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262.2 And it is very easy to refute this absurdity. But since the blasphemy has its obviousness from itself, I think that for the one who fears the Lord even the mere reminder is sufficient. For if He was changed, He was also altered. But far be it from us to say or even to think this, since God said: "I am, and I have not been altered." Furthermore, how did the benefit of the Incarnation pass to us, if our body, having been joined to the divinity, did not become superior to the dominion of death? For He who was changed would have substantiated His own body, which existed by His divine nature being made gross. And how was the incomprehensible divinity circumscribed into the bulk of a small body, if the entire nature of the Only-Begotten was changed? But I think that no one who has sense and possesses the fear of God suffers from this sickness. But since the rumor has come to me that some of those with your love are in this weakness of their thoughts, I thought it necessary not to make my address bare, but that our letter should have something of the sort that is able to build up the souls of those who fear the Lord. We therefore exhort that these things meet with ecclesiastical correction and that you abstain from communion with the heretics, knowing that to be indifferent in these matters takes away our confidence in Christ.

263.τ TO THE WESTERNERS

263.1 May the Lord our God, in whom we have hoped, grant to each of you as much grace for the attainment of the hope set before you, as the joy with which you yourselves have filled our hearts both from the letters which you sent to us through our most beloved fellow presbyters and from the sympathy for our sorrows, with which you have suffered along with us, as having put on bowels of compassion, as the aforesaid have reported to us. For even if our wounds remain the same, nevertheless, it brings us some relief to have physicians ready who are able, if they find an opportunity, to bring a swift healing for our pains. Wherefore we both address you again through our beloved brethren and beseech you, if the Lord gives you leave to travel to us, not to shrink from visiting us; for the visitation of the sick is of the greatest commandment. But if the good God and wise steward of our life is storing up this grace for another time, at least write to us whatever is fitting to be written by you for the consolation of the afflicted and the correction of the crushed. For many now have been the shatterings of the Church, and great is our affliction over them and our expectation of help from nowhere else, unless the Lord sends forth the healing through you who genuinely serve Him. 263.2 Now, the rashness and shamelessness of the Arian heresy, having been openly broken off from the body of the Church, remains in its own error and harms us little because its impiety is manifest to all. But those who are clothed in sheep's skin and present a tame and gentle appearance, but from within unsparingly tear Christ's flocks, and because they have sprung from our own ranks easily inflict harm on the more simple, these are the difficult and hard-to-guard-against ones. We ask that these men be publicly exposed by your accuracy to all the Churches throughout the East, so that they might either walk uprightly and be genuinely with us, or, remaining in their perversion, they might have the harm among themselves alone, being unable, from unguarded communion, to transmit their own disease to those who approach them. It is necessary to mention these by name, so that you yourselves may know those who are working disturbances among us and may make it clear to your Churches. For our word is suspect to many

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262.2 Τοῦτο δὲ τὸ ἄτοπον ἐλέγξαι καὶ πάνυ ῥᾴδιον. Ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ αὐτόθεν ἔχει τὸ ἐναργὲς ἡ βλασφημία, νομίζω τῷ φοβουμένῳ τὸν Κύριον ἀρκεῖν καὶ μόνην τὴν ὑπόμνησιν. Εἰ γὰρ ἐτράπη, καὶ ἠλλοιώθη. Τοῦτο δὲ ἀπείη καὶ λέγειν καὶ ἐννοεῖν τοῦ Θεοῦ εἰπόντος· «Ἐγώ εἰμι καὶ οὐκ ἠλλοίωμαι». Ἔπειτα πῶς εἰς ἡμᾶς διέβη ἡ τῆς Ἐνανθρωπήσεως ὠφέλεια, εἰ μὴ τὸ ἡμέτερον σῶμα τῇ θεότητι συναφθὲν κρεῖττον ἐγένετο τῆς τοῦ θανάτου ἐπικρατείας; Ὁ γὰρ τραπεὶς οἰκεῖον ὑπεστήσατο σῶμα ὅπερ παχυνθείσης αὐτῷ τῆς θεϊκῆς φύσεως ὑπέστη. Πῶς δὲ ἡ ἀπερίληπτος θεότης εἰς μικροῦ σώματος ὄγκον περιεγράφη, εἴπερ ἐτράπη πᾶσα ἡ τοῦ Μονογενοῦς φύσις· Ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν οὐδένα ἡγοῦμαι νοῦν ἔχοντα καὶ τὸν φόβον τοῦ Θεοῦ κεκτημένον πάσχειν τὸ ἀρρώστημα. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἦλθεν εἰς ἐμὲ ἡ φήμη ὅτι τινὲς τῶν μετὰ τῆς ἀγάπης σου ἐν τῇ ἀσθενείᾳ ταύτῃ τῶν λογισ μῶν εἰσίν, ἀναγκαῖον ἡγησάμην μὴ ψιλὴν πορίσασθαι τὴν πρόσρησιν, ἀλλά τι ἔχειν τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἡμῶν τοιοῦτον ὃ δύναται καὶ οἰκοδομῆσαι τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν φοβουμένων τὸν Κύριον. Ταῦτα οὖν παρακαλοῦμεν διορθώσεώς τε τυχεῖν ἐκκλησιαστικῆς καὶ τῆς πρὸς τοὺς αἱρετικοὺς κοινωνίας ὑμᾶς ἀπέχεσθαι, εἰδότας ὅτι τὸ ἐν τούτοις ἀδιαφορεῖν τὴν ἐπὶ τοῦ Χριστοῦ παρρησίαν ἡμῶν ἀφαιρεῖται.

