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of the truest glory, and of the things naturally belonging to Him to confirm the orthodox teaching of the holy Fathers, who handed down to the holy catholic Churches of God that we should think and say these things about Him; and to deny none of the things which He was from the beginning and later became for our sake, nor any of all the properties that naturally characterize them. For each is perfect, and in each they dogmatized the same One, who preserves without defect the natural property of each of the things from which He existed, and is in all things like us, and likewise tempted according to will, except for sin alone. Hearing therefore these blessed voices, we deny nothing either of our own and
natural things, nor of the paternal and divine things, do we deny at all in the same One; but we profess that the same One has different natures and natural energies, and essential wills, that is two. For neither our nature, nor indeed the paternal nature, exists apart from essence, or innate will or energy. And if this is so, it is clear that He who subsists from these, I mean divinity and humanity, in one and the same hypostasis, and is the same One, truly existing as God and man, is consubstantial with us and of the same energy, and has the same innate will according to His humanity; and is consubstantial with the Father and of the same energy, and possesses the same will according to His divinity, and is wholly akin to those above in all things that are akin, and wholly akin to those below in all things that are akin, except for sin alone. And he who does not profess thus, does not accept the God-inspired Fathers who proclaimed these things; but it is clear what and what sort of men he follows. And may it be that all of us, through the mediation of your God-wrought prayers, in the temple
of God, in the Catholic and Apostolic Church, being guarded always in both soul and body, profess this sincere and orthodox confession of our great God and Savior, before Him and all creation, and instead of all, and before (212) all things, offer it to Him at His all-glorious epiphany, and by Him be deemed worthy of the same and to partake of the eternal and blessed gifts promised to those who unashamedly confess Him before men, and to enjoy by experience according to our prayers, those things of which we have now been deemed worthy to taste by faith, through the prayers and intercessions of our all-glorious and all-holy immaculate lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, and of all the saints. Amen.
SCHOLIA. 1. The invisible is a negation of the visible. But what is affirmed is not with respect to sight, but the visible is affirmed; which is a relation of the not-invisible, that is, to that which the not-invisible is related. And for sight, not the not-invisible, but blindness is the relation to which it is affirmed.
2. To those who say that there is no nature without a hypostasis, one must counter with, 'neither is there a hypostasis without an essence.' Then one must add that, just as saying the hypostasis is not without an essence does not present it as being an essence—for this is to divide the mystery of theology and to confuse that of the economy—so too, saying that nature is not without a hypostasis does not introduce the hypostasis.
