Wherefore then, O judges, you who have been [involved] in folly and in deception and in violence, have you not examined the testimony which has been written by the Fathers? You would have proved to him indeed from his own [statements] that he indeed confesses two natures, one and another, of one and another ousia, as the holy Fathers have said. And thou also sayest that 'the natures are diverse, but that Christ [is] one of them both, [yet] not as though the union made void the diversities of the natures'. These things it appears that thou hast said; and 'The child and the dweller in the child', which thou hast said, is also the same. I say that he was impassible in a passible body, that he has a rational soul inasmuch as he is a child, for he is man as well as child. How therefore, in saying these things and persuading / us to agree with the truth of the faith, condemnest thou this man on these same [points]? Is not the injustice evident? Thou callest the natures diverse in Christ, and this man makes the same confession and accepts thy statement of these things; and [thou sayest] that there is one prosôpon in the diverse natures, while he too confesses this and accepts thy confession concerning these things. And thou speakest of property and appropriation in consequence of the union, and admittest that that which exists is one thing and that which is called another, while this man also speaks of property and appropriation without his having come into being by [passing] from [his] appropriate and voluntary property into a nature that was without volition, that he might suffer the natural sufferings. But thou gatherest together the things which have been said, so that indeed there is neither he who made them his properties, nor those things which have become his own, but there is one, not [one] prosôpon but [one] ousia indeed, so that thou makest void all those things that we have confessed together.
If thou callest this correct and not different from the truth, |233 you ought not to have maligned either the [doctrine] of one prosôpon or again that of two natures. For naught have you condemned me, not that I do not confess one prosôpon in having said 'The child and he that dwells in the child are the same'; for 'is the same' indicates one and the same prosôpon; nor is it as though I confess not two natures, for 'he who dwells' indicates / the nature, as though it was in the child as in the bodily frame, that the ousia of God might not be supposed to be the same as the ousia of the child. If then neither thou preachest this, nor this man who has written these things, thou oughtest not to have accused me and calumniated me as not confessing one prosôpon in two ousias or as defining them individually in distinction and in division, as things which are distant from one another. For I have called the 'dweller' one who by all means dwells in the nature; and the dweller is he who dwells in him in whom there is dwelling, and he has a prosôpon, while he in whom there is dwelling has the prosôpon of him who dwells. So by the use of their prosôpa as though they were making use of their own authoritatively, the one is the other and the other the one, the one and the other abiding just as they are in their natures. He is truly God, we confess truly that he [is so] also in his nature and is complete, in naught falling short of the nature of the Father; and we confess that the man is truly man, completely in his nature, in naught falling short of the nature of men, neither in body nor in soul nor in intelligence; all these things he has in our likeness, apart from sin. He was not without activity in his own nature; for although God makes use of these things in his own prosôpon, he makes use of them as of things appertaining unto man, in such wise also / as the humanity makes use of the divinity in the things appertaining to divinity; for they have a union in prosôpon and not in ousia.
For this reason it is right to lay down and to confess that, as he is confessed [to be] the archetype by reason of the image, since it is therefrom that he is called that which he is, so also, when God the Word is called flesh, he is confessed |234 [to be] flesh, that from it he is called flesh and the flesh is God and Lord and Son of God, that from it it is said that the Lord is in these things, that he may be conceived without either confusion or change or phantasy in respect to the divinity and in respect to the humanity. But if a man changes the things appertaining to the image and predicates them of the archetype, necessarily is he acting foolishly in regard to both of them, both in regard to the divinity and in regard to the humanity: in regard to the humanity in assigning unto it the nature of the divinity, and in regard to the divinity because he attributes the things appertaining to the divinity to the nature of the humanity and changes them both. But these things indeed would have been so when they were to be examined by the judges, if there had been judges and they had consulted the [interests] of the orthodox without inclining to the side of the heretics and had not let them be brought to pass against the rules. But you would not have been the judges, yea, I would add that [you would have been] not even orthodox, if you had not also obscured these things. And what shall I say? All of you have one and the same opinion; but read too what follows.
/ Likewise from the same, from the first roll. Common indeed is the activity of the holy Trinity, and they are distinct only in the prosopa; for the majesty of the glory of the only-begotten applies sometimes to the Father, for It is my Father that glorifieth me, and sometimes to the Holy Spirit: The Spirit of truth will glorify me, and sometimes to the might of Christ.
