(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was
not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all discovered errors. If you
find errors or omissions in the text, please notify [email protected].)

Transliteration of Greek words: All phonetical except: w = omega; h serves
three puposes: 1. = Eta; 2. = rough breathing, when appearing initially
before a vowel; 3. = in the aspirated letters theta = th, phi = ph, chi =
ch. Accents are given immediately after their corresponding vowels: acute =
' , grave = `, circumflex = ^. The character ' doubles as an apostrophe,
when necessary.


JOHN OF DAMASCUS

AN EXACT EXPOSITION OF THE ORTHODOX FAITH, Books III-IV

[Translated by the Rev. S. D. F. Salmond, D.D., F.E.I.S., Principal of the
Free Church College, Aberdeen, assisted by James L. Salmond, M.A., M.B.,
formerly of Balliol College, Oxford.]


BOOK III.

CHAPTER I.

Concerning the Divine Oeconomy and God's care over us, and concerning our
salvation.

   MAN, then, was thus snared by the assault of the arch-fiend, and broke
his Creator's command, and was stripped of grace and put off his confidence
with God, and covered himself with the asperities of a toilsome life (for
this is the meaning of the fig-leaves(1)); and was clothed about with
death, that is, mortality and the grossness of flesh (for this is what the
garment of skins signifies); and was banished from Paradise by God's just
judgment, and condemned to death, and made subject to corruption. Yet,
notwithstanding all this, in His pity, God, Who gave him his being, and Who
in His graciousness bestowed on him a life of happiness, did not disregard
man(2). But He first trained him in many ways and called him back, by
groans and trembling, by the deluge of water, and the utter destruction of
almost the whole race(3), by confusion and diversity of tongues(4), by the
rule(5) of angels(6), by the burning of cities(7), by figurative
manifestations of God, by wars and victories and defeats, by signs and
wonders, by manifold faculties, by the law and the prophets: for by all
these means God earnestly strove to emancipate man from the wide-spread and
enslaving bonds of sin, which had made life such a mass of iniquity, and to
effect man's return to a life of happiness. For it was sin that brought
death like a wild and savage beast into the world s to the ruin of the
human life. But it behoved the Redeemer to be without sin, and not made
liable through sin to death, and further, that His nature should be
strengthened and renewed, and trained by labour and taught the way of
virtue which leads away from corruption to the life eternal and, in the
end, is revealed the mighty ocean of love to man that is about Him(9). For
the very Creator and Lord Himself undertakes a struggle(1) in behalf of the
work of His own hands, and learns by toil to become Master. And since the
enemy snares man by the hope of Godhead, he himself is snared in turn by
the screen of flesh, and so are shown at once the goodness and wisdom, the
justice and might of God. God's goodness is revealed in that He did not
disregard(2) the frailty of His own handiwork, but was moved with
compassion for him in his fall, and stretched forth His hand to him: and
His justice in that when man was overcome He did not make another
victorious over the tyrant, nor did He snatch man by might from death, but
in His goodness and justice He made him, who had become through his sins
the slave of death, himself once more conqueror and rescued like by like,
most difficult though it seemed: and His wisdom is seen in His devising the
most fitting solution of the difficulty(3). For by the good pleasure of our
God and Father, the Only-begotten Son and Word of God and God, Who is in
the bosom of the God and Father(4), of like essence with the Father and the
Holy Spirit, Who was before the ages, Who is without beginning and was in
the beginning, Who is in the presence of the God and Father, and is God and
made in the form of God(5), bent the heavens and descended to earth: that
is to say, He humbled without humiliation His lofty station which yet could
not be humbled, and condescends to His servants(6), with a condescension
ineffable and incomprehensible: (for that is what the descent signifies).
And God being perfect becomes perfect man, and brings to perfection the
newest of all new things(7), the only new thing under the Sun, through
which the boundless might of God is manifested. For what greater thing is
there, than that God should become Man? And the Word became flesh without
being changed, of the Holy Spirit, and Mary the holy and ever-virgin one,
the mother of God. And He acts as mediator between God and man, He the only
lover of man conceived in the Virgin's chaste womb without will(8) or
desire, or any connection with man or pleasurable generation, but through
the Holy Spirit and the first offspring of Adam. And He becomes obedient to
the Father Who is like unto us, and finds a remedy for our disobedience in
what He had assumed from us, and became a pattern of obedience to us
without which it is not possible to obtain salvation(8).

CHAPTER II.

Concerning the manner in which the Word(9) was conceived, and concerning
His divine incarnation.

   The angel of the Lord was sent to the holy Virgin, who was descended
from David's line(1). Far it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah,
of which tribe no one turned his attention to the altar(2), as the divine
apostle said: but about this we will speak more accurately later. And
bearing glad tidings to her, he said, Hail thou highly favoured one, the
Lord is with thee(3). And she was troubled at his word, and the angel said
to her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God, and shalt
bring forth a Son and shalt call His name Jesus(4); for He shall save His
people from their sins(5). Hence it comes that Jesus has the interpretation
Saviour. And when she asked in her perplexity, How can this be, seeing I
know not a man(6)? the angel again answered her, The Holy Spirit shall came
upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore
also that holy thing which shall be born of thee(7) shall be called the Son
of God(8). And she said to him, Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it unto
me according to Thy word(9).

   So then, after the assent of the holy Virgin, the Holy Spirit descended
on her, according to the word of the Lord which the angel spoke, purifying
her(1), and granting her power to receive the divinity of the Word, and
likewise power to bring forth(2). And then was she overshadowed(3) by the
enhypostatic Wisdom and Power of the most high God, the Son of God Who is
of like essence with the Father as of Divine seed, and from her holy and
most pure blood He formed flesh animated with the spirit of reason and
thought, the first-fruits of our compound nature(4): not by procreation but
by creation through the Holy Spirit: not developing the fashion of the body
by gradual additions but perfecting it at once, He Himself, the very Word
of God, standing to the flesh in the relation of subsistence. For the
divine Word was not made one with flesh that had an independent pre-
existence(5), but taking up His abode in the womb of the holy Virgin, He
unreservedly in His own subsistence took upon Himself through the pure
blood of the eternal Virgin a body of flesh animated with the spirit of
reason and thought, thus assuming to Himself the first-fruits of man's
compound nature, Himself, the Word, having become a subsistence in the
flesh. So that(6) He is at once flesh, and at the same time flesh of God
the Word, and likewise flesh animated, possessing both reason and
thought(7). Wherefore we speak not of man as having become God, but of God
as having become Man(8). For being by nature perfect God, He naturally
became likewise perfect Man: and did not change His nature nor make the
dispensation(9) an empty show, but became, without confusion or change or
division, one in subsistence with the flesh, which was conceived of the
holy Virgin, and animated with reason and thought, and had found existence
in Him, while He did not change the nature of His divinity into the essence
of flesh, nor the essence of flesh into the nature of His divinity, and did
not make one compound nature out of His divine nature and the human nature
He had assumed(1).

CHAPTER III.

Concerning Christ's two natures, in apposition to those who hold that He
has only one(2).

   For the two natures were united with each other without change or
alteration, neither the divine nature departing from its native simplicity,
nor yet the human being either changed into the nature of God or reduced to
non-existence, nor one compound nature being produced out of the two. For
the compound nature(3) cannot be of the same essence as either of the
natures out of which it is compounded, as made one thing out of others: for
example, the body is composed of the four elements, but is not of the same
essence as fire or air, or water or earth, nor does it keep these names.
If, therefore, after the union, Christ's nature was, as the heretics hold,
a compound unity, He had changed from a simple into a compound nature(4),
and is not of the same essence as the Father Whose nature is simple, nor as
the mother, who is not a compound of divinity and humanity. Nor will He
then be in divinity and humanity: nor will He be called either God or Man,
but simply Christ: and the word Christ will be the name not of the
subsistence, but of what in their view is the one nature.

   We, however, do not give it as our view that Christ's nature is
compound, nor yet that He is one thing made of other things and differing
from them as man is made of sold and body, or as the body is made of the
four elements, but hold(5) that, though He is constituted of these
different parts He is yet the same(6). For we confess that He alike in His
divinity and in His humanity both is and is said to be perfect God, the
same Being, and that He consists of two natures, and exists in two
natures(7). Further, by the word "Christ" we understand the name of the
subsistence, not in the sense of one kind, but as signifying the existence
of two natures. For in His own person He anointed Himself; as God anointing
His body with His own divinity, and as Man being anointed. For He is
Himself both God and Man. And the anointing is the divinity of His
humanity. For if Christ, being of one compound nature, is of like essence
to the Father, then the Father also must be compound and of like essence
with the flesh, which is absurd and extremely blasphemous(8).

   How, indeed, could one and the same nature come to embrace opposing and
essential differences? For how is it possible that the same nature should
be at once created and uncreated, mortal and immortal, circumscribed and
uncircumscribed?

   But if those who declare that Christ has only one nature should say
also that that nature is a simple one, they must admit either that He is
God pure and simple, and thus reduce the incarnation to a mere pretence, or
that He is only man, according to Nestorius. And how then about His being
"perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity"? And when can Christ be said
to be of two natures, if they hold that He is of one composite nature after
the union? For it is surely clear to every one that before the union
Christ's nature was one.

   But this is what leads the heretics(9) astray, viz., that they look
upon nature and subsistence as the same thing(1). For when we speak of the
nature of men as one(2), observe that in saying this we are not looking to
the question of soul and body. For when we compare together the soul and
the body it cannot be said that they are of one nature. But since there are
very many subsistences of men, and yet all have the same kind of nature(3):
for all are composed of soul and body, and all have part in the nature of
the soul, and possess the essence of the body, and the common form: we
speak of the one nature of these very many and different subsistences;
while each subsistence, to wit, has two natures, and fulfils itself in two
natures, namely, soul and body.

   But(4) a common form cannot be admitted in the case of our Lord Jesus
Christ. For neither was there ever, nor is there, nor will there ever be
another Christ constituted of deity and humanity, and existing in deity and
humanity at once perfect God and perfect man. And thus in the case of our
Lord Jesus Christ we cannot speak of one nature made up of divinity and
humanity, as we do in the case of the individual made up of soul and
body(5). For in the latter case we have to do with an individual, but
Christ is not an individual. For there is no predicable form of
Christlihood, so to speak, that He possesses. And therefore we hold that
there has been a union of two perfect natures, one divine and one human;
not with disorder or confusion, or intermixture(6), or commingling, as is
said by the God-accursed Dioscorus and by Eutyches(7) and Severus, and all
that impious company: and not in a personal or relative manner, or as a
matter of dignity or agreement in will, or equality in honour, or identity
in name, or good pleasure, as Nestorius, hated of God, said, and Diodorus
and Theodorus of Mopsuestia, and their diabolical tribe: but by synthesis;
that is, in subsistence, without change or confusion or alteration or
difference or separation, and we confess that in two perfect natures there
is but one subsistence of the Son of God incarnate(8); holding that there
is one and the same subsistence belonging to His divinity and His humanity,
and granting that the two natures are preserved in Him after the union, but
we do not hold that each is separate and by itself, but that they are
united to each other in one compound subsistence. For we look upon the
union as essential, that is, as true and not imaginary. We say that it is
essential(9), moreover, not in the sense of two natures resulting in one
compound nature, but in the sense of a true union of them in one compound
subsistence of the Son of God, and we hold that their essential difference
is preserved. For the created remaineth created, and the uncreated,
uncreated: the mortal remaineth mortal; the immortal, immortal: the
circumscribed, circumscribed: the uncircumscribed, uncircumscribed: the
visible, visible: the invisible, invisible. "The one part is all glorious
with wonders: while the other is the victim of insults(1)."

   Moreover, the Word appropriates to Himself the attributes of humanity:
for all that pertains to His holy flesh is His: and He imparts to the flesh
His own attributes by way of communication(2) in virtue of the
interpenetration of the parts(3) one with another, and the oneness
according to subsistence, and inasmuch as He Who lived and acted both as
God and as man, taking to Himself either form and holding intercourse with
the other form, was one and the same(4). Hence it is that the Lord of Glory
is said to have been crucified(5), although His divine nature never endured
the Cross, and that the Son of Man is allowed to have been in heaven before
the Passion, as the Lord Himself said(6). For the Lord of Glory is one and
the same with Him Who is in nature and in truth the Son of Man, that is,
Who became man, and both His wonders and His sufferings are known to us,
although His wonders were worked in His divine capacity, and His sufferings
endured as man. For we know that, just as is His one subsistence, so is the
essential difference of the nature preserved. For how could difference be
preserved if the very things that differ from one another are not
preserved? For difference is the difference between things that differ. In
so far as Christ's natures differ from one another, that is, in the matter
of essence, we hold that Christ unites in Himself two extremes: in respect
of His divinity He is connected with the Father and the Spirit, while in
respect of His humanity He is connected with His mother and all mankind.
And in so far as His natures are united, we hold that He differs from the
Father and the Spirit on the one hand, and from the mother and the rest of
mankind on the other. For the natures are united in His subsistence, having
one compound subsistence, in which He differs from the Father and the
Spirit, and also from the mother and us.

CHAPTER IV.

Concerning the manner of the Mutual Communication(8).

   Now we have often said already that essence is one thing and
subsistence another, and that essence signifies the common and general
form(9) of subsistences of the same kind, such as God, man, while
subsistence marks the individual, that is to say, Father, Son, Holy Spirit,
or Peter, Paul. Observe, then, that the names, divinity and humanity,
denote essences or natures: while the names, God and man, are applied both
in connection with natures, as when we say that God is incomprehensible
essence, and that God is one, and with reference to subsistences, that
which is more specific having the name of the more general applied to it,
as when the Scripture says, Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee(1),
or again, There was a certain man in the land of Uz(2), for it was only to
Job that reference was made.

   Therefore, in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, seeing that we
recognise that He has two natures but only one subsistence compounded of
both, when we contemplate His natures we speak of His divinity and His
humanity, but when we contemplate the subsistence compounded of the natures
we sometimes use terms that have reference to His double nature, as
"Christ," and "at once God and man," and "God Incarnate;" and sometimes
those that imply only one of His natures, as "God" alone, or "Son of God,"
and "man" alone, or "Son of Man;" sometimes using names that imply His
loftiness and sometimes those that imply His lowliness. For He Who is alike
God and man is one, being the former from the Father ever without(3) cause,
but having become the latter afterwards for His love towards man(4).

   When, then, we speak of His divinity we do not ascribe to it the
properties of humanity. For we do not say that His divinity is subject to
passion or created. Nor, again, do we predicate of His flesh or of His
humanity the properties of divinity: for we do not say that His flesh or
His humanity is uncreated. But when we speak of His subsistence, whether we
give it a name implying both natures, or one that refers to only one of
them, we still attribute to it the properties of both natures. For Christ,
which name implies both natures, is spoken of as at once God and man,
created and uncreated, subject to suffering anti incapable of suffering:
and when He is named Son of God and God, in reference to only one of His
natures, He still keeps the properties of the co-existing nature, that is,
the flesh, being spoken of as God who suffers, and as the Lord of Glory
crucified(5), not in respect of His being God but in respect of His being
at the same time man. Likewise also when He is called Man and Son of Man,
He still keeps the properties and glories of the divine nature, a child
before the ages, and man who knew no beginning; it is not, however, as
child or man but as God that He is before the ages, and became a child in
the end. And Ibis is the manner of the mutual communication, either nature
giving in exchange to the other its own properties through the identity of
the subsistence and the interpenetration of the parts with one another.
Accordingly we can say of Christ: This our God was seen upon the earth and
lived amongst men(6), and This man is uncreated and impossible and
uncircumscribed.

CHAPTER V.

Concerning the number of the Natures.

   In the case, therefore, of the Godhead(7) we confess that there is but
one nature, but hold that there are three subsistences actually existing,
anti hold that all things that are of nature and essence are simple, and
recognise the difference of the subsistences only in the three properties
of independence of cause and Fatherhood, of dependence on cause and
Sonship, of dependence on cause and procession(8). And we know further that
these are indivisible and inseparable from each other and united into one,
and interpenetrating one another without confusion. Yea, I repeat, united
without confusion, for they are three although united, and they are
distinct, although inseparable. For although each has an independent
existence, that is to say, is a perfect subsistence and has an
individuality of its own, that is, has a special mode of existence, yet
they are one in essence and in the natural properties. and in being
inseparable and indivisible from the Father's subsistence, and they both
are and are said to be one God. In the very same way, then, in the case of
the divine and ineffable dispensation(9), exceeding all thought and
comprehension, I mean the Incarnation of the One God the Word of the Holy
Trinity, and our Lord Jesus Christ, we confess that there are two natures,
one divine and one human, joined together with one another and united in
subsistence(1), so that one compound subsistence is formed out of the two
natures: but we hold that the two natures are still preserved, even after
the union, in the one compound subsistence, that is, in the one Christ, and
that these exist in reality and have their natural properties; for they are
united without confusion, and are distinguished and enumerated without
being separable. And just as the three subsistences of the Holy Trinity are
united without confusion, and are distinguished and enumerated without
being separable(2), the enumeration not entailing division or separation or
alienation or cleavage among them (for we recognise one God the Father, the
Son and the Holy Spirit), so in the same way the natures of Christ also,
although they are united, yet are united without confusion; and although
they interpenetrate one another, yet they do not permit of change or
transmutation of one into the other(3). For each keeps its own natural
individuality strictly unchanged. And thus it is that they can be
enumerated without the enumeration introducing division. For Christ,
indeed, is one, perfect both in divinity and in humanity. For it is not the
nature of number to cause separation or unity, but its nature is to
indicate the quantity of what is enumerated, whether these are united or
separated: for we have unity, for instance, when fifty stones compose a
wall, but we have separation when the fifty stones lie on the ground; and
again, we have unity when we speak of coal having two natures, namely, fire
and wood, but we have separation in that the nature of fire is one thing,
and the nature of wood another thing; for these things are united and
separated not by number, but in another way. So, then, just as even though
the three subsistences of the Godhead are united with each other, we cannot
speak of them as one subsistence because we should confuse and do away with
the difference between the subsistences, so also we cannot speak of the two
natures of Christ as one nature, united though they are in subsistence,
because we should then confuse and do away with and reduce to nothing the
difference between the two natures.

CHAPTER. VI.

That in one of its subsistences the divine nature is united in its entirety
to the human nature, in its entirety and not only part to part.

   What is common and general is predicated of the included particulars.
Essence, then, is common as being a form(4), while subsistence is
particular. It is particular not as though it had part of the nature and
had not the rest, but particular in a numerical sense, as being individual.
For it is in number and not in nature that the difference between
subsistences is said to lie. Essence, therefore, is predicated of
subsistence, because in each subsistence of the same form the essence is
perfect. Wherefore subsistences do not differ from each other in essence
but in the accidents which indeed are the characteristic properties, but
characteristic of subsistence and not of nature. For indeed they define
subsistence as essence along with accidents. So that the subsistence
contains both the general and the particular, and has an independent
existence(5), while essence has not an independent existence but is
contemplated in the subsistences. Accordingly when one of the subsistences
suffers, the whole essence, being capable of suffering(6), is held to have
suffered in one of its subsistences as much as the subsistence suffered,
but it does not necessarily follow, however, that all the subsistences of
the same class should suffer along with the suffering subsistence.

   Thus, therefore, we confess that the nature of the Godhead is wholly
and perfectly in each of its subsistences, wholly in the Father, wholly in
the Son, and wholly in the Holy Spirit. Wherefore also the Father is
perfect God, the Son is perfect God, and the Holy Spirit is perfect God. In
like manner, too, in the Incarnation of the Trinity of the One God the Word
of the Holy Trinity, we hold that in one of its subsistences the nature of
the Godhead is wholly and perfectly united with the whole nature of
humanity, and not part united to part(7). The divine Apostle in truth says
that in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily(8), that is to
say in His flesh. And His divinely-inspired disciple, Dionysius, who had so
deep a knowledge of things divine, said that the Godhead as a whole had
fellowship with us in one of its own subsistences(9). But we shall not be
driven to hold that all the subsistences of the Holy Godhead, to wit the
three, are made one in subsistence with all the subsistences of humanity.
For in no other respect did the Father and the Holy Spirit take part in the
incarnation of God the Word than according to good will and pleasure But we
hold that to the whole of human nature the whole essence of the Godhead was
united. For God the Word omitted none of the things which He implanted in
our nature when He formed us in the beginning, but took them all upon
Himself, body and soul both intelligent and rational, and all their
properties. For the creature that is devoid of one of these is not man. But
He in His fulness took upon Himself me in my fulness, and was united whole
to whole that He might in His grace bestow salvation on the whole man. For
what has not been taken cannot be healed(1).

   The Word of God(2), then, was united to flesh through the medium of
mind which is intermediate between the purity of God and the grossness of
flesh(3). For the mind holds sway over soul and body, but while the mind is
the purest part of the soul God is that of the mind. And when it is
allowed(4) by that which is more excellent, the mind of Christ gives proof
of its own authority(5), but it is under the dominion of and obedient to
that which is more excellent, and does those things which the divine will
purposes.

   Further the mind has become the seat of the divinity united with it in
subsistence, just as is evidently the case with the body too, not as an
inmate(6), which is the impious error into which the heretics fall when
they say that one bushel cannot contain two bushels, for they are judging
what is immaterial by material standards. How indeed could Christ be called
perfect God and perfect man, and be said to be of like essence with the
Father and with us, if only part of the divine nature is joined in Him to
part of the human nature(7)?

   We hold, moreover, that our nature has been raised from the dead and
has ascended to the heavens and taken its seat at the right hand of the
Father: not that all the persons of men have risen from the dead and taken
their seat at the right hand of the Father, but that this has happened to
the whole of our nature in the subsistence of Christ(8). Verily the divine
Apostle says, God hath raised us up together and made us sit together in
Christ(9).

   And this further we hold, that the union took place through common
essences. For every essence is common to the subsistences contained in it,
and there cannot be found a partial and particular nature, that is to say,
essence: for otherwise we would have to hold that the same subsistences are
at once the same and different in essence, and that the Holy Trinity in
respect of the divinity is at once the same and different in essence. So
then the same nature is to be observed in each of the subsistences, and
when we said that the nature of the word became flesh, as did the blessed
Athanasius and Cyrillus, we mean that the divinity was joined to the flesh.
Hence we cannot say "The nature of the Word suffered;" for the divinity in
it did not suffer, but we say that the human nature, not by any means,
however, meaning(1) all the subsistences of men, suffered in Christ, and we
confess further that Christ suffered in His human nature. So that when we
speak of the nature of the Word we mean the Word Himself. And the Word has
both the general element of essence and the particular element of
subsistence.

CHAPTER VII.

Concerning the one compound subsistence of God the Word.

   We hold then that the divine subsistence of God the Word existed before
all else and is without time and eternal, simple and uncompound, uncreated,
incorporeal, invisible, intangible, uncircumscribed, possessing all the
Father possesses, since He is of the same essence with Him, differing from
the Father's subsistence in the manner of His generation and the relation
of the Father's subsistence, being perfect also and at no time separated
from the Father's subsistence: and in these last. days, without leaving the
Father's bosom, took up His abode in an uncircumscribed manner in the womb
of the holy Virgin, without the instrumentality of seed, and in an
incomprehensible manner known only to Himself, and causing the flesh
derived from the holy Virgin to subsist in the very subsistence that was
before all the ages.

   So then He was both in all things and above all things and also dwelt
in the womb of the holy Mother of God, but in it by the energy of the
incarnation. He therefore became flesh and He took upon Himself thereby the
first-fruits of our compound nature(2), viz., the flesh animated with the
intelligent and national soul, so that the very subsistence of God the Word
was changed into the subsistence of the flesh, and the subsistence of the
Word, which was formerly simple, became compound(3), yea compounded of two
perfect natures, divinity and humanity, and bearing the characteristic and
distinctive property of the divine Sonship of God the Word in virtue of
which it is distinguished from the Father and the Spirit, and also the
characteristic and distinctive properties of the flesh, in virtue of which
it differs from the Mother and the rest of mankind, bearing further the
properties of the divine nature in virtue of which it is united to the
Father and the Spirit, and the marks of the human nature in virtue of which
it is united to the Mother and to us. And further it differs from the
Father and the Spirit and the Mother and us in being at once God and man.
For this we know to be the most special property of the subsistence of
Christ.

