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truly existing, which is signified to be through the names. So that, according to them, it is no longer possible for one who chooses to blaspheme to suppose that what is worshipped and adored by us is nothing, which has surpassed every excess of impiety.
Therefore, taking care not to be brought under the charges of blasphemy (501), we do not cease confessing Christ from two natures, as from divinity, as has been said, and humanity; and in two natures, as in divinity and humanity; and two natures, as believing the same one to be at once God and man; because not only in these, but also these; nor only these, but also in these, as knowing the whole from the parts, and the whole in the parts, and the whole through the parts. For if he, having given being to existing things, also bestowed the power for permanence, so that the forms are not confused with one another and do not change into one another, but each remains according to the principle by which it came to be from him; so that those who are diligent lovers of divine sights are able, as far as is possible, from the stability of the natural property of each, to conceive of the all-wise and knowledgeable Creator and Marshal of the universe; much more in himself will he confirm his own infinitely powerful power; by remaining what he was, and becoming what he was not; and not denying what he has become while remaining what he was, by existing unfailingly and unchangeably as both.
And we piously say one incarnate nature of God the Word, with a flesh having an intellectual and rational soul, by adding 'Incarnate', introducing the signification of our substance. For it is a periphrasis in the same [person] according to union, manifesting the two natures through a name and a definition: a name, that of the one nature of the Word, which signifies the commonality of the substance with the particularity of the hypostasis; and a definition of the human [nature], as the teacher himself says: For what is the nature of humanity, except flesh intellectually ensouled? So that he who says 'one incarnate nature of God the Word' declares that God the Word is with ensouled flesh, understanding the flesh to be something altogether other in substance than God the Word, if he is a true and unadulterated disciple of piety. And in speaking of the hypostatic union, we both understand and confess that the union has occurred in one of the natures, inasmuch as neither exists or is conceived of at all by itself, but with the one to which it is composed and naturally united; nor is it again confused with the other according to its essential principle, nor has it suffered from the union any diminution whatsoever of its natural perfection. And again we confess the 'natural union' to mean a 'true' [union], just as the holy Cyril himself both spoke and explained these terms; and not for the abolition of the two natures from which Christ is after the union, or of one of them, as Apollinarius, Eutyches, and Severus have taught, following Simon Magus, Valentinus, and Manes, as it is easy for those who wish to see the identity (504) of the dogmas from the very writings of Severus addressed to the aforementioned impious men, by the correspondence of the words. Likewise we speak of the two births of the same and one Christ, the one from God the Father before the ages, and the one for our sake in the last times born from the holy Virgin; we glorify the miracles and the passions of the same one. And we confess the holy and all-glorious Virgin to be properly and truly Theotokos; as having become the mother not of some mere man, even if pre-formed in the twinkling of an eye without union to the Word, and deified by a progress in works and by the height of virtue; but as of truly God the Word himself, the one of the holy
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ὄντα κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν, ὅπερ εἶναι διά τῶν ὀνομάτων σημαίνεται. Ὡς καί μηδέν εἶναι λοιπόν δύνασθαι, κατ᾿ αὐτούς ἐκείνους εἰπεῖν ὑποτίθεσθαι τόν βλασφημεῖν προαιρούμενον, τό ἡμῖν προσκυνούμενόν τε καί λατρευόμενον, ὅπερ πάσης ἀσεβείας ὑπερβολήν ὑπερβέβηκε.
∆ιόπερ μή ὑπαχθῆναι βλασφημίας ἐγκλήμασι (501) φυλαττόμενοι, οὐ παυόμεθα ὁμολογοῦντες τόν Χριστόν ἐκ δύο φύσεων, ὡς ἐκ θεότητος, καθώς εἴρηται, καί ἀνθρωπότητος· καί ἐν δύο φύσεσιν, ὡς ἐν θεότητι καί ἀνθρωπότητι· καί δύο φύσεις, ὡς Θεόν τε ὁμοῦ τόν αὐτόν ὄντα, καί ἄνθρωπον πιστεύοντες· ὅτι μή ἐν τούτων μόνον, ἀλλά καί ταῦτα· οὐδέ ταῦτα μόνον, ἀλλά καί ἐν τούτοις, ὡς ἐκ μερῶν ὅλον, καί ὅλον ἐν μέρεσι, καί διά τῶν μερῶν ὅλον γινώσκοντες. Εἰ γάρ αὐτός τοῖς οὖσι τό εἶναι δούς, καί τήν πρός διαμονήν ἐχαρίσατο δύναμιν, πρός τό μή φύρεσθαι ἀλλήλοις τά εἴδη καί μεταβάλλειν εἰς ἄλληλα, ἀλλά μένειν ἕκαστα καθ᾿ ὅν παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ γεγένηνται λόγον· ὥστε δύνασθαι ἐκ τῆς κατά τήν φυσικήν ἑκάστων ἰδιότητα παγιότητος, τόν πάνσοφον καί ἐπιστήμονα τοῦ παντός γενεσιουργόν καί ταξιάρχην, τούς τῶν θείων ἐπιμελεῖς φιλοθεάμονας, ὡς ἐφικτόν, ἐννοεῖν· πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἐν ἑαυτῷ τήν ἑαυτοῦ ἀπειροδύναμον πιστώσηται δύναμιν· ὅπερ ἦν διαμένων, καί γενόμενος ὅπερ οὐκ ἦν· καί ὅπερ γέγονεν οὐκ ἀρνούμενος μετά τοῦ μένειν ὅπερ ἦν, τῷ ὑπάρχειν ἀνελλιπῶς τε καί ἀτρέπτως ἀμφότερα.
