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A brief exposition with the right defense of the true confession of the Fathers.

But we do not think thus, we do not believe thus, nor is this the portion of Jacob, says the one who spoke: but we confess that the one Christ, that is, his one hypostasis, was composed from two natures, perfect according to their own principle of being, I mean divinity and humanity, we believe that the natures remained unconfused and without any division after the union. For believing Christ to be, we have confessed that the natures from which he was composed are preserved after the union. And for this reason we proclaim a natural difference in him, clearly considering the parts from which he was composed; that divinity is not the same as humanity in substance; but a hypostatic identity; for the flesh is manifestly the same as the Word in hypostasis. Therefore, knowing the real difference of the natures from which Christ was composed after the union, we are not ignorant of the identity in hypostasis; since the parts of Christ, though naturally differing from each other, do not differ in the hypostasis of the whole composed from them; because it is not in the nature of the whole for the complementary parts of the whole to differ from one another in every way.

Therefore, having confessed two natures in the same one, we have recognized the same one to be at once God and man; since we do not utter these names of him as bare and predicated of nothing. But believing him to be in two natures, undividedly and unconfusedly after the union, we have proclaimed the same one perfect in divinity, and the same one perfect in humanity, as a whole in its parts. For from which parts he was composed, in them he is known as a whole after (573) the union; because Christ has no other manifestation of being and being preserved and being properly spoken of, than the natural persistence after the union of the parts from which he was composed; for not only is he from these, but in these, and to speak more properly, these are Christ; and we number the things from which Christ is after the union, not dividing, God forbid, the natures, but only making a declaration of their preserved difference after the union. And we confess a coming together in a natural, that is, a true and real, union, according to Saint Cyril, and we proclaim the all-holy Virgin to be properly and truly Theotokos; not simply, but as having truly conceived and ineffably given birth to him who was ineffably begotten of God the Father before all ages, God the Word, incarnate from her. And we speak of the miracles and the passions as belonging to the same one, that is, of the one Christ who works both the divine and the human things; the divine things fleshly, because through the flesh, which did not lack natural activity, he put forth the power of his miracles; the human things divinely, because without natural compulsion, by his authority he willingly accepted the experience of human passions. Of the same one are the cross and the death and the burial and the resurrection, and the ascension into the heavens; from which he descended without flesh, he did not pass from place to place, being he who is in no way contained by existing things. For he is free from all circumscription; but he appeared through the flesh as one who is by nature a lover of mankind, being made containable by our things, as he wished, through a true birth from a woman. Therefore we also offer one worship to him, even incarnate, together with the Father and the Spirit.

If, therefore, with soul and mouth we call the holy Virgin properly Theotokos, and confess the union according to hypostasis, and say that a natural coming together in union has occurred, and proclaim one Lord and Christ and Son, and one incarnate nature of God the Word; and one of the holy Trinity, with the Father and the Spirit

214

Ἔκθεσις σύντομος μετά τῆς ὀρθῆς συνηγορίας τῆς ἀληθοῦς τῶν Πατέρων ὁμολογίας.

Ἡμεῖς δέ οὐχ οὕτω φρονοῦμεν, οὐχ οὕτω πιστεύομεν, οὐδ᾿ αὕτη ἐστίν ἡ μερίς τοῦ Ἰακώβ, φησίν ὁ εἰπών· ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ δύο φύσεων τελείως ἐχουσῶν κατά τόν ἴδιον τοῦ εἶναι λόγον, θεότητός τέ φημι καί ἀνθρωπότητος, συντεθεῖσθαι τόν ἕνα Χριστόν, ἤγουν τήν αὐτοῦ μίαν ὑπόστασιν ὁμολογοῦντες, ἀσυγχύτους μεμενηκέναι, καί τῆς οἱασοῦν δίχα τομῆς τάς φύσεις πιστεύομεν μετά τήν ἕνωσιν. Τόν Χριστόν γάρ εἶναι πιστεύοντες, τάς ἐξ ὧν συνετέθη σώζεσθαι φύσεις ὁμολογήσαμεν μετά τήν ἕνωσιν. Καί διά τοῦτο φυσικήν μέν ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῦ, τά μέρη δηλονότι σκοποῦντες ἐξ ὧν συνετέθη, διαφοράν καταγγέλλομεν· ὅτι μή ταυτόν θεότης κατ᾿ οὐσίαν καί ἀνθρωπότης· ὑποστατικήν δέ ταυτότητα· ταυτόν γάρ καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ὑπάρχει τῷ Λόγῳ προδήλως ἡ σάρξ. Πραγματικήν οὖν γινώσκοντες μετά τήν ἕνωσιν τῶν ἐξ ὧν Χριστός συνετέθη φύσεων τήν διαφοράν, τήν καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν οὐκ ἀγνοοῦμεν ταυτότητα· εἴπερ πρός ἄλληλα μέν φυσικῶς διαφέροντα τά μέρη τοῦ Χριστοῦ, κατά τήν ὡς ὅλου τοῦ ἐξ αὐτῶν συντεθέντος ὑπόστασιν οὐ δαφέρουσιν· ὅτι μή πέφηκε τῷ τοῦ ὅλου λόγῳ τά συμπληρωτικά μέρη τοῦ ὅλου διαφέρειν ἀλλήλων παντάπασιν.

