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of perceptible bodies, to exist as a monadic nature according to hypostasis; of which the succession from one another according to species is a very clear characteristic and definition of their being. Just as Holy Scripture also testifies, providing through itself certainty for the argument, introducing God as commanding these things to the great Noah. And God said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. And of all clean animals, bring with you seven pairs, male and female; and of animals that are not clean, two by two, male and female; and of all the clean birds of the air, seven pairs, male and female, and of all the unclean birds of the air, two by two, male and female, to preserve seed upon all the earth.” To which, if the phoenix is to be counted as a winged creature, it is not of a monadic nature according to hypostasis, according to the divine decree, so that we may not say these things as I have stated; for it is not our custom to fight over things that are not necessary. It is very clear to all that if Christ is a monadic nature, He is consubstantial neither with God the Father, nor with men. For that which is in every way monadic by nature is completely alienated from natural kinship with anything else whatsoever. But if, according to those very people, as the argument has shown, Christ is in every way by nature alienated from all beings; we shall urge these new dogmatists to say what He is by nature, and by what principle they worship Christ, who, according to the premises of their own arguments, is nothing, being blasphemed by them.

If, therefore, a great and terrible danger necessarily follows, according to the power of the argument presented, for those who say that Christ is one according to nature, that is, one nature, whether it be called simple or composite; and this whether generic, that is, common, or monadic, that is, particular; with all vigilance let us keep our hearts pure from such a doctrine, that we may also be freed from the future threat against it. And let us piously confess the two in Christ according to the principle of natural otherness, that is, of the difference of the natures from which He is, which are preserved even after the union, as parts in a whole; according to which the parts never naturally coincide with one another, as long as each preserves its own natural principle inviolate in relation to the other; but the one according to the principle of hypostatic identity, according to which Christ as a composite whole admits no division, that is, partition, of Himself from Himself based on difference; as long as He is believed to be one hypostasis both before the flesh and after the incarnation; and is worshipped and glorified by us as one of the holy and royal Trinity. For the hypostasis of Christ is monadic, as a whole, in no way divisible into the extremes according to its characteristic property, by which it is distinguished from them. By extremes I now mean, God the Father, from whom Christ was divinely begotten before the ages; and the holy all-glorious Virgin and Mother, from whom the same was humanly born for our sake, by the affinity of its own parts to both extremes, preserving its identity in essence without diminution; in which parts Christ, while admitting the principle of difference, does not depart from His own monadic hypostasis. For every whole, and especially one by composition, being considered as from different things, while monadically preserving the identity of its own hypostasis, also has the unconfused difference of its own parts with respect to each other, by which it preserves unadulterated the principle of each part in relation to the other in essence. Likewise, the parts also, in their composition with one another, preserving their natural principle pure and undiminished, have the unitive, indivisible identity of their own whole; by which it monadically preserves the principle according to hypostasis as completely indivisible.

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αἰσθητικῶν σωμάτων, μοναδικῆς ὑπάρχειν καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν, φύσεως· ὧν ἡ ἐξ ἀλλήλων κατ᾿ εἶδος διαδοχή, ἀρίδηλος χαρακτήρ τοῦ εἶναι καί ὅρος ἐστί. Καθάπερ καί ἡ θεία Γραφή μαρτύρεται, τό βέβαιον δι᾿ ἑαυτῆς τῷ λόγῳ παρεχομένη, τῷ μεγάλῳ Νῶε τόν Θεόν εἰσηγουμένη ταῦτα προστάσσοντα. Καί εἶπεν ὁ Θεός τῷ Νῶε, Εἴσελθε σύ, καί πᾶς ὁ οἶκός σου εἰς τήν κιβωτόν, ὅτι σε εἶδον δίκαιον ἐναντίον ἐμοῦ ἐν τῇ γενεᾷ ταύτῃ. Ἀπό δέ πάντων τῶν κτηνῶν τῶν καθαρῶν εἰσάγαγε πρός σέ ἑπτά ἑπτά, ἄρσεν καί θῆλυ· ἀπό δέ τῶν κτηνῶν τῶν μή ὄντων καθαρῶν, δύο δύο, ἄρσεν καί θῆλυ· καί ἀπό πάντων τῶν πετεινῶν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ τῶν καθαρῶν, ἑπτά ἑπτά, ἄρσεν καί θῆλυ, καί ἀπό πάντων τῶν πετεινῶν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ τῶν μή καθαρῶν, δύο δύο, ἄρσεν καί θῆλυ, διαστρέψαι σπέρμα ἐπί πᾶσαν τήν γῆν. Οἷς, εἴπερ ὡς πτηνόν ζῶον ὁ φοίνιξ ἐστίν ἐναρίθμιος, μοναδικῆς καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν φύσεως οὐκ ἔστι κατά τήν θείαν ἀπόφασιν, ἵνα ταῦτα καθώς ἔφην μή λέγωμεν· οὐ γάρ φίλον ἡμῖν ὑπέρ τῶν οὐκ ἀναγκαίων τό μάχεσθαι· πᾶσιν εὔδηλόν ἐστι, ὡς εἴπερ μοναδική φύσις ἐστίν ὁ Χριστός, οὔτε τῷ Θεῷ καί Πατρί ὁμοούσιος ἐστιν, οὔτε τοῖς ἀνθρώποις. Τό γάρ πάντη κατά τήν φύσιν μοναδικόν, τῆς πρός ὁτιοῦν ἄλλο παντελῶς ἠλλοτρίωται φυσικῆς συγγενείας. Εἰ δέ κατ᾿ αὐτούς ἐκείνους, ὡς ἔδειξεν ὁ λόγος, πάντη κατά τήν φύσιν ὁ Χριστός πάντων ἠλλοτρίωται τῶν ὄντων· αὐτούς εἰπεῖν προτρεψόμεθα τούς καινούς δογματιστάς, τί ὄντα κατά τήν φύσιν, καί ποίῳ λόγῳ σέβουσι τόν Χριστόν, τόν μηδέν ὅσον ἐπί ταῖς αὐτῶν ὑποθήκαις τῶν λόγων, ὄντα παρ᾿ αὐτῶν βλασφημούμενον.