OF THE SAME.
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ἀληθεστάτης δόξης, καί τῶν προσόντων αὐτῷ φυσικῶς τήν ὀρθόδοξον τῶν ἁγίων Πατέρων κρατύνειν διδασκαλίαν, οἵ περί αὐτοῦ ταῦτα καί φρονεῖν καί λέγειν ταῖς ἁγίαις τοῦ Θεοῦ καθολικαῖς Ἐκκλησίαις παραδεδώκασι· καί μηδέν ἐξαρνεῖσθαι τῶν ἅπερ ἦν ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς καί δι᾿ ἡμᾶς γέγονεν ὕστερον, καί τῶν χαρκτηριζόντων αὐτά φυσικῶς πάντων ἰδιωμάτων. Τέλειον γάρ τά ἑκάτερα, καί ἐν ἑκατέραις τόν αὐτόν ἐδογμάτισαν, καί ἀνελλιπῶς τήν ἑκατέρου τῶν ἐξ ὧν ὑπῆρχε διασώζοντα φυσικήν ἰδιότητα, καί κατά πάντα ὅμοιον ἡμῖν, καί ὁμοίως κατά θέλησιν πεπειραμένον, χωρίς μόνης τῆς ἁμαρτίας. Τούτων οὖν ἐπακούοντες τῶν μακαρίων φωνῶν, οὐδέν οὔτε τῶν ἡμετέρων καί
φυσικῶν, οὔτε τῶν πατρικῶν καί θείων, ἐπί τοῦ αὐτοῦ τό παράπαν ἀρνούμεθα· ἀλλά διαφόρους φύσεις καί φυσικάς ἐνεργείας, καί οὐσιώδη θελήματα, τουτέστι δύο, τόν αὐτόν ἔχειν πρεσβεύομεν. Οὔτε γάρ ἡ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς, οὔτε μήν ἡ πατρική φύσις, οὐσίας ἐκτός, ἤ ἐμφύτου θελήματος ἤ ἐνεργείας καθέστηκε. Καί εἰ τοῦτο, δῆλον ὡς ὁ ἐκ τούτων, θεότητός φημι καί ἀνθρωπότητος, κατά μίαν καί τήν αὐτήν ὑπόστασιν ὑφεστώς, καί Θεός ὁ αὐτός κυρίως ὑπάρχων καί ἄνθρωπος, ὁμοούσιος ἡμῖν ἐστι καί ὁμοεργής, καί τήν αὐτήν ἔμφυτον θέλησιν ἔχων κατά τήν ἀνθρωπότητα· καί ὁμοούσιος τῷ Πατρί καί ὁμοεργής, καί τήν αὐτήν θέλησιν κεκτημένος κατά τήν θεότητα, καί ὅλος συγγενής τοῖς ἄνω κατά πάντα τά συγγενῶς ἔχοντα καί ὅλως συγγενής τοῖς κάτω κατά πάντα τά συγγενῶς ἔχοντα, χωρίς μόνης τῆς ἁμαρτίας. Καί ὁ μή οὕτω πρεσβεύων, τούς ταῦτα κηρύσσοντας οὐ παραδέχεται θεολήπτους Πατέρας· ἀλλά δῆλός ἐστι τίνας καί ποίους. Γένοιτο δέ πάντας ἡμᾶς, τῇ μεσιτείᾳ τῶν θεοτεύκτων ὑμῶν προσευχῶν, ἐν τῷ ναῷ
τοῦ Θεοῦ, τῇ καθολικῇ καί ἀποστολικῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ, διά παντός φρουρουμένους ψυχῇ τε καί σώματι, ταύτην τήν εἰλικρινῆ καί ὀρθόδοξον τοῦ μεγάλου Θεοῦ καί Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν, πρεσβεύειν ὁμολογίαν ἔμπροσθεν αὐτοῦ καί πάσης τῆς κτίσεως, καί ἀντί πάντων, καί πρό (212) πάντων αὐτῷ προσκομίσαι κατά τήν αὐτοῦ πανένδοξον ἐπιφάνειαν, καί πρός αὐτοῦ τῆς ἴσης καταξιωθῆναι καί μετασχεῖν τῶν τοῖς ἀνεπαισχύντως ἔμπροσθεν ἀνθρώπων ὁμολογοῦσιν αὐτόν, ἐπηγγελμένων αἰωνίων τε καί μακαρίων δώρων, καί πείρᾳ κατ᾿ εὐχάς ἀπολαῦσαι, ὧν νῦν πίστει καταξιωθέντες γεγεύμεθα, εὐχαῖς καί πρεσβείαις τῆς πανενδόξου καί παναγίας ἀχράντου δεσποίνης ἡμῶν Θεοτόκου καί Ἀειπαρθένου Μαρίας, καί πάντων τῶν ἁγίων. Ἀμήν.
ΣΧΟΛΙΑ. α´. Τό μέν ἀόρατον τοῦ βλεπομένου ἀπόφασίς ἐστι. Καταφασκόμενον δέ οὐ πρός τήν ὅρασιν, ἀλλά τό ὁρατόν καταφάσκεται· ὅπερ ἐστί σχέσις τοῦ μή ἀοράτου, ἤτοι πρός ὅ τήν σχέσιν ἔχει τό μή ἀόρατον. Τῆς δέ ὁράσεως οὐ τό μή ἀόρατον, ἀλλά ἡ τύφλωσις σχέσις, πρός ἥν καταφάσκεται.
β´. Πρός τούς λέγοντας, μή εἶναι φύσιν ἀνυπόστατον· ἀντιστρεπτέον, τό, μηδέ ὑπόστασιν ἀνούσιον. Εἶτα ἐπακτέον, ὅτι ὥσπερ τό μή ἀνούσιον τήν ὑπόστασιν λέγειν, οὐκ οὐσίαν ταύτην παρίστησιν ὑπάρχειν. Οὕτω γάρ διαιρεῖν καί συγχεῖν ἐστι, τό μέν τῆς θεολογίας, τό δέ τῆς οἰκονομίας μυστήριον. Οὕτως οὐδέ τό λέγειν τήν φύσιν μή ἀνυπόστατον, τήν ὑπόστασιν εἰσάγει.
ΤΟΥ ΑΥΤΟΥ.