   Wherefore we confess Him, even after the incarnation, the one Son of
God, and likewise Son of Man, one Christ, one Lord, the only-begotten Son
and Word of God, one Lord Jesus. We reverence His two generations, one from
the Father before time and beyond cause and reason and time and nature, and
one in the end for our sake, and like to us and above us; for our sake
because it was for our salvation, like to us in that He was man born of
woman(4) at full tithe(5), and above us because it was not by seed, but by
the Holy Spirit and the Holy Virgin Mary(6), transcending the laws of
parturition. We proclaim Him not as God only, devoid of our humanity, nor
yet as man only, stripping Him of His divinity, nor as two distinct
persons, but as one and the same, at once God and man, perfect God and
perfect man, wholly God anti wholly man, the same being wholly God, even
though He was also flesh and wholly man, even though He was also most high
God. And by "perfect God" and "perfect man" we mean to emphasize the
fulness and unfailingness of the natures: while by "wholly God" and "wholly
man" we mean to lay stress on the singularity and individuality of the
subsistence.

   And we confess also that there is one incarnate nature of God the Word,
expressing by the word "incarnate(7)" the essence of the flesh, according
to the blessed Cyril(8). And so the Word was made flesh and yet did not
abandon His own proper immateriality: He became wholly flesh and yet
remained wholly uncircumscribed. So far as He is body He is diminished and
contracted into narrow limits, but inasmuch as He is God He is
uncircumscribed, His flesh not being coextensive with His uncircumscribed
divinity.

   He is then wholly perfect God, but yet is not simply(9) God: for He is
not only God but also man. And He is also wholly(1) perfect man but not
simply(2) man, for He is not only man but also God. For "simply(2)" here
has reference to His nature, and "wholly(1)" to His subsistence, just as
"another thing" would refer to nature, while "another(3)" would refer to
subsistence(4).

   But observe(5) that although we hold that the natures of the Lord
permeate one another, yet we know that the permeation springs from the
divine nature. For it is that that penetrates and permeates all things, as
it wills, while nothing penetrates it: and it is it, too, that imparts to
the flesh its own peculiar glories, while abiding itself impossible and
without participation in the affections of the flesh. For if the sun
imparts to us his energies and yet does not participate in ours, how much
the rather must this be true of the Creator anti Lord of the Sun(6).

CHAPTER VIII.

In reply to those who ask whether(7) the natures of the Lord are brought
under a continuous or a discontinuous quantity(8).

   If any one asks concerning the natures of the Lord if they are brought
under a continuous or discontinuous quantity(9), we will say that the
natures of the Lord are neither one body nor one superficies(1), nor one
line, nor time, nor place, so as to be reduced to a  continuous quantity.
For these are the things  that are reckoned continuously.

   Further note that number deals with things that differ, and it is quite
impossible to enumerate things that differ from one another in no respect:
and just so far as they differ are they enumerated: for instance, Peter and
Paul are not counted separately in so far as they are one. For since they
are one in respect of their essence they cannot be spoken of as two
natures, but as they differ in respect of subsistence they are spoken of as
two subsistences. So that number deals with differences, and just as the
differing objects differ from one another so far they are enumerated.

   The natures of the Lord, then, are united without confusion so far as
regards subsistence, and they are divided without separation according to
the method and manner of difference. And it is not according to the manner
in which they are united that they are enumerated, for it is not in respect
of subsistence that we hold that there are two natures of Christ: but
according to the manner in which they are divided without separation they
are enumerated, for it is in respect of the method and manner of difference
that there are two natures of Christ. For being united in subsistence and
permeating one another, they are united without confusion, each preserving
throughout its own peculiar and natural difference. Hence, since they are
enumerated according to the manner of difference, and that alone, they must
be brought under a discontinuous quantity.

   Christ, therefore(2), is one, perfect God and perfect man: and Him we
worship along with the Father and the Spirit, with one obeisance, adoring
even His immaculate flesh and not holding that the flesh is not meet for
worship: for in fact it is worshipped in the one subsistence of the Word,
which indeed became subsistence for it. But in this we do not do homage to
that which is created. For we worship Him, not as mere flesh, but as flesh
united with divinity, and because His two natures are brought under the one
person and one subsistence of God the Word. I fear to touch coal because of
the fire bound up with the wood. I worship the twofold nature of Christ
because of the divinity that is in Him bound up with flesh. For I do not
introduce a fourth person(3) into the Trinity. God forbid! but I confess
one person of God the Word and of His flesh, and the Trinity remains
Trinity, even after the incarnation of the Word.

In reply(4) to those who ask whether the two natures are brought under a
continuous or a discontinuous quantity.

   The natures of the Lord are neither one body nor one superficies, nor
one line, nor place, nor time, so as to be brought under a continuous
quantity: for these are the things that are reckoned continuously. But the
natures of the Lord are united without confusion in respect of subsistence,
and are divided without separation according to the method and manner of
difference. And according to the manner in which they are united they are
not enumerated. For we do not say that the natures of Christ are two
subsistences or two in respect of subsistence. But according to the manner
in which they are divided without division, are they enumerated. For there
are two natures according to the method and manner of difference. For being
united in subsistence and permeating one another they are united without
confusion, neither having been changed into the other, but each preserving
its own natural difference even after the union. For that which is created
remained created, and that which is uncreated, uncreated. By the manner of
difference, then, and in that alone, they are enumerated, and thus are
brought under discontinuous quantity. For things which differ from each
other in no respect cannot be enumerated, but just so far as they differ
are they enumerated; for instance, Peter and Paul are not enumerated in
those respects in which they are one: for being one in respect of their
essence they are not two natures nor are they so spoken of. But inasmuch as
they differ in subsistence they are spoken of as two subsistences. So that
difference is the cause of number.

CHAPTER IX.

In reply to the question whether there is Nature that has no Subsistence.

   For although(5) there is no nature without subsistence, nor essence
apart from person (since in truth it is in persons and subsistences that
essence and nature are to be contemplated), yet it does not necessarily
follow that the natures that are united to one another in subsistence
should have each its own proper subsistence. For after they have come
together into one subsistence, it is possible that neither should they be
without subsistence, nor should each have its own peculiar subsistence, but
that both should have one and the same subsistence(6). For since one and
the same subsistence of the Word has become the subsistence of the natures,
neither of them is permitted to be without subsistence, nor are they
allowed to have subsistences that differ from each other, or to have
sometimes the subsistence of this nature and sometimes of that, but always
without division or separation they both have the same subsistence--a
subsistence which is not broken up into parts or divided, so that one part
should belong to this, and one to that, but which belongs wholly to this
and wholly to that in its absolute entirety. For the flesh of God the Word
did not subsist as an independent subsistence, nor did there arise another
subsistence besides that of God the Word, but as it existed in that it
became rather a subsistence which subsisted in another, than one which was
an independent subsistence. Wherefore, neither does it lack subsistence
altogether, nor yet is there thus introduced into the Trinity another
subsistence.

CHAPTER X.

Concerning the Trisagium ("the Thrice Holy").

   This being so(7), we declare that the addition which the vain-minded
Peter the Fuller made to the Trisagium or "Thrice Holy" Hymn is
blasphemous(8); for it introduces a fourth person into the Trinity, giving
a separate place to the Son of God, Who is the truly subsisting power of
the Father, and a separate place to Him Who was crucified as though He were
different from the "Mighty One," or as though the Holy Trinity was
considered possible, and the Father and the Holy Spirit suffered on the
Cross along with the Son. Have done with this blasphemous(9) and
nonsensical interpolation! For we hold the words "Holy God" to refer to the
Father, without limiting the title of divinity to Him alone, but
acknowledging also as God the Son and the Holy Spirit: and the words "Holy
and Mighty" we ascribe to the Son, without stripping the Father and the
Holy Spirit of might: and the words "Holy and Immortal" we attribute to the
Holy Spirit, without depriving the Father and the Son of immortality. For,
indeed, we apply all the divine names simply and unconditionally to each of
the subsistences in imitation of the divine Apostle's words. But to us
there is but one God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and we in Him:
and one Lord Jesus Christ by Whom are all things, and we by Him(1)(2) And,
nevertheless, we follow Gregory the Theologian(3) when he says, "But to us
there is but one God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and one Lord
Jesus Christ, through Whom are all things, and one Holy Spirit, in Whom are
all things:" for the words "of Whom" and "through Whom" and "in Whom" do
not divide the natures (for neither the prepositions nor the order of the
names could ever be changed), but they characterise the properties of one
unconfused nature. And this becomes clear from the fact that they are once
more gathered into one, if only one reads with care these words of the same
Apostle, Of Him and through Him and in Him are all things: to Him be the
glory for ever and ever. Amen(4).

   For that the "Trisagium" refers not to the Son alone(5), but to the
Holy Trinity, the divine and saintly Athanasius and Basil and Gregory, and
all the band of the divinely-inspired Fathers bear witness: because, as a
matter of fact, by the threefold holiness the Holy Seraphim suggest to us
the three subsistences of the superessential Godhead. But by the one
Lordship they denote the one essence and dominion of the supremely-divine
Trinity. Gregory the Theologian of a truth says(6), "Thus, then, the Holy
of Holies, which is completely veiled by the Seraphim, and is glorified
with three consecrations, meet together in one lordship and one divinity."
This was the most beautiful and sublime philosophy of still another of our
predecessors.

   Ecclesiastical historians(7), then, say that once when the people of
Constantinople were offering prayers to God to avert a threatened
calamity(8), during Proclus' tenure of the office of Archbishop, it
happened that a boy was snatched up from among the people, and was taught
by angelic teachers the "Thrice Holy" Hymn, "Thou Holy God, Holy and Mighty
One, Holy and Immortal One, have mercy upon us:" and when once more he was
restored to earth, he told what he had learned, and all the people sang the
Hymn, and so the threatened calamity was averted. And in the fourth holy
and great (Ecumenical Council, I mean the one at Chalcedon, we are told
that it was in this form that the Hymn was sung; for the minutes of this
holy assembly so record it(9). It is, therefore, a matter for laughter and
ridicule that this "Thrice Holy" Hymn, taught us by the angels, and
confirmed by the averting of calamity(1), ratified and established by so
great an assembly of the holy Fathers, and sung first by the Seraphim as a
declaration of the three subsistences of the Godhead, should be mangled and
forsooth emended to suit the view of the stupid Fuller as though he were
higher than the Seraphim. But oh! the arrogance! not to say folly! But we
say it thus, though demons should rend us in pieces, "Do Thou, Holy God,
Holy and Mighty One, Holy and Immortal One, have mercy upon us."

CHAPTER XI.

Concerning the Nature as viewed in Species and in Individual, and
concerning the difference between Union and Incarnation: and how this is to
be understood, "The one Nature of God the Word Incarnate."

   Nature(2) is regarded either abstractly as a matter of pure thought(3)
(for it has no independent existence): or commonly in all subsistences of
the same species as their bond of union, and is then spoken of as nature
viewed in species: or universally as the same, but with the addition of
accidents, in one subsistence, and is spoken of as nature viewed in the
individual, this being identical with nature viewed in species(4). God the
Word Incarnate, therefore, did not assume the nature that is regarded as an
abstraction in pure thought (for tiffs is not incarnation, but only an
imposture and a figment of incarnation), nor the nature viewed in species
(for He did not assume all the subsistences): but the nature viewed in the
individual, which is identical with that viewed in species. For He took on
Himself the elements of our compound nature, and these not as having an
independent existence or as being originally an individual, and in this way
assumed by Him, but as existing in His own subsistence. For the subsistence
of God the Word in itself became the subsistence of the flesh, and
accordingly "the Word became flesh(5)" clearly without any change, and
likewise the flesh became Word without alteration, and God became man. For
the Word is God, and man is God, through having one and the same
subsistence. And so it is possible to speak of tile same thing as being the
nature of the Word and the nature in the individual. For it signifies
strictly and exclusively neither the individual, that is, the subsistence,
nor the common nature of the subsistences, but the common nature as viewed
and presented in one of the subsistences.

   Union, then, is one thing, and incarnation is something quite
different. For union signifies only the conjunction, but not at all that
with which union is effected. But incarnation (which is just the same as if
one said "the putting on of man's nature") signifies that tile conjunction
is with flesh, that is to say, with man, just as the heating of iron(6)
implies its union with fire. Indeed, the blessed Cyril himself, when he is
interpreting the phrase, "one nature of God the Word Incarnate," says in
the second epistle to Sucensus, "For if we simply said 'the one nature of
the Word' and then were silent, and did not add the word 'incarnate.' but,
so to speak, quite excluded the dispensation(7), there would be some
plausibility in the question they feign to ask, 'If one nature is the
whole, what becomes of the perfection in humanity, or how has the
essence(8) like us come to exist?' But inasmuch as the perfection in
humanity and the disclosure of the essence like us are conveyed in the word
'incarnate,' they must cease from relying on a mere straw" Here, then, he
placed the nature of the Word over nature itself. For if He had received
nature instead of subsistence, it would not have been absurd to have
omitted the "incarnate." For when we say simply one subsistence of God the
Word, we do not err(9). In like manner, also, Leontius the Byzantine(1)
considered this phrase to refer to nature, and not to subsistence. But in
the Defence which he wrote in reply to the attacks that Theodoret made on
the second anathema, the blessed Cyril(2) says this: "The nature of the
Word, that is, the subsistence, which is the Word itself." So that "the
nature of the Word" means neither the subsistence alone, nor "the common
nature of the subsistence," but "the common nature viewed as a whole in the
subsistence of the Word."

   It has been said, then, that the nature of the Word became flesh, that
is, was united to flesh: but that the nature of the Word suffered in the
flesh we have never heard up till now, though we have been taught that
Christ suffered in the flesh. So that "the nature of the Word" does not
mean "the subsistence." It remains, therefore, to say that to become flesh
is to be united with the flesh, while the Word having become flesh means
that the very subsistence of the Word became without change the subsistence
of the flesh. It has also been said that God became man, and man God. For
the Word which is God became without alteration man. But that the Godhead
became man, or became flesh, or put on the nature of man, this we have
never heard. This, indeed, we have learned, that the Godhead was united to
humanity in one of its subsistences, and it has been stated that God took
on a different form or essence(3), to wit our own. For the name God is
applicable to each of the subsistences, but we cannot use the term Godhead
in reference to subsistence. For we are never told that the Godhead is the
Father alone, or the Son alone, or the Holy Spirit alone. For "Godhead"
implies "nature," while "Father" implies subsistence just as "Humanity"
implies nature, and "Peter" subsistence. But "God" indicates the common
element of the nature, and is applicable derivatively to each of the
subsistences, just as "man" is. For He Who has divine nature is God, and he
who has human nature is man.

   Besides all this, notice(4) that the Father and the Holy Spirit take no
part at all in the incarnation of the Word except in connection with the
miracles, and in respect of good will and purpose.

CHAPTER XII.

That the holy Virgin is the Mother of God: an argument directed against the
Nestorians.

   Moreover we proclaim the holy Virgin to be in strict truth(5) the
Mother of God(6). For inasmuch as He who was born of her was true God, she
who bare the true God incarnate is the true mother of God. For we hold that
God was born of her, not implying that the divinity of the Word received
from her the beginning of its being, but meaning that God the Word Himself,
Who was begotten of the Father timelessly before the ages, and was with the
Father and the Spirit without beginning anti through eternity, took up His
abode in these last days for the sake of our salvation in the Virgin's
womb, and was without change made flesh and born of her. For the holy
Virgin did not bare mere man but true God: and not mere God but God
incarnate, Who did not bring down His body from Heaven, nor simply passed
through the Virgin as channel, but received from her flesh of like essence
to our own and subsisting in Himself(7). For if the body had come down from
heaven and had not partaken of our nature, what would have been the use of
His becoming man? For the purpose of God the Word becoming man(8) was that
the very same nature, which had sinned and fallen and become corrupted,
should triumph over the deceiving tyrant and so be freed from corruption,
just as the divine apostle puts it, For since by man came death, by man
came also the resurrection of the dead(9). If the first is true the second
must also be true.

   Although(1), however, he says, The first Adam is of the earth earthy;
the second Adam is Lord from Heaven(2), he does not say that His body is
from heaven, but emphasises the fact that He is not mere man. For, mark, he
called Him both Adam and Lord, thus indicating His double nature. For Adam
is, being interpreted, earth-born: and it is clear that man's nature is
earth-born since he is formed from earth, but the title Lord signifies His
divine essence.

   And again the Apostle says: God sent forth His only-begotten Son, made
of a woman(3). He did not say "made by a woman." Wherefore the divine
apostle meant that the only-begotten Son of God and God is the same as He
who was made man of the Virgin, and that He who was born of the Virgin is
the same as the Son of God and God.

   But He was born after the bodily fashion inasmuch as He became man, and
did not take up His abode in a man formed beforehand, as in a prophet, but
became Himself in essence and truth man, that is He caused flesh animated
with the intelligent and reasonable to subsist in His own subsistence, and
Himself became subsistence for it. For this is the meaning of "made of a
woman." For how could the very Word of God itself have been made under the
law, if He did not become man of like essence with ourselves?

   Hence it is with justice and truth that we call the holy Mary the
Mother of God. For this name embraces the whole mystery of the
dispensation. For if she who bore Him is the Mother of God, assuredly He
Who was born of her is God and likewise also man. For how could God, Who
was before the ages, have been born of a woman unless He had become man?
For the son of man must clearly be man himself. But if He Who was born of a
woman is Himself God, manifestly He Who was born of God the Father in
accordance with the laws of an essence that is divine and knows no
beginning, and He Who was in the last days born of the Virgin in accordance
with the laws of an essence that has beginning and is subject to time, that
is, an essence which is human, must be one and the same. The name in truth
signifies the one subsistence and the two natures and the two generations
Of our Lord Jesus Christ.

   But we never say that the holy Virgin is the Mother of Christ(4)
because it was in order to do away with the title Mother of God, and to
bring dishonour on the Mother of God, who alone is in truth worthy of
honour above all creation, that the impure and abominable Judaizing
Nestorius(5), that vessel of dishonour, invented this name for an
insult(6). For David the king, and Aaron, the high priest, are also called
Christ(7), for it is customary to make kings and priests by anointing: and
besides every God-inspired man may be called Christ. but yet be is not by
nature God: yea, the accursed Nestorius insulted Him Who was born of the
Virgin by calling Him God-bearer(8). May it be far from us to speak of or
think of Him as God-bearer only(9), Who is in truth God incarnate. For the
Word Himself became flesh, having been in truth conceived of the Virgin,
but coming forth as God with the assumed nature which, as soon as He was
brought forth into being, was deified by Him, so that these three things
took place simultaneously, the assumption of our nature, the coming into
being, and the deification of the assumed nature by the Word. And thus it
is that the holy Virgin is thought of and spoken of as the Mother of God,
not only because of the nature of the Word, but also because of the
deification of man's nature, the miracles of conception and of existence
being wrought together, to wit, the conception the Word, and the existence
of the flesh in the Word Himself. For the very Mother of God in some
marvellous manner was the means of fashioning the Framer of all things and
of bestowing manhood on the God and Creator of all, Who deified the nature
that He assumed, while the union preserved those things that were united
just as they were united, that is to say, not only the divine nature of
Christ but also His human nature, not only that which is above us but that
which is of us. For He was not first made like us and only later became
higher than us, but ever(1) from His first coating into being He existed
with the double nature, because He existed in the Word Himself from the
beginning of the conception. Wherefore He is human in His own nature, but
also, in some marvellous manner, of God and divine. Moreover He has the
properties of the living flesh: for by reason of the dispensation(2) the
Word received these which are, according to the order of natural motion,
truly natural(3).

CHAPTER XIII.

Concerning the properties of the two Natures.

   Confessing, then, the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, to be perfect God
and perfect man, we hold that the same has all the attributes of the Father
save that of being ingenerate, and all the attributes of the first Adam,
save only his sin, these attributes being body and the intelligent and
rational soul; and further that He has, corresponding to the two natures,
the two sets of natural qualities belonging to the two natures: two natural
volitions, one divine and one human, two natural, energies, one divine and
one human, two natural free-wills, one divine and one human, and two kinds
of wisdom and knowledge, one divine and one human. For being of like
essence with God and the Father, He wills and energises freely as God, and
being also of like essence with us He likewise wills and energises freely
as man. For His are the miracles and His also are the passive states.

CHAPTER XIV.

Concerning the volitions and free-will of our Lord Jesus Christ.

   Since, then, Christ has two natures, we hold that He has also two
natural wills and two natural energies. But since His two natures have one
subsistence, we hold that it is one and the same person who wills and
energises naturally in both natures, of which, and in which, and also which
is Christ our Lord: and moreover that He wills and energises without
separation but as a united whole. For He wills and energises in either form
in close communion with the other(4). For things that have the same essence
have also the same will and energy, while things that are different in
essence are different in will and energy(5); and vice versa, things that
have the same will anti energy have the same essence, while things that are
different in will and energy are different in essence.

   Wherefore(6) in the case of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit we
recognise, from their sameness in will and energy, their sameness in
nature. But in the case of the divine dispensation(7) we recognise from
their difference in will and energy the difference of the two natures, and
as we perceive the difference of the two natures we confess that the wills
and energies also are different. For just as the number of the natures of
one and the same Christ, when considered and spoken of with piety, do not
cause a division of the one Christ but merely bring out the fact that the
difference between the natures is maintained even in the union, so it is
with the number of wills and energies that belong essentially to His
natures. (For He was endowed with the powers of willing and energising in
both natures, for the sake of our salvation) It does not introduce
division: God forbid! but merely brings out the fact that the differences
between them are safeguarded and preserved even in the union. For we hold
that wills and energies are faculties belonging to nature, not to
subsistence; I mean those faculties of will and energy by which He Who
wills and energises does so. For if we allow that they belong to
subsistence, we will be forced to say that the three subsistences of the
Holy Trinity have different wills and different energies.

   For it is to be noted s that willing and the manner of willing are not
the same thing. For to will is a faculty of nature, just as seeing is, for
all men possess it; but the manner of willing does not depend on nature but
on our judgment, just as does also the manner of seeing, whether well or
ill. For all men do not will in the same way, nor do they all see in the
same way. And this also we will grant in connection with energies. For the
manner of willing, or seeing, or energising, is the mode of using the
faculties of will and sight and energy, belonging only to him who uses
them, and marking him off from others by the generally accepted difference.

   Simple willing then is spoken of as volition or the faculty of will(9),
being a rational propension(1) and natural will; but in a particular way
willing, or that which underlies volition, is the object of will(2), and
will dependent on judgment(3). Further that which has innate in it the
faculty of volition is spoken of as capable of willing(4): as for instance
the divine is capable of willing, and the human in like manner. But he who
exercises volition, that is to say the subsistence, for instance Peter, is
spoken of as willing.

   Since, then(5), Christ is one and His subsistence is one, He also Who
wills both as God and as man is one and the same. And since He has two
natures endowed with volition, inasmuch as they are rational (for whatever
is rational is endowed with volition and free-will), we shall postulate two
volitions or natural wills in Him. For He in His own person is capable of
volition in accordance with both His natures. For He assumed that faculty
of volition which belongs naturally to us. And since Christ, Who in His own
person wills according to either nature, is one, we shall postulate the
same object of will in His case, not as though He wills only those things
which He willed naturally as God (for it is no part of Godhead to will to
eat or drink and so forth), but as willing also those things which human
nature requires for its support(6), and this without involving any
opposition in judgment, but simply as the result of the individuality of
the natures. For then it was that He thus willed naturally, when His divine
volition so willed and permitted the flesh to suffer and do that which was
proper to it.

