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completing that from bodies, and by concept alone admitting the distinction from it in the manner described. And I say that generation, naturally preconceived before the adventitious birth, is the same thing, of which the first and life-giving inbreathing is a property.

A contemplation on, "The Word knows for us a threefold birth." And to speak concisely, if you would wish to know the precision of the teacher's words, seek what is the principle of man's generation that precedes according to cause, which remains always within its own permanence without proceeding forth, and what is the mode of his birth according to the pedagogical economy on account of sin, which has as its end the correction of the one being instructed and the perfect return to the principle of his generation, and you will learn clearly how God, having become man, became so perfectly in both respects, (1320) wisely leading back the mode according to the economy to the principle of generation that he truly possessed, and then you will rightly marvel at the teacher for his understanding, how, having by concept divided things naturally joined, he secretly made manifest the whole principle of the most divine mystery concerning us. For by conceptually apportioning the birth from bodies to the life-giving inbreathing and to the incarnation, he intimated the difference of the mode of birth with respect to the principle of generation. Taking hold of these for our sake, God, who renewed nature—or rather, to speak more truly, innovated it—and led it back to the ancient beauty of incorruption through His holy and rationally ensouled flesh from us, and generously bestowed upon it deification even more, from which it is utterly impossible to fall away, with the incarnate God Himself uniting it to the body in the manner of a soul, interpenetrating it through and through without confusion according to the union, and in it receiving as much concealment from His own manifestation as He Himself became manifest through it and was considered to have departed from His own natural hiddenness; and what is more paradoxical than this, that being God by nature, and having deigned to become man by nature, He in no way altered the natural definitions of either nature through the other, but being wholly God, He remained wholly man when He became so? not hindered from becoming man by the fact that He is God, nor diminished from being God by the fact that He became man, one and the same, preserved whole through both, being both by nature in truth, neither divided by the unmixed natural difference of the parts in substance, nor yet confused by the utterly singular nature of the hypostasis, not having been turned into the lower nature nor having fallen away into what He was not. He did not fulfill this economy as a phantom in the appearance and form of flesh, taking those other things which are said to be of a subject without the subject, but having properly in deed and in truth assumed human nature itself, He united it to Himself hypostatically, unchangeably and unalterably and undiminishedly and indivisibly, holding it unfailingly by its essential principle and definition. In accordance with which, according to this holy and great teacher, He honored our birth from bodies, and having become truly man and being born in a human way, in order to free us from the bonds of birth, and from the law of being sown like grass out of condemnation on account of sin, and from having the same kinship in generation unto being with plants and irrational animals. As the great beholder of great things, Ezekiel, says somewhere, when he is initiated into the divine things and taught the cause of the present economy concerning man, speaking as if to Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord to Jerusalem, Your

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συμπληροῦσαν τήν ἐκ σωμάτων, καί μόνῃ ἐπινοίᾳ τήν ἀπ' αὐτής δεχομένην διάκρισιν κατά τόν ἀποδοθέντα τρόπον. Λέγω δέ ταὐτόν εἶναι τήν γένεσιν προεπινοουμένην φυσικῶς τῆς ἐπεισάκτου γεννήσεως, ἧς ἴδιόν ἐστι τό ἐμφύσημα τό πρῶτον καί ζωτικόν.

Θεωρία εἰς τό, "Τρισσήν γέννησιν ἡμῖν οἶδεν ὁ Λόγος." Καί συλλήβδην εἰπεῖν, εἰ βούλοιο γνῶναι τῶν τοῦ διδασκάλου λόγων τήν