What, pray, is there finally in me to rouse them? [Is it] because I have said: 'The activity of the Trinity is common and the division lies only in the hypostases.' Or perhaps it |235 is yours to suppose that I have said unto you otherwise concerning the Trinity that the Son is glorified by the Father and by the Holy Spirit. Not that he suffices not for his own glory, but I have formerly borne witness abundantly and for this reason I have laid down 'sometimes indeed by the might of God' as being sufficient unto his own glory and not in need, because he is not in need. Who then has deceived you? But perhaps you conceive that I am speaking of the humanity which has been glorified by the Father and by the Holy Spirit and by God the Word himself.
You fight hard, and you are unwilling to name aught of the dispensation. And suppose that it has been so said by me; for I disclaim not that on behalf of which you are fighting, but now I establish my theme openly. For naught / else is your fighting by all [means] against me than this: you confess not that the flesh of the Incarnation is created and [that] the second Adam is of our own nature and that he is created. You concede not that he is the creature of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and that further he is glorified by the Creator. Why doubtest thou? What do we make this man? Either you do not confess that the flesh is made, or you confess that the flesh is made but is not of an ousia other than [that] of God the Word? So, in order that he may not be the creature of the Father or of the Holy Spirit, you make him the creator of himself. For you are very cautious therein, and you make him the maker of himself and say that he is made of none other than himself. All this is fair and just in your opinion when it is so said; wherefore do you not say clearly whatever you suppose to be true? But [this] in name indeed you shun but revert to it in fact, and refer to the nature of God the Word naturally the attributes of natural flesh. That two natures should be united in one prosôpon makes not two Sons or two Christs, the diversities of each one of the natures being preserved.
/ Thou knowest him who by all means somewhere has said these things. Thou hast in fact said that the diversities subsist and are not made void by reason of the union of the |236 natures of the divinity and of the humanity. Say one prosôpon in two natures and two natures in one prosôpon, as Gregory and as Ambrose and as Athanasius, as all the Fathers, as thou too hast said, that we may not [again] write the same things. If you had been just judges, he would not have been confident. But he would have made you all participate in impiety, that you too might shun equity of judgement, because you were afraid of reprimand for that which you have wrought against me. Are you willing that we should examine the other things too which they have written? Let it not be tedious unto you to hear the same thing many times; but you shall compulsorily, of necessity, attend to the things which are to be said.
Likewise from the same, from the sixteenth roll, speaking of the Son. He it is who said: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He it is who endured death three days, and him I adore with the divinity. 'And after three days': on account of him who is clothed I adore the clothing, on account of him who is concealed [I adore] him who is revealed, who is not distinguished from the visible. For this reason I distinguish not the honour of him who is not distinguished; / I distinguish the natures and I unite the adoration. It was not God by himself who was formed in the womb nor again was God created by himself apart from the Holy Spirit nor yet was God entombed by himself in the tomb; for, if it had been so, we should evidently be worshippers of a man and worshippers of the dead. But since God is in him who has been taken, he also who has been taken is called God with him after him who has taken [him].
Readers ought not to break off, as if they had no more any need of reminding, but to be willing to go through in the book of their words those which they have set down close |237 at hand in opposition to me, that 'the bodily frame exists not by itself. This [it is] concerning which they have unjustly belied me, as though I were speaking of a mere man and distinguishing him into part[s], as those things which are distinguished from one another in space. And again contrariwise to this they accuse me, [demanding] from what reason I call him indistinguishable and infinite, since they hear 'he came into being by himself, not even for one moment, but God too is in him ever since his coming into being, since also God is in him that he may come to be in him'. 'For he is impassible in a passible body who in the fullness of the times assumed the man that he who assumed might come to be indistinguishably in him who was assumed.' And it was not artificially that he came to be in the body, but truly he came to be in the body and was / not distinguished from the body. 'The nature which [was born] of Mary was human and our salvation came not to pass in phantasy.'
