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is of the essence, the privation of which in every way works the corruption of nature, since indeed nothing of the things that exist, when deprived of what it has by nature, remains preserved as what it was.

From the same author, from the same oration, on the text: "For this one who is now despised by you was when he was also above you; the one who is now man was also uncompounded; (1040) the one was, he remained; the other was not, he assumed; in the beginning he was without cause (for what is the cause of God?); but he also came to be later for a cause; and that cause was that you, the insolent one, might be saved, you who for this reason despise the Godhead, because he condescended to your denseness, a mind conversing with flesh by means of a mediator, and the God below becoming man, since he was commingled with God and became one, the greater prevailing, so that I might become God to the same extent that he became man."

For this one who is now despised by you, he says, was when he was also above you, clearly existing beyond all eternity and all nature through himself, even if he now willingly became under both for your sake. The one who is now man was also uncompounded, simple in nature and in hypostasis, as indeed being only God, naked of body and of all that belongs to the body, even if now by the assumption of flesh having a rational soul, he has become what he was not, composite in hypostasis, while remaining what he was, simple in nature, in order to save you, man. For this alone was the cause of his birth in the flesh: the salvation of nature, whose passibility he assumed like a certain denseness, and through the medium of the mind he conversed with the flesh, becoming man, the God below, becoming for the sake of all everything that we are, except for sin: body, soul, mind—through which death enters—that is, the common thing from these, man, God being seen through that which is understood. Therefore, the Logos himself, being emptied without change properly towards our natural passibility, and truly coming under natural sensation through the incarnation, was called visible God and God below, making manifest his infinite power through flesh that is by nature passible, since the flesh was clearly co-mingled with God and became one, the greater prevailing, as the Logos who assumed it properly deified it by hypostatic identity. But he became one person, not one thing, the teacher said, showing that even in the identity of the one hypostasis the natural otherness of the united parts has remained unconfused; since the one is indicative of hypostasis, the other of nature. For the phrase, "so that I might become God to the same extent that he became man," is not for me to say, I who have been defiled by sin and am completely without appetite for the life which truly is, but for you, who through the perfect restoration of nature are known by grace alone, and who are destined to be shown forth from it with as much power as God by nature, having been incarnate, partook of our weakness; the deification of those saved by grace being measured, as he himself knows, against his emptying, all of them becoming God-like and receptive of the whole God, and of him alone. For this is the perfection towards which those hasten who have truly believed that this promise will be.

(1041) From the same author, from the second oration on the Son, on the text: "For as the Word, he was neither

obedient, nor disobedient; for these belong to those who are under authority and are of a second rank; the one to the more compliant, the other to those worthy of punishment. But as in the form of a servant, he condescends to his fellow servants and servants, and takes on the form of what is other, bearing it all in himself along with my own properties, so that in himself he might consume the worse, as fire consumes wax, or the sun the mist of the earth, and I might partake of his properties through the co-mingling. For this reason he honors obedience by deed and learns it from suffering. For disposition is not sufficient, just as it is not for us, unless we also proceed through actions.

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οὐσίας ἐστίν, οὗ πάντως ἡ στέρησις φθοράν ἐργάζεται φύσεως, εἴπερ οὐδέν τῶν ὄντων τοῦ φύσει πεφυκότος στερούμενον ὅπερ ἦν μένει σωζόμενον.

Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου εἰς τό· " Οὗτος γάρ ὁ νῦν σοι καταφρονούμενος ἦν ὅτε καί ὑπέρ σέ ἦν· ὁ νῦν ἄνθρωπος καί ἀσύνθετος ἦν· (1040) ὁ μέν ἦν, διέμεινεν, ὁ δέ οὐκ ἦν, προσέλαβεν· ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ἀναιτίως (τίς γάρ αἰτία Θεοῦ;) · ἀλλά καί ὕστερον γέγονε δι᾿ αἰτίαν· ἡ δέ ἦν τό σέ σωθῆναι τόν ὑβριστήν, ὅς διά τοῦτο περιφρονεῖς θεότητα ὅτι τήν σήν παχύτητα κατεδέξατο, διά μέσου νούς ὁμιλήσας σαρκί καί γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος ὁ κάτω Θεός, ἐπειδή συνακεκράθη Θεῷ καί γέγονεν εἷς, τοῦ κρείττονος ἐκνικήσαντος, ἵνα γένωμαι τοσοῦτον Θεός ὅσον ἐκεῖνος ἄνθρωπος. "

