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and to refer the cause to a grace beyond reason, so that even if someone were to attribute such a benefit to Peter and Paul, or to a heavenly angel, he should call this one anathema according to the law of Paul. For neither was Paul crucified for us nor were we baptized in a human name. However, because we confess that the saving power of Christ is superior to human nature, the dogma of our opponents against 3.4.3 the truth is not thereby strengthened. For their aim is by all means to establish the estrangement of the substance of the Son from that of the Father, and they are eager to demonstrate the unlikeness in substance not only by the distinction of the begotten from the unbegotten, but also by the opposition of the passible to the impassible. And this is established more openly in the last parts of the argument, but it is no less manifest 3.4.4 also through what is now being said. For if he accuses those who attribute the passion to the human nature, he certainly wants to subject the divinity itself to the passion. For since the assumption is twofold and doubtful, whether the divine or the human was in a state of passion, the accusation of the one certainly becomes the establishment of the other. If, therefore, they accuse those who see the passion in connection with the man, they certainly praise those who say the divinity of the Son is passible, and what is established through these things becomes an advocacy 3.4.5 for the absurdity of their dogma. For if, according to their argument, the divinity of the Son suffers, but that of the Father is kept in all impassibility, then the impassible nature is alien in substance to that which admits passion. Since, therefore, what is said is brief in the scope of its words, but provides the principles and propositions of all the evil concerning the dogma, it would be right for readers to demand not brevity 3.4.6 in the reply, but soundness. We, therefore, neither attribute our salvation to a man nor do we accept that the pure and divine nature is passible and mortal, but since one must by all means believe the divine voices, which proclaim the Word who was God in the beginning, and after this that the Word became flesh and was seen on earth and conversed with men, we accept in faith the appropriate 3.4.7 meanings of the divine voice. For when we hear that he is light and power and righteousness and life and truth and that all things were made through him, we believe all these and similar things, referring them to the Word [God], but when we hear of sorrow and sleep and want and trouble and bonds and nails and a spear and blood and wounds and burial and a tomb and all other such things, even if they are contrary to what was previously stated, we nevertheless accept them as believable and true, looking to the flesh, which we have received by faith together with the Word. For just as it is not possible for the properties of the flesh to be observed in the Word who was in the beginning, so, on the other hand, is it not possible to perceive the properties 3.4.8 of the divinity in the nature of the flesh. Therefore, since the evangelical teaching concerning the Lord is a mixture of both the sublime and divine and the lowly and human, we appropriately fit each of the concepts to each of the natures understood in the mystery, the human to the human and the sublime to the divinity, and we say that, insofar as the Son is God, he is altogether impassible and pure, but if any passion is spoken of him in the Gospel, he effected 3.4.9 such a thing entirely through the human part which received the passion. For the divinity truly works the salvation of the universe through the body which is about it, so that the passion belongs to the flesh, but the activity to God; and even if some drag the apostle into advocacy for the contrary dogma, saying that "He did not spare his own Son" and "God sent his own Son" and all such passages which seem to look to the divine nature in the economy of the passion and not to the human, we will nonetheless not abstain from sound dogmas, Paul himself more openly concerning this 3.4.10