From the things which they say, you also know my [words]: 'And he who has been assumed is named God after him who assumed.' This was not his of his own nature; for he who has been assumed is the passible man in whom the impassible existed, [that is] the human nature in which God existed not artificially, the clay wherein the cunning craftsman has proved his craftsmanship. By the union with the divinity it is his to become Son and to become God. For 'he who begins and gradually advances and is perfected is not God, although on account of the manifestation which [took place] little by little he is so called', and he is called that whereunto God is united in nature. For 'one thing and another are those things whereof our Saviour is [formed], yet [he is] not one and another----far from it!----but one by adhesion, God on the one hand who was made man and man on the other who was made God'. By his adhesion he was made God and not by his nature; by the union of the divinity and of the flesh he became one Son, for both the natures existed in him. Therefore 'The man is called God by the union of the |238 divinity and is said to be one Son'----[he is said] to become one son----by this doctrine he is adored with the adoration of the divinity and is adored with him; yet there are not two adorations, but one. For in the / one adoration of this one ousia the other also is adored, because he who is adored with the other is not adored in his own adoration, but both of them together. In the adoration indeed of the one, the other who is with him, who is adored in the adoration, also [is adored]; of necessity he is united and not distinguished. For also he who is adored is not capable of not being adored, nor again [is he] to be adored apart from him in whom he exists, nor yet again [is he] to be adored in him without the latter also, in whom he receives adoration, being adored. For he is not adored in his own prosôpon but in that prosôpon to which he is united, which is common on account of the union for the union took place in the prosôpon in such wise that the one [became] the other and the other the one. From him therefore who assumed the prosôpon it is his who has been assumed to become the prosôpon of him who has assumed it. For this reason the flesh of God the Word bears the same title with him, and it is not according to the flesh that God the Word becomes God and Son and Lord; for God the Word is called God and Son in his nature and not after another in the things derived from the nature. But the flesh has received from God to be named that which he is called, being called God when bearing the same title with him, making use with him of the name of God; it is not its after its nature. Otherwise then thou art dividing the union and predicating two things of him.
And censure one who says that the body is by itself and according to whom the [properties] of the divinity belong not to the divinity which [is] in the body. / And before everything censure thyself who hast so spoken; and if indeed thou darest not to deny that owing to the union the flesh had the prosôpon of the divinity, but referrest to God the Word alone the [attributes] of the humanity and of the |239 divinity but to the humanity neither those of the humanity nor those of the divinity, thou yet dissemblest in that thou namest God the Word in them both; thou art like unto me in being [too] reverent to suppose that the humanity is not worthy of the prosôpon, and thou overthrowest the union which thou confessest in schema, where[by] two natures are one prosôpon, laying down that it is God the Word who is united to the flesh or to the man and that he is said [to be] in both of them in the nature of God and [to be] man in the union, but a man who is neither united to the divinity nor even exists. And for this reason man is named Son neither after his nature nor through the union of God the Word. But thus thou seemest to set up God the Word in both of them but man [in] neither of the two of them, whether in the nature or in the union with that |240 which is united. 'God on the one hand who was made man, man on the other who was made God.' 'For he who begins and gradually advances and is brought to fullness is not God, although on account of the manifestation which [took place] little by little he is so called.'
And all the things which are called after the union in respect to both of those / things which are united come to be with reference to the one prosôpon. And thou sayest that the union of the natures took place in one prosôpon, but in fact with all thy might thou settest up the Incarnation of God the Word of the Arians and of the Apollinarians, and thou provest to those who have eyes to search thee out that he made use of the body and of the soul as of an instrumentwithout soul and without reason and without will as if for his own nature, doing and suffering the sufferings of the body which became consubstantial. And for this reason thou countest it not with him and thou referrest to God the Word, even as to a craftsman, all these [properties] of the instrument, but thou dost attribute to the instrument those of the craftsman, since he was not assumed for this, that he might do and suffer voluntarily in his nature, but that God the Word might suffer all human things and do them, while he had not his own will or feeling or sufferings or humanity; but thou dost attribute unto God the Word feeling and willing and suffering in all the things of humanity in his nature. And for this reason thou declinest to say that there was aught [added] to the humanity itself owing to the union with the divinity, apart from what God the Word is in prosôpon, that is, God and Lord and Son of God; for except the ousia he has all the [properties] of the ousia owing to the union and not by nature. For the divinity makes use of the prosôpon of the humanity and the humanity of that of the divinity; and thus we say one / prosôpon in both of them. Thus God appears whole, since his nature is not damaged in aught owing to the union; and thus too man [is] whole, falling short of naught of the activity and of the sufferings of his own nature |241 owing to the union. For he who refers to the one prosôpon of God the Word the [properties] of God the Word and those of the humanity and gives not in return the prosôpon of God the Word to the humanity steals away the union of the orthodox and likens it to that of the heretics. For you have learnt of the orthodox in the testimonies which they have written, that they give in compensation the [properties] of the humanity to the divinity and those of the divinity to the humanity, and that this is said of the one and that of the other, as concerning natures whole and united, united indeed without confusion and making use of the prosôpa of one another.
