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soul and body and that the nature is from a rational soul and body, but the mode is the order in acting and being acted upon naturally, often changing and being altered, but in no way changing the nature along with itself. (1344) Just as it is with any other matter, when God wills to innovate something concerning His own creation for the sake of the providence of those for whom He provides, and for a demonstration of His power that extends to all and through all things. Just as, for example, working paradoxes by the long-standing majesties of wonders and signs, He has made innovations for a reason, transferring the blessed Enoch and Elijah to another form of life than that in the flesh which is under corruption, not by an alteration of nature, but by a variation of the conduct and administration according to it, making the water many times more for the inundation of the wicked men upon the earth, showing the first sailor, Noah, to have an unharmed way of life in the ark with wild beasts, honoring His great servants Abraham and Sarah with a child beyond their age and the customary limit and time of nature for childbearing, preparing fire to make its course downwards for the inundation of the impious, its natural principle not at all being diminished by this, kindling the fire of the bush unconsumed for the calling of His servant, changing water in Egypt to the quality of blood, its nature not at all being denied, remaining water by nature even after the reddening, and performing the rest of the wonders and signs there, in order to give to the faithful hope of freedom from the terrible things possessing them, and to the unfaithful an awareness of the punishing power, for the putting away of the hardness concerning the Divine which possessed them, parting the sea with a rod and dissolving the continuity of the water, which was not departing from its own nature, for a passage for those persecuted for His sake, but a hindrance for those unjustly persecuting the noble and free, sweetening water with wood, and raining down from heaven un-plowed bread, strange and unknown, and suddenly casting up from the sea a multitude of edible birds, without the natural succession from one another, for the comfort of those suffering hardship in the desert, showing the rock to be a mother of water, for the confirmation of the faith of those deserting in the struggles, holding back a river for the dry-shod crossing of a God-fearing people, paradoxically checking the unhindered course of the sun and moon, making the ever-moving nature of the firmament stand still, for the destruction of an impious dominion ignorantly arrayed against God, and before the force should reach the limit of the visible world, and for the possession of the inheritance promised from afar without falsehood. And all the other things that He is said to have done, both in the land of possession and in the other places to which the old Israel came, having transgressed, with respect to the mode of operation, but not with respect to the principle of existence, God has innovated the nature of the things innovated. And with all these and after these, having accomplished the truly newest mystery of His incarnation for us, on account of which are all things and through which, He innovated nature with respect to its mode, but not with respect to its principle, (1345) by the assumption of flesh through the medium of a rational soul, ineffably conceived without seed, and truly born without corruption as a perfect man, possessing a rational soul with a body from that very ineffable conception.

That every nature always has its end in its own principle. For every nature, to speak universally, whether intelligible or sensible, that is, simple and

composite, never accepts a partial beginning of its generation toward being, in any way whatsoever, nor indeed can it subsist from a half portion. But if indeed