Καί μίαν δέ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου φύσιν σεσαρκωμένην, σαρκί ψυχήν ἐχούσῃ τήν νοεράν τε καί λογικήν λέγομεν εὐσεβῶς, διά τοῦ ἐπάγειν τό Σεσαρκωμένην, τῆς καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς οὐσίας τήν δήλωσιν εἰσκομίζοντες. Περίφρασις γάρ ἐστιν ἐν ταυτῷ καθ᾿ ἕνωσιν, δι᾿ ὀνόματος καί ὅρου τάς δύο φύσεις ἐμφαίνουσα· ὀνόματος μέν, τῆς μιᾶς τοῦ λόγου φύσεως, τῆς τό κοινόν τῆς οὐσίας μετά τοῦ ἰδίου τῆς ὐποστάσεως σημαινούσης· ὅρου δέ τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης, ὡς αὐτός φησιν ὁ διδάσκαλος Τί γάρ ἐστιν ἀνθρωπότητος φύσις, πλήν ὅτι σάρξ ἐψυχωμένη νοερῶς. Ὥστε ὁ λέγων μίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου φύσιν σεσαρκωμένην, μετά σαρκός ἐμψύχου εἶναι τόν Θεόν Λόγον δηλοῖ, ἕτερόν τι πάντως κατά τήν οὐσίαν παρά τόν Θεόν Λόγον οὖσαν τήν σάρκα νοῶν, ὅ γε ἀληθής τῆς εὐσεβείας μαθητής καί ἀνόθευτος. Καί τήν καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν δέ λέγοντες ἕνωσιν, εἰς μίαν τῶν φύσεων γεγενῆσθαι τήν ἕνωσιν νοοῦμέν τε καί ὁμολογοῦμεν· ὡς μηδεμιᾶς καθ᾿ ἑαυτήν τό σύνολον ἤ οὔσης, ἤ νοουμένης, ἀλλά μετά τῆς συγκειμένης καί συμπεφυκυίας· οὐδ᾿ ἄν πάλιν κατά τόν οὐσιώδη λόγον πρός τήν ἄλλην φυρείσης, ἤ καθ᾿ ὁτιοῦν τῆς φυσικῆς τελειότητος παθούσης ἐκ τῆς ἑνώσεως μείωσιν. Καί πάλιν τήν φυσικήν ἕνωσιν ἀντί τοῦ ἀληθῆ λέγειν ὁμολογοῦμεν, καθώς ὁ ἅγιος αὐτός Κύριλλος ταύτας τάς φωνάς καί εἶπε καί ἐξηγήσατο· καί οὐ πρός ἀναίρεσιν τῶν ἐξ ὧν ἐστίν ὁ Χριστός δύο φύσεων μετά τήν ἕνωσιν, ἤ μιᾶς αὐτῶν, καθώς Ἀπολινάριος, Εὐτυχής τε καί Σευήρος, Σίμωνι μάγῳ, Οὐαλεντίνῳ τε καί Μάνεντι ἀκολουθήσαντες ἐκδεδώκασιν, ὡς ἔστι τοῖς βουλομένοις εὐχερές, ἐκ τῶν Σευήρου αὐτοῦ συγγραμμάτων πρός τούς ὀνομασθέντας ἀσεβεῖς ἄνδρας, κατά τήν συμφωνίαν τῶν λόγων, τήν τῶν δογμάτων κατιδεῖν (504) ταυτότητα. Ὡσαύτως δέ τοῦ αὐτοῦ καί ἑνός Χριστοῦ τάς δύο γεννήσεις φαμέν, τήν τε ἐκ Θεοῦ Πατρός πρό αἰώνων, καί τήν δι᾿ ἡμᾶς ἐπ᾿ ἐσχάτων τῶν χρόνων ἐκ τῆς ἁγίας Παρθένου γεγενημένην· τοῦ αὐτοῦ τά τε θαύματα καί τά πάθη δοξάζομεν. Ὁμολογοῦμεν δέ καί τήν ἁγίαν πανένδοξον Παρθένον κυρίως καί κατά ἀλήθειαν Θεοτόκον· ὡς οὐχί τινος ἀνθρώπου ψιλοῦ, κἄν ὡς ἐν ῥιπῇ ὀφθαλμοῦ δίχα τῆς πρός τόν Λόγον ἑνώσεως προδιαπλασθέντος, καί ἐκ προκοπῆς ἔργων καί ἐκ τῆς εἰς ἀρετήν ἀκρότητος θεωθέντος γεγενημένην μητέρα· ἀλλ᾿ ὡς αὐτοῦ ἀληθῶς τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου, τοῦ ἑνός τῆς ἁγίας