   But that volition is implanted in man by nature(7) is manifest from
this. Excluding the divine life, there are three forms of life: the
vegetative, the sentient, and the intellectual. The properties of the
vegetative life are the functions of nourishment, and growth, and
production: that of the sentient life is impulse: and that of the rational
and intellectual life is freedom of will. If, then, nourishment belongs by
nature to the vegetative life and impulse to the sentient, freedom of will
by nature belongs to the rational and intellectual life. But freedom of
will is nothing else than volition. The Word, therefore, having become
flesh, endowed with life and mind and free-will, became also endowed with
volition.

   Further, that which is natural is not the result of training: for no
one learns how to think, or live, or hunger, or thirst, or sleep. Nor do we
learn how to will: so that willing is natural.

   And again: if in the case of creatures devoid of reason nature rules,
while nature is ruled in man who is moved of his own free-will and
volition, it follows, then, that man is by nature endowed with volition.

   And again: if man has been made after the image of the blessed and
super-essential Godhead, and if the divine nature is by nature endowed with
free-will and volition, it follows that man, as its image, is free by
nature and volitive(8). For the fathers defined freedom as volition(9).

   And further: if to will is a part of the nature of every man and not
present in some and absent in others, and if that which is seen to be
common to all is a characteristic feature of the nature that belongs to the
individuals of the class, surely, then, man is by nature endowed with
volition(1).

   And once more: if the nature receives neither more nor less, but all
are equally endowed with volition and not some more than others, then by
nature man is endowed with volition(10). So that since man is by nature
endowed with volition, the Lord also must be by nature endowed with
volition, not only because He is God, but also because He became man. For
just as He assumed our nature, so also He has assumed naturally our will.
And in this way the Fathers said that He formed our will in Himself(11).

   If the will is not natural, it must be either hypostatic or unnatural.
But if it is hypostatic, the Son must thus, forsooth, have a different will
from what the Father has: for that which is hypostatic is characteristic of
subsistence only. And if it is unnatural, will must be a defection from
nature: for what is unnatural is destructive of what is natural.

   The God and Father of all things wills either as Father or as God. Now
if as Father, His will will be different from that of the Son, for the Son
is not the Father. But if as God, the Son is God and likewise the Holy
Spirit is God, and so volition is part of His nature, that is, it is
natural.

   Besides(12), if according to the view of the Fathers, those who have
one and the same will have also one and the same essence, and if the
divinity and humanity of Christ have one and the same will, then assuredly
these have also one and the same essence.

   And again: if according to the view of the Fathers the distinction
between the natures is not seen in the single will, we mast either, when we
speak of the one will, cease to speak of the different natures in Christ
or, when we speak of the different natures of Christ, cease to speak of the
one will.

   And further(1), the divine Gospel says, The Lord came into the borders
of Tyre and Sidon and entered into a house, and would have no man know it;
but He could not be hid(2). If, then, His divine will is omnipotent, but
yet, though He would, He could not be hid, surely it was as man that He
would and could not, and so as man He must be endowed with volition.

   And once again(3), the Gospel tells us that, He, having come into the
place, said 'I thirst': and they gave Him same vinegar mixed with gall, and
when He had tasted it fare would not drink(4). If, then, on the one hand it
was as God that tie suffered thirst and when He had tasted would not drink,
surely He must be subject to passion s also as God, for thirst and taste
are passions(6). But if it was not as God but altogether as man that He was
athirst, likewise as man He must be endowed with volition(7).

   Moreover, the blessed Paul the Apostle says, He became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross(8). But obedience is subjection of the
real will, not of the unreal will. For that which is irrational is not said
to be obedient or disobedient(9). But the Lord having become obedient to
the Father, became so not as God but as man. For as God He is not said to
be obedient or disobedient. For these things are of the things that are
trader one's band(1), as the inspired Gregorius said(2). Wherefore, then,
Christ is endowed with volition as man.

   While, however, we assert that will is natural, we hold not that it is
dominated by necessity, but that it is free. For if it is rational, it must
be absolutely free. For it is not only the divine and uncreated nature that
is free from the bonds of necessity, but also the intellectual and created
nature. And this is manifest: for God, being by nature good and being by
nature the Creator and by nature God, is not all this of necessity. For who
is there to introduce this necessity?

   It is to be observed further(3), that freedom of will is used in
several senses, one in connection with God, another in connection with
angels, and a third in connection with men. For used in reference to God it
is to be understood in a superessential manner, and in reference to angels
it is to be taken in the sense that the election is concomitant with the
state(4), and admits of the interposition of no interval of time at all:
for while the angel possesses free-will by nature, he uses it without let
or hindrance, having neither antipathy on the part of the body to overcome
nor any assailant. Again, used in reference to men, it is to be taken in
the sense that the state is considered to be anterior in time to the
election. For than is free and has free-will by nature, but he has also the
assault of the devil to impede him and the motion of the body: and thus
through the assault and the weight of the batty, election comes to be later
than the state.

   If, then, Adam(5) obeyed of his own will and ate of his own will,
surely in us the will is the first part to suffer. And if the will is the
first to suffer, and the Word Incarnate did not assume this with the rest
of our nature, it follows that we have not been freed from sin.

   Moreover, if the faculty of free-will which is in nature is His work
and yet He did not assume it, He either condemned His own workmanship as
not good, or grudged us the comfort it brought, and so deprived us of the
full benefit, and shewed that He was Himself subject to passion since He
was not willing or not able to work out our perfect salvation.

   Moreover, one cannot speak of one compound thing made of two wills in
the same way as a subsistence is a composition of two natures. Firstly
because the compositions are of things in subsistence (hypotasis), not of
things viewed in a different category, not in one proper to them(6): and
secondly, because if we speak of composition of wills and energies, we will
be obliged to speak of composition of the other natural properties, such as
the uncreated and the created, the invisible and the visible, and so on.
And what will be the name of the will that is compounded out of two wills?
For the compound cannot be called by the name of the elements that make it
up. For otherwise we should call that which is compounded of natures nature
and not subsistence. And further, if we say that there is one compound will
in Christ, we separate Him in will from the Father, for the Father's will
is not compound. It remains, therefore, to say that the subsistence of
Christ atone is compound and common, as in the case of the natures so also
in that of the natural properties.

   And we cannot(7), if we wish to be accurate, speak of Christ as having
judgment (gnw'mh) and preference(8). For judgment is a disposition with
reference to the decision arrived at after investigation and deliberation
concerning something unknown, that is to say, after counsel and decision.
And after judgment comes preference(9), which chooses out and selects the
one rather than the other. But the Lord being not mere man but also God,
and knowing all things, had no need of inquiry. and investigation, and
counsel, and decision, and by nature made whatever is good His own and
whatever is bad foreign to Him(1). For thus says Isaiah the prophet, Before
the child shall know to prefer the evil, he shall choose the good; because
before the child knows good or evil, he refuses wickedness by choosing the
good(2). For the word "before" proves that it is not with investigation and
deliberation, as is the way with us, but as God and as subsisting in a
divine manner in the flesh, that is to say, being united in subsistence to
the flesh, and because of His very existence and all-embracing knowledge,
that He is possessed of good in His own nature. For the virtues are natural
qualities(3), and are implanted in all by nature and in equal measure, even
if we do not all in equal measure employ our natural energies. By the
transgression we were driven from the natural to the unnatural(4). But the
Lord led us back from the unnatural into the natural(5). For this is what
is the meaning of in our image, after our likeness(6). And the discipline
and trouble of this life were not designed as a means for our attaining
virtue  which was foreign to our nature, but to enable us to cast aside the
evil that was foreign and contrary to our nature: just as on laboriously
removing from steel the rust which is not natural to it but acquired
through neglect, we reveal the natural brightness of the steel.

   Observe further that the word judgment (gnw'mh) is used in many ways
and in many senses. Sometimes it signifies exhortation: as when the divine
apostle says, Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord; yet
I give my judgment(7): sometimes it means counsel, as when the prophet
David says, They have taken crafty counsel against Thy people(8): sometimes
it means a decree, as when we read in Daniel, Concerning whom (or, what)
went this shameless decree forth(9)? At other times it is used in the sense
of belief, or opinion, or purpose, and, to put it shortly, the word
judgment has twenty-eight(1) different meanings.

CHAPTER XV.

Concerning the energies in our Lord Jesus Christ.

   We hold, further, that there are two energies(2) in our Lord Jesus
Christ. For He possesses on the one hand, as God and being of like essence
with the Father, the divine energy, and, likewise, since He became man and
of like essence to us, the energy proper to human nature(3).

   But observe that energy and capacity for energy, and the product of
energy, and the agent of energy, are all different. Energy is the efficient
(drastikh') and essential activity of nature: the capacity for energy is
the nature from which proceeds energy: the product of energy is that which
is effected by energy: and the agent of energy is the person or subsistence
which uses the energy. Further, sometimes energy is used in the sense of
the product of energy, and the product of energy in that of energy, just as
the terms creation and creature are sometimes transposed. For we say "all
creation," meaning creatures.

   Note also that energy is an activity and is energised rather than
energises; as Gregory the Theologian says m his thesis concerning the Holy
Spirit(4): "If energy exists, it must manifestly be energised and will not
energise: and as soon as it has been energised, it will cease."

   Life itself, it should be observed, is energy, yea, the primal energy
of the living creature and so is the whole economy of the living creature,
its functions of nutrition and growth, that is, the vegetative side of its
nature, and the movement stirred By impulse, that is, the sentient side,
and its activity of intellect and free-will. Energy, moreover, is the
perfect realisation of power. If, then, we contemplate all these in Christ,
surely we must also hold that He possesses human energy.

   The first thought(5) that arises in us is called energy: and it is
simple energy not involving any relationship, the mind sending forth the
thoughts peculiar to it in an independent and invisible way, for if it did
not do so it could not justly be called mind. Again, the revelation and
unfolding of thought by means of articulate speech is said to be energy.
But this is no longer simple energy that revolves no relationship, but it
is considered in relation as being composed of thought and speech. Further,
the very relation which be who does anything bears to that which is brought
about is energy; and the very thing that is effected is called energy(6).
The first belongs to the soul alone, the second to the soul making use of
the body, the third to the body animated by mind, and the last is the
effect(7). For the mind sees beforehand what is to be and then performs it
thus by means of the body. And so the hegemony belongs to the soul, for it
uses the body as an instrument, leading and restraining it. But the energy
of the body is quite different, for the booty is led and moved by the soul.
And with regard to the effect, the touching and handling and, so to speak,
the embrace of what is effected, belong to the body, while the figuration
and formation belong to the soul. And so in connection with our Lord Jesus
Christ, the power of miracles is the energy of His divinity, while the work
of His hands and the willing and the saying, I will, be thou clean(8), are
the energy of His humanity. And as to the effect, the breaking of the
loaves(9), and the fact that the leper heard the "I will," belong to His
humanity, while the multiplication of the loaves and the purification of
the leper belong to His divinity. For through both, that is through the
energy of the booty anti the energy of the soul. He displayed one and the
same, cognate and equal divine energy. For just as we saw that His natures
were united and permeate one another, and yet do not deny that they are
different but even enumerate them, although we know they are inseparable,
so also in connection with the wills and the energies we know their union,
and we recognise their difference and enumerate them without introducing
separation. For just as the flesh was deified without undergoing change in
its own nature, in the same way also will and energy are deified without
transgressing their own proper limits. For whether He is the one or the
other, He is one and the same, and whether He wills and energises in one
way or the other, that is as God or as man, He is one and the same.

   We must, then, maintain that Christ has two energies in virtue of His
double nature. For things that have diverse natures, have also different
energies, and things that have diverse energies, have also different
natures. And so conversely, things that have the same nature have also the
same energy, and things that have one and the same energy have also one and
the same essence(1), which is the view of the Fathers, who declare the
divine meaning(2). One of these alternatives, then, must be true: either,
if we hold that Christ has one energy. we must also hold that He has but
one essence, or, if we are solicitous about truth. and confess that He has
according to the doctrine of the Gospels and the Fathers two essences, we
must also confess that He has two energies corresponding to and
accompanying them. For as He is of like essence with God and the Father in
divinity, He will be His equal also in energy. And as He likewise is of
like essence with us in humanity He will be our equal also in energy. For
the blessed Gregory, bishop of Nyssa, says(3), "Things that have one and
the same energy, have also absolutely the same power." For all energy is
the effect of power. But it cannot be that uncreated and created nature
have one and the same nature or power or energy. But if we should hold that
Christ has but one energy, we should attribute to the divinity of the Word
the passions of the intelligent spirit, viz. tear and grief and anguish.

   If they should say(4), indeed, that the holy Fathers said in their
disputation concerning the Holy Trinity, "Things that have one and the same
essence have also one and the same energy, and things which have different
essences have also different energies," and that it is not right to
transfer to the dispensation what has reference to matters of theology, we
shall answer that if it has been said by the Fathers solely with reference
to theology. and if the Son has not even after the incarnation the same
energy as the Father s, assuredly He cannot have the same essence. But to
whom shall we attribute this, My Father worketh hitherto and I work(6): and
this, What things soever He seeth the Father doing, these also doeth the
Son likewise(7): and this, If ye believe not Me, believe My works(8): and
this, The work which I do bear witness concerning Me(9): and this. As the
Father raised up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth
whom He will(1). For all these shew not only that He is of like essence to
the Father even after the incarnation, but that He has also the same
energy.

   And again: if the providence that embraces all creation is not only of
the Father and the Holy Spirit, but also of the Son even after the
incarnation, assuredly since that is energy, He must have even after the
incarnation the same energy as the Father.

   But if we have learnt from the miracles that Christ has the same
essence as the Father, and since the miracles happen to be the energy of
God, assuredly He must have even after the incarnation the same energy as
the Father.

   But, if there is one energy belonging to both His divinity and His
humanity, it will be compound, and will be either a different energy from
that of the Father, or the Father, too, will have a compound energy. But if
the Father has a compound energy, manifestly He must also have a compound
nature.

   But if they should say that together with energy is also introduced
personality(2), we shall reply that if personality is introduced along with
energy, then the true converse must hold good that energy is also
introduced along with personality; and there will be also three energies of
the Holy Trinity just as there are three persons or subsistences, or there
will be one person and one subsistence just as there is only one energy.
Indeed, the holy Fathers have maintained with one voice that things that
have the same essence have also the same energy.

   But further, if personality is introduced along with energy, those who
divine that neither one nor two energies of Christ are to be spoken of, do
not maintain that either one or two persons of Christ are to be spoken of.

   Take the case of the flaming sword; just as in it the natures of the
fire and the steel are preserved distinct(3), so also are their two
energies and their effects. For the energy of the steel is its cutting
power, and that of the fire is its burning power, and the cut is the effect
of the energy of the steel, and the burn is the effect of the energy of the
fire: and these are kept quite distinct in the burnt cut, and in the cut
burn, although neither does the burning take place apart from the cut after
the union of the two, nor the cut apart from the burning: and we do not
maintain on account of the twofold natural energy that there are two
flaming swords, nor do we confuse the essential difference of the energies
on account of the unity of the flaming sword. In like manner also, in the
case of Christ, His divinity possesses an energy that is divine and
omnipotent while His humanity has an energy such as is our own. And the
effect of His human energy was His taking the child by the hand and drawing
her to Himself, while that of His divine energy was the restoring of her to
life(4). For the one is quite distinct from the other, although they are
inseparable from one another in theandric energy. But if, because Christ
has one subsistence, He must also have one energy, then, because He has one
subsistence, He must also have one essence.

   And again: if we should hold that Christ has but one energy, this must
be either divine or human, or neither. But if we hold that it is divine(5)
we must maintain that He is God alone, stripped of our humanity. And if we
hold that it is human, we shall be guilty of the impiety of saying that He
is mere man. And if we hold that it is neither divine nor human, we must
also hold that He is neither God nor man, of like essence neither to the
Father nor to us. For it is as a result of the  union that the identity in
hypostasis arises, but yet the difference between the natures is not done
away with. But since the difference between the natures is preserved,
manifestly also the energies of the natures will be preserved. For no
nature exists that is lacking in energy.

   If Christ our Master(6) has one energy, it must be either created or
uncreated; for between these there is no energy, just as there is no
nature. If, then, it is created, it will point to created nature alone, but
if it is uncreated, it will betoken uncreated essence alone. For that which
is natural must completely correspond with its nature: for there cannot
exist a nature that is defective. But the energy(7) that harmonises with
nature does not belong to that which is external: and this is manifest
because, apart from the energy that haromonises with nature, no nature can
either exist or be known. For through that in which each thing manifests
its energy, the absence of change confirms its own proper nature.

   If Christ has one energy, it must be one and the same energy that
performs both divine anti human actions. But there is no existing thing
which abiding in its natural state can act in opposite ways: for fire does
not freeze and boil, nor does water dry up and make wet. How then could He
Who is by nature God, and Who became by nature man, have both performed
miracles, and endured passions with one and the same energy?

   If, then, Christ assumed the human mind, that is to say, the
intelligent and reasonable soul, undoubtedly He has always thought, and
will think for ever. But thought is the energy of the mind: and so Christ.
as man, is endowed with energy, and will be so for ever.

   Indeed, the most wise and great and holy John Chrysostom says in his
interpretation of the Acts, in the second discourse(8), "One would not err
if he should call even His passion action: for in that He suffered all
things, tie accomplished that great and marvellous work, the overthrow of
death, and all His other works."

   It all energy is defined as essential movement of some nature, as those
who are versed in these matters say, where does one perceive any nature
that has no movement, and is completely devoid of energy, or where does one
find energy that is not movement of natural power? But, as the blessed
Cyril says(9), no one in his senses could admit that there was but one
natural energy of God and His creation(1). It is not His human nature that
raises up Lazarus from the dead, nor is it His divine power that sheds
tears: for the shedding of tears is peculiar to human nature while the life
is peculiar to the enhypostatic life. But yet they are common the one to
the other, because of the identity in subsistence. For Christ is one, and
one also is His person or subsistence, but yet He has two natures, one
belonging to His humanity, and another belonging to His divinity. And the
glory. indeed, which proceeded naturally from His divinity became common to
both through the identity in subsistence. and again on account of His flesh
that which was lowly became common to both. For He Who is the one or the
other, that is God or man, is one and the same, and both what is divine and
what is human belong to Himself. For while His divinity performed the
miracles, they were not done apart from the flesh, and while His flesh
performed its lowly offices, they were not done apart from the divinity.
For His divinity was joined to the suffering flesh, yet remaining without
passion, and endured the saving passions, and the holy mind was joined to
the energising divinity of the Word, perceiving and knowing what was being
accomplished.

   And thus His divinity communicates its own glories to the body while it
remains itself without part in the sufferings of the flesh. For His flesh
did not suffer through His divinity in the same way that His divinity
energised through the flesh. For the flesh acted as the instrument of His
divinity. Although, therefore, from the first conception there was no
division at all between the two forms(2), but the actions of either form
through all the time became those of one person, nevertheless we do not in
any way confuse those things that took place without separation, but
recognise from the quality of its works what sort of form anything has.

   Christ, then, energises according to both His natures(3) and either
nature energises in Him in communion with the other, the Word performing
through tile authority and power of its divinity all the actions proper to
the Word, i.e. all acts of supremacy and sovereignty, and the body
performing all the actions proper to the body, in obedience to the will of
the Word that is united to it, and of whom it has become a distinct part.
For He was not moved of Himself to the natural passions(4), nor again did
He in that way recoil from the things of pain, and pray for release from
them, or suffer what befel from without, but He was moved in conformity
with His nature, the Word willing and allowing Him oeconomically *(5) to
suffer that, and to do the things proper to Him, that the truth might be
confirmed by the works of nature.

   Moreover, just as(6) He received in His birth of a virgin
superessential essence, so also He revealed His human energy in a
superhuman way, walking with earthly feet on unstable water, not by turning
the water into earth, but by causing it in the superabundant power of His
divinity not to flow away nor yield beneath the weight of material feet.
For not in a merely human way did He do human things: for He was not only
man, but also God, and so even His sufferings brought life anti salvation:
nor yet did He energise as God, strictly after the manner of God, for He
was not only God, but also man, and so it was by touch and word and such
like that He worked miracles.

   But if any one(7) should say, "We do not say that Christ has but one
nature, in order to do away with His human energy, but we do so because(8)
human energy, in opposition to divine energy, is called passion pa'tthos."
we shall answer that, according to this reasoning, those also who hold that
He has but one nature do not maintain this with a view to doing away with
His human nature, but because human nature in opposition to divine nature
is spoken of as passible pathtikh'. But God forbid that we should call the
human activity passion, when we are distinguishing it from divine energy.
For, to speak generally, of nothing is the existence recognised or defined
by comparison or collation. If it were so, indeed, existing things would
turn out to be mutually the one the cause of the other. For if the human
activity is passion because the divine activity is energy, assuredly also
the human nature must be wicked because the divine nature is good, and, by
conversion and opposition, if the divine activity is called energy because
the human activity is called passion, then also the divine nature must be
good because the human nature is bad. And so all created things must be
bad, and he must have spoken falsely who said, And God saw every thing that
He had made, and, behold, it was very good(9).

   We, therefore, maintain(1) that the holy Fathers gave various names to
the human activity according to the underlying notion. For the called it
power, and energy, and difference, and activity, and property, and quality,
and passion, not in distinction from the divine activity, but power,
because it is a conservative and invariable force; and energy, because it
is a distinguishing mark, and reveals the absolute similarity between all
things of the same class; and difference, because it distinguishes; and
activity, because it makes manifest; and property, because it is
constituent and belongs to that alone, and not to any other; and quality,
because it gives form; and passion, because it is moved, For all things
that are of God and after God suffer in respect of being moved, forasmuch
as they have not in themselves motion or power. Therefore, as has been
said, it is not in order to distinguish the one from the other that it has
been named, but it is in accordance with the plan implanted in it in a
creative manner by the Cause that framed the universe. Wherefore, also,
when they spoke of it along with the divine nature they called it energy.
For he who said, "For either form energises close communion with the
other(2)," did something quite different froth him who said, And when He
had fasted forty days, He was afterwards an hungered(3) :(for He allowed
His nature to energise when it so willed, in the way proper to itself(4),)
or from those who hold there is a different energy in Him or that He has a
twofold energy, or now one energy and now another(5). For these statements
with the change in terms(5a) signify the two energies. Indeed, often the
number is indicated both by change of terms and by speaking of them as
divine and human(6). For the difference is difference in differing things,
but how do things that do not exist differ?

CHAPTER XVI.

In reply to those who say(7) "If man has two natures and two energies,
Christ must be held to have three natures and as many energies."

   Each individual man, since he is composed of two natures, soul and
body, and since these natures are unchangeable in him, could appropriately
be spoken of as two natures: for he preserves even after their union thee
natural properties of either. For the body is not immortal, but
corruptible; neither is the soul mortal, but immortal: and the body is not
invisible pot the soul visible to bodily eyes: but the soul is rational and
intellectual, and incorporeal, while the body is dense and visible, and
irrational. But things that are opposed to one another in essence have not
one nature, and, therefore, soul and body cannot have one essence.

   And again: if man is a rational and mortal animal, and every definition
is explanatory of the underlying natures, and the rational is not the same
as the mortal according to the plan of nature, man then certainly cannot
have one nature, according to the rule of his own definition.

   But if man should at any time be said to have one nature, the word
"nature" is here used instead of "species," as when we say that man does
not differ from man in any difference of nature. But since all men are
fashioned in the same way, and are composed of soul and body, and each has
two distinct natures, they are all brought under one definition. And this
is not unreasonable, for the holy Athanasius spake of all created things as
having one nature forasmuch as they were all produced, expressing himself
thus in his Oration against those who blasphemed the Holy Spirit: "That the
Holy Spirit is above all creation, and different from the nature of things
produced and peculiar to divinity, we may again perceive. For whatever is
seen to be common to many things, and not more in one and less in another,
is called essence(3). since, then, every man is composed of soul and body,
accordingly we speak of man as having one nature. But we cannot speak of
our Lord's subsistence as one nature: for each nature preserves, even after
the union, its natural properties, nor can we find a class of Christs. For
no other Christ was born both of divinity and of humanity to be at once God
and man."