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ψυχήν καί σῶμα καί ἐκ ψυχῆς λογικῆς εἶναι τήν φύσιν καί σώματος, τρόπος δέ ἡ ἐν τῷ ἐνεργεῖν καί ἐνεργεῖσθαι φυσικῶς τάξις ἐστίν, ἀμειβομένη τε πολλάκις καί ἀλλοιουμένη, τήν δέ φύσιν ἑαυτῇ παντελῶς οὐ συναμείβουσα. (1344) Καθάπερ καί ἐπ᾿ ἄλλου παντός ἔχει πράγματος, ἡνίκα καινίσαι τι περί τήν ἑαυτοῦ κτίσιν ὁ Θεός βουληθῇ προνοίας ἕνεκεν τῶν προνοουμένων, καί ἐνδείξεως τῆς ἐπί πάντα καί διά πάντων διηκούσης δυνάμεως. Ὥσπερ ἀμέλει παραδοξοποιῶν ταῖς ἀνέκαθεν τῶν θαυμάτων τε καί σημείων μεγαλειότησι καινοτομίας λόγῳ πεποίηκε, πρός ἕτερον εἶδος ζωῆς παρά τό ἐν σαρκί τῇ ὑπό φθοράν μεταβιβάσας τόν Ἐνώχ τε καί τόν Ἠλίαν τούς μακαρίους, οὐ κατ᾿ ἀλλοίωσιν φύσεως, ἀλλά κατά παραλλαγήν τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτήν ἀγωγῆς καί διοικήσεως, ὕδωρ εἰς ἐπίκλυσιν τῶν ἐπί γῆς μοχθηρῶν ἀνθρώπων καθιστῶν τῷ πολλαπλάσιον, ἐν τῇ κιβωτῷ μετά θηρίων ἀγρίων ἀποφαίνων τόν πρῶτον πλωτῆρα Νῶε δίαιταν ἔχειν ἀλύμαντον, Ἀβραάμ καί Σάῤῥαν τούς μεγάλους αὐτοῦ θεράποντας παιδί τιμῶν παρ᾿ ἡλικίαν καί τόν νενομισμένον πρός παιδοποιίαν ὅρον τε καί χρόνον τῆς φύσεως, πῦρ τήν ἐπί τά κάτω ποιεῖσθαι φοράν εἰς ἐπίκλυσιν ἀσεβῶν παρασκευάζων, οὐδ᾿ ὅλως τοῦ κατά φύσιν λόγου διά τοῦτο μειούμενον, τῆς βάτου πῦρ ἀκαύστως ἐξάπτων εἰς τήν τοῦ θεράποντος πρόσκλησιν, ὕδωρ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ πρός αἵματος μεταβάλλων ποιότητα, τήν φύσιν αὐτοῦ παντελῶς μή ἠρνημένον, ὕδωρ μεῖναν κατά φύσιν καί μετά τήν φοίνιξιν, καί τά λοιπά τῶν ἐκεῖσε θαυμάτων τε καί σημείων ἐπιτελῶν, πρός τό δοῦναι τοῖς μέν πιστοῖς τῶν κατεχόντων δεινῶν ἐλευθερίας ἐλπίδα, τοῖς ἀπίστοις δέ συναίσθησιν τῆς κολαζούσης δυνάμεως, πρός ἀπόθεσιν τῆς κατεχούσης αὐτούς περί τό Θεῖον πωρώσεως, θάλασσαν τέμνων ῥάβδῳ καί τό συνεχές διαλύων τοῦ ὕδατος, τῆς οἰκείας μή ἐξισταμένου φύσεως, εἰς δίοδον μέν τῶν δι᾿ αὐτόν διωκομένων, ἐποχήν δέ τῶν ἀναιτίως διωκόντων τό εὐγενές καί ἐλεύθερον, ὕδωρ ξύλῳ γλυκαίνων, καί ἄρτον ἀνήροτον οὐρανόθεν ὕων ξένον καί ἄγνωστον, καί πλῆθος ὀρνέων ἐδωδίμων ἐξαίφνης τῆς θαλάττης ἐκβράζων, χωρίς τῆς κατά φύσιν ἐξ ἀλλήλων διαδοχῆς, πρός παραμυθίαν τῶν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ κακοπαθούντων, ὕδατος μητέρα τήν πέτραν ἀποδεικνύς, εἰς βεβαίωσιν πίστεως τῶν ἐν τοῖς ἀγῶσι λειποτακτούντων, ποταμόν ἀνακόπτων πρός διάβασιν ἄβροχον λαοῦ θεοσεβοῦς, ἡλίου τε καί σελήνης δρόμον ἐπέχων ἀκώλυτον παραδόξως, τήν ἀεικίνητον τοῦ περιέχοντος φύσιν στήσας ἀκίνητον, πρός ὄλεθρον ἀσεβοῦς δυναστείας ἀμαθῶς ἀντιπαραταττομένης Θεῷ, καί πρίν λάβῃ πέρας τῶν ὁρομένων ἡ δύναμις, καί εἰς κατάσχεσιν τῆς πόῤῥωθεν ἀψευδῶς ἐπηγγελμένης κληρονομίας. Καί τά λοιπά ὅσα δή πεποιηκέναι λέγεται, κατά τε τήν γῆν τῆς κατασχέσεως καί τάς λοιπάς εἰς ὅσας ἦλθε παρανομήσας ὁ παλαιός Ἰσραήλ, περί τόν τρόπον τῆς ἐνεργείας, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ περί τόν λόγον τῆς ὑπάρξεως, τήν φύσιν καινοτομήσας τῶν καινοτομηθέντων πεποίηκεν ὁ Θεός. Μεθ᾿ ὧν ἁπάντων καί μεθ᾿ ἅ τό δι᾿ ὅ πάντα καί δι᾿ οὗ καινότατον ὄντως μυστήριον τῆς αὐτοῦ δι᾿ ἡμᾶς ἐνανθρωπήσεως ἐπιτελέσας περί τόν τρόπον, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ περί τόν λόγον τήν φύσιν (1345) ἐκαινοτόμησε, προσλήψει σαρκός διά μέσης ψυχῆς νοερᾶς, ἀῤῥήτως κυηθείς ἄνευ σπορᾶς, καί γεννηθείς ἀληθῶς ἄνευ φθορᾶς ἄνθρωπος τέλειος, ψυχήν νοεράν μετά σώματος ἐξ αὐτής τῆς ἀφράστου συλλήψεως ἐσχηκώς.

Ὅτι πᾶσα φύσις τῷ οἰκείῳ λόγῳ διαπαντός ἔχει τό τέλος. Πᾶσα γάρ, καθολικῶς εἰπεῖν, φύσις, νοητή τε καί αἰσθητή, ἤγουν ἁπλῆ καί

σύνθετος, καθ᾿ οἱονδήποτε τρόπον ἐκ μέρους τήν πρός τό εἶναι τὴς γενέσεως ἀρχήν, οὐδέποτε δέχεται, οὔτε μήν ἐξ ἡμισείας μοίρας ὑφίστασθαι δύναται. Ἀλλ᾿ εἰ μέν