How therefore has he swept you away to everything that he wishes, O wise judges? Either then refute the [sayings] of the Fathers which you have cited in testimony, or else otherwise it is of necessity [incumbent] upon you to receive one who says on their own side according to their teaching: 'Two indeed in nature and one prosôpon in the union, in mixture, in revelation, in adhesion, God who was made man, man who was made God, the one is said after the other to have been made man and the other said after the one to have been made God.' Whatever therefore have I said which is alien from them, for which you have condemned me? Was it not right to confess two natures? Was it not right to confess one prosôpon belonging to two natures, / of the divinity and of the humanity, that of the divinity and of the humanity? But although you deny that which you have written you are to be reprimanded.
Read therefore what follows:
Likewise from the same, from the third roll: against heretics, concerning the Holy Spirit. For how is that a |242 servant who [works with the Son and the Father? And, if any one inquires concerning the Spirit what are his acts, he will find that he] is with the Father and with the Son, and falls not short of them in aught. It is not indeed as though one divinity were divided, but the Divine Scripture, for the proof and the likeness of the Trinity proves that [there is] one power and that it is distinguished for each single one of the hypostases. And search out likewise from the works which at sundry times have begun [as follows]: God the Word became flesh and dwelled among us and caused the humanity which was taken to abide with the Father. The Lord said unto my Lord: Sit thou on my right hand, to that likeness which was taken, the Holy Spirit has come down and shown his glory.
The reader therefore has not need that we should go back to each one of the things which have been said before, and that we should say the same things. But we will say unto them: Is the flesh created or not created? Speak clearly; if thou sayest that it is created, in whatever manner it be, thou concedest that it has been made by the Father and by the Son and by the Holy Spirit, for they are entirely distinct in nothing in the making and all things are wrought by one and the same / will and wisdom. But if thou distinguishest not between these and separatest [not] the Son from the Father and from the Holy Spirit, but even [sayest] that he has become flesh in virtue of the flesh and has dwelled among us and that all the dispensation on our behalf has been effected by one and the same will and wisdom and |243 might even as also it has been effected, I myself also and all the company of the orthodox say [the same], according to the Holy Scriptures. If therefore this is worthy of accusation, let care be taken by thee that naught is left without accusation. And yet sayest thou that it is created? Say it clearly and suppress the [doctrine] that God the Word became flesh; for if he became not, how is it said that he became? For thus he is not admitted [to be] as an act,the work of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For thereby it appears that thou art constrained to say that the flesh of God the Word has need of the Father and the Holy Spirit, the [flesh] which in its own ousia is naught else than God the Word. But it is not God the Word, who has not need of the Father and of the Holy Spirit.
If thou conceivest the flesh thus, thou well definest it to be so. Look well however in the Fathers who imagine the opposite concerning the flesh, from whom you have cited testimony, when they say: 'It is indeed the human nature which [is] of Mary,' and again: / 'He who begins and gradually advances and is brought to fullness is not God, although on account of the manifestation which [took place] little by little he is so called.' For both natures of which our Saviour is [formed] are one thing and another, even as thou hast formerly agreed with them to say the same things: 'Diverse are the natures which have been combined in the union, but of both of them [there issues] one Christ, not indeed that the diversity of the natures is to be made void on account of the union; for God is impassible in a passible body; for his body, which also is abiding with him, with the Father, is not alien unto him.' What then is there to do with the things that I have said, which confirm the [words] of the former and those of the latter? And they make void thine, while thou settest aside all those whom thou hast cited as thy testimony. For these reasons the judges have not come to the examination, lest they should |244 hear these and such like things and be condemning themselves. But I will cite again the rest of the things which are like unto them and we will run over them, that you may see through all of them the cause of his declining the judgement.
