Fragment VI.

Among Christians it is settled as the doctrine of piety, that, according to nature itself, and to the activity and to whatever else pertains thereunto, God is equal and the same with Himself,45    ἵσον ἑαυτῷ καὶ ταυτόν. having nothing that is His unequal to Himself at all and heterogeneous.46    ἀκατάλληλον. If, then, according to Beron, the flesh that He assumed to Himself became possessed of the like natural energy with them, it is evident that it also became possessed of the like nature with Him in all wherein that nature consists,—to wit, non-origination, non-generation, infinitude, eternity, incomprehensibility, and whatever else in the way of the transcendent the theological mind discerns in deity; and thus they both underwent conversion, neither the one nor the other preserving any more the substantial relation of its own proper nature.47    τῆς ἰδίας φύσεως οὐσιώδη λόγον. For he who recognises an identical operation48    ταυτουργίαν. in things of unlike nature, introduces at the same time a fusion of natures and a separation of persons,49    διαίρεσιν προσωπικήν. their natural existence50    ὑπάρξεως. being made entirely undistinguishable by the transference of properties.51    ἱδιωμάτων.

Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου. Ϛʹ. Εὐσεβὲς κεκύρωται δόγμα Χριστιανοῖς, κατ' αὐτήν τε τὴν φύσιν καὶ τὴν ἐνέργειαν καὶ πᾶν ἕτερον αὐτῷ προσφυὲς ἴσον ἑαυτῷ καὶ ταυτὸν εἶναι τὸν θεόν, μηδὲν ἑαυτῷ τῶν ἑαυτοῦ παντελῶς ἄνισον ἔχοντα καὶ ἀκατάλληλον. εἰ τοίνυν κατὰ Βήρωνα τῆς αὐτῆς αὐτῷ προσληφθεῖσα φυσικῆς ἐνεργείας γέγονεν ἡ σαρκός, δῆλον ὅτι καὶ τῆς αὐτῆς αὐτῷ γέγονε φύσεως μεθ' ὅσων ἡ φύσις, ἀναρχίας, ἀγεννησίας, ἀπειρίας, ἀϊδιότητος, ἀκαταληψίας καὶ τῶν, ὅσα τούτων καθ' ὑπεροχὴν ὁ θεολογικὸς ὑπερφυῶς ἐνορᾷ τῇ θεότητι λόγος, καὶ τροπὴν ἀμφότερα πέπονθε, μηδετέρου τὸν τῆς ἰδίας φύσεως οὐσιώδη λόγον ἔτι σωζόμενον ἔχοντος. ὁ γὰρ ἑτεροφυῶν εἰδὼς ταυτουργίαν σύγχυσιν ὁμοῦ φυσικὴν καὶ διαίρεσιν αὐτῶν εἰσηγεῖται προσωπικήν, ἀδιαγνώστου παντελῶς τῇ τῶν ἰδιωμάτων μεταβολῇ τῆς φυσικῆς αὐτῶν γενομένης ὑπάρξεως.