   And again: man's unity in species is not the same thing as the unity of
soul and body in essence. For man's unity in species makes clear the
absolute similarity between all men, while the unity of soul and body in
essence is an insult to their very existence, and reduces them to
nothingness: for either the one must change into the essence of the other,
or from different things something different must be produced, and so both
would be changed, or if they keep to their own proper limits there must be
two natures. For, as regards the nature of essence the corporeal is not the
same as the incorporeal. Therefore, although holding that man has one
nature, not because the essential quality of his soul and that of his body
are the same, but because the individuals included under the species are
exactly the same, it is not necessary for us to maintain that Christ also
has one nature, for in this case there is no species embracing many
subsistences.

   Moreover, every compound(9) is said to be composed of what immediately
composes it. For we do not say that a house is composed of earth and water,
but of bricks and timber. Otherwise, it would be necessary to speak of man
as composed of at least five things, viz., the four elements and soul. And
so also, in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ we do not look at the parts
of the parts, but at those divisions of which He is immediately composed,
viz., divinity and humanity.

   And further, if by saying that man has two natures we are obliged to
hold that Christ has three, you, too, by saying that man is composed of two
natures must hold that Christ is composed of three natures: and it is just
the same with the energies. For energy must correspond with nature: and
Gregory the Theologian bears witness that man is said to have and has two
natures, saying, "God and man are two natures, since, indeed, soul and body
also are two natures(1)." And in his discourse "Concerning Baptism" he
says, "Since we consist of two parts, soul and body. the visible and the
invisible nature, the purification is likewise twofold, that is, by water
and Spirit(2)."

CHAPTER XVII.

Concerning the deification of the nature of our Lord's flesh and of His
will.

   It is worthy of note(3) that the flesh of the Lord is not said to have
been deified and made equal to God and God in respect of any change or
alteration, or transformation, or confusion of nature: as Gregory the
Theologian(4) says, "Whereof the one deified, and the other was deified,
and, to speak boldly, made equal to God: and that which anointed became
man, and that which was anointed became God(5)." For these words do not
mean any change in nature, but rather the oeconomical union(I mean the
union in subsistence by virtue of which it was united inseparably with God
the Word), and the permeation of the natures through one another, just as
we saw that burning permeated the steel. For, just as we confess that God
became man without change or alteration, so we consider that the flesh
became God without change. For because the Word became flesh, He did not
overstep the limits of His own divinity nor abandon the divine glories that
belong to Him: nor, on the other hand, was the flesh, when deified, changed
in its own nature or in its natural properties. For even after the union,
boil the natures abode unconfused and their properties unimpaired. But the
flesh of the Lord received the riches of the divine energies through the
purest union with the Word, that is to say, the union in subsistence,
without entailing the loss of any of its natural attributes. For it is not
in virtue of any energy of its own but through the Word united to it, that
it manifests divine energy: for the flaming steel burns, not because it has
been endowed in a physical way with burning energy, but because it has
obtained this energy by its union with fire(6). Wherefore the same flesh
was mortal by reason of its own nature and life-giving through its union
with the Word in subsistence. And we hold that it is just the same with the
deification of the will(7); for its natural activity was not changed but
united with His divine and omnipotent will, and became the will of God,
made man(8). And so it was that, though He wished, He could not of Himself
escape(9), because it pleased God the Word that the weakness of the human
will, which was in truth in Him, should be made manifest. But He was able
to cause at His will the cleansing of the leper(1), because of the union
with the divine will. Observe further, that the deification of the nature
and the will points most expressly and most directly both to two natures
and two wills. For just as the burning does not change into fire the nature
of the thing that is burnt, but makes distinct both what is burnt, and what
burned it, and is indicative not of one but of two natures, so also the
deification does not bring about one compound nature but two, and their
union in subsistence. Gregory the Theologian, indeed, says, "Whereof the
one deified, the other was deified(2)," and by the words "whereof," "the
one," "the other," he assuredly indicates two natures.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Further concerning volitions and free-wills: minds, too, and knowledges and
wisdoms.

   When we say that Christ is perfect God(3) and perfect man, we assuredly
attribute to Him all the properties natural to both the Father and mother.
For He became man in order that that which was overcome might overcome. For
He Who was omnipotent did not in His omnipotent authority and might lack
the power to rescue man out of the hands of the tyrant. But the tyrant
would have had a ground of complaint if, after He had overcome man, God
should have used force against him. Wherefore God in His pity and love for
man wished to reveal fallen man himself as conqueror, and became man to
restore like with like.

   But that man is a rational and intelligent animal, no one will deny.
How, then, could He have become man if He took on Himself flesh without
soul, or soul without mind? For that is not man. Again, what benefit would
His becoming man have been to us if He Who suffered first was not saved,
nor renewed and strengthened by the union with divinity? For that which is
not assumed is not remedied. He, therefore, assumed the whole man, even the
fairest part of him, which had become diseased, in order that He might
bestow salvation on the whole. And, indeed, there could never exist a mind
that had not wisdom and was destitute of knowledge. For if it has not
energy or motion, it is utterly reduced to nothingness.

   Therefore, God the Word(4), wishing to restore that which was in His
own image, became man. But what is that which was in His own image, unless
mind? So He gave up the better and assumed the worse. For mind s is in the
border-land between God and flesh, for it dwells indeed in fellowship with
the flesh, and is, moreover, the image of God. Mind, then, mingles with
mind, and mind holds a place midway between the pureness of God and the
denseness of flesh. For if the Lord assumed a soul without mind, He assumed
the soul of an irrational animal.

   But if the Evangelist said that the Word was made flesh(6), note that
in the Holy Scripture sometimes a man is spoken of as a soul, as, for
example, with seventy-five souls came Jacob into Egypt(7): and sometimes a
man is spoken of as flesh, as, for example, All flesh shall see the
salvation of God(8). And accordingly the Lord did not become flesh without
soul or mind, but man. He says, indeed, Himself, Why seek ye to kill Me, a
Man that hath told you the truth(9)? He, therefore, assumed flesh animated
with the spirit of reason and mind, a spirit that holds sway over the flesh
but is itself under the dominion of the divinity of the Word.

   So, then, He had by nature, both as God and as man, the power of will.
But His human will was obedient anti subordinate to His divine will, not
being guided by its own inclination, but willing those things which the
divine will willed. For it was with the permission of the divine will that
He suffered by nature what was proper to Him(1). For when He prayed that He
might escape the death, it was with His divine will naturally willing and
permitting it that He did so pray and agonize and fear, and again when His
divine will willed that His human will should choose tire death, the
passion became voluntary to Him(2). For it was not as God only, but also as
man, that He voluntarily surrendered Himself to the death. And thus He
bestowed on us also courage in the face of death. So, indeed, He said
before His saving passion, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass
from Me(3)," manifestly as though He were to drink the cup as man and not
as God. It was as man, then, that He wished the cup to pass from Him: but
these are the words of natural timidity. Nevertheless, He said, not My
will, that is to say, not in so far as I am of a different essence from
Thee, but Thy will be done(4), the is to say, My will and Thy will, in so
far as I am of the same essence as Thou. Now these are the words of a brave
heart. For the Spirit of the Lord, since He truly became man in His good
pleasure, on first testing its natural weakness was sensible of the natural
fellow-suffering involved in its separation from the body, but being
strengthened by the divine will it again grew bold in the face of death.
For since He was Himself wholly God although also man, and wholly man
although also God, He Himself as man subjected in Himself and by Himself
His human nature to God and the Father, and became obedient to the Father,
thus making Himself the most excellent type and example for us.

   Of His own free-will, moreover, He exercised His divine and human will.
For free-will is assuredly implanted in every rational nature. For to what
end would it possess reason, if it could not reason at its own free-will?
For the Creator hath implanted even in the unreasoning brutes natural
appetite to compel them to sustain their own nature. For devoid of reason,
as they are, they cannot guide their natural appetite but are guided by it.
And so, as soon as the appetite for anything has sprung up, straightway
arises also the impulse for action. And thus they do not win praise or
happiness for pursuing virtue, nor punishment for doing evil. But the
rational nature, although it does possess a natural appetite, can guide and
train it by reason wherever the laws of nature are observed. For the
advantage of reason consists in this, tire free-will, by which we mean
natural activity in a rational subject. Wherefore in pursuing virtue it
wins praise and happiness, and in pursuing vice it wins punishment.

   So that the soul s of the Lord being moved of its own free-will willed,
but willed of its free-will those things which His divine will willed it to
will. For the flesh was not moved at a sign from the Word, as Moses and all
the holy men were moved at a sign from heaven. But He Himself, Who was one
and yet both God and man, willed according to both His divine and His human
will. Wherefore it was not in inclination but rather in natural power that
the two wills of the Lord differed from one another. For His divine will
was without beginning and all-effecting, as having power that kept pace
with it, and free from passion; while His human will had a beginning in
time, and itself endured the natural and innocent passions, and was not
naturally omnipotent. But yet it was omni-potent because it truly and
naturally had its origin in the God-Word.

CHAPTER XIX.

Concerning the theandric energy.

   When the blessed Dionysius(6) says that Christ exhibited to us some
sort of novel theandric energy(7), he does not do away with the natural
energies by saying that one energy resulted from the union of the divine
with the human energy: for in the same way we could speak of one new nature
resulting from the union of the divine with the human nature. For,
according to the holy Fathers, things that have one energy have also one
essence. But Ire wished to indicate the novel and ineffable manner in which
the natural energies of Christ manifest themselves, a manner befitting the
ineffable manner in which the natures of Christ mutually, permeate one
another, and further how strange and wonder-rid and, in the nature of
things, unknown was His life as man(8), and lastly the manner of the mutual
interchange arising from the ineffable union. For we hold that the energies
are not divided and that the natures do not energies separately, but that
each conjointly in complete community with the other energises with its own
proper energy(9). For the human part did not energise merely in a human
manner, for He was not mere man; nor did the divine part energise only
after the manner of God, for He was not simply God, but He was at once God
and man. For just as in the case of natures we recognise both their union
and their natural difference, so is it also with the natural wills and
energies.

   Note, therefore, that in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, we speak
sometimes of His two natures and sometimes of His one person: anti the one
or the other is referred to one conception. For the two natures are one
Christ, and the one Christ is two natures. Wherefore it is all the same
whether we say "Christ energises according to either of His natures," or
"either nature energises in Christ in communion with the other." The divine
nature, then, has communion with the flesh in its energising, because it is
by the good pleasure of the divine will that the flesh is permitted to
suffer and do the things proper to itself, and because the energy of the
flesh is altogether saving, and this is an attribute not of human but of
divine energy. On the other hand the flesh has communion with the divinity
of the Word in its energising, because the divine energies are performed,
so to speak, through the organ of the body, and because He Who energises at
once as God and man is one and the same.

   Further observe(1) that His holy mind also performs its natural
energies, thinking and knowing that it is God's mind and that it is
worshipped by all creation, and remembering the times He spent on earth and
all He suffered, but it has communion with the divinity of the Word in its
energising and orders and governs the universe, thinking and knowing and
ordering not as the mere mind of man, but as united in subsistence with God
and acting as the mind of God.

   This, then, the theandric energy makes plain that when God became man,
that is when He became incarnate, both His human energy was divine, that is
deified, and not without part in His divine energy, and His divine energy
was not without part in His human energy, but either was observed in
conjunction with the other. Now this manner of speaking is called a
periphrasis, viz., when one embraces two things in one statement(2). For
just as in the case of the flaming sword we speak of the cut burn as one,
and the burnt cut as one, but still hold that the cut and the burn have
different energies and different natures, the burn having the nature of
fire and the cut the nature of steel, in the same way also when we speak of
one theandric energy of Christ, we understand two distinct energies of His
two natures, a divine energy belonging to His divinity, and a human energy
belonging to His humanity.

CHAPTER XX.

Concerning the natural and innocent passions(2a).

   We confess(3), then, that He assumed all the natural and innocent
passions of man. For He assumed the whole man and all man's attributes save
sin. For that is not natural, nor is it implanted in us by the Creator, but
arises voluntarily in our mode of life as the result of a further
implantation by the devil, though it cannot prevail over us by force. For
the natural and innocent passions are those which are not in our power, but
which have entered into the life of man owing to the condemnation by reason
of the transgression; such as hunger, thirst, weariness, labour, the tears,
the corruption, the shrinking from death, the fear, the agony with the
bloody sweat, the succour at the hands of angels because of the weakness of
the nature, and other such like passions which belong by nature to every
man.

   All, then, He assumed that He might sanctify all. He was tried and
overcame in order that He might prepare victory for us and give to nature
power to overcome its antagonist, in order that nature which was overcome
of old might overcome its former conqueror by the very weapons wherewith it
had itself been overcome.

   The wicked one(4), then, made his assault from without, not by thoughts
prompted inwardly, just as it was with Adam. For it was not by inward
thoughts, but by the serpent that Adam was assailed. But the Lord repulsed
the assault and dispelled it like vapour, in order that the passions which
assailed him and were overcome might be easily subdued by us, and that the
new Adam should save the old.

   Of a truth our natural passions were in harmony with nature and above
nature in Christ. For they were stirred in Him after a natural manner when
He permitted the flesh to suffer what was proper to it: but they were above
nature because that which was natural did not in the Lord assume command
over the will. For no compulsion is contemplated in Him but all is
voluntary. For it was with His will that He hungered and thirsted and
feared and died.

CHAPTER XXI.

Concerning ignorance and servitude.

   He assumed, it is to be noted(5), the ignorant and servile nature(6).
For it is man's nature to be the servant of God, his Creator, and he does
not possess knowledge of the future. If, then, as Gregory the Theologian
holds, you are to separate the realm of sight from the realm of thought,
the flesh is to be spoken of as both servile and ignorant, but on account
of the identity of subsistence and the inseparable union the soul of the
Lord was enriched with the knowledge of the future as also with the other
miraculous powers. For just as the flesh of men is not in its own nature
life-giving, while the flesh of our Lord which was united in subsistence
with God the Word Himself, although it was not exempt from the mortality of
its nature, yet became life-giving through its union in subsistence with
the Word, and we may not say that it was not and is not for ever life-
giving: in like manner His human nature does not in essence possess the
knowledge of the future, but the soul of the Lord through its union with
God the Word Himself and its identity in subsistence was enriched, as I
said, with the knowledge of the future  as well as with the other
miraculous powers.  Observe further(7) that we may not speak of Him as
servant. For the words servitude and mastership are not marks of nature but
indicate relationship, to something, such as that of fatherhood and
sonship. For these do not signify essence but relation.

   It is just as we said, then, in connection with ignorance, that if you
separate with subtle thoughts, that is, with fine imaginings, the created
from the uncreated, the flesh is a servant, unless it has been united with
God the Word(8). But how can it be a servant when t is once united in
subsistence? For since Christ is one, He cannot be His own servant and
Lord. For these are not simple predications but relative. Whose servant,
then could He be? His Father's? The Son, then, would not have all the
Father's attributes, if He is the Father's servant and yet in no respect
His own. Besides, how could the apostle say concerning us who were adopted
by Him, So that you are no longer a servant but a son(9), if indeed He is
Himself a servant? The word servant, then, is used merely as a title,
though not in the strict meaning: but for our sakes He assumed the form of
a servant and is called a servant among us. For although He is without
passion, yet for our sake He was the servant of passion and became the
minister of our salvation. Those, then, who say that He is a servant divide
the one Christ into two, just as Nestorius did. But we declare Him to be
Master and Lord of all creation, the one Christ, at once God and man, and
all-knowing. For in Him are  all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, the
hidden treasures(1).

CHAPTER XXII.

Concerning His growth.

   He is, moreover, said to grow in wisdom and age and grace(2),
increasing in age indeed and through the increase in age manifesting the
wisdom that is in Him(3); yea, further, making men's progress in wisdom and
grace, and the fulfilment of the Father's goodwill, that is to say, men's
knowledge of God and men's salvation, His own increase, and everywhere
taking as His own that which is ours. But those who hold that He progressed
in wisdom and grace in the sense of receiving some addition to these
attributes, do not say that the union took place at the first origin of the
flesh, nor yet do they give precedence to the union in subsistence, but
giving heed(4) to the foolish Nestorius they imagine some strange relative
union and mere indwelling, understanding neither what they say nor whereof
they affirm(5). For if in truth the flesh was united with God the Word from
its first origin, or rather if it existed in Him and was identical in
subsistence with Him, how was it that it was not endowed completely with
all wisdom and grace? not that it might itself participate in the grace,
nor share by grace in what belonged to the Word, but rather by reason of
the union in subsistence, since both what is human and what is divine
belong to the one Christ, and that He Who was Himself at once God and man
should pour forth like a fountain over the universe His grace and wisdom
and plenitude of every blessing.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Concerning His Fear.

   The word fear has a double meaning. For fear is natural when the soul
is unwilling to be separated from the body, on account of the natural
sympathy and close relationship planted in it in the beginning by the
Creator, which makes it fear and struggle against death and pray for an
escape from it. It may be defined thus: natural fear is the force whereby
we cling to being with shrinking(6). For if all things were brought by the
Creator out of nothing into being, they all have by nature a longing after
being and not after non-being. Moreover the inclination towards those
things that support existence is a natural property of them. Hence God the
Word when He became man had this longing, manifesting, on the one hand, in
those things that support existence, the inclination of His nature in
desiring food and drink and sleep, and having in a natural manner made
proof of these things, while on the other hand displaying in those things
that bring corruption His natural disinclination in voluntarily shrinking
in the hour of His passion before the flee of death. For although what
happened did so according to the laws of nature, yet it was not, as in our
case, a matter of necessity. For He willingly and spontaneously accepted
that which was natural. So that fear itself and terror and agony belong to
the natural and innocent passions and are not under the dominion of sin.

   Again, there is a fear which arises from treachery of reasoning and
want of faith, and ignorance of the hour of death, as when we are at night
affected by fear at some chance noise. This is unnatural fear, and may be
thus defined: unnatural fear is an unexpected shrinking. This our Lord did
not assume. Hence He never felt fear except in the hour of His passion,
although He often experienced a feeling of shrinking in accordance with the
dispensation. For He was not ignorant of the appointed time.

   But the holy Athanasius in his discourse against Apollinarius says that
He did actually feel fear. "Wherefore the Lord said: Now is My soul
troubled(7). The 'now' indeed means just 'when He willed,' but yet points
to what actually was. For He did not speak of what was not, as though it
were present, as if the things that were said only apparently happened. For
all things happened naturally and actually." And again, after some other
matters, he says," In nowise does His divinity admit passion apart from a
suffering body, nor yet does it manifest trouble and pain apart froth a
pained and troubled soul, nor does it suffer anguish and offer up prayer
apart from a mind that suffered anguish and offered up prayer. For,
although these occurrences were not due to any overthrow of nature, yet
they took place to shew forth His real being(8)." The words "these
occurrences were not due to any overthrow of His nature," prove that it was
not involuntarily that He endured these things.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Concerning our Lord's Praying.

   Prayer is an uprising of the mind to God or a petitioning of God for
what is fitting. How then did it happen that our Lord offered up prayer in
the case of Lazarus, and at the hour of His passion? For His holy mind was
in no need either of any uprising towards God, since it had been once and
for all united in subsistence with the God Word, or of any petitioning of
God. For Christ is one. But it was because He appropriated to Himself our
personality and took our impress on Himself, and became an ensample for us,
and taught us to ask of God and strain towards Him, and guided us through
His own holy mind in the way that leads up to God. For just as He(9)
endured the passion, achieving for our sakes a triumph over it, so also He
offered up prayer, guiding us, as I said, in the way that leads up to God,
and "fulfilling all righteousness(1)" on our behalf, as He said to John,
and reconciling His Father to us, and honouring Him as the beginning and
cause, and proving that He is no enemy of God. For when He said in
connection with Lazarus, Father, I thank Thee that  Thou hast heard Me. And
I know that Thou hearest Me always, but because of the people  which stand
by I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me(2), is it not
most manifest to all that He said this in honour of His Father as the cause
even of Himself, and to shew that He was no enemy of God(3)?

   Again, when he said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from
Me: yet, not as I will but as Thou wilt(4), is it not clear to all(5) that
He said this as a lesson to us to ask help in our trials only from God, and
to prefer God's will to oar own, and as a proof that He did actually
appropriate to Himself the attributes of our nature, and that He did in
truth possess two wills, natural, indeed, and corresponding with His
natures but yet in no wise opposed to one another? "Father" implies that He
is of the same essence, but "if it be possible" does not mean that He was
in ignorance (for what is impossible to God?), but serves to teach us to
prefer God's will to our own. For that alone is impossible which is against
God's will and permission(6). "But not as I will but as Thou wilt," for
inasmuch as He is God, He is identical with the Father, while inasmuch as
He is man, He manifests the natural will of mankind. For it is this that
naturally seeks escape from death.

   Further, these words, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me(7)? He
said as making our personality His own(8). For neither would God be
regarded with us as His Father, unless one were to discriminate with subtle
imaginings of the mind between that which is seen and that which is
thought, nor was He ever forsaken by His divinity: nay, it was we who were
forsaken and disregarded. So that it was as appropriating our personality
that He offered these prayers(9).

CHAPTER XXV.

Concerning the Appropriation.

   It is to be observed(1) that there are two appropriations(2): one that
is natural and essential, and one that is personal and relative. The
natural and essential one is that by which our Lord in His love for man
took on Himself our nature and all our natural attributes, becoming in
nature and truth man, and making trial of that which is natural: but the
personal and relative appropriation is when any one assumes the person of
another relatively, for instance, out of pity or love, and in his place
utters words concerning him that have no connection with himself. And it
was in this way that our Lord appropriated both our curse and our
desertion, and such other things as are not natural: not that He Himself
was or became such, but that He took upon Himself our personality and
ranked Himself as one of us. Such is the meaning in which this phrase is to
be taken: Being made a curse for our sakes(3).

CHAPTER XXVI.

Concerning the Passion of our Lord's body, and the Impassibility of His
divinity.

   The Word of God then itself endured all in the flesh, while His divine
nature which alone was passionless remained void of passion. For since the
one Christ, Who is a compound of divinity and humanity, and exists in
divinity and humanity, truly suffered, that part which is capable of
passion suffered as it was natural it should, but that part which was void
of passion did not share in the suffering. For the soul, indeed, since it
is capable of passion shares in the pain and suffering of a bodily cut,
though it is not cut itself but only the body: but the divine part which is
void of passion does not share in the suffering of the body.

   Observe, further(4), that we say that God suffered in the flesh, bat
never that His divinity suffered in the flesh, or that God suffered through
the flesh. For if, when the sun is shining upon a tree, the axe should
cleave the tree, and, nevertheless, the sun remains uncleft and void of
passion, much more will the passionless divinity of the Word, united in
subsistence to the flesh, remain void of passion when the body undergoes
passion(5). And should any one pour water over flaming steel, it is that
which naturally suffers by the water, I mean, the fire, that is quenched,
but the steel remains untouched (for it is not the nature of steel to be
destroyed by water): much more, then, when the flesh suffered did His only
passionless divinity escape all passion although abiding inseparable from
it. For one must not take the examples too absolutely and strictly: indeed,
in the examples, one must consider both what is like and what is unlike,
otherwise it would not be an example. For, if they were like in all
respects they would be identities, and not examples, and all the more so in
dealing with divine matters. For one cannot find an example that is like in
all respects whether we are dealing with theology or the dispensation.

CHAPTER XXVII.

Concerning the fact that the divinity of the Word remained inseparable from
the soul and the body, even at our Lord's death, and that His subsistence
continued one.