Likewise from the same, from the sixth roll: in speaking of Christ. He has been sent forth to preach release to the captives as the Apostle [says], and cites: 'He [it was] who was trusted of God and was made chief priest;' for he surely became and existed not eternally from aforetime. He it is who gradually advances little by little to the honour of the high / priesthood, O heretic! Hear the voice which clearly proclaims unto thee: In the days of the flesh he offered up a prayer and a supplication with strong crying and with tears and was heard for his righteousness and, though he was rightly Son, learned obedience by the things which he bore and was made perfect and became unto all them that obey him the cause of eternal life. Being surely brought to fullness and made perfect he gradually advanced little by little, [O] heretic; concerning whom also Luke proclaims in the Gospel that Jesus increased in stature and in wisdom. Paul also has said things agreeing therewith: He was made perfect and became unto all them that obey him the cause of eternal life and was named of God chief priest after the order of Melchizedek, and, after other things, he was proclaimed chief priest. Why therefore dost thou interpret against Paul, thou that dost mingle God the Word impassible with an earthly likeness and makest him a passible chief priest? |245
I imagine therefore that all of you, since you constantly say these things and since the latter brings them forward in his testimony, are like those who make mock of them that are heavy with sleep and answer differently to different things to those who cry out and ask them. For this reason, when thou settest aside thine own testimonies, thou dost not understand. For thy witness Gregory says: 'He who begins and gradually advances and is brought to fullness is not God, although on account of the manifestation which [took place] gradually / he is so called.' But then he is not thy witness but my advocate, who has laid down these things in his discourses. Why then dost thou mingle these [arguments] of one who has laid them down in his very discourses? But Ambrose too [says]: 'Does not the Scripture also teach you that the divinity has not need of sanctification, but the flesh? Confess the glory of God and the sufferings of man.' [Thou claimest] that he is on thy side, but knowest not what thou sayest. Whatever then has this man said unto thee other [than this]? For he who accepts these disputes not against those. If thou accusest the latter as one who predicates the two ousias, accuse also the former who predicates two natures, one thing and another.
But thou sayest that he who confesses two natures, one and another, of necessity makes two prosôpa ; for it is not possible that two prosôpa should become one prosôpon ; but, if it is right to confess one prosôpon, refer them all to the one prosôpon of God the Word, in order that they may be predicated of one prosôpon and not of two; just as thou sayest that he [it is] who suffered, and dividest [it] on thy two fingers and makest proof as if concerning things [that are] divided. In this indeed thou hast naught [to do] with me, O admirable man. He, who in word accepts the Fathers and the words of the Fathers, accepts also my words at the same time. He, who says: 'Does not / the Scripture itself |246 also teach you that the divinity has not need of sanctification, but the flesh?' predicates one prosôpon of the flesh and of the divinity, and that the one has need of sanctification, while the other has not need. And 'He who begins and gradually advances and is brought to fullness is not God, although on account of his manifestation which [took place] little by little he is so called'----and the latter too predicates two: he who has begun and he who has not begun, and he who gradually advances and is brought to fullness, and further he who eternally is such as he is; he who is not God in his nature, although through the manifestation he is called God, and he who is [so] in his nature. For in the natures thou dividest also the prosôpa: man and God. [There are] not two sons nor two men; but hast thou not been informed that the Fathers confess one prosôpon of two natures, and that the diversities of the natures, either of the divinity or of the humanity, have not been made void by reason of the union, because they are thereby combined in one prosôpon which belongs to the natures and to the prosôpa? For the diversities subsist, since there has not been confusion or even suppression, so that thou mightest refer the diversity of the natures naturally to one nature and to one prosôpon of the same nature and mightest suppress that which is without prosôpon and without its own ousia, that is, the humanity, and mightest name God and man God alone.