Οὗτος γάρ ὁ νῦν σοι καταφρονούμενος, φησίν, ἦν ὅτε καί ὑπέρ σέ ἦν, παντός αἰῶνος δηλονότι καί πάσης δι᾿ ἑαυτόν ὑπάρχων ἐπέκεινα φύσεως, κἄν ὑπ᾿ ἄμφω νῦν διά σέ γεγένηται θέλων. Ὁ νῦν ἄνθρωπος καί ἀσύνθετος ἦν, τήν τε φύσιν ἁπλοῦς καί τήν ὑπόστασιν, ἅτε δή μόνον Θεός, γυμνός σώματος καί τῶν ὅσα σώματος, κἄν νῦν προσλήψει σαρκός ψυχήν ἐχούσης νοεράν, ὅπερ οὐκ ἦν γέγονε, τήν ὑπόστασιν σύνθετος, διαμείνας ὅπερ ἦν, τήν φύσιν ἁπλοῦς, ἵνα σέ σώσῃ τόν ἄνθρωπον. Ταύτην γάρ τῆς σαρκικῆς αὐτοῦ μόνην αἰτίαν ἔσχε γεννήσεως, τήν σωτηρίαν τῆς φύσεως, ἧς ὑπελθών, καθάπερ τι πᾶχος, τό παθητόν διά μέσου νοός ὡμίλησε σαρκί, γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος ὁ κάτω Θεός, πάντα ὑπέρ πάντων γενόμενος ὅσα ἡμεῖς, πλήν τῆς ἁμαρτίας, σῶμα, ψυχή, νοῦς, δι᾿ ὅσων ὁ θάνατος, τό κοινόν ἐκ τούτων, ἄνθρωπος, Θεός ὁρώμενος διά τό νοούμενον. Αὐτός οὖν δίχα τροπῆς κυρίως πρός τό καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς φύσει παθητόν κενωθείς ὁ Λόγος, καί ὑπό τήν φυσικήν ἀληθῶς διά σαρκώσεως γενόμενος αἴσθησιν, Θεός ὁρατός καί κάτω Θεός προσηγορεύθη, διά σαρκός φύσει παθητῆς τήν ὑπεράπειρον ἐμφανῆ ποιησάμενος δύναμιν, ἐπειδή συνανεκράθη Θεῷ προδήλως ἡ σάρξ καί γέγονεν εἷς, τοῦ κρείττονος ἐκνικήσαντος, ὑποστατικῇ ταυτότητι κυρίως αὐτήν τοῦ προσλαβόντος Λόγου θεώσαντος. Εἷς δέ γέγονεν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχ ἕν, ὁ διδάσκαλος εἶπεν, δεικνύς ὅτι κἄν τῇ ταυτότητι τῆς μιᾶς ὑποστάσεως μεμένηκεν ἡ φυσική τῶν ἡνωμένων ἑτερότης ἀσύγχυτος· εἴπερ τό μέν ὑποστάσεως, τό δέ φύσεως ὑπάρχει δηλωτικόν. Τό γάρ, " Ἵνα γένωμαι τοσοῦτον θεός ὅσον ἐκεῖνος ἄνθρωπος," οὐκ ἐμόν λέγειν, τοῦ ῥυπωθέντος τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ καί τελείως τῆς ὄντως οὔσης ἀνορεκτοῦντος ζωῆς, ἀλλ᾿ ὑμῶν, τῶν ἀπολήψει τελείᾳ τῆς φύσεως ἐκ μόνης γνωριζομένων τῆς χάριτος, καί μελλόντων ἐκ τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτήν τοσοῦτον διαδειχθῆναι δυνάμεως ὅσον ὁ φύσει Θεός τῆς ἡμῶν σαρκωθείς ἀσθενείας μετείληφεν, ἀντιμετρουμένης, ὡς οἶδεν αὐτός, τῇ αὐτοῦ κενώσει, τῆς τῶν χάριτι σωζομένων θεώσεως, ὅλων θεοειδῶν καί ὅλου Θεοῦ χωρητικῶν, καί μόνου γενησομένων. Τοῦτο γάρ ἡ τελείωσις πρός ἥν σπεύδουσιν οἱ ταύτην ἀληθῶς ἔσεσθαι τήν ἐπαγγελίαν πιστεύσαντες.

(1041) Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ δευτέρου περί Υἱοῦ Λόγου, εἰς τό· " Ὡς μέν γάρ Λόγος, οὔτε

ὑπήκοος ἦν, οὔτε ἀνήκοος· τῶν γάρ ὑπό χεῖρα ταῦτα καί τῶν δευτέρων· τό μέν τῶν εὐγνωμονεστέρων, τό δέ τῶν ἀξίων κολάσεως. Ὡς δέ δούλου μορφή, συγκαταβαίνει τοῖς ὁμοδούλοις καί δούλοις, καί μορφοῦται τό ἀλλότριον, ὅλον ἐν ἑαυτῷ φέρων μετά τῶν ἐμῶν, ἵνα ἐν ἑαυτῷ δαπανήσῃ τό χεῖρον, ὡς κηρόν πῦρ, ἤ ὡς ἀτμίδα γῆς ἥλιος, κἀγώ μεταλάβω τῶν ἐκείνου διά τήν σύγκρασιν. ∆ιά τοῦτο ἔργῳ τιμᾷ τήν ὑπακοήν καί πειρᾶται ταύτης ἐκ τοῦ παθεῖν. Οὐ γάρ ἱκανόν ἡ διάθεσις, ὥσπερ οὐδέ ἡμῖν, εἰ μή καί διά τῶν πραγμάτων χωρήσαιμεν.