   Since our Lord Jesus Christ was without sin (for He committed no sin,
He Who took away the sin of the world, nor was there any deceit found in
His mouth(6)) He was not subject to death, since death came into the world
through sin(7). He dies, therefore, because He took on Himself death on our
behalf, and He makes Himself an offering to the Father for our sakes. For
we had sinned against Him, and it was meet that He should receive the
ransom for us, and that we should thus he delivered from the condemnation.
God forbid that the blood of the Lord should have been offered to the
tyrant(8). Wherefore death approaches, and swallowing up the body as a bait
is transfixed on the hook of divinity, and after tasting of a sinless and
life-giving body, perishes, and brings up again all whom of old he
swallowed up. For just as darkness disappears on the introduction of light,
so is death repulsed before the assault of life, and brings life to all,
but death to the destroyer.

   Wherefore, although(9) He died as man and His Holy Spirit was severed
from His immaculate body, yet His divinity remained inseparable from both,
I mean, from His soul and His body, and so even thus His one hypostasis was
not divided into two hypostases. For body and soul received simultaneously
in the beginning their being in the subsistence(9a) of the Word, and
although they were severed from one another by death, yet they continued,
each of them, having the one subsistence of the Word. So that the one
subsistence of the Word is alike the subsistence of the Word, and of soul
and body. For at no time had either soul or body a separate subsistence of
their own, different from that of the Word, and the subsistence of the Word
is for ever one, and at no time two. So that the subsistence of Christ is
always one. For, although the soul was separated from the body topically,
yet hypostatically they were united through the Word.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Concerning Corruption and Destruction.

   The word corruption(1) has two meanings(2). For it signifies all the
human sufferings, such as hunger, thirst, weariness, the piercing with
nails, death, that is, the separation of soul and body, and so forth. In
this sense we say that our Lord's body was subject to corruption. For He
voluntarily accepted all these things. But corruption means also the
complete resolution of the body into its constituent elements, and its
utter disappearance, which is spoken of by many preferably as destruction.
The body of our Lord did not experience this form of corruption, as the
prophet David says, For Thou will not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt
Thou suffer Thine holy one to see corruption(3).

   Wherefore to say, with that foolish Julianus and Gaianus, that our
Lord's body was incorruptible, in the first sense of the word, before His
resurrection is impious. For if it were incorruptible it was not really,
but only apparently, of the same essence as ours, and what the Gospel tells
us happened, viz. the hunger, the thirst, the nails, the wound in His side,
the death, did not actually occur. But if they only apparently happened,
then the mystery of the dispensation is an imposture and a sham, and He
became man only in appearance, and not in actual fact, and we are saved
only in appearance, and not in actual fact. But God forbid, and may those
who so say have no part in the salvation(4). But we have obtained and shall
obtain the true salvation. But in the second meaning of the word
"corruption," we confess that our Lord's body is incorruptible, that is,
indestructible, for such is the tradition of the inspired Fathers. Indeed,
after the resurrection of our Saviour from the dead, we say that our Lord's
body is incorruptible even in the first sense of the word. For our Lord by
His own body bestowed the gifts both of resurrection and  of subsequent
incorruption even on our own body, He Himself having   become to us the
firstfruits both of resurrection and incorruption, and of
passionlessness(5). For as the divine Apostle says, This corruptible must
put an incorruption(6).

CHAPTER XXIX.

Concerning the Descent to Hades.

   The soul(7) when it was deified descended into Hades, in order that,
just as the Sun of Righteousness(8) rose for those upon the earth, so
likewise He might bring light to those who sit under the earth in darkness
and shadow of death(9): in order that just as He brought the message of
peace to those upon the earth, and of release to the prisoners, and of
sight to the blind(1), and became to those who believed the Author of
everlasting salvation and to those who did not believe a reproach of their
unbelief(2), so He might become the same to those in Hades(3): That every
knee should bow to Him, of things in  heaven, and things in earth and
things under the earth(4). And thus after He had freed those who had been
bound for ages, straightway He rose again from the dead, shewing us the way
of resurrection.


BOOK IV.

CHAPTER I.

Concerning what followed the Resurrection.

   After Christ was risen from the dead He laid aside all His passions, I
mean His corruption or hunger or thirst or sleep or weariness or such like.
For, although He did taste food after the resurrection(1), yet He did not
do so because it was a law of His nature (for He felt no hunger), but in
the way of economy, in order that He might convince us of the reality of
the resurrection, and that it was one and the same flesh which suffered and
rose again(2). But He laid aside none of the divisions of His nature,
neither body nor spirit, but possesses both the body and the soul
intelligent and reasonable, volitional and energetic, and in this wise He
sits at the right hand of the Father, using His will both as God and as man
in behalf of our salvation, energising in His divine capacity to provide
for and maintain and govern all things, and remembering in His human
capacity the time He spent on earth, while all the time He both sees and
knows that He is adored by all rational creation. For His Holy Spirit knows
that He is one in substance with God the Word, and shares as Spirit of God
and not simply as Spirit the worship accorded to Him. Moreover, His ascent
from earth to heaven, and again, His descent from heaven to earth, are
manifestations of the energies of His circumscribed body. For He shall so
come again to you, saith he, in like manner as ye have seen Him go into
Heaven(3).

CHAPTER II.

Concerning the sitting at the right hand of the Father.

   We hold, moreover, that Christ sits in the body at the right hand of
God the Father, but we do not hold that the right hand of the Father is
actual place. For how could He that is uncircumscribed have a right hand
limited by place? Right hands and left hands belong to what is
circumscribed. But we understand the right hand of the Father to be the
glory and honour of the Godhead in which the Son of God, who existed as God
before the ages, and is of like essence to the Father, and in the end
became flesh, has a seat in the body, His flesh sharing in the glory. For
He along with His flesh is adored with one adoration by all creation(4).

CHAPTER III.

In reply to those who say(5)  "If Christ has two natures, either ye do
service to the creature in worshipping created nature, or ye say that there
is one nature to be worshipped, and another not to be worshipped."

   Along with the Father and the Holy Spirit we worship the Son of God,
Who was incorporeal before He took on humanity, and now in His own person
is incarnate and has become man though still being also God. His flesh,
then, in its own nature(6), if one were to make subtle mental distinctions
between what is seen and what is thought, is not deserving of worship since
it is created. But as it is united with God the Word, it is worshipped on
account of Him and in Him. For just as the king deserves homage alike when
unrobed and when robed, and just as the purple robe, considered simply as a
purple robe, is trampled upon and tossed about, but after becoming the
royal dress receives all honour and glory, and whoever dishonours it is
generally condemned to death: and again, just as wood in itself(7) is not
of such a nature that it cannot be touched, but becomes so when fire is
applied to it, and it becomes charcoal, and yet this is not because of its
own nature, but because of the fire united to it, and the nature of the
wood is not such as cannot be touched, but rather the charcoal or burning
wood: so also the flesh, in its own nature, is not to be worshipped, but is
worshipped in the incarnate God Word, not because of itself, but because of
its union in subsistence with God the Word. And we do not say that we
worship mere flesh, but God's flesh, that is, God incarnate.

CHAPTER IV.

Why it was the Son of God, and not the Father or the Spirit, that became
man: and what having became man He achieved.

   The Father is Father(8) and not Son(9): the Son is Son and not Father:
the Holy Spirit is Spirit and not Father or Son. For the individuality(9a)
is unchangeable. How, indeed, could individuality continue to exist at all
if it were ever changing and altering? Wherefore the Son of God became Son
of Man in order that His individuality might endure. For since He was the
Son of God, He became Son of Man, being made flesh of the holy Virgin and
not losing the individuality of Sonship(1).

   Further, the Son of God became man, in order that He might again bestow
on man that favour for the sake of which He created him. For He created him
after His own image, endowed with intellect and free-will, and after His
own likeness, that is to say, perfect in all virtue so far as it is
possible for man's nature to attain perfection. For the following
properties are, so to speak, marks of the divine nature: viz. absence of
care and distraction and guile, goodness, wisdom, justice, freedom from all
vice. So then, after He had placed man in communion with Himself (for
having made him for incorruption(2), He led him up through communion wills
Himself to incorruption), and when moreover, through the transgression of
the command we had confused and obliterated the marks of the divine image,
and had become evil, we were stripped of our communion with God (for what
communion hath light with darkness(3)?): and having been shut out from life
we became subject to the corruption of death: yea, since He gave us to
share in the better part, and we did not keep it secure, He shares in the
inferior part, I mean our own nature, in order that through Himself and in
Himself He might renew that which was made after His image and likeness,
and might teach us, too, the conduct of a virtuous life, making through
Himself the way thither easy for us, and might by the communication of life
deliver us from corruption, becoming Himself the firstfruits of our
resurrection, and might renovate the useless and worn vessel calling us to
the knowledge of God that He might redeem us from the tyranny of the devil,
and might strengthen and teach us how to overthrow the tyrant through
patience and humility(4).

   The worship of demons then has ceased: creation has been sanctified by
the divine blood: altars and temples of idols have been overthrown, the
knowledge of God has been implanted in men's minds, the co-essential
Trinity, the uncreate divinity, one true God, Creator and Lord of all
receives men's service: virtues are cultivated, the hope of resurrection
has been granted through the resurrection of Christ, the demons shudder at
those men who of old were under their subjection. And the marvel, indeed,
is that all this has been successfully brought about through His cross and
passion and death. Throughout all the earth the Gospel of the knowledge of
God has been preached; no wars or weapons or armies being used to rout the
enemy, but only a few, naked, poor, illiterate, persecuted and tormented
men, who with their lives in their hands, preached Him Who was crucified in
the flesh and died, and who became victors over the wise and powerful. For
the omnipotent power of the Cross accompanied them. Death itself, which
once was maws chiefest terror, has been overthrown, and now that which was
once the object of hate and loathing is preferred to life. These are the
achievements of Christ's presence: these are the tokens of His power. For
it was not one people that He saved, as when through Moses He divided the
sea and delivered Israel out of Egypt and the bondage of Pharaoh(5); nay,
rather He rescued all mankind from the corruption of death and the bitter
tyranny of sin: not leading them by force to virtue, not overwhelming them
with earth or burning them with fire, or ordering the sinners to be stoned,
but persuading men by gentleness and long-suffering to choose virtue and
vie with one another, and find pleasure in the struggle to attain it. For,
formerly, it was sinners who were persecuted, and yet they clung all the
closer to sin, and sin was looked upon by them as their God: but now for
the sake of piety and virtue men choose persecutions and crucifixions and
death.

   Hail! O Christ, the Word and Wisdom and Power of God, and God
omnipotent! What can we helpless ones give Thee in return for all these
good gifts? For all are Thine, and Thou askest naught from us save our
salvation, Thou Who Thyself art the Giver of this, and yet art grateful to
those who receive it, through Thy unspeakable goodness. Thanks be to Thee
Who gave us life, and granted us the grace of a happy life, and restored us
to that, when we had gone astray, through Thy unspeakable condescension.

CHAPTER V.

In reply to those who ask if Christ's subsistence is create or uncreate.

   The subsistence(6) of God the Word before the Incarnation was simple
and uncompound, and incorporeal and uncreate: but after it became flesh, it
became also the subsistence of the flesh, and became compounded of divinity
which it always possessed, and of flesh which it had assumed: and it bears
the properties of the two natures, being made known in two natures: so that
the one same subsistence is both uncreate in divinity and create in
humanity, visible and invisible. For otherwise we are compelled either to
divide the one Christ and speak of two subsistences, or to deny the
distinction between the natures and thus introduce change and confusion.

CHAPTER VI.

Concerning the question, when Christ was called.

   The mind was not united with God the Word, as some falsely assert(7),
before the Incarnation by the Virgin and from that time called Christ. That
is the absurd nonsense of Origen(8) who lays down the doctrine of the
priority of the existence of souls. But we hold that the Son and Word of
God became Christ after He had dwelt in the womb of His holy ever-virgin
Mother, and became flesh without change, and that the flesh was anointed
with divinity. For this is the anointing of humanity, as Gregory the
Theologian says(9). And here are the words of the most holy Cyril of
Alexandria which he wrote to the Emperor Theodosius(1): "For I indeed hold
that one ought to give the name Jesus Christ neither to the Word that is of
God if He is without humanity, nor yet to the temple born of woman if it is
not united with the Word. For the Word that is of God is understood to be
Christ when united with humanity in ineffable manner in the union of the
oeconomy(2)." And again, he writes to the Empresses thus(3): "Some hold
that the name 'Christ' is rightly given to the Word that is begotten of God
the Father, to Him alone, and regarded separately by Himself. But we have
not been taught so to think and speak. For when the Word became flesh, then
it was, we say, that He was called Christ Jesus. For since He was anointed
with the oil of gladness, that is the Spirit, by Him Who is God and Father,
He is for this reason(4) called Christ. But that the anointing was an act
that concerned Him as man could be doubted by no one who is accustomed to
think rightly." Moreover, the celebrated Athanasius says this in his
discourse "Concerning the Saving Manifestation:" "The God Who was before
the sojourn in the flesh was not man, but God in God, being invisible and
without passion, but when He became man, He received in addition the name
of Christ because of the flesh, since, indeed, passion and death follow in
the train of this name."

   And although the holy Scripture(4) says, Therefore God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness(5), it is to be observed that the
holy Scripture often uses the past tense instead of the future, as for
example here: Thereafter He was seen upon the earth and dwelt among men(6).
For as yet God was not seen nor did He dwell among men when this was said.
And here again: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down; yea wept(7).
For as yet these things had not come to pass.

CHAPTER VII.

In answer to those who enquire whether the holy Mother of God bore two
natures, and whether two natures hung upon the Cross.

   age'nhton and genhto'n, written with one 'n'(8) and meaning uncreated
and created, refer to nature: but age'nnhton and gennhto'n, that is to say,
unbegotten and begotten, as the double 'n' indicates, refer not to nature
but to subsistence. The divine nature then is age'nhtos, that is to say,
uncreate, but all things that come after the divine nature are ge'nhhta,
that is, created. In the divine and uncreated nature, therefore, the
property of being age'nnhton or unbegotten is contemplated in the Father
(for He was not begotten), that of being ge'nnhton or begotten in the Son
(for He has been eternally begotten of the Father), and that of procession
in the Holy Spirit. Moreover of each species of living creatures, the first
members were age'nnhta but not age'nhta: for they were brought into being
by their Maker, but were not the offspring of creatures like themselves.
For ge'nesis is creation, while ge'nnhsis or begetting is in the case of
God the origin of a co-essential Son arising from the Father alone, and in
the case of bodies, the origin of a co-essential subsistence arising from
the contact of male and female. And thus we perceive that begetting refers
not to nature but to subsistence(9). For if it did refer to nature, to`
ge'nnhton and to age'nnhton, i.e. the properties of being begotten and
unbegotten, could not be contemplated in one and the same nature.
Accordingly the holy Mother of God bore a subsistence revealed in two
natures; being begotten on the one hand, by reason of its divinity, of the
Father timelessly, and, at last, on the other hand, being incarnated of her
in time and born in the flesh.

   But if our interrogators should hint that He Who is begotten of the
holy Mother of God is two natures, we reply, "Yea! He is two natures: for
He is in His own person God and man. And the same is to be said concerning
the crucifixion and resurrection and ascension. For these refer not to
nature but to subsistence. Christ then, since He is in two natures,
suffered and was crucified in the nature that was subject to passion. For
it was in the flesh and not in His divinity that He hung upon the Cross.
Otherwise, let them answer us, when we ask if two natures died. No, we
shall say. And so two natures Were not crucified but Christ was begotten,
that is to say, the divine Word having become man was begotten in the
flesh, was crucified in the flesh, suffered in the flesh, while His
divinity continued to be impossible."

CHAPTER VIII.

How the Only-begotten Son of God is called first-born.

   He who is first begotten is called first-born(1), whether he is only-
begotten or the first of a number of brothers. If then the Son of God was
called first-born, but was not called Only-begotten, we could imagine that
He was the first-born of creatures, as being a creature(2). But since He is
called both first-born and Only-begotten, both senses must be preserved in
His case. We say that He is first-born of all creation(3) since both He
Himself is of God and creation is of God, but as He Himself is born alone
and timelessly of the essence of God the Father, He may with reason be
called Only-begotten Son, first-born and not first-created. For the
creation was not brought into being out of the essence of the Father, but
by His will out of nothing(4). And He is called First-born among many
brethren(5), for although being Only-begotten, He was also born of a
mother. Since, indeed, He participated just as we ourselves do in blood and
flesh and became man, while we too through Him became sons of God, being
adopted through the baptism, He Who is by nature Son of God became first-
born amongst us who were made by adoption and grace sons of God, and stand
to Him in the relation of brothers. Wherefore He said, I ascend unto My
Father and your Father(6). He did not say "our Father," but "My Father,"
clearly in the sense of Father by nature, and "your Father," in the sense
of Father by grace. And "My God and your God(7)." He did not say "our God,"
but "My God:" and if you distinguish with subtle thought that which is seen
from that which is thought, also "your God," as Maker and Lord.

CHAPTER IX.

Concerning Faith and Baptism.

   We confess one baptism for the remission of sins and for life eternal.
For baptism declares the Lord's death. We are indeed "buried with the Lord
through baptism(8)," as saith the divine Apostle. So then, as our Lord died
once for all, we also must be baptized once for all, and baptized according
to the Word of the Lord, In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit(9), being taught the confession in Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. Those(1), then, who, after having been baptized into Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, and having been taught that there is one divine nature in
three subsistences, are rebaptized, these, as the divine Apostle says,
crucify the Christ afresh. For it is impossible, he saith, for those who
were once enlightened, &c., to renew them again unto repentance: seeing
they crucify to themselves the Christ afresh, and put Him to an open
shame(2). But those who were not baptized into the Holy Trinity, these must
be baptized again. For although the divine Apostle says: Into Christ and
into His death were we baptized(3), he does not mean that the invocation of
baptism must be in these words, but that baptism is an image of the death
of Christ. For by the three immersions(4), baptism signifies the three days
of our Lord's entombment(5). The baptism then into Christ means that
believers are baptized into Him. We could not believe in Christ if we were
not taught confession in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit(6). For Christ is the
Son of the Living God(7), Whom the Father anointed with the Holy Spirit(8):
in the words of the divine David, Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed
thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows(9). And Isaiah also
speaking in the person of the Lord says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me
because He hath anointed me(1). Christ, however, taught His own disciples
the invocation and said, Baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Spirit(2). For since Christ made us for
incorruption(3)(4), and we transgressed His saving command. He condemned us
to the corruption of death in order that that which is evil should not be
immortal, and when in His compassion He stooped to His servants and became
like us, He redeemed us from corruption through His own passion. He caused
the fountain of remission to well forth for us out of His holy and
immaculate side(5), water for our regeneration, and the washing away of sin
and corruption; and blood to drink as the hostage of life eternal. And He
laid on us the command to be born again of water and of the Spirit(6),
through prayer and invocation, the Holy Spirit drawing nigh unto the
water(7). For since man's nature is twofold, consisting of soul and body,
He bestowed on us a twofold purification, of water and of the Spirit the
Spirit renewing that part in us which is after His image and likeness, and
the water by the grace of the Spirit cleansing the body from sin and
delivering it from corruption, the water indeed expressing the image of
death, but the Spirit affording the earnest of life.

   For from the beginning the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters(8), and anew the Scripture witnesseth that water has the power of
purification(9). In the time of Noah God washed away the sin of the world
by water(1). By water every impure person is purified(2), according to the
law, even the very garments being washed with water. Elias shewed forth the
grace of the Spirit mingled with the water when he burned the holocaust by
pouring on water(3). And almost everything is purified by water according
to the law: for the things of sight are symbols of the things of thought.
The regeneration, however, takes place in the spirit: for faith has the
power of making us sons (of God(4)), creatures as we are, by the Spirit,
and of leading us into our original blessedness.

   The remission of sins, therefore, is granted alike to all through
baptism: but the grace of the Spirit is proportional to the faith and
previous purification. Now, indeed, we receive the firstfruits of the Holy
Spirit through baptism, and the second birth is for us the beginning and
seal and security and illumination s of another life.

   It behoves as, then, with all our strength to steadfastly keep
ourselves pure from filthy works, that we may not, like the dog returning
to his vomit(6), make ourselves again the slaves of sin. For faith apart
from works is dead, and so likewise are works apart from faith(7). For the
true faith is attested by works.

   Now we are baptized(8) into the Holy Trinity because those things which
are baptized have need of the Holy Trinity for their maintenance and
continuance, and the three subsistences cannot be otherwise than present,
the one with the other. For the Holy Trinity is indivisible.

   The first baptism(9) was that of the flood for the eradication of sin.
The second(1) was through the sea and the cloud: for the cloud is the
symbol of the Spirit and the sea of the water(2). The third baptism was
that of the Law: for every impure person washed himself with water, and
even washed his garments, and so entered into the camp(3). The fourth(4)
was that of John(5), being preliminary and leading those who were baptized
to repentance, that they might believe in Christ: I, indeed, he said,
baptize you with water; but He that cometh after me, He will baptize you in
the Holy Spirit and in fire(6). Thus John's purification with water was
preliminary to receiving the Spirit. The fifth was the baptism of our Lord,
whereby He himself was baptized. Now He is baptized not as Himself
requiring purification but as making my purification His own, that He may
break the heads of the dragons on the water(7), that he may wash away sin
and bury all the old Adam in water, that He may sanctify the Baptist, that
He may fulfil the Law, that He may reveal the mystery of the Trinity, that
He may become the type and ensample to us of baptism. But we, too, are
baptized in the perfect baptism of our Lord, the baptism by water and the
Spirit. Moreover(8), Christ is said to baptize with fire: because in the
form of flaming tongues He poured forth on His holy disciples the grace of
the Spirit: as the Lord Himself says, John truly baptized with water: but
ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire, not may days
hence(9): or else it is because of the baptism of future fire wherewith we
are to be chastised(1). The sixth is that by repentance and tears, which
baptism is truly grievous. The seventh is baptism of blood and
martyrdom(2), which baptism Christ Himself underwent in our behalf(3), He
Who was too august and blessed to be defiled with any later stains(4). The
eight(5) is the last, which is not saving, but which destroys evil(6): for
evil and sin no longer have sway: yet it punishes without end(7).

   Further, the Holy Spirit(8) descended in bodily form as a dove,
indicating the firstfruits of our baptism and honouring the body: since
even this, that is the body, was God by the deification; and besides the
dove was wont formerly to announce the cessation of the flood. But to the
holy Apostles He came down in the form of fire(9): for He is God, and God
is a consuming fire(1).

   Olive oil(2) is employed in baptism as significant of our anointing(3),
and as making us anointed, and as announcing to us through the Holy Spirit
God's pity: for it was the fruit of the olive that the dove brought to
those who were saved from the flood(4).

   John was baptized, putting his hand upon the divine head of his Master,
and with his own blood.

   It does not behove(5) us to delay baptism when the faith of those
coming forward is testified to by works. For he that cometh forward
deceitfully to baptism will receive condemnation rather than benefit.

CHAPTER X.

Concerning Faith.

   Moreover, faith is twofold. For faith cometh by hearing(6). For by
hearing the divine Scriptures we believe in the teaching of the Holy
Spirit. The same is perfected by all the things enjoined by Christ,
believing in work, cultivating piety, and doing the command of Him Who
restored us. For he that believeth not according to the tradition of the
Catholic Church, or who hath intercourse with the devil through strange
works, is an unbeliever.

   But again, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen(7), or undoubting and unambiguous hope alike of what God
hath promised us and of the good issue of our prayers. The first,
therefore, belong to our will, while the second is of the gifts of the
Spirit.

   Further, observe that by baptism we cut(8) off all the covering which
we have worn since birth, that is to say, sin, and become spiritual
Israelites and God's people.

CHAPTER XI.

Concerning the Cross and here further concerning Faith.