Φύσεις μέν οὖν, δύο τόν αὐτόν ὁμολογήσαντες, Θεόν ὁμοῦ τόν αὐτόν ὄντα καί ἄνθρωπον ἐγνωρίσαμεν· εἴπερ μή ψιλάς, καί κατά μηδενός κειμένας ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῦ τάς κλήσεις προφέρομεν. Ἐν δύο δέ φύσεσιν ἀδιαιρέτως τε καί ἀσυγχύτως μετά τήν ἕνωσιν ὄντα πιστεύοντες, ἐν θεότητι τέλειον τόν αὐτόν, καί ἐν ἀνθρωπότητι τέλειον τόν αὐτόν κατηγγείλαμεν, ὡς ὅλον ἐν μέρεσιν. Ἐξ ὧν γάρ συνετέθη μερῶν, ἐν αὐτοῖς ὡς ὅλον γνωρίζεται μετά (573) τήν ἕνωσιν· ὅτι μηδ᾿ ἄλλην ἔχει τοῦ εἶναί τε καί σώζεσθαι, καί κυρίως λέγεσθαι δήλωσιν ὁ Χριστός, ἤ τήν πρός τό εἶναι φυσικῶς μετά τήν ἕνωσιν διαμονήν τῶν ἐξ ὧν συνετέθη μερῶν· οὐ μόνον γάρ ἐκ τούτων, ἀλλά ἐν τούτοις, καί κυριώτερον εἰπεῖν, ταῦτά ἐστιν ὁ Χριστός· ἀριθμοῦμεν δέ μετά τήν ἕνωσιν τά ἐξ ὧν ὁ Χριστός, οὐ μερίζοντες, μή γένοιτο, τάς φύσεις, ἀλλά μόνην τῆς αὐτῶν σωζομένης μετά τήν ἕνωσιν διαφορᾶς ποιούμενοι δήλωσιν. Σύνοδον δέ καθ᾿ ἕνωσιν φυσικήν, ἤγουν ἀληθῆ τε καί πραγματικήν ὁμολογοῦμεν κατά τόν ἅγιον Κύριλλον, καί Θεοτόκον κυρίως καί κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν τήν παναγίαν Παρθένον πρεσβεύομεν· οὐχ ἁπλῶς, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς αὐτόν τόν πρό πάντων τῶν αἰώνων ἀφράστως ἐκ Θεοῦ καί Πατρός γεννηθέντα Θεόν Λόγον συλλαβοῦσαν ἀληθῶς, καί ἀῤῥήτως ἐξ αὐτῆς σαρκωθέντα γεννήσασαν. Καί τοῦ αὐτοῦ τά τε θαύματα καί τά πάθη λέγομεν, ὡς ἑνός ὄντος δηλαδή τοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ τά θεῖα καί τά ἀνθρώπινα ἐνεργοῦντος· τά μέν θεῖα σαρκικῶς, ὅτι διά σαρκός φυσικῆς ἐνεργείας οὐκ ἀμοιρούσης τήν τῶν θαυμάτων προὐβάλλετο δύναμιν· τά δ᾿ ἀνθρώπινα θεϊκῶς, ὅτι δίχα βίας φυσικῆς, κατ᾿ ἐξουσίαν τήν τῶν ἀνθρωπίντων παθῶν θέλων κατεδέχετο πεῖραν. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ τόν σταυρόν καί τόν θάνατον καί τήν ταφήν καί τήν ἀνάστασιν, καί τήν εἰς οὐρανούς ἀνάληψιν· ἐξ ὧν ἄσαρκος κατελθών, οὐ μετῆλθε τόπους ἀμείψας, ὁ μηδενί λόγῳ τοῖς οὖσι χωρούμενος. Πάσης γάρ ὑπάρχει περιγραφῆς ἐλεύθερος· ἀλλ᾿ ἐπεφάνη διά σαρκός ὡς φύσει φιλάνθρωπος, κατά γέννησιν ἀληθῆ τήν ἐκ γυναικός χωρητός, ὡς ἠθέλησε, τοῖς ἡμετέροις γενόμενος. ∆ιό καί μίαν αὐτῷ καί σαρκωθέντι προσάγομεν σύν Πατρί καί Πνεύματι τήν προσκύνησιν.

Εἰ τοίνυν ψυχῇ τε καί στόματι Θεοτόκον κυρίως τήν ἁγίαν Παρθένον λέγομεν, καί τήν καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ἕνωσιν ὁμολογοῦμεν, καί σύνοδον καθ᾿ ἕνωσιν γεγενῆσθαι λέγομεν φυσικήν, καί ἕνα Κύριον καί Χριστόν καί Υἱόν, καί μίαν αὐτοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου φύσιν σεσαρκωμένην πρεσβεύομεν· καί ἕνα τῆς ἁγίας Τριάδος, Πατρί τε καί Πνεύματι