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we hold faith in our Lord and God Jesus Christ, contemplating, and by experience receiving, the outcome of what He foretold; and we are not at all astonished, and we endure turmoil in our soul, as if suffering contrary to promise, but we hold our faith more firmly, seeing the Lord's prophecy fulfilled through events. If the outcome of what was foretold knows how to produce confirmation of faith, all the more through what is happening we also (544) will confirm our faith, finding that the one who spoke is true; and let us confess Him as God before men, suspecting no death at all; so that He also may confess us before the Father; and bring us forward, saved through the good confession, which He Himself began as a model for our good works; having witnessed under Pontius Pilate, and confessed the good confession; which may we be deemed worthy to imitate according to His grace, whenever the time may call; not rashly leaping into the dangers for the sake of the word of piety, but fleeing temptations with all our strength, both out of regard for the persecutors, and by the test, according to full knowledge, of the natural weakness inherent in us; instructing the infants, and waiting for the calling Word; who, being invisibly present in the struggles of those lawfully contending for piety, will run the course of martyrdom; as being alone able to conquer sense and nature; since martyrdom is clearly a victory of sense and nature, through which an uprising of both mind and reason against the passions is wont to occur, according to which the desire for God is confirmed, paradoxically persuading lovers through death to cross over to the one desired; to whom may we be deemed worthy to stand, shining with confessions in Him, which may we also carry with us when departing from here, and passing over to the endless world, through the prayers and intercessions of our all-holy Lady Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, and of all the saints. Amen.

SCHOLION. 1. He who uses, it says, for the sole purpose of indicating the difference in Christ, the expression of the

two natures, combats Apollinarius; and he who in turn says the expression of the one incarnate nature of God the Word, casts out the division of Nestorius. For he who equally flees the impiety of each of these speaks the two expressions.

15. By the same, concerning common and particular, that is, of substance and hypostasis, to Cosmas the most God-loving deacon of Alexandria.

To the most God-loving lord Cosmas, deacon, Maximus the humble, greetings. Since a great discourse has been stirred up for us concerning the divine incarnation, touching upon these very things

of the subtle dogmas of piety, from which, taking the occasion, you requested my lowliness to say, O man of God, what is the common and universal, and what is the particular and individual; so that from this the whole account of the union may become clear to us. I will say nothing at all of my own; but what I was taught by the Fathers, I say, altering nothing of their teaching on these matters. Therefore, what is common and universal, that is, generic, according to the Fathers, is the substance and the nature; for they say that these are the same as one another. But what is individual and particular, is the hypostasis and the person; for according to them, these happen to be the same as one another. And it indicates