   The word 'Cross' is foolishness to those that perish, but to us who are
saved it is the power of God(9). For he that is spiritual judgeth all
things, but the natural man receiveth not the thing of the Spirit(1). For
it is foolishness to those who do not receive in faith and who do not
consider God's goodness and omnipotence, but search out divine things with
human and natural reasonings. For all the things that are of God are above
nature and reason and conception. For should any one consider how and for
what purpose God brought all things out of nothing into being, and aim at
arriving at that by natural reasonings, he fails to comprehend it. For
knowledge of this kind belongs to spirits and demons. But if any one, under
the guidance of faith, should consider the divine goodness and omnipotence
and truth and wisdom and justice, he will find all things smooth and even,
and the way straight. But without faith it is impossible to be saved(2).
For it is by faith that all things, both human and spiritual, are
sustained. For without faith neither does the farmer(3) cut his furrow, nor
does the merchant commit his life to the raging waves of the sea on a small
piece of wood, nor are marriages contracted nor any other step in life
taken. By faith we consider that all things were brought out of nothing
into being by God's power. And we direct all things, both divine and human,
by faith. Further, faith is assent free from all meddlesome
inquisitiveness(4).

   Every action, therefore, and performance of miracles by Christ are most
great and divine and marvellous: but the most marvellous of all is His
precious Cross. For no other thing has subdued death, expiated the sin of
the first parent(5), despoiled Hades, bestowed the resurrection, granted
the power to us of contemning the present and even death itself, prepared
the return to our former blessedness, opened the gates of Paradise(6),
given our nature a seat at the right hand of God, and made us the children
and heirs of God(7), save the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. For by the
Cross s all things have been made right. So many of us, the apostle says,
as were baptized into Christ, were baptized into His death(9), and as many
of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ(1). Further
Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God(2). Lo! the death of
Christ, that is, the Cross, clothed us with the enhypostatic wisdom and
power of God. And the power of God is the Word of the Cross, either because
God's might, that is, the victory over death, has been revealed to us by
it, or because, just as the four extremities of the Cross are held fast and
bound together by the bolt in the middle, so also by God's power the height
and the depth, the length and the breadth, that is, every creature visible
and invisible, is maintained(3).

   This was given to us as a sign on our forehead, just as the
circumcision was given to Israel: for by it we believers are separated and
distinguished from unbelievers. This is the shield and weapon against, and
trophy over, the devil. This is the seal that the destroyer may not touch
you(4), as saith the Scripture. This is the resurrection of those lying in
death, the support of the standing, the staff of the weak, the rod of the
flock, the safe conduct of the earnest, the perfection of those that press
forwards, the salvation of soul and body, the aversion of all things evil,
the patron of all things good, the taking away of sin, the plant of
resurrection, the tree of eternal life.

   So, then, this same truly precious and august tree(5), on which Christ
hath offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sakes, is to be worshipped as
sanctified by contact with His holy body and blood; likewise the nails, the
spear, the clothes, His sacred tabernacles which are the manger, the cave,
Golgotha, which bringeth salvation(6), the tomb which giveth life, Sion,
the chief stronghold of the churches and the like, are to be worshipped. In
the words of David, the father of God(7), We shall go into His tabernacles,
we shall worship at the place where His feet stood(8). And that it is the
Cross that is meant is made clear by what follows, Arise, O Lord, into Thy
Rest (9). For the resurrection comes after the Cross. For if of those
things which we love, house and couch and garment, are to be longed after,
how much the rather should we long after that which belonged to God, our
Saviour(1), by means of which we are in truth saved.

   Moreover we worship even the image of the precious and life-giving
Cross, although made of another tree, not honouring the tree (God forbid)
but the image as a symbol of Christ. For He said to His disciples,
admonishing them, Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in
Heaven(2), meaning the Cross. And so also the angel of the resurrection
said to the woman, Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth which was crucified(3). And
the Apostle said, We preach Christ crucified(4). For there are many Christs
and many Jesuses, but one crucified. He does not say speared but crucified.
It behoves us, then, to worship the sign of Christ(5). For wherever the
sign may be, there also will He be. But it does not behove us to worship
the material of which the image of the Cross is composed, even though it be
gold or precious stones, after it is destroyed, if that should happen.
Everything, therefore, that is dedicated to God we worship, conferring the
adoration on Him.

   The tree of life which was planted by God in Paradise prefigured this
precious Cross. For since death was by a tree, it was fitting that life and
resurrection should be bestowed by a tree(6). Jacob, when He worshipped the
top of Joseph's staff, was the first to image the Cross, and when he
blessed his sons with crossed hands(7) he made most clearly the sign of the
cross. Likewise(8) also did Moses' rod, when it smote the sea in the figure
of the cross and saved Israel, while it overwhelmed Pharaoh in the depths;
likewise also the hands stretched out crosswise and routing Amalek; and the
bitter water made sweet by a tree, and the rock rent and pouring forth
streams of water(9), and the rod that meant for Aaron the dignity of the
high priesthood(1): and the serpent lifted in triumph on a tree as though
it were dead(2), the tree bringing salvation to those who in faith saw
their enemy dead, just as Christ was nailed to the tree in the flesh of sin
which yet knew no sin(3). The mighty Moses cried(4), You will see your life
hanging on the tree before your eyes, and Isaiah likewise, I have spread
out my hands all the day unto a faithless and rebellious people(5). But may
we who worship this(6) obtain a part in Christ the crucified. Amen.

CHAPTER XII.

Concerning Worship towards the East.

   It is not without reason or by chance that we worship towards the East.
But seeing that we are composed of a visible and an invisible nature, that
is to say, of a nature partly of spirit and partly of sense, we render also
a twofold worship to the Creator; just as we sing both with our spirit and
our bodily lips, and are baptized with both water and Spirit, and are
united with the Lord in a twofold manner, being sharers in the mysteries
and in the grace of the Spirit.

   Since, therefore, God(7) is spiritual light(8), and Christ is called in
the Scriptures Sun of Righteousness(1) and Dayspring(2), the East is the
direction that must be assigned to His worship. For everything good must be
assigned to Him from Whom every good thing arises. Indeed the divine David
also says, Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth: O sing praises unto the
Lord: to Him that rideth upon the Heavens of heavens towards the East(3).
Moreover the Scripture also says, And God planted a garden eastward in
Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed(4): and when he had
transgressed His command He expelled him and made him to dwell over against
the delights of Paradises(5), which clearly is the West. So, then, we
worship God seeking and striving after our old fatherland. Moreover the
tent of Moses(6) had its veil and mercy seat(7) towards the East. Also the
tribe of Judah as the most precious pitched their camp on the East(8). Also
in the celebrated temple of Solomon the Gate of the Lord was placed
eastward. Moreover Christ, when He hung on the Cross, had His face turned
towards the West, and so we worship, striving after Him. And when He was
received again into Heaven He was borne towards the East, and thus His
apostles worship Him, and thus He will come again in the way in which they
beheld Him going towards Heaven(9); as the Lord Himself said, As the
lightning cometh out of the East and shineth(1) even unto the West, so also
shall the coming of the Son of Man be(2).

   So, then, in expectation of His coming we worship towards the East. But
this tradition of the apostles is unwritten. For much that has been handed
down to us by tradition is unwritten(3).

CHAPTER XIII.

Concerning the holy and immaculate Mysteries of the Lord.

   God(4) Who is good and altogether good and more than good, Who is
goodness throughout, by reason of the exceeding riches of His goodness did
not suffer Himself, that is His nature, only to be good, with no other to
participate therein, but because of this He made first the spiritual and
heavenly powers: next the visible and sensible universe: next man with his
spiritual and sentient nature. All things, therefore, which he made, share
in His goodness in respect of their existence. For He Himself is existence
to all, since all things that are, are in Him(5), not only because it was
He that brought them out of nothing into being, but because His energy
preserves and maintains all that He made: and in especial the living
creatures. For both in that they exist and in that they enjoy life they
share in His goodness. But in truth those of them that have reason have a
still greater share in that, both because of what has been already said and
also because of the very reason which they possess. For they are somehow
more dearly akin to Him, even though He is incomparably higher than they.

   Man, however, being endowed with reason and free will, received the
power of continuous union with God through his own choice, if indeed he
should abide in goodness, that is in obedience to his Maker. Since,
however, he transgressed the command of his Creator and became liable to
death and corruption, the Creator and Maker of our race, because of His
bowels of compassion, took on our likeness, becoming man in all things but
without sin, and was united to our nature(6). For since He bestowed on us
His own image and His own spirit and we did not keep them safe, He took
Himself a share in our poor and weak nature, in order that He might cleanse
us and make us incorruptible, and establish us once more as partakers of
His divinity.

   For it was fitting that not only the first-fruits of our nature should
partake in the higher good but every man who wished it, and that a second
birth should take place and that the nourishment should be new and suitable
to the birth and thus the measure of perfection be attained. Through His
birth, that is, His incarnation, and baptism and passion and resurrection,
He delivered our nature from the sin of our first parent and death and
corruption, and became the first-fruits of the resurrection, and made
Himself the way and image and pattern, in order that we, too, following in
His footsteps, may become by adoption what He is Himself by nature(7), sons
and heirs of God and joint heirs with Him(8). He gave us therefore, as I
said, a second birth in order that, just as we who are born of Adam are in
his image and are the heirs of the curse and corruption, so also being born
of Him we may be in His likeness and heirs(9) of His incorruption and
blessing and glory.

   Now seeing that this Adam is spiritual, it was meet that both the birth
and likewise the food should be spiritual too, but since we are of a double
and compound nature, it is meet that both the birth should be double and
likewise the food compound. We were therefore given a birth by water and
Spirit: I mean, by the holy baptism(1): and the food is the very bread of
life, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who came down from heaven(2). For when He was
about to take on Himself a voluntary death for our sakes, on the night on
which He gave Himself up, He laid a new covenant on His holy disciples and
apostles, and through them on all who believe on Him. In the upper chamber,
then, of holy and illustrious Sion, after He had eaten the ancient Passover
with His disciples and had fulfilled the ancient covenant, He washed His
disciples' feet(3) in token of the holy baptism. Then having broken bread
He gave it to them saying, Take, eat, this is My body broken for you for
the remission of sins(4). Likewise also He took the cup of wine and water
and gave it to them saying, Drink ye all of it: for this is My blood, the
blood of the New Testament which is shed for you for the remission of sins.
This do ye in remembrance of Me. For as often as ye eat this bread and
drink this cup, ye do shew the death of the Son of man and confess His
resurrection until He come(5).

   If then the Word of God is quick and energising(6), and the Lord did
all that He willed(7); if He said, Let there be light and there was light,
let there be a firmament and there was a firmament(8); if the heavens were
established by the Word of the Lord and all the host of them by the breath
of His mouth(9); if the heaven and the earth, water and fire and air and
the whole glory of these, and, in sooth, this most noble creature, man,
were perfected by the Word of the Lord; if God the Word of His own will
became man and the pure and undefiled blood of the holy and ever-virginal
One made His flesh without the aid of seed(1), can He not then make the
bread His body and the wine and water His blood? He said in the beginning,
Let the earth bring forth grass(2), and even until this present day, when
the rain comes it brings forth its proper fruits, urged on and strengthened
by the divine command. God said, This is My body, and This is My blood, and
this do ye in remembrance of Me. And so it is at His omnipotent command
until He come: for it was in this sense that He said until He come: and the
overshadowing power of the Holy Spirit becomes through the invocation the
rain to this new tillage(3). For just as God made all that He made by the
energy of the Holy Spirit, so also now the energy of the Spirit performs
those things that are supernatural and which it is not possible to
comprehend unless by faith alone. How shall this be, said the holy Virgin,
seeing I know not a man? And the archangel Gabriel answered her: The Holy
Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow
thee(4). And now you ask, how the bread became Christ's body and the wine
and water Christ's blood. And I say unto thee, "The Holy Spirit is present
and does those things which surpass reason and thought."

   Further, bread and wine s are employed: for God knoweth man's
infirmity: for in general man turns away discontentedly from what is not
well-worn by custom: and so with His usual indulgence H e performs His
supernatural works through familiar objects: and just as, in the case of
baptism, since it is man's custom to wash himself with water and anoint
himself with oil, He connected the grace of the Spirit with the oil and the
water and made it the water of regeneration, in like manner since it is
man's custom to eat and to drink water and wine(6), He connected His
divinity with these and made them His body and blood in order that we may
rise to what is supernatural through what is familiar and natural.

   The body which is born of the holy Virgin is in truth body united with
divinity, not that the body which was received up into the heavens
descends, but that the bread itself and the wine are changed into God's
body and blood(7). But if you enquire how this happens, it is enough for
you to learn that it was through the Holy Spirit, just as the Lord took on
Himself flesh that subsisted in Him and was born of the holy Mother of God
through the Spirit. And we know nothing further save that the Word of God
is true and energises and is omnipotent, but the manner of this cannot be
searched out(8). But one can put it well thus, that just as in nature the
bread by the eating and the wine and the water by the drinking are changed
into the body and blood of the eater and drinker, and do not(9) become a
different body from the former one, so the bread of the table(1) and the
wine and water are supernaturally changed by the invocation and presence of
the Holy Spirit into the body and blood of Christ, and are not two but
one(2) and the same.

   Wherefore to those who partake worthily with faith, it is for the
remission of sins and for life everlasting and for the safeguarding of soul
and body; but to those who partake unworthily without faith, it is for
chastisement and punishment, just as also the death of the Lord became to
those who believe life and incorruption for the enjoyment of eternal
blessedness, while to those who do not believe and to the murderers of the
Lord it is for everlasting chastisement and punishment.

   The bread and the wine are not merely figures of the body and blood of
Christ (God forbid!) but the deified body of the Lord itself: for the Lord
has said, "This is My body," not, this is a figure of My body: and "My
blood," not, a figure of My blood. And on a previous occasion He had said
to the Jews, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood,
ye have no life in you. For My flesh is meat indeed and My blood is drink
indeed. And again, He that eateth Me, shall live(3)(4).

   Wherefore with all fear and a pure conscience and certain faith let us
draw near and it will assuredly be to us as we believe, doubting nothing.
Let us pay homage to it in all purity both of soul and body: for it is
twofold. Let us draw near to it with an ardent desire, and with our hands
held in the form of the cross s let us receive the body of the Crucified
One: and let us apply our eyes and lips and brows and partake of the divine
coal, in order that the fire of the longing, that is in us, with the
additional heat derived from the coal may utterly consume our sins and
illumine our hearts, and that we may be inflamed and deified by the
participation in the divine fire. Isaiah saw the coal(6). But coal is not
plain wood but wood united with fire: in like manner also the bread of the
communion(7) is not plain bread but bread united with divinity. But a body
s which is united with divinity is not one nature, but has one nature
belonging to the body and another belonging to the divinity that is united
to it, so that the compound is not one nature but two.

   With bread and wine Melchisedek, the priest of the most high God,
received Abraham on his return from the slaughter of the Gentiles(9). That
table pre-imaged this mystical table, just as that priest was a type and
image of Christ, the true high-priest(1). For thou art a priest for ever
after the order of Melchisedek(2). Of this bread the show-bread was an
image(3). This surely is that pure and bloodless sacrifice which the Lord
through the prophet said is offered to Him from the rising to the setting
of the sun(4).

   The body and blood of Christ are making for the support of our soul and
body, without being consumed or suffering corruption, not making for the
draught (God forbid!) but for our being and preservation, a protection
against all kinds of injury, a purging from all uncleanness: should one
receive base gold, they purify it by the critical burning lest in the
future we be condemned with this world. They purify from diseases and all
kinds of calamities; according to the words of the divine Apostles(5), For
if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are
judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with
the world. This too is what he says, So that he that partaketh of the body
and blood of Christ unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to
himself(6). Being purified by this, we are united to the body of Christ and
to His Spirit and become the body of Christ.

   This bread is the first-fruits(7) of the future bread which is
epiou'sios, i.e. necessary for existence. For the word epiou'sion signifies
either the future, that is Him Who is for a future age, or else Him of Whom
we partake for the preservation of our essence. Whether then it is in this
sense or that, it is fitting to speak so of the Lord's body. For the Lord's
flesh is life-giving spirit because it was conceived of the life-giving
Spirit. For what is born of the Spirit is spirit. But I do not say this to
take away the nature of the body, but I wish to make clear its life-giving
and divine power(8).

   But if some persons called the bread and the wine antitypes(9) of the
body and blood of the Lord, as did the divinely inspired Basil, they said
so not after the consecration but before the consecration, so calling the
offering itself.

   Participation is spoken of; for through it we partake of the divinity
of Jesus. Communion, too, is spoken of, and it is an actual communion,
because through it we have communion with Christ and share in His flesh and
His divinity: yea, we have communion and are united with one another
through it. For since we partake of one bread, we all become one body of
Christ and one blood, and members one of another, being of one body with
Christ.

   With all our strength, therefore, let us beware lest we receive
communion from or grant it to heretics; Give not that which is holy unto
the dogs, saith the Lord, neither cast ye your pearls before swine(1), lest
we become partakers in their dishonour and condemnation. For if trojan is
in truth with Christ and with one another, we are assuredly voluntarily
united also with all those who partake with us. For this union is effected
voluntarily and not against our inclination. For we are all one body
because we partake of the one bread, as the divine Apostle says(2).

   Further, antitypes of future things are spoken of, not as though they
were not in reality Christ's body and blood, but that now through them we
partake of Christ's divinity, while then we shall partake mentally(3)
through the vision alone.

CHAPTER XIV.

Concerning our Lord's genealogy and concerning the holy Mother of God(4).

   Concerning the holy and much-lauded ever-virgin one, Mary, the Mother
of God, we have said something in the preceding chapters, bringing forward
what was most opportune, viz., that strictly and truly she is and is called
the Mother of God. Now let us fill up the blanks. For she being pre-
ordained by the eternal prescient counsel of God and imaged forth and
proclaimed in diverse images and discourses of the prophets through the
Holy Spirit, sprang at the pre-determined time from the root of David,
according to the promises that were made to him. For the lord hath sworn,
He saith in truth to David, He will not turn from it: of the fruit of Thy
body will I set upon Thy throne(5). And again, Once have I sworn by My
holiness, that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever,
and His throne as the sun before Me. It shall be established for ever as
the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven(6). And Isaiah says: And
there shall come out a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow
out of his roots(7).

   But that Joseph is descended from the tribe of David is expressly
demonstrated by Matthew and Luke, the most holy evangelists. But Matthew
derives Joseph from David through Solomon, while Luke does so through
Nathan; while over the holy Virgin's origin both pass in silence.

   One ought to remember that it was not the custom of the Hebrews nor of
the divine Scripture to give genealogies of women; and the law was to
prevent one tribe seeking wives from another(8). And so since Joseph was
descended from the tribe of David and was a just man (for this the divine
Gospel testifies), he would not have espoused the holy Virgin contrary to
the law; he would not have taken her unless she had been of the same
tribe(8a). It was sufficient, therefore, to demonstrate the descent of
Joseph.

   One ought also to observe(9) this, that the law was that when a man
died without seed, this maws brother should take to wife the wife of the
dead man and raise up seed to his brother(1). The offspring, therefore,
belonged by nature to the second, that is, to him that begat it, but by law
to the dead.

   Born then of the line of Nathan, the son of David, Levi begat Melchi(2)
and Panther: Panther begat Barpanther, so called. This Barpanther begat
Joachim: Joachim begat the holy Mother of God(3)(4). And of the line of
Solomon, the son of David, Mathan had a wife(5) of whom he begat Jacob. Now
on the death of Mathan, Melchi, of the tribe of Nathan, the son of Levi and
brother of Panther, married the wife of Mathan, Jacob's mother, of whom he
begat Heli. Therefore Jacob and Hell became brothers on tile mother's side,
Jacob being of the tribe of Solomon and Heli of the tribe of Nathan. Then
Heli of the tribe of Nathan died childless, and Jacob his brother, of the
tribe of Solomon, took his wife and raised up seed to his brother and begat
Joseph. Joseph, therefore, is by nature the son of Jacob, of the line of
Solomon, but by law he is the son of Hell of the line of Nathan.

   Joachim then(6) took to wife that revered and praiseworthy woman, Anna.
But just as the earlier Anna(7), who was barren, bore Samuel by prayer and
by promise, so also this Anna by supplication and promise from God bare the
Mother of God in order that she might not even in this be behind the
matrons of fame(8). Accordingly it was grace (for this is the
interpretation of Anna) that bore the lady: (for she became truly the Lady
of all created things in becoming the Mother of the Creator). Further,
Joachim(9) was born in the house of the Probatica(1), and was brought up to
the temple. Then planted in the House of God and increased by the Spirit,
like a fruitful olive tree, she became the home of every virtue, turning
her mind away from every secular and carnal desire, and thus keeping her
soul as well as her hotly virginal, as was meet for her who was to receive
God into her bosom: for as He is holy, He finds rest among the holy(2).
Thus, therefore, she strove after holiness, and was declared a holy and
wonderful temple fit for the most high God.

   Moreover, since the enemy of our salvation was keeping a watchful eye
on virgins, according to the prophecy of Isaiah, who said, Behold a virgin
shall conceive and bare a Son and shall call His name Emmanuel, which is,
being interpreted, 'God with us(3),' in order that he who taketh the wise
in their own craftiness(4) may deceive him who always glorieth in his
wisdom, the maiden is given in marriage to Joseph by the priests, a new
book to him who is versed in letters(5): but the marriage was both the
protection of the virgin and the delusion of him who was keeping a watchful
eye on virgins. But when the fulness of time was come, the messenger of the
Lord was sent to her, with the good news of our Lord's conception. And thus
she conceived the Son of God, the hypostatic power of the Father, not of
the will of the flesh nor of the will of man(6), that is to say, by
connection and seed, but by the good pleasure of the Father and co-
operation of the Holy Spirit. She ministered to the Creator in that He was
created, to the Fashioner in that He was fashioned, and to the Son of God
and God in that He was made flesh and became man from her pure and
immaculate flesh and blood, satisfying the debt of the first mother. For
just as the latter was formed from Adam without connection, so also did the
former bring forth the new Adam, who was brought forth in accordance with
the laws of parturition and above the nature of generation.

   For He who was of the Father, yet without mother, was born of woman
without a father's co-operation. And so far as He was born of woman, His
birth was in accordance with the laws of parturition, while so far as He
had no father, His birth was above the nature of generation: and in that it
was at the usual time (for He was born on the completion of the ninth month
when the tenth was just beginning), His birth was in accordance with the
laws of parturition, while in that it was painless it was above the laws of
generation. For, as pleasure did not precede it, pain did not follow it,
according to the prophet who says, Before she travailed, she brought forth,
and again, before her pain came she was delivered of a man-child(7). The
Son of God incarnate, therefore, was born of her, not a divinely-
inspired(8) man but God incarnate not a prophet anointed with energy but by
the presence of the anointing One in His completeness, so that the Anointer
became man and the Anointed God, not by a change of nature but by union in
subsistence. For the Anointer and the Anointed were one and the same,
anointing in the capacity of God Himself as man. Must there not therefore
be a Mother of God who bore God incarnate? Assuredly she who played the
part of the Creator's servant and mother is in all strictness and truth in
reality God's Mother and Lady and Queen over all created things. But just
as He who was conceived kept her who conceived still virgin, in like manner
also He who was born preserved her virginity intact, only passing through
her and keeping her closed(9). The conception, indeed, was through the
sense of hearing, but the birth through the usual path by which children
come, although some tell tales of His birth through the side of the Mother
of God. For it was not impossible for Him to have come by this gate,
without injuring her seal in any way.

   The ever-virgin One thus remains even after the birth still virgin,
having never at any time up till death consorted with a man. For although
it is written, And knew her not till she had brought forth her first-born
Son(1), yet note that he who is first-begotten is first-born even if he is
only-begotten. For the word "first-born" means that he was born first but
does not at all suggest the birth of others. And the word "till" signifies
the limit of the appointed time but does not exclude the time thereafter.
For the Lord says, And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the
world(2), not meaning thereby that He will be separated from us after the
completion of the age. The divine apostle, indeed, says, And so shall we
ever be with the Lord(3), meaning after the general resurrection.