263.τ ΤΟΙΣ ∆ΥΤΙΚΟΙΣ

263.1 Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν, ἐφ' ὃν ἠλπίσαμεν, τοσαύτην ὑμῶν ἑκάστῳ

παράσχοι χάριν εἰς τὸ ἐπιτυχεῖν τῆς προκει μένης ἐλπίδος, ὅσης αὐτοὶ χαρᾶς τὰς καρδίας ἡμῶν ἐνε πλήσατε ἔκ τε τῶν γραμμάτων ἃ ἐπεστείλατε ἡμῖν διὰ τῶν ποθεινοτάτων συμπρεσβυτέρων ἡμῶν καὶ ἐκ τῆς συμπαθείας τῶν καθ' ἡμᾶς λυπηρῶν, ἣν συνεπαθήσατε ἡμῖν ὡς ἐνδεδυ μένοι σπλάγχνα οἰκτιρμοῦ, καθὼς ἀπήγγειλαν ἡμῖν οἱ προειρημένοι. Καὶ γὰρ εἰ καὶ τὰ τραύματα ἡμῶν ὅμοια διαμένει, ἀλλ' οὖν φέρει τινὰ ἡμῖν ῥᾳστώνην τὸ ἑτοίμους ἔχειν τοὺς ἰατροὺς δυναμένους, εἰ καιροῦ λάβοιντο, ταχεῖαν ἐπαγαγεῖν τῶν ἀλγημάτων τὴν ἴασιν. ∆ιὸ καὶ πάλιν ὑμᾶς διὰ τῶν ἀγαπητῶν προσφθεγγόμεθα καὶ παρακαλοῦμεν, εἰ μὲν δίδωσιν ὑμῖν ὁ Κύριος ἄδειαν τοῦ ὡς ἡμᾶς πορεύεσθαι, μὴ ὀκνῆσαι ἡμῶν τὴν ἐπίσκεψιν· ἐντολῆς γάρ ἐστι τῆς μεγίστης ἡ τῶν ἀσθενούντων ἐπίσκεψις. Εἰ δὲ ὁ ἀγαθὸς Θεὸς καὶ σοφὸς τῆς ζωῆς ἡμῶν οἰκονόμος τὴν χάριν ταύ την εἰς ἕτερον καιρὸν ταμιεύεται, ἀλλ' ἐπιστείλατε ἡμῖν ὅσα παρ' ὑμῶν πρέπει γραφῆναι εἰς παράκλησιν μὲν τῶν θλιβομένων, διόρθωσιν δὲ τῶν συντετριμμένων. Πολλὰ γὰρ ἤδη τὰ συντρίμματα τῆς Ἐκκλησίας γέγονε, καὶ πολλὴ ἡμῖν ἐπ' αὐτοῖς ἡ θλίψις καὶ προσδοκία βοηθείας ἑτέρωθεν οὐδαμόθεν, ἐὰν μὴ ὁ Κύριος δι' ὑμῶν τῶν γνησίως δουλευ όντων αὐτῷ ἐξαποστείλῃ τὴν ἴασιν. 263.2 Τὸ μὲν οὖν ἰταμὸν καὶ ἀναίσχυντον τῆς αἱρέσεως τῶν Ἀρειανῶν φανερῶς ἀπορραγὲν τοῦ σώματος τῆς Ἐκκλησίας μένει ἐπὶ τῆς ἰδίας πλάνης καὶ ὀλίγα ἡμᾶς λυμαίνεται διὰ τὸ πᾶσι πρόδηλον αὐτῶν τὴν ἀσέβειαν εἶναι. Οἱ δὲ τὴν δορὰν τοῦ προβάτου περιβεβλημένοι καὶ τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν ἥμερον προβαλλόμενοι καὶ πραεῖαν, ἔνδοθεν δὲ σπαράσσον τες ἀφειδῶς τὰ Χριστοῦ ποίμνια καὶ διὰ τὸ ἐξ ἡμῶν ὡρμῆσθαι εὐκόλως ἐμβάλλοντες βλάβην τοῖς ἁπλουστέροις, οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ χαλεποὶ καὶ δυσφύλακτοι. Οὓς ἀξιοῦμεν παρὰ τῆς ὑμετέρας ἀκριβείας πρὸς πάσας τὰς κατὰ τὴν Ἀνατολὴν Ἐκκλησίας δημοσιευθῆναι, ἵνα ἢ ὀρθοποδήσαντες γνησίως ὦσι σὺν ἡμῖν, ἢ μένοντες ἐπὶ τῆς διαστροφῆς ἐν ἑαυτοῖς μόνοις τὴν βλάβην ἔχωσι μὴ δυνάμενοι ἐκ τῆς ἀφυλάκτου κοινωνίας τῆς ἰδίας νόσου μεταδιδόναι τοῖς πλησιάζουσιν. Ἀνάγκη δὲ τούτων ὀνομαστὶ μνησθῆναι, ἵνα καὶ αὐτοὶ γνωρίσητε τοὺς τὰς ταραχὰς παρ' ἡμῖν ἐργαζο μένους καὶ ταῖς Ἐκκλησίαις ὑμῶν φανερὸν καταστήσητε. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ παρ' ἡμῶν λόγος ὕποπτός ἐστι τοῖς πολλοῖς