Εἰ τοίνυν μέγας καί φοβερός ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἕπεται κίνδυνος, κατά τήν ἀποδοθεῖσαν τοῦ λόγου δύναμιν, τοῖς λέγουσιν ἕν κατά τήν φύσιν εἶναι τόν Χριστόν, ἤγουν μίαν φύσιν, εἴτε ἁπλῶς λεγομένην, εἴτε σύνθετον· καί ταύτην εἴτε γενικήν ἤγουν κοινήν, εἴτε μοναδικήν ἤγουν ἴδικήν· πάσῃ φυλακῇ τάς ἑαυτῶν καρδίας τῆς τοιαύτης δόξης τηρήσωμεν καθαράς, ἵνα καί τῆς ἐπ᾿ αὐτῇ μελλούσης ἀπειλῆς ἐλευθερωθῶμεν. Καί τό μέν δύο ἐπί Χριστοῦ κατά τόν τῆς φυσικῆς ἑτερότητος λόγον, ἤγουν διαφορᾶς τῶν ἐξ ὧν ἐστι φύσεων σωζομένων καί μετά τήν ἕνωσιν, ὡς ἐν ὅλῳ μερῶν, εὐσεβῶς ὁμολογήσωμεν· καθ᾿ ὅν οὐδέποτε τά μέρη φυσικῶς ἀλλήλοις συμπίπτουσιν, ἕως ἑκάτερον τόν οἰκεῖον τῆς φύσεως πρός τό ἕτερον διαφυλλάτει λόγον ἀλώβητον· τό δέ ἕν κατά τόν τῆς ὑποστατικῆς ταυτότητος λόγον, καθ᾿ ὅν οὐδεμίαν τό σύνολον πρός ἑαυτόν ὁ Χριστός ὡς ὅλον τήν ἐκ διαφορᾶς διάκρισιν, ἤγουν μερισμόν ἐπιδέχεται· ἕως μία καί πρό σαρκός, καί μετά σάρκωσιν ὑπόστασις ὑπάρχων πιστεύεται· καί εἷς τῆς ἁγίας καί βασιλικῆς Τριάδος προσκυνεῖται παρ᾿ ἡμῶν καί δοξάζεται. Μοναδική γάρ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἡ ὑπόστασις, ὡς ὅλον, μηδενί λόγῳ κατά τήν χαρακτηρισικήν αὐτῆς ἰδιότητα τοῖς ἄκροις ἐπιμεριζομένη, καθ᾿ ἥν αὐτῶν ἀφορίζεται. Ἄκρα δέ νῦν λέγω, τόν Θεόν καί Πατέρα, ἐξ οὗ πρό τῶν αἰώνων ὁ Χριστός γεγένηται θεϊκῶς· καί τήν ἁγίαν πανένδοξον Παρθένον καί Μητέρα, ἐξ ἧς ὁ αὐτός ἀνθρωπίνως γεγέννηται δ᾿ ἡμᾶς, τῇ πρός ἄμφω τά ἄκρα τῶν ἰδίων μερῶν οἰκειότητι, φυλάττουσα τήν κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ἀμειώτως ταυτότητα· οἷς μέρεσι τόν τῆς διαφορᾶς ὁ Χριστός ἐπιδεχόμενος λόγον, τῆς οἰκείας οὐκ ἐξίσταται μοναδικῆς ὑποστάσεως. Πᾶσα γαρ ὁλότης, καί μάλιστα κατά σύνθεσιν, ἐκ διαφόρων θεωρουμένη, τῆς οἰκείας ὑποστάσεως μοναδικῶς φυλάττουσα τήν ταυτότητα, καί τήν πρός ἄλληλα τῶν οἰκείων μερῶν ἀσύγχυτον ἔχει διαφοράν, καθ᾿ ἥν τόν ἑκατέρου μέρους πρός θάτερον κατ᾿ οὐσίαν διασώζει λόγον ἀνόθευτον. Ὡσαύτως δέ καί τά μέρη κατά τήν πρός ἄλληλα σύνθεσιν, ἀκραιφνῆ καί ἀμείωτον τόν κατά φύσιν λόγον φυλάττοντα, τήν ἑνικήν τῆς οἰκείας ὁλότητος ἀδιάκριτον ἔχει ταυτότητα· καθ' ἥν μοναδικῶς τόν καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν διαφυλάττει λόγον παντελῶς ἀδιαίρετον.