   For could it be possible that she, who had borne God and from
experience of the subsequent events had come to know the miracle, should
receive the embrace of a man. God forbid! It is not the part of a chaste
mind to think such thoughts, far less to commit such acts

   But this blessed woman, who was deemed worthy of gifts that are
supernatural, suffered those pains, which she escaped at the birth, in the
hour of the passion, enduring from motherly sympathy the rending of the
bowels, and when she beheld Him, Whom she knew to be God by the manner of
His generation, killed as a malefactor, her thoughts pierced her as a
sword, and this is the meaning of this verse: Yea, a sword shall pierce
through thy own soul also(4)(5). But the joy of the resurrection transforms
the pain, proclaiming Him, Who died in the flesh, to be God.

CHAPTER XV.

Concerning the honour due to the Saints and their remains.

   To the saints honour must be paid as friends of Christ, as sons and
heirs of God: in the words of John the theologian and evangelist, As many
as received Him, to them gave He power to became sons of God(6). So that
they are no longer servants, but sons: and if sons, also heirs, heirs of
God and joint heirs with Christ(7): and the Lord in the holy Gospels says
to His apostles, Ye are My friends(8). Henceforth I call you not servants,
for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth(9). And further, if the
Creator and Lord of all things is called also King of Kings and Lord of
Lords(1) and God of Gods, surely also the saints are gods and lords and
kings. For of these God is and is called God and Lord and King. For I am
the God of Abraham, He said to Moses, the God of Isaac and the God of
Jacob(2). And God made Moses a god to Pharaoh(3). Now I mean gods and kings
and lords not in nature, but as rulers and masters of their passions, and
as preserving a truthful likeness to the divine image according to which
they were made (for the image of a king is also called king), and as being
united to God of their own free-will and receiving Him as an indweller and
becoming by grace through participation with Him what He is Himself by
nature. Surely, then, the worshippers and friends and sons of God are to be
held in honour? For the honour shewn to the most thoughtful of fellow-
servants is a proof of good feeling towards the common Master(4).

   These are made treasuries and pure habitations of God: For I will dwell
in them, said God, and walk in them, and I will be their God(5). The divine
Scripture likewise saith that the souls of the just are in God's hand(6)
and death cannot lay hold of them. For death is rather the sleep of the
saints than their death. For they travailed in this life and shall to the
end(7), and Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His
saints(8). What then, is more precious than to be in the hand of God? For
God is Life and Light, and those who are in God's hand are in life and
light.

   Further, that God dwelt even in their bodies in spiritual wise(8a), the
Apostle tells us, saying, Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of
the Holy Spirit dwelling in you?(9), and The Lord is that Spirit(1), and If
any one destroy the temple of God, him will God destroy(2). Surely, then,
we must ascribe honour to the living temples of God, the living tabernacles
of God. These while they lived stood with confidence before God.

   The Master Christ made the remains of the saints to be fountains of
salvation to us, pouring forth manifold blessings and abounding in oil of
sweet fragrance: and let no one disbelieve this(3). For if water burst in
the desert from the steep and solid rock at God's will(4) and from the jaw-
bone of an ass to quench Samson's thirst(5), is it incredible that fragrant
oil should burst forth from the martyrs' remains? By no means, at least to
those who know the power of God and the honour which He accords His saints.

   In the law every one who toucheth a dead body was considered impure(6),
but these are not dead. For from the time when He that is Himself life and
the Author of life was reckoned among the dead, we do not call those dead
who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection and in faith on Him.
For how could a dead body work miracles? How, therefore, are demons driven
off by them, diseases dispelled, sick persons made well, the blind restored
to sight, lepers purified, temptations and troubles overcome, and how does
every good gift from the Father of lights(7) come down through them to
those who pray with sure faith? How much labour would you not undergo to
find a patron to introduce you to a mortal king and speak to him on your
behalf? Are not those, then, worthy of honour who are the patrons of the
whole race, and make intercession to God for us? Yea, verily, we ought to
give honour to them by raising temples to God in their name, bringing them
fruit-offerings, honouring their memories and taking spiritual delight in
them, in order that the joy of those who call on us may be ours, that in
our attempts at worship we may not on the contrary cause them offence. For
those who worship God will take pleasure in those things whereby God is
worshipped, while His shield-bearers will be wrath at those things
wherewith God is wroth. In psalms and hymns and spiritual songs(8), in
contrition and in pity for the needy, let us believers(9) worship the
saints, as God also is most worshipped in such wise. Let us raise monuments
to them and visible images, and let us ourselves become, through imitation
of their virtues, living monuments and images of them. Let us give honour
to her who bore God as being strictly and truly the Mother of God. Let us
honour also the prophet John as forerunner and baptist(1), as apostle and
martyr, For among them that are born of women there hath not risen a
greater than John the Baptist(2), as saith the Lord, and he became the
first to proclaim the Kingdom. Let us honour the apostles as the Lord's
brothers, who saw Him face to face and ministered to His passion, for whom
God the Father did foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to the
image of His Son(3), first apostles, second prophets(4), third pastors end
teachers(5). Let us also honour the martyrs of the Lord chosen out of every
class, as soldiers of Christ who have drunk His cup and were then baptized
with the baptism of His life-bringing death, to be partakers of His passion
and glory: of whom the leader is Stephen, the first deacon of Christ and
apostle and first martyr. Also let us honour our holy fathers, the God-
possessed ascetics, whose struggle was the longer and more toilsome one of
the conscience: who wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being
destitute, afflicted, tormented; they wandered in deserts and in mountains
and in dens and caves of the earth, of whom the world was not worthy(6).
Let us honour those who were prophets before grace, the patriarchs anti
just men who foretold the Lord's coming. Let us carefully review the life
of these men, and let us emulate their faith(7) and love and hope and zeal
and way of life, and endurance of sufferings and patience even to blood, in
order that we may be sharers with them in their crowns of glory.

CHAPTER XVI.

Concerning Images(8).

   But since some(9) find fault with us for worshipping and honouring the
image of our Saviour and that of our Lady, and those, too, of the rest of
the saints and servants of Christ, let them remember that in the beginning
God created man after His own image(1). On what grounds, then, do we shew
reverence to each other unless because we are made after God's image? For
as Basil, that much-versed expounder of divine things, says, the honour
given to the image passes over to the prototype(2). Now a prototype is that
which is imaged, from which the derivative is obtained. Why was it that the
Mosaic people honoured on all hands the tabernacle(3) which bore an image
and type of heavenly things, or rather of the whole creation? God indeed
said to Moses, Look that thou make them after their pattern which was
shewed thee in the mount(4). The Cherubim, too, which o'ershadow the mercy
seat, are they not the work of men's hands(5)? What, further, is the
celebrated temple at Jerusalem? Is it not hand-made and fashioned by the
skill of men(6)?

   Moreover the divine Scripture blames those who worship graven images,
but also those who sacrifice to demons. The Greeks sacrificed and the Jews
also sacrificed: but the Greeks to demons and the Jews to God. And the
sacrifice of the Greeks was rejected and condemned, but the sacrifice of
the just was very acceptable to God. For Noah sacrificed, and God smelled a
sweet savour(7), receiving the fragrance of the right choice and good-will
towards Him. And so the graven images of the Greeks, since they were images
of deities, were rejected and forbidden.

   But besides this who can make an imitation of the invisible,
incorporeal, uncircumscribed, formless God? Therefore to give form to the
Deity is the height of folly and impiety. And hence it is that in the Old
Testament the use of images was not common. But after God(8) in His bowels
of pity became in truth man for our salvation, not as He was seen by
Abraham in the semblance of a man, nor as He was seen by the prophets, but
in being truly man, and after He lived upon the earth and dwelt among
men(9), worked miracles, suffered, was crucified, rose again and was taken
back to Heaven, since all these things actually took place and were seen by
men, they were written for the remembrance and instruction of us who were
not alive at that time in order that though we saw not, we may still,
hearing and believing, obtain the blessing of the Lord. But seeing that not
every one has a knowledge of letters nor time for reading, the Fathers gave
their sanction to depicting these events on images as being acts of great
heroism, in order that they should form a concise memorial of them. Often,
doubtless, when we have not the Lord's passion in mind and see the image of
Christ's crucifixion, His saving passion is brought back to remembrance,
and we fall down and worship not the material but that which is imaged:
just as we do not worship the material of which the Gospels are made, nor
the material of the Cross, but that which these typify. For wherein does
the cross, that typifies the Lord, differ from a cross that does not do so?
It is just the same also in the case of the Mother of the Lord. For the
honour which we give to her is referred to Him Who was made of her
incarnate. And similarly also the brave acts of holy men stir us up to be
brave and to emulate and imitate their valour and to glorify God. For as we
said, the honour that is given to the best of fellow-servants is a proof of
good-will towards our common Lady, and the honour rendered to the image
passes over to the prototype(1). But this is an unwritten tradition(2),
just as is also the worshipping towards the East and the worship of the
Cross, and very many other similar things.

   A certain tale(3), too, is told(4), how that when Augarus(5) was king
over the city of the Edessenes, he sent a portrait painter to paint a
likeness of the Lord, and when the painter could not paint because of the
brightness that shone from His countenance, the Lord Himself put a garment
over His own divine and life-giving face and impressed on it an image of
Himself and sent this to Augarus, to satisfy thus his desire.

   Moreover that the Apostles handed down much that was unwritten, Paul,
the Apostle of the Gentiles, tells us in these words: Therefore, brethren,
stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught of us, whether
by word or by epistle(6). And to the Corinthians he writes, Now I praise
you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the traditions
as I have delivered them to you(7)."

CHAPTER XVII.

Concerning Scripture(8).

   It is one and the same God Whom both the Old and the New Testament
proclaim, Who is praised and glorified in the Trinity: I am come, saith the
Lord, not to destroy life law but to fulfil it(9). For He Himself worked
out our salvation for which all Scripture and all mystery exists. And
again, Search the Scriptures for they are they that testify of Me(1). And
the Apostle says, God, Who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in
time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken
unto us by His Son(2). Through the Holy Spirit, therefore, both the law and
the prophets, the evangelists and apostles and pastors and teachers, spake.

   All Scripture, then, is given by inspiration of God and is also
assuredly profitable(3). Wherefore to search the Scriptures is a work most
fair and most profitable for souls. For just as the tree planted by the
channels of waters, so also the soul watered by the divine Scripture is
enriched and gives fruit in its season(4), viz. orthodox belief, and is
adorned with evergreen leafage, I mean, actions pleasing to God. For
through the Holy Scriptures we are trained to action that is pleasing to
God, and untroubled contemplation. For in these we find both exhortation to
every virtue and dissuasion from every vice. If, therefore, we are lovers
of learning, we shall also be learned in many things. For by care and toil
and the grace of God the Giver, all things are accomplished. For every one
that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to hint that
knocketh it shall be opened(5). Wherefore let us knock at that very fair
garden of the Scriptures, so fragrant and sweet and blooming, with its
varied sounds of spiritual and divinely-inspired birds ringing all round
our ears, laying hold of our hearts, comforting the mourner, pacifying the
angry and filling him with joy everlasting: which sets our mind on the
gold-gleaming, brilliant back of the divine dove(6), whose bright pinions
bear up to the only-begotten Son and Heir of the Husbandman(7) of that
spiritual Vineyard and bring us through Him to the Father of Lights(8). But
let us not knock carelessly but rather zealously and constantly: lest
knocking we grow weary. For thus it will be opened to us. If we read once
or twice and do not understand what we read, let us not grow weary, but let
us persist, let us talk much, let us enquire. For ask thy Father, he saith,
and He will shew thee: thy elders and they will tell thee(9). For there is
not in every man that knowledge(1). Let us draw of the fountain of the
garden perennial and purest waters springing into life eternal(2). Here let
us luxuriate, let us revel insatiate: for the Scriptures possess
inexhaustible grace. But if we are able to pluck anything profitable from
outside sources, there is nothing to forbid that. Let us become tried
money-dealers, heaping up the true and pure gold and discarding the
spurious. Let us keep the fairest sayings but let us throw to the dogs
absurd gods and strange myths: for we might prevail most mightily against
them through themselves.

   Observe, further(3), that there are two and twenty books of the Old
Testament, one for each letter of the Hebrew tongue. For there are twenty-
two letters of which five are double, and so they come to be twenty-seven.
For the letters Caph, Mere, Nun, Pe(4), Sade are double. And thus the
number of the books in this way is twenty-two, but is found to be twenty-
seven because of the double character of five. For Ruth is joined on to
Judges, and the Hebrews count them one book: the first and second books of
Kings are counted one: and so are the third and fourth books of Kings: and
also the first and second of Paraleipomena: and the first and second of
Esdra. In this way, then, the books are collected together in four
Pentateuchs and two others remain over, to form thus the canonical books.
Five of them are of the Law, viz. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
Deuteronomy. This which is the code of the Law, constitutes the first
Pentateuch. Then comes another Pentateuch, the so-called Grapheia(5), or as
they are called by some, the Hagiographa, which are the following: Jesus
the Son of Nave(6), Judges along with Ruth, first and second Kings, which
are one book, third and fourth Kings, which are one book, and the two books
of the Paraleipomena(7) which are one book. This is the second Pentateuch.
The third Pentateuch is the books in verse, viz. Job, Psalms, Proverbs of
Solomon, Ecclesiastes of Solomon and the Song of Songs of Solomon. The
fourth Pentateuch  is the Prophetical books, viz the twelve prophets
constituting one book, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel. Then come the two
books of Esdra made into one, and Esther(8). There are also the Panaretus,
that is the Wisdom of Solomon, and the Wisdom of Jesus, which was published
in Hebrew by the father of Sirach, and afterwards translated into Greek by
his grandson, Jesus, the Son of Sirach. These are virtuous and noble, but
are not counted nor were they placed in the ark.

   The New Testament contains four gospels, that according to Matthew,
that according to Mark, that according to Luke, that according to John: the
Acts of the Holy Apostles by Luke the Evangelist: seven catholic epistles,
viz. one of James, two of Peter, three of John, one of Jude: fourteen
letters of the Apostle Paul: the Revelation of John the Evangelist: the
Canons(9) of the holy apostles(1), by Clement.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Regarding the things said concerning Christ.

   The things said concerning Christ fall into four generic modes. For
some fit Him even before the incarnation, others in the union, others after
the union, and others after the resurrection. Also of those that refer to
the period before the incarnation there are six modes: for some of them
declare the union of nature and the identity in essence with the Father, as
this, I and My Father are one(2): also this, He that hath seen Me hath seen
the Father(3): and this, Who being in the form of God(4), and so forth.
Others declare the perfection of subsistence, as these, Son of God, and the
Express Image of His person(5), and Messenger of great counsel, Wonderful
Counsellor(6), and the like.

   Again, others declare the indwelling(7) of the subsistences in one
another, as, I am in the Father and the Father in Me(8); and the
inseparable foundation(9), as, for instance, the Word, Wisdom, Power,
Effulgence. For the word is inseparably established in the mind (and it is
the essential mind that I mean), and so also is wisdom, and power in him
that is powerful, and effulgence in the light, all springing forth from
these(1).

   And others make known the fact of His origin from the Father as cause,
for instance My Father is greater than I(2). For from Him He derives both
His being and all that He has(3): His being was by generative and not by
creative means, as, I came forth from the Father and am come(4), and I live
by the Father(3). But all that He hath is not His by free gift or by
teaching, but in a causal sense, as, The Son can do nothing of Himself but
what He seeth the Father do(6). For if the Father is not, neither is the
Son. For the Son is of the Father and in the Father and with the Father,
and not after(7) the Father. In like manner also what He doeth is of Him
and with Him. For there is one and the same, not similar but the same, will
and energy and power in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

   Moreover, other things are said as though the Father's good-will was
fulfilled(8) through His energy, and not as through an instrument or a
servant, but as through His essential and hypostatic Word and Wisdom and
Power, because but one action(9) is observed in Father and Son, as for
example, All things were made by Him(9a), and He sent His Word and healed
them(1), and That they may believe that Than hast sent Me(2).

   Some, again, have a prophetic sense, and of these some are in the
future tense: for instance, He shall come openly(3), and this from
Zechariah, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee(4), and this from Micah,
Behold, the Lord cometh out of His place and will came down and tread upon
the high places of the earth(5). But others, though future, are put in the
past tense, as, for instance, This is our God: Therefore He was seen upon
the earth and dwell among men(6), and The Lord created me in the beginning
of His ways for His works(7), and Wherefore God, thy God, anointed thee
with the oil of gladness above thy fellows(8), and such like.

   The things said, then, that refer to the period before the union will
be applicable to Him even after the union: but those that refer to the
period after the union will not be applicable at all before the union,
unless indeed in a prophetic sense, as we said. Those that refer to the
time of the union have three modes. For when our discourse dears with the
higher aspect, we speak of the deification of the flesh, and His assumption
of the Word and exceeding exaltation, and so forth, making manifest the
riches that are added to the flesh tram the union and natural conjunction
with the most high God the Word. And when our discourse deals with the
lower aspect, we speak of the incarnation of God the Word, His becoming
man, His emptying of Himself, His poverty, His humility. For these and such
like are imposed upon the Word and God through His admixture with humanity.
When again we keep both sides in view at the same time, we speak of union,
community, anointing, natural conjunction, conformation and the like. The
former two modes, then, have their reason in this third mode. For through
the union it is made clear what either has obtained from the intimate
junction with and permeation through the other. For through the union(9) in
subsistence the flesh is said to be deified and to become God and to be
equally God with the Word; and God the Word is said to be made flesh, and
to become man, and is called creature and last(1): not in the sense that
the two natures are converted into one compound nature (for it is not
possible for the opposite natural qualities to exist at the same time in
one nature)(2), but in the sense that the two natures are united in
subsistence and permeate one another without confusion or transmutation The
permeation(3) moreover did not come of the flesh but of the divinity: for
it is impossible that the flesh should permeate through the divinity: but
the divine nature once permeating through the flesh gave also to the flesh
the same ineffable power of permeation(4); and this indeed is what we call
union.

   Note, too, that in the case of the first and second modes of those that
belong to the period of the union, reciprocation is observed. For when we
speak about the flesh, we use the terms deification and assumption of the
Word and exceeding exaltation and anointing. For these are derived from
divinity, but are observed in connection with the flesh. And when we speak
about the Word, we use the terms emptying, incarnation, becoming man,
humility and the like: and these, as we said, are imposed on the Word and
God through the flesh. For He endured these things in person of His own
free-will.

   Of the things that refer to the period after the union there are three
modes. The first declares His divine nature, as, I am in the Father and the
Father in Me(5), and I and the Father are one(6): and all those things
which are affirmed of Him before His assumption of humanity, these will be
affirmed of Him even after His assumption of humanity, with this exception,
that He did not assume the flesh and its natural properties.

   The second declares His human nature, as, Now ye seek to kill Me, a man
that hath told you the truth(7), and Even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up(8), and the like.

   Further, of the statements made and written about Christ the Saviour
after the manner of men, whether they deal with sayings or actions, there
are six modes. For some of them were done or said naturally in accordance
with the incarnation; for instance, His birth from a virgin, His growth and
progress with age, His hunger, thirst, weariness, fear, sleep, piercing
with nails, death and all such like natural and innocent passions(9). For
in all these there is a mixture of the divine and human, although they are
held to belong in reality to the body, the divine suffering none of these,
but procuring through them our salvation.

   Others are of the nature of ascription(9a), as Christ's question, Where
have ye laid Lazarus(1)? His running to the fig-tree, His shrinking, that
is, His drawing back, His praying, and His making as though He would have
gone He in need of these or similar things, but only because His form was
that of a man as necessity and expediency demanded(3). For example, the
praying was to shew that He is not opposed to God, for He gives honour to
the Father as the cause of Himself(4): and the question was not put in
ignorance but to shew that He is in truth man as well as God(5); and the
drawing back is to teach us not to be impetuous nor to give ourselves up.

   Others again are said in the manner of association and relation(5a),
as, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me(6)? and He hath made Him to
be sin for us, Who knew no sin(7), and being made a curse for us(8); also,
Then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things
under Him(9). For neither as God nor as man(1) was He ever forsaken by the
Father, nor did He become sin or a curse, nor did He require to be made
subject to the Father. For as God He is equal to the Father and not opposed
to Him nor subjected to Him; and as God, He was never at any time
disobedient to His Begetter to make it necessary for Him to make Him
subject(2). Appropriating, then, our person and ranking Himself with us, He
used these words. For we are bound in the fetters of sin and the curse as
faithless and disobedient, and therefore forsaken.

   Others are said by reason of distinction in thought. For if you divide
in thought things that are inseparable in actual truth, to cut the flesh
from the Word, the terms 'servant' and 'ignorant' are used of Him, for
indeed He was of a subject and ignorant nature, and except that it was
united with God the Word, His flesh was servile and ignorant(3). But
because of the union in subsistence with God the Word it was neither
servile nor ignorant. In this way, too, He called the Father His God.

   Others again are for the purpose of revealing Him to us and
strengthening our faith, as, And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with the
glory which I had with Thee, before the world was(4). For He Himself was
glorified and is glorified, but His glory was not manifested nor confirmed
to us. Also that which the apostle said, Declared to be the Son of God with
power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the
dead(5). For by the miracles and the resurrection and the coming of the
Holy Spirit it was manifested and confirmed to the world that He is the Son
of God(6). And this too(7), The Child grew in wisdom and grace(8).

   Others again have reference to His appropriation of the personal life
of the Jews, in numbering Himself among the Jews, as He saith to the
Samaritan woman, Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship, far
salvation is of the Jews(9).

   The third mode is one which declares the one subsistence and brings out
the dual nature: for instance, And I live by the Father: so he that eateth
Me, even he shall live by Me(1). And this: I go to My Father and ye see Me
no more(2). And this: They would not have crucified the Lord of Glory(3).
And this: And no man hath ascended up to heaven but He that came down from
heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven(4), and such like.

   Again of the affirmations that refer to the period after the
resurrection some are suitable to God, as, Baptizing them in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost(5), for here 'Son' is
clearly used as God; also this, And lo, I am with you alway, even unto the
end of the world(6), and other similar ones. For He is with us as God.
Others are suitable to man, as, They held Him by the feet(7), and There
they will see Me(8), and so forth.

   Further, of those referring to the period after the Resurrection that
are suitable to man there are different modes. For some did actually take
place, yet not according to nature(9), but according to dispensation, in
order to confirm the fact that the very body, which suffered, rose again;
such are the weals, the eating and the drinking after the resurrection.
Others took place actually and naturally, as changing from place to place
without trouble and passing in through closed gates. Others have the
character of simulation(1), as, He made as though He would have gone
further(2). Others are appropriate to the double nature, as, I ascend unto
My Father and your Father, and My God and our God(3), and The King of Glory
shall carte in(4), and He sat down on the right hand of the majesty on
High(5). Finally others are to be understood as though He were ranking
Himself with us, in the manner of separation in pure thought, as, My God
and your God(3).

   Those then that are sublime must be assigned to the divine nature,
which is superior to passion and body: and those that are humble must be
ascribed to the human nature; and those that are common must be attributed
to the compound, that is, the one Christ, Who is God and man. And it should
be understood that both belong to one and the same Jesus Christ, our Lord.
For if we know what is proper to each, and perceive that both are performed
by one and the same, we shall have the true faith and shall not go astray.
And from all these the difference between the united natures is recognised,
and the fact(6) that, as the most godly Cyril says, they are not identical
in the natural quality of their divinity and humanity. But yet there is but
one Son and Christ and Lord: and as He is one, He has also but one person,
the unity in subsistence being in nowise broken up into parts by the
recognition of the difference of the natures.

CHAPTER XIX.

That God(7) is not the cause of evils.