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εἰς τόν Κύριον ἡμῶν καί Θεόν Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν πίστιν κατέχομεν, θεωροῦντες, καί τῇ πείρᾳ λαμβάνοντες, ὧν προεῖπεν τήν ἔκβασιν· καί οὐ ξενιζόμεθα παντελῶς, καί σάλον κατά ψυχήν ὑπομένομεν, ὡς παρ᾿ ἐπαγγελίαν πάσχοντες, ἀλλά βεβαιοτέραν τήν πίστιν κατέχομεν, βλέποντες διά τῶν πραγμάτων πληρουμένην τοῦ Κυρίου τήν πρόῤῥησιν. Εἰ δέ βεβαίωσιν πίστεως οἶδε ποιεῖν ἡ τῶν προῤῥηθέντων ἔκβασις, πλέον διά τῶν γινομένων καί (544) ἡμεῖς τήν πίστιν ἡμῶν βεβαιώσομεν, ἀληθῆ τόν εἰρηκότα τυγχάνειν εὑρίσκοντες· καί Θεόν αὐτόν ὁμολογήσωμεν ἔμπροσθεν τῶν ἀνθρώπων, μηδένα παντελῶς ὑφορώμενοι θάνατον· ἵνα καί αὐτός ἡμᾶς ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ Πατρός ὁμολογήσῃ· καί σεσωσμένους διά τῆς καλῆς ὁμολογίας προσαγάγῃ, ἧς αὐτός εἰς τήν τῶν ἡμετέρων καλῶν ὑποτύπωσιν ἀπήρξατο· μαρτυρήσας ἐπί Ποντίου Πιλάτου, καί ὁμολογήσας τήν καλήν ὁμολογίαν· ἥν μιμεῖσθαι κατά τήν αὐτοῦ χάριν ἀξιωθείημεν, ὅτ᾿ ἄν καλέσοι καιρός· μή προπετῶς ἐπιπηδῶντες τοῖς ὑπέρ τοῦ λόγου τῆς εὐσεβείας κινδύνοις, ἀλλά φεύγοντες ὅση δύναμις τούς πειρασμούς, φειδοῖ τε τῶν διωκόντων, καί τῇ κατ᾿ ἐπίγνωσιν δοκιμασίᾳ τῆς ἑνούσης ἡμῖν φυσικῆς ἀσθενείας· τούς νηπιάζοντας παιδαγωγοῦντες, καί τόν καλοῦντα περιμένοντες Λόγον· ὅς ἐν τοῖς νομίμως τούς ὑπέρ εὐσεβείας ὑπερμαχομένοις ἀγῶνας ἀοράτως παραγινόμενος, τόν τῆς μαρτυρίας διέξεισι δρόμον· ὡς μόνος αἴσθησιν καί φύσιν νικῆσαι δυνάμενος· ἐπειδή σαφῶς αἰσθήσεως νίκη καί φύσεώς ἐστι τό μαρτύριον, δι᾿ οὗ πέφυκε νοῦ τε καί λόγου γίγνεσθαι κατά τῶν παθῶν ἐπανάστασις, καθ᾿ ἥν ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ βεβαιοῦται πόθος, παραδόξως διά θανάτου πείθων τούς ἐραστάς διαβῆναι πρός τόν ποθούμενον· ᾧ παραστῆναι καταξιωθείημεν ταῖς εἰς αὐτόν ὁμολογίαις ἀστράπτοντες, ἅς καί συναπενέγκοιμεν ἑαυτοῖς ἐντεῦθεν ἀπιόντες, καί πρός τόν ἀτελεύτητον μεταβαίνοντες κόσμον, εὐχαῖς καί πρεσβείαις τῆς παναγίας ∆εσποίνης ἡμῶν Θεοτόκου καί ἀειπαρθένου Μαρίας, καί πάντων τῶν ἁγίων. Ἀμήν.

ΣΧΟΛΙΟΝ. α´. Ὁ χρώμενος, φησί, πρός μόνην δήλωσιν τῆς διαφορᾶς ἐπί Χριστοῦ, τῇ φωνῇ τῶν

δύο φύσεων, Ἀπολιναρίῳ μάχεται· καί ὁ λέγων πάλιν τήν φωνήν τῆς μιᾶς τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου φύσεως σεσαρκωμένης, ἐκβάλλει τήν Νεστορίου διαίρεσιν. Τάς δύο γάρ λέγει φωνάς ὁ φεύγων ἐπ' ἴσης τήν ἑκατέρου τούτων δυσσέβειαν.

ΙΕ´. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ, περί κοινοῦ καί ἰδίου, τουτέστιν οὐσίας καί ὑποστάσεως, πρός Κοσμᾶν τόν θεοφιλέστατον διάκονον Ἀλεξανδρείας.

Τῷ θεοφιλεστάτῳ κυρίῳ Κοσμᾷ διακόνῳ, Μάξιμος ταπεινός χαίρειν. Ἐπείπερ πολύς ἡμῖν περί τῆς θείας σαρκώσεως κεκίνηται λόγος, αὐτῶν ἁψάμενος

τῶν λεπτῶν τῆς εὐσεβείας δογμάτων, ἐξ ὧν λαβόμενος ἀφορμῆς τήν ἐμήν ἀπῄτησας ταπείνωσιν, εἰπεῖν, ἄνθρωπε τοῦ Θεοῦ, τί τό κοινόν ἐστι καί καθόλου· καί τί τό μερικόν καί ἴδιον· ἵν᾿ ἐντεῦθεν ἡμῖν σαφής ὁ πᾶς τῆς ἑνώσεως γένηται λόγος· ἐμόν μέν οὐδέν ἐρῷ παντελῶς· ὅ δέ παρά τῶν Πατέρων ἐδιδάχθην, φημί, μηδέν παραμείβων τῆς αὐτῶν ἐπί τούτοις διδασκαλίας. Κοινόν μέν οὖν ἐστι καί καθολικόν, ἤγουν γενικόν, κατά τούς Πατέρας, ἡ οὐσία καί ἡ φύσις· ταυτόν γάρ ἀλλήλαις ταύτας ὑπάρχειν φασίν. Ἴδιον δέ καί μερικόν, ἡ ὑπόστασις καί τό πρόσωπον· ταυτόν γάρ ἀλλήλοις κατ᾿ αὐτούς ταῦτα τυγχάνουσιν. Καί δηλοῖ