ἀκρίβειαν, ζήτει τίς ὁ κατ᾿ αἰτίαν προηγούμενος τῆς ἀνθρώπου γενέσεως λόγος ἐστίν, ὁ τῆς ἰδίας ἐντός μένων ἀεί μονιμότητος ἀνεκφοιτήτως, καί τίς ὁ κατά τήν παιδευτικήν οἰκονομίαν τῆς γεννήσεως αὐτοῦ διά τήν ἁμαρτίαν τρόπος, ὁ τέλος ἔχων τήν τοῦ παιδαγωγουμένου διόρθωσιν καί πρός τόν λόγον τῆς αὐτοῦ γενέσεως τήν τελείαν ἐπάνοδον, καί μαθήσῃ σαφῶς πῶς ὁ Θεός γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος κατ᾿ ἄμφω τελείως γέγονε, (1320) πρός ὅν εἶχεν ἀληθῶς τῆς γενέσεως λόγον τόν κατ᾿ οἰκονομίαν σοφῶς ἐπανάγων τρόπον, καί τότε δικαίως θαυμάσεις τῆς συνέσεως τόν διδάσκαλον, πῶς τά κατά τήν φύσιν συνημμένα κατ᾿ ἐπίνοιαν διελών τόν ὅλον τοῦ ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν θειοτάτου μυστηρίου κρυφίως διετράνωσε λόγον. Τήν γάρ ἐκ σωμάτων γέννησιν τῷ ζωτικῷ ἐμφυσήματι καί τῇ σαρκώσει κατ᾿ ἐπίνοιαν ἐπιμερίσας τήν πρός τόν κατά τήν γένεσιν λόγον τοῦ κατά τήν γέννησιν τρόπου διαφοράν παρῃνίξατο. Ὧν ἐπιλαβόμενος δι᾿ ἡμᾶς ὁ τήν φύσιν ἀνακαινίσας Θεός, μᾶλλον δέ καινίσας εἰπεῖν ἀληθέστερον, καί πρός τό ἀρχαῖον κάλλος αὐτήν τῆς ἀφθαρσίας ἐπαγαγών διά τῆς ἐξ ἡμῶν ἁγίας αὐτοῦ καί λογικῶς ἐψυχωμένην σαρκός, καί πλεόν παρασχόμενος αὐτῇ φιλοδώρως τήν θέωσιν, ἧς μεταπεσεῖν παντελῶς ἀμήχανον αὐτῷ τῷ σαρκωθέντι Θεῷ ψυχῆς τρόπον ἑνούσης σώματι, δι᾿ ὅλου περιχωρήσασαν ἀσυγχύτως κατά τήν ἕνωσιν, καί τῆς αὐτοῦ κατ᾿ αὐτήν ἐκφάνσεως τοσοῦτον ἀντιλαβοῦσαν τό κρύπτεσθαι ὅσον αὐτός δι᾿ αὐτήν γέγονε φανερός καί τῆς οἰκείας φυσικῆς κρυφιότητος ἐκβεβηκώς ἐνομίσθη· καί τί τούτου παραδοξότερον, ὅτι φύσει Θεός ὑπάρχων, καί ἄνθρωπος φύσει γενέσθαι καταξιώσας, οὐδετέρας φύσεως τούς φυσικούς ὅρους διά τῆς ἑτέρας παντελῶς παρήμειψεν, ἀλλ᾿ ὅλος Θεός ὤν ὅλος γενόμενος διέμεινεν ἄνθρωπος; οὐ τῷ εἶναι Θεός ἄνθρωπος γενέσθαι κωλυόμενος, οὔτε μήν τῷ γενέσθαι ἄνθρωπος τοῦ εἶναι Θεός ἐλαττούμενος, εἷς καί ὁ αὐτός ὅλος δι᾿ ἀμφοῖν συντηρούμενος, ἄμφω φυσικῶς κατά ἀλήθειαν ὑπάρχων, μήτε τῷ ἀκραιφνεῖ τῆς κατ᾿ οὐσίαν τῶν μερῶν φυσικῆς διαφορᾶς διαιρούμενος, μήτε μήν τῷ ἄκρως μοναδικῷ τῆς ὑποστάσεως συγχεόμενος, οὐ τραπείς εἰς τήν κάτω φύσιν καί εἰς ὅπερ οὐκ ἦν μεταπεσών. Οὐ φαντάσας σαρκός εἴδει καί σχήματι τήν οἰκονομίαν, καί ὅσα ἑτέρα καθ᾿ ὑποκειμένου λέγεται εἶναι χωρίς τοῦ ὑποκειμένου λαβών, ταύτην ἐπλήρωσεν, ἀλλ᾿ αὐτήν κυρίως πράγματι καί ἀληθείᾳ τήν ἀνθρωπίνην προσλαβών φύσιν ἥνωσεν ἑαυτῷ καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ἀτρέπτως καί ἀναλλοιώτως καί ἀμειώτως καί ἀδιαιρέτως, τῷ κατ᾿ οὐσίαν αὐτῆς λόγῳ καί ὅρῳ συνέχων ἀνέκπτωτον. Καθ᾿ ἥν καί τήν ἐκ σωμάτων κατά τόν ἅγιον τοῦτον καί μέγαν διδάσκαλον ἡμετέραν ἐτίμησε γέννησιν, καί γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος ἀληθῶς καί ἀνθρωπίνως γεννώμενος, ἵνα ἡμᾶς τῶν δεσμῶν τῆς γεννήσεως ἐλευθερώσῃ, καί τοῦ παραπλησίως χόρτου σπειρόμενους ἐκ καταδίκης διά τήν ἁμαρτίαν φύεσθαι νόμου, καί τοῦ τήν αὐτήν ἔχειν φυτοῖς τε καί ἀλόγοις ζώοις τῆς πρός τό εἶναι γενέσεως τήν συγγένειαν. Ὥς πού φησιν ὁ μέγας καί τῶν μεγάλων θεατής Ἰεζεκιήλ τά θεῖα μυσταγωγούμενος καί τήν αἰτίαν τῆς νῦν περί τόν ἄνθρωπον ὑπαρχούσης οἰκονομίας ἐκπαιδευόμενος, ὡς πρός Ἱερουσαλήμ φάσκων· τάδε λέγει Κύριος τῇ Ἱερουσαλήμ, Ἡ