ καί τάς αὐτῆς ἐμφύτους δυνάμεις προσείληφεν, οὐδ᾿ ἄν τήν φύσιν προσείληφεν, ἀλλά τήν οἰκονομίαν ἐφάντασεν. Ἀδύνατον γάρ τήν ἡμετέραν, ἤ τῶν ὄντων ἑτέρων εἶναι ποτ᾿ ἄν ἤ ὀνομάζεσθαι φύσιν, τῶν αὐτῆς ἐμφύτων δίχα δυνάμεων, αἷς οὐσιωδῶς πᾶς χαρακτηρίζεσθαι πέφυκεν. Ὅθεν οὐκ ἀνεθέλητος ἡ ἡμετέρα φύσις ἐπεί μηδέ ἀνθρώπου. Οὔτε μήν ἀνενέργητος, ἐπεί μηδέ ἄψυχος. Εἰ δέ ἀνεθέλητος ἦν καί ἀνενέργητος, τό καθ'᾿ἡμᾶς, ὥς τισι τῶν πάλαι καί νῦν ἔδοξεν αἱρετικῶν, οὐδέ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ὅλως γέγονεν ὁ ὑπέρ ἡμᾶς, μή πιστούμενος τό ἡμέτερον τοῖς ἡμετέροις, καί οἷς αὐτός ἀρχῆθεν δημιουργήσας ἐχαρακτήρισε φυσικῶς, αὐτεξούσιον καί ἐνεργόν ποιήσας κατά φύσιν, τόν ἄνθρωπον. Καίτοι τούτων ἑκατέρων ἀναντιῤῥήτως προσειληφέναι πιστοῦται τήν δύναμιν, οἷς ἄνθρωπον δι᾿ ἡμᾶς εἰσάγει τόν ὑπερούσιον Λόγον θέλοντά τε καί ἐνεργοῦντα τῶν ἁγίων Εὐαγγελίων ἡ σύνταξις, πῆ μέν βοῶσα· Καί περί τετάρτην