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καὶ ὑπὲρ λόγον χάριτος τὴν αἰτίαν ἀνάγειν, ὥστε κἂν εἰς Πέ τρον καὶ Παῦλον ἢ εἰς οὐράνιον ἄγγελον ἀναφέρῃ τις τὴν τοιαύτην εὐεργεσίαν, ἀνάθεμα λέγειν τοῦτον κατὰ τὸν Παύ λου νόμον. οὔτε γὰρ Παῦλος ἐσταυρώθη ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν οὔτε εἰς ἀνθρώπινον ἐβαπτίσθημεν ὄνομα. οὐ μὴν ἐπειδὴ κρείττω τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως εἶναι τὴν σωτήριον τοῦ Χριστοῦ δύναμιν ὁμολογοῦμεν, ἤδη τὸ δόγμα τῶν ὑπεναντίων τὸ κατὰ 3.4.3 τῆς ἀληθείας κρατύνεται. τοῖς μὲν γὰρ σκοπός ἐστι διὰ πάντων κατασκευάσαι τὴν τῆς οὐσίας τοῦ υἱοῦ πρὸς τὴν τοῦ πατρὸς ἀλλοτρίωσιν, καὶ οὐ μόνον τῇ τοῦ γεννητοῦ πρὸς τὸ ἀγέννητον διαστολῇ, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῇ τοῦ παθητοῦ πρὸς τὸ ἀπαθὲς ἀντιθέσει τὸ κατ' οὐσίαν ἀνόμοιον ἀπο δεικνύειν σπουδάζουσι. καὶ τοῦτο γυμνότερον μὲν ἐν τοῖς τελευταίοις τοῦ λόγου κατασκευάζεται, φανερὸν δὲ καὶ 3.4.4 διὰ τῶν νῦν λεγομένων οὐχ ἧττόν ἐστιν. εἰ γὰρ αἰτιᾶται τοὺς τὸ πάθος τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει ἀνατιθέντας, βούλεται πάντως αὐτὴν τῷ πάθει ὑπαγαγεῖν τὴν θεότητα. διπλῆς γὰρ οὔσης καὶ ἀμφιβόλου τῆς ὑπολήψεως, εἴτε τὸ θεῖον εἴτε τὸ ἀνθρώπινον ἐν πάθει γέγονεν, ἡ τοῦ ἑνὸς κατη γορία κατασκευὴ πάντως τοῦ λειπομένου γίνεται. εἰ τοίνυν αἰτιῶνται τοὺς τὸ πάθος περὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον βλέποντας, ἐπαινοῦσι πάντως τοὺς ἐμπαθῆ λέγοντας τοῦ υἱοῦ τὴν θεότητα, τὸ δὲ διὰ τούτων κατασκευαζόμενον συνηγορία 3.4.5 τῆς τοῦ δόγματος αὐτῶν ἀτοπίας γίνεται. εἰ γὰρ πάσχει μὲν κατὰ τὸν λόγον αὐτῶν τοῦ υἱοῦ ἡ θεότης, ἡ δὲ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐν ἀπαθείᾳ πάσῃ φυλάσσεται, ἡ ἀπαθὴς ἄρα φύσις πρὸς τὴν παραδεχομένην τὸ πάθος κατὰ τὴν οὐσίαν ἀλλο τρίως ἔχει. ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν βραχὺ μὲν ὅσον ἐν τῇ περι γραφῇ τῶν ῥημάτων ἐστὶ τὸ λεγόμενον, πάσης δὲ τῆς περὶ τὸ δόγμα κακίας τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ τὰς ὑποθέσεις παρέχεται, δίκαιον ἂν εἴη τοὺς ἐντυγχάνοντας μὴ τὸ σύντομον τῆς 3.4.6 ἀποκρίσεως, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἀσφαλὲς ἀπαιτεῖν. ἡμεῖς τοίνυν οὔτε ἀνθρώπῳ τὴν σωτηρίαν ἑαυτῶν ἀνατίθεμεν οὔτε τὴν ἀκή ρατον καὶ θείαν φύσιν ἐμπαθῆ καὶ ἐπίκηρον εἶναι κατα δεχόμεθα, ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ χρὴ πάντως πιστεύειν ταῖς θείαις φωναῖς, αἳ θεὸν τὸν ἐν ἀρχῇ ὄντα λόγον κηρύσσουσι, μετὰ ταῦτα δὲ τὸν λόγον σάρκα γενόμενον ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ὀφθῆναι καὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις συναναστραφῆναι, τὰ πρόσφορα τῆς 3.4.7 θείας φωνῆς νοήματα τῇ πίστει δεχόμεθα. ὅταν μὲν γὰρ ἀκούωμεν ὅτι φῶς ἐστι καὶ δύναμις καὶ δικαιοσύνη καὶ ζωὴ καὶ ἀλήθεια καὶ ὅτι πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, πάντα ταῦτα καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα πιστὰ ποιούμεθα εἰς τὸν λόγον [τὸν θεὸν] ἀναφέροντες, ὅταν δὲ λύπην καὶ ὕπνον καὶ ἔνδειαν καὶ ταραχὴν καὶ δεσμὰ καὶ ἥλους καὶ λόγχην καὶ αἷμα καὶ τραύματα καὶ ταφὴν καὶ μνημεῖον καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα τοιαῦτα, κἂν ὑπεναντίως ἔχῃ τοῖς προαποδεδομένοις, οὐδὲν ἧττον πιστά τε καὶ ἀληθῆ εἶναι δεχόμεθα πρὸς τὴν σάρκα βλέ ποντες, ἣν τῇ πίστει μετὰ τοῦ λόγου παρεδεξάμεθα. ὡς γὰρ οὐκ ἔστι τὰ τῆς σαρκὸς ἰδιώματα τῷ ἐν ἀρχῇ ὄντι ἐπιθεωρηθῆναι λόγῳ, οὕτως αὖ πάλιν οὐδὲ τὰ τῆς θεότητος 3.4.8 ἴδια ἐν τῇ τῆς σαρκὸς φύσει κατανοῆσαι. διὸ μεμιγμένης τῆς εὐαγγελικῆς περὶ τοῦ κυρίου διδασκαλίας διά τε τῶν ὑψηλῶν τε καὶ θεοπρεπῶν καὶ διὰ τῶν ταπεινῶν τε καὶ ἀνθρωπίνων ἑκάτερον τῶν νοημάτων ἑκατέρῳ τῶν ἐν τῷ μυστηρίῳ νοουμένων καταλλήλως ἁρμόζομεν, τὸ μὲν ἀν θρώπινον τῷ ἀνθρωπίνῳ τὸ δὲ ὑψηλὸν τῇ θεότητι, καί φαμεν ὅτι, καθὸ θεὸς ὁ υἱός, ἀπαθὴς πάντως ἐστὶ καὶ ἀκή ρατος, εἰ δέ τι πάθος ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ περὶ αὐτοῦ λέγοιτο, διὰ τοῦ ἀνθρωπίνου πάντως τοῦ δεχομένου τὸ πάθος τὸ 3.4.9 τοιοῦτον ἐνήργησεν. ἐνεργεῖ γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς ἡ θεότης διὰ τοῦ περὶ αὐτὴν σώματος τὴν τοῦ παντὸς σωτηρίαν, ὡς εἶναι τῆς μὲν σαρκὸς τὸ πάθος, τοῦ δὲ θεοῦ τὴν ἐνέργειαν· κἂν τὸν ἀπόστολον εἰς συνηγορίαν τινὲς τοῦ ἐναντίου καθέλκωσι δόγματος λέγοντα ὅτι τοῦ ἰδίου υἱοῦ οὐκ ἐφείσατο καὶ ὁ θεὸς τὸν ἑαυτοῦ υἱὸν ἔπεμψεν καὶ ὅσα τοιαῦτα πρὸς τὴν θείαν φύσιν ἐν τῇ τοῦ πάθους οἰκονομίᾳ καὶ οὐχὶ πρὸς τὸ ἀνθρώπινον βλέπειν δοκεῖ, οὐδὲν ἧττον τῶν ὑγιῶν δογμάτων οὐκ ἀφεξόμεθα, αὐτοῦ τοῦ Παύλου γυμνότερον τὸ περὶ τού 3.4.10 του