For he, who thus names the one prosôpon of the two natures / God the Word, further attributes not the [properties] of the divinity to the prosôpon of the humanity in such wise that there should be one prosôpon of the divinity and of the humanity: the prosôpon of the divinity and the prosôpon of the humanity are one prosôpon, the one on this hand by kenosis, the other on that by exaltation. Either thou confessest the confusion of the natures and the absolute suppression [of the humanity], or thou confessest the instrumental and natural union of the heretics, whereby he is united to all the [properties] of men, in order that he may be able to comport himself and to suffer according to human nature. And the [attributes] |247 of the humanity [are] as the instrument to the craftsman; that is, thou referrest them to God the Word and dost not attribute to the instrument, that is, to the humanity, those of the craftsman; and the [properties] of the humanity, as by an instrument, thou referrest to God the Word, but thou dost not attribute those of God the Word to the humanity. Thou therefore deceivest, in that thou makest use of the things which we say in our own name alone and in our own prosôpon, whereas in fact on the contrary thou suppressest them; and thou makest God the Word himself passible, in suppressing the sensibility and the will of the humanity, which [according to thee] 'is not indeed sensible in its nature', but is sensible in the nature of God the Word, nor became willing in its own nature but became willing in the nature of God the Word. And for this purpose, as regards the humanity, thou attributest the things of the humanity to the nature and not to the prosôpon . But thou attributest the things of the humanity unto God but dost not attribute those of the divinity to the humanity. But we / speak of one and another in natures but of one prosôpon in the union for the use of one another: God on the one hand who was made man, man on the other who was made God.
But further, as in the Trinity, [there is] there one ousia of three prosôpa, but three prosôpa of one ousia ; here [there is] one prosôpon of two ousias and two ousias of one prosôpon. There the prosôpa exist not without ousia, nor here again does the ousia exist without a prosôpon, nor also the nature without prosôpon, nor yet the prosôpon without nature. For of the prosôpon of the one ousia and not of another the other ousia makes use in the same manner on account of the union. It has indeed made our own [properties] its very own properties, conceding its own to him to whom all these things belong completely, except sin. For he has come to aid our nature, not to take that which belongs to him, and to save and renew in him[self] our nature through a sublime obedience, and not to remove it from obedience, being obedient in its stead to all human sufferings, while it is obedient in naught, |248 and not to participate in the human nature of men. Nor [according to Cyril] did he come into being of men nor again of the [things] of divinity, but he attributes to the divinity the [properties] of the humanity without attributing those of the divinity to the humanity; but he was taken as something to serve as an instrument, not having voluntarily practised obedience as / a rational nature, with thought and with examination and with the choice of good and with the refusal of evil.
But if thou callest the nature of men in him whole, attribute unto him completeness also in the operations wherein it seems that it exists, that is, that he trusted in God and was made chief priest. And he offered up prayer and supplication and entreaty unto him that was able to preserve him alive from death and rescue him with strong crying and with tears and was heard on account of his righteousness; and though he were a son, he learned obedience by the things which he had borne and became the cause of eternal life unto all them that obey him ; and again 'he who begins and gradually advances and is brought to fullness is not God, although on account of his revelation which [was made] little by little he is so called';and again: 'Does not the Scripture also teach you that the divinity has not need of sanctification, but the flesh?' Although he was a son, by reason indeed of the union of the divinity and of the flesh, the Son of God speaks in them both because both the natures exist in him: 'Now indeed the glory of God and now the sufferings of the man.' For in saying 'God' and in saying 'in nature', we conceive him not without the man; and so again in calling him 'man' and in speaking of him as 'in nature', we speak not of him apart from his being God, but / we name the man God indeed on account of the union of the divinity but man in nature; yet similarly once more also God the Word is God indeed in nature, but we call God man by reason of the union of the prosôpon of the humanity. The [properties] therefore of the natures change not the union nor those of the union the natures and deprive [not] both |249 of them of the properties of the natures or of those which are caused by the union in the dispensation on our behalf.
But let other things also be written for the confutation of the condemnation which the judges have pronounced against me.
Likewise from the same, from the seventh roll. Wherefore, holy brethren who have been called by a heavenly calling, behold this Apostle and chief priest of our confession Jesus Christ, who [was] faithful unto him that hath made him as [ was ] Moses in all his house. And after other things : Since you have this chief priest who suffers with you and [is] your kinsman and sustains your people, fall not away from the faith; for he, by means of the blessing which was promised unto him, was sent of the seed of Abraham in order that he might present himself as a sacrifice on his behalf and on behalf of his kinsmen. It is to be remarked that I have confessed, that they all had need of sacrifices, and that I have excepted Christ as one who has not need; but he offered himself as a sacrifice on his own behalf and on behalf of his race.