   It is to be observed(8) that it is the custom in the Holy Scripture to
speak of God's permission as His energy, as when the apostle says in the
Epistle to the Romans, Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same
lump to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour(9)? And for
this reason, that He Himself makes this or that. For He is Himself alone
the Maker of all things; yet it is not He Himself that fashions noble or
ignoble things, but the personal choice of each one(1). And this is
manifest from what the same Apostle says in the Second Epistle to Timothy,
In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also
of wood and of earth: and some to honour and some to dishonour. If a man
therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour
sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good
work(2). And it is evident that the purification must be voluntary: for if
a man, he saith, purge himself. And the consequent antistrophe responds,
"If a man purge not himself he will be a vessel to dishonour, unmeet for
the master's use and fit only to be broken in pieces." Wherefore this
passage that we have quoted and this, God hath concluded them all in
unbelief(3), and this, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that
they should not see, and ears that they should not hear(4), all these must
be understood not as though God Himself were energising, but as though God
were permitting, both because of free-will and because goodness knows no
compulsion.

   His permission, therefore, is usually spoken of in the Holy Scripture
as His energy and work. Nay, even when He says that God creates evil
things, and that there is no evil in a city that the Lord hath not done, he
does not mean by these words(5) that the Lord is the cause of evil, but the
word 'evil(6)' is used in two ways, with two meanings. For sometimes it
means what is evil by nature, and this is the opposite of virtue and the
will of God: and sometimes it means that which is evil and oppressive to
our sensation, that is to say, afflictions and calamities. Now these are
seemingly evil because they are painful, but in reality are good. For to
those who understand they became ambassadors of conversion and salvation.
The Scripture says that of these God is the Author.

   It is, moreover, to be observed that of these, too, we are the cause:
for involuntary evils are the offspring of voluntary ones(7).

   This also should be recognised, that it is usual in the Scriptures for
some things that ought to be considered as effects to be stated in a causal
sense(8), as, Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in
Thy sight, that Than mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and prevail
when Thou judgest(9). For the sinner did not sin in order that God might
prevail, nor again did God require our sin in order that He might by it be
revealed as victor(1). For above comparison He wins the victor's prize
against all, even against those who are sinless, being Maker,
incomprehensible, uncreated, and possessing natural and not adventitious
glory. But it is because when we sin God is not unjust in His anger against
us; and when He pardons the penitent He is shewn victor over our
wickedness. But it is not for this that we sin, but because the thing so
turns out. It is just as if one were sitting at work and a friend stood
near by, and one said, My friend came in order that I might do no work that
day. The friend, however, was not present  in order that the man should do
no work, but such was the result. For being occupied with receiving his
friend he did not work. These things, too, are spoken of as effects because
affairs so turned out. Moreover, God does not wish that He alone should be
just, but that all should, so far as possible, be made like unto Him.

CHAPTER XX.

That there are not two Kingdoms.

   That there are not two kingdoms(2), one good and one bad, we shall see
from this. For good and evil are opposed to one another and mutually
destructive, and cannot exist in one another or with one another. Each of
them, therefore, in its own division will belong to the whole, and first(3)
they will he circumscribed, not by the whole alone but also each of them by
part of the whole.

   Next I ask(4), who it is that assigns(4) to each its place. For they
will not affirm that they have come to a friendly agreement with, or been
reconciled to, one another. For evil is not evil when it is at peace with,
and reconciled to, goodness, nor is goodness good when it is on amicable
terms with evil. But if He Who has marked off to each of these  its own
sphere of action is something different from them, He must the rather be
God.

   One of two things indeed is necessary, either that they come in contact
with and destroy one another, or that there exists some intermediate place
where neither goodness nor evil exists, separating both from one another,
like a partition. And so there will be no longer two but three kingdoms.

   Again, one of these alternatives is necessary, either that they are at
peace, which is quite incompatible with evil (for that which is at peace is
not evil), or they are at strife, which is incompatible with goodness (for
that which is at strife is not perfectly good), or the evil is at strife
and the good does not retaliate, but is destroyed by the evil, or they are
ever in trouble and distress(6), which is not a mark of goodness. There is,
therefore, but one kingdom, delivered from all evil.

   But if this is so, they say, whence comes evil(7)? For it is quite
impossible that evil should originate from goodness. We answer then, that
evil is nothing else than absence of goodness and a lapsing(8) from what is
natural into what is unnatural: for nothing evil is natural. For all
things, whatsoever God made, are very good(9), so far as they were made:
if, therefore, they remain just as they were created, they are very good,
but when they voluntarily depart from what is natural and turn to what is
unnatural, they slip into evil.

   By nature, therefore, all things are servants of the Creator and obey
Him. Whenever, then, any of His creatures voluntarily rebels and becomes
disobedient to his Maker, he introduces evil into himself. For evil is not
any essence nor a property of essence, but an accident, that is, a
voluntary deviation from what is natural into what is unnatural, which is
sin.

   Whence, then, comes sin(1)? It is an invention of the free-will of the
devil. Is the devil, then, evil? In so far as he was brought into existence
he is not evil but good. For he was created by his Maker a bright and very
brilliant angel, endowed with free-will as being rational. But he
voluntarily departed from the virtue that is natural and came into the
darkness of evil, being far removed from God, Who alone is good and can
give life and light. For from Him every good thing derives its goodness,
and so far as it is separated from Him in will (for it is not in place), it
falls into evil.

CHAPTER XXI.

The purpose(2) for which God in His foreknowledge created persons who would
sin and not repent.

   God in His goodness(3) brought what exists into being out of nothing,
and has foreknowledge of what will exist in the future. If, therefore, they
were not to exist in the future, they would neither be evil in the future
nor would they be foreknown. For knowledge is of what exists and
foreknowledge is of what will surely exist in the future. For simple being
comes first and then good or evil being. But if the very existence of
those, who through the goodness of God are in the future to exist, were to
be prevented by the fact that they were to become evil of their own choice,
evil would have prevailed over the goodness of God. Wherefore God makes all
His works good, but each becomes of its own choice good or evil. Although,
then, the Lord said, Good were it for that man that he had never been
born(4), He said it in condemnation not of His own creation but of the evil
which His own creation had acquired by his own choice and through his own
heedlessness. For the heedlessness that marks man's judgment made His
Creator's beneficence of no profit to him. It is just as if any one, when
he had obtained riches and dominion from a king, were to lord it over his
benefactor, who, when he has worsted him, will punish him as he deserves,
if he should see him keeping hold of the sovereignty to the end.

CHAPTER XXII.

Concerning the law of God and the law of sin.

   The Deity is good and more than good, and so is His will. For that
which God wishes is good. Moreover the precept, which teaches this, is law,
that we, holding by it, may walk in light(5): and the transgression of this
precept is sin, and this continues to exist on account of the assault of
the devil and our unconstrained and voluntary reception of it(6). And this,
too, is called law(7).

   And so the law of God, settling in our mind, draws it towards itself
and pricks our conscience. And our conscience, too, is called a law of our
mind. Further, the assault of the wicked one, that is the law of sin,
settling in the members of our flesh, makes its assault upon us through it.
For by once voluntarily transgressing the law of God and receiving the
assault of the wicked one, we gave entrance to it, being sold by ourselves
to sin. Wherefore our body is readily impelled to it. And so the savour and
perception of sin that is stored up in our body, that is to say, lust and
pleasure of the body, is law in the members of our flesh.

   Therefore the law of my mind, that is, the conscience, sympathises with
the law of God, that is, the precept, and makes that its will. But the law
of sin(8), that is to say, the assault made through the law that is in our
members, or through the lust and inclination and movement of the body and
of the irrational part of the soul, is in opposition to the law of my
mind, that is to conscience, and takes me captive (even though I make the
law of God my will and set my love on it, and make not sin my will), by
reason of commixture(9): and through the softness of pleasure and the lust
of the body and of the irrational part of the soul, as I said, it leads me
astray and induces me to become the servant of sin. But what the law could
not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in
the likeness of sinful flesh (for He assumed flesh but not sin) condemned
sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in
us who walk not after the flesh but in the Spirit(1). For the Spirit
helpeth our infirmities(2) and affordeth power to the law of our mind,
against the law that is in our members. For the verse, we know not what we
should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession with
groanings that cannot be uttered(3), itself teacheth us what to pray for.
Hence it is impossible to carry out the precepts of the Lord except by
patience and prayer.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Against the Jews on the question Sabbath.

   The seventh day is called the Sabbath and signifies rest. For in it God
rested from all His works(4), as the divine Scripture says: and so the
number of the days goes up to seven and then circles back again and begins
at the first. This is the precious number with the Jews. God having
ordained that it should be held in honour, and that in no chance fashion
but with the imposition of most heavy penalties for the transgression(5).
And it was not in a simple fashion that He ordained this, but for certain
reasons understood mystically by the spiritual and clear-sighted(6).

   So far, indeed, as I in my ignorance know, to begin with inferior and
more dense things, God, knowing the denseness of the Israelites and their
carnal love and propensity towards matter in everything, made this law:
first, in order that the servant and the cattle should rest(7) as it is
written, for the righteous man regardeth the life of his beast(8): next, in
order that when they take their ease from the distraction of material
things, they may gather together unto God, spending the whole of the
seventh day in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and the study of the
divine Scriptures and resting in God. For when(9) the law did not exist and
there was no divinely-inspired Scripture, the Sabbath was not consecrated
to God. But when the divinely-inspired Scripture was given by Moses, the
Sabbath was consecrated to God in order that on it they, who do not
dedicate their whole life to God, and who do not make their desire
subservient to the as though to a Father, but are like foolish servants,
may on that day talk much concerning the exercise of it, and may abstract a
small, truly a most insignificant, portion of their life for the service of
God, and this from fear of the chastisements and punishments which threaten
transgressors. For the law is not made for a righteous man but for the
unrighteous(1). Moses, of a truth, was the first to abide fasting with God
for forty days and again for another forty(2), and thus doubtless to
afflict himself with hunger on the Sabbaths although the law forbade self-
affliction on the Sabbath. But if they should object that this took place
before the law, what will they say about Elias the Thesbite who
accomplished a journey of forty days on one meal(3)? For he, by thus
afflicting himself on the Sabbaths not only with hunger but with the forty
days' journeying, broke the Sabbath: and yet God, Who gave the law, was not
wroth with him but shewed Himself to him on Choreb as a reward for his
virtue. And what will they say about Daniel? Did he not spend three weeks
without food(4)? And again, did not all Israel circumcise the child on the
Sabbath, if it happened to be the eighth day after birth(5)? And do they
not hold the great fast which the law enjoins if it falls on the
Sabbath(6)? And further, do not the priests and the Levites profane the
Sabbath in the works of the tabernacle(7) and yet are held blameless? Yea,
if an ox should fall into a pit on the Sabbath, he who draws it forth is
blameless, while he who neglects to do so is condemned(8). And did not all
the Israelites compass the walls of Jericho bearing the Ark of God for
seven days, in which assuredly the Sabbath was included(9). As I said(1),
therefore, for the purpose of securing leisure to worship God in order that
they might, both servant and beast of burden, devote a very small share to
Him and be at rest, the observance of the Sabbath was devised for the
carnal that were still childish and in the bonds of the elements of the
world(2), and unable to conceive of anything beyond the body and the
letter. But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Only-
begotten Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were
under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons(3). For to as many
of us as received Him, He gave power to become sons of God, even to them
that believe on Him(4). So that we are no longer servants but sons(5): no
longer under the law but under grace: no longer do we serve God in part
from fear, but we are bound to dedicate to Him the whole span of our life,
and cause that servant, I mean wrath and desire, to cease from sin and bid
it devote itself to the service of God, always directing our whole desire
towards God and arming our wrath against the enemies of God: and likewise
we hinder that beast of burden, that is the body, from the servitude of
sin, and urge it forwards to assist to the uttermost the divine precepts.

   These are the things which the spiritual law of Christ enjoins on us
and those who observe that become superior to the law of Moses. For when
that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done
away(6): and when the covering of the law, that is, the veil, is rent
asunder through the crucifixion of the Saviour, and the Spirit shines
forth with tongues of fire, the letter shall be done away with, bodily
things shall come to an end, the law of servitude shall be fulfilled,  and
the law of liberty be bestowed on us. Yea(7) we shall celebrate the perfect
rest of bureau nature, I mean the day after the resurrection, on which the
Lord Jesus, the Author of Life and our Saviour, shall lead us into the
heritage promised to those who serve God in the spirit, a heritage into
which He entered Himself as our forerunner after He rose from the dead, and
whereon, the gates of Heaven being opened to Him, He took His seat in
bodily form at the right hand of the Father, where those who keep the
spiritual law shall also come.

   What belongs to us(8), therefore, who walk by the spirit and not by the
letter, is the complete abandonment of carnal things, the spiritual service
and communion with God. For circumcision is the abandonment of carnal
pleasure and of whatever is superfluous and unnecessary. For the foreskin
is nothing else than the skin which it superfluous to the organ of lust.
And, indeed, every pleasure which does not arise from God nor is in God is
superfluous to pleasure: and of that the foreskin is the type. The Sabbath,
moreover, is the cessation from sin; so that both things happen to be one,
and so both together, when observed by those who are spiritual, do not
bring about any breach of the law at all.

   Further, observe(9) that the number seven denotes all the present time,
as the most wise Solomon says, to give a portion to seven and also to
eight(1). And David(2), the divine singer when he composed the eighth
psalm, sang of the future restoration after the resurrection from the dead.
Since the Law, therefore, enjoined that the seventh day should be spent in
rest from carnal things and devoted to spiritual things, it was a mystic
indication to the true Israelite who had a mind to see God, that he should
through all time offer himself to God and rise higher than carnal things.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Concerning Virginity.

   Carnal men abuse virginity(3), and the pleasure-loving bring forward
the following verse in proof, Cursed be every one that raiseth not up seed
in Israel(4). But we, made confident by God the Word that was made flesh of
the Virgin, answer that virginity was implanted in man's nature from above
and in the beginning. For man was formed of virgin soil. From Adam alone
was Eve created. In Paradise virginity held sway. Indeed, Divine Scripture
tells that both Adam and Eve were naked and were not ashamed(5). But after
their transgression they knew that they were naked, and in their shame they
sewed aprons for themselves(6). And when, after the transgression, Adam
heard, dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return(7), when death entered
into the world by reason of the transgression, then Adam knew Eve his wife,
and she conceived and bare seed(8). So that to prevent the wearing out and
destruction of the race by death, marriage was devised that the race of men
may be preserved through the procreation of children(9).

   But they will perhaps ask, what then is the meaning of "male and
female(1)," and "Be fruitful and multiply?" In answer we shall say that "Be
fruitful and multiply(2)" does not altogether refer to the multiplying by
the marriage connection. For God had power to multiply the race also in
different ways, if they kept the precept unbroken(3) to the end(4). But
God, Who knoweth all things before they have existence, knowing in His
foreknowledge that they would fall into transgression in the future and be
condemned to death, anticipated this and made "male and female," and bade
them "be fruitful and multiply." Let us, then, proceed on our way and see
the glories(5) of virginity: and this also includes chastity.

   Noah when he was commanded to enter the ark and was entrusted with the
preservation of the seed of the world received this command, Go in, saith
the Lord, thou and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives(6). He
separated them from their wives(7) in order that with purity they might
escape the flood and that shipwreck of the whole world. After the cessation
of the flood, however, He said, Go forth of the ark, thou and thy sons, and
thy wife, and thy sons' wives(8). Lo, again, marriage is granted for the
sake of the multiplication of the race. Next, Elias, the fire-breathing
charioteer and sojourner in heaven did not embrace celibacy, and yet was
not his virtue attested by his super-human ascension(1)? Who closed the
heavens? Who raised the dead(2)? Who divided Jordan(3)? Was it not the
virginal Elias? And did not Elisha, his disciple, after he had given proof
of equal virtue, ask and obtain as an inheritance a double portion of the
grace of the Spirit(4)? What of the three youths? Did they not by
practising virginity become mightier than fire, their bodies through
virginity being made proof against the fire(5)? And was it not Daniel's
body that was so hardened by virginity that the wild beasts' teeth could
not fasten in it(6). Did not God, when He wished the Israelites to see Him,
bid them purify the body(7)? Did not the priests purify themselves and so
approach the temple's shrine and offer victims? And did not the law call
chastity the great vow?

   The precept of the law, therefore, is to be taken in a more spiritual
sense. For there is spiritual seed which is conceived through the love and
fear of God in the spiritual womb, travailing and bringing forth the spirit
of salvation. And in this sense must be understood this verse: Blessed is
he who hath seed in Zion and posterity in Jerusalem. For does it mean that,
although he be a whoremonger and a drunkard and an idolater, he is still
blessed if only he hath seed in Sion and posterity in Jerusalem? No one in
his senses will say this.

   Virginity is the rule of life among the angels, the property of all
incorporeal nature. This we say without speaking ill of marriage: God
forbid! (for we know that the Lord blessed marriage by His presence(8), and
we know him who said, Marriage is and the bed undefiled(1)), but knowing
that virginity is better than marriage, however good. For among the
virtues, equally as among the vices, there are higher and lower grades. We
know that all mortals after the first parents of the race are the offspring
of marriage. For the first parents were the work of virginity and not of
marriage. But celibacy is, as we said, an imitation of the angels.
Wherefore virginity is as much more honourable than marriage, as the angel
is higher than man. But why do I say angel? Christ Himself is the glory of
virginity, who was not only-begotten of the Father without beginning or
emission or connection, but also became man in our image, being made flesh
for our sakes of the Virgin without connection, and manifesting in Himself
the true and perfect virginity. Wherefore, although He did not enjoin that
on us by law (for as He said, all men cannot receive this saying(2)), yet
in actual fact He taught us that and gave us strength for it. For it is
surely clear to every one that virginity now is flourishing among men.

   Good indeed is the procreation of children enjoined by the law, and
good is marriage on account of fornications, for it does away with
these(4), and by lawful intercourse does not permit the madness of desire
to he caromed into unlawful acts. Good is marriage for those who have no
continence: but that virginity is better which increases the fruitfulness
of the soul and offers to God the seasonable fruit of prayer. Marriage is
honourable and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will
judge(5).

CHAPTER XXV.

Concerning the Circumcision.

   The Circumcision(6) was given to Abraham before the law, after the
blessings, after the promise, as a sign separating him and his offspring
and his household from the Gentiles with whom he lived(7). And this is
evident(8), for when the Israelites passed forty years alone by themselves
in the desert, having no intercourse with any other race, all that were
horn in the desert were uncircumcised: but when Joshua(9) led them across
Jordan, they were circumcised, and a second law of circumcision was
instituted. For in Abraham's time the law of circumcision was given, and
for the forty years in the desert it fell into abeyance. And again for the
second time God gave the law of Circumcision to Joshua, after the crossing
of Jordan, according as it is written in the book of Joshua, the son of
Nun: At that time the Lord said unto Joshua, Make thee knives of stone from
the sharp rock, and assemble and circumcise the sons of Israel a second
time(1); and a little later: For the children of Israel walked forty and
two(2) years in the wilderness of Battaris(3), till all the people that
were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were uncircumcised, because they
obeyed not the voice of the Lord: unto whom the Lord sware that He would
not shew them the goad land, which the Lord swore unto their fathers that
He would give them, a land that floweth with milk and honey. And their
children, whom He raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for
they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the
way(4). So that the circumcision was a sign, dividing Israel from the
Gentiles with whom they dwelt.

   It was, moreover, a figure of baptism(5). For just as the circumcision
does not cut off a useful member of the body but only a useless
superfluity, so by the holy baptism we are circumcised from sin, and sin
clearly is, so to speak, the superfluous part of desire and not useful
desire. For it is quite impossible that any one should have no desire at
all nor ever experience the taste of pleasure. But the useless part of
pleasure, that is to say, useless desire and pleasure, it is this that is
sin from which holy baptism circumcises us, giving us as a token the
precious cross on the brow, not to divide us from the Gentiles (for all the
nations received baptism and were sealed with the sign of the Cross), but
to distinguish in each nation the faithful from the Faithless. Wherefore,
when the truth is revealed, circumcision is a senseless figure and shade.
So circumcision is now superfluous and contrary to holy baptism. For he who
is circumcised is a debtor to do the whale law(6). Further, the Lord was
circumcised that He might fulfil the law: and He fulfilled the whole law
and observed the Sabbath that He might fulfil and establish the law(7).
Moreover after He was baptized and the Holy Spirit had appeared to men,
descending on Him in the form of a dove, from that time the spiritual
service and conduct of life and the Kingdom of Heaven was preached.

CHAPTER XXVI. Concerning the  Antichrist(8).

   It should be known that the Antichrist is hound to come. Every one,
therefore, who confesses not that the Son of God came in the flesh and is
perfect God and became perfect man, after being God, is Antichrist(9). But
in a peculiar and special sense he who comes at the consummation of the age
is called Antichrist(1). First, then, it is requisite that the Gospel
should be preached among all nations, as the Lord said(2), and then he will
come to refute the impious Jews. For the Lord said to them: I am come in My
Father's name and ye receive Me not: if another shall come in his own name,
him ye will receive(3). And the apostle says, Because they received not the
love of the truth that they might be saved, for this cause Gad shall send
them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie: that they all might
be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in
unrighteousness(4). The Jews accordingly did not receive the Lord Jesus
Christ who was the Son of God and God, but receive the impostor who calls
himself God(5). For that he will assume the name of God, the angel teaches
Daniel, saying these words, Neither shall he regard the God of his
fathers(6). And the apostle says: Let no man deceive you by any means: for
that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that
man of sin be revealed, the son, of perdition: who opposeth and exalleth
himself above all that is called Gad or that is worshipped, so that he
sitteth in the temple of God(7), shewing himself that he is God; in the
temple of God he said; not our temple, but the old Jewish temple(8). For he
will come not to us but to the Jews: not for Christ or the things of
Christ: wherefore he is called Antichrist(9).

   First, therefore, it is necessary that the Gospel should be preached
among all nations(1): And then shall that wicked one be revealed, even him
whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and
lying wonders(2), with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that
perish, whom the Lord shall consume with the word of His mouth and shall
destroy with the brightness of His coming(3). The devil himself(4),
therefore does not become man in the way that the Lord was made man. God
forbid! but he becomes man as the offspring of fornication and receiveth
all the energy of Satan. For God, foreknowing the strangeness of the choice
that he would make, allows the devil to take up his abode in him(5).

   He is, therefore, as we said, the offspring of fornication and is
nurtured in secret, and on a sudden he rises up and rebels and assumes
rule. And in the beginning of his rule, or rather tyranny, he assumes the
role of sanctity(6). But when he becomes master he persecutes the Church of
God and displays all his wickedness. But he will come with signs and lying
wonders(7), fictitious and not real, and he will deceive and lead away from
the living God those whose mind rests on an unsound and unstable
foundation, so that even the elect shall, if it be possible, be made to
stumble(8).

   But Enoch and Elias the Thesbite shall be sent and shall turn the
hearts of the fathers to the children(9), that is, the synagogue to our
Lord Jesus Christ and the preaching of the apostles: and they will be
destroyed by him. And the Lord shall come out of heaven, just as the holy
apostles beheld Him going into heaven perfect God and perfect man, with
glory and power, and will destroy the man of lawlessness, the son of
destruction, with the breath of His mouth(1). Let no one, therefore, look
for the Lord to come from earth, but out of Heaven, as He himself has made
sure(2).

CHAPTER XXVII.

Concerning the Resurrection.

   We believe also in the resurrection of the dead. For there will be in
truth, there will be, a resurrection of the dead, and by resurrection we
mean resurrection of bodies(3). For resurrection is the second state of
that which has fallen. For the souls are immortal, and hence how can they
rise again? For if they define death as the separation of soul and body,
resurrection surely is the re-union of soul and body, and the second state
of the living creature that has suffered dissolution and downfall(4). It
is, then, this very body, which is corruptible and liable to dissolution,
that will rise again incorruptible. For He, who made it in the beginning of
the sand of the earth, does not lack the power to raise it up again after
it has been dissolved again and returned to the earth from which it was
taken, in accordance with the reversal of the Creator's judgment.

   For if there is no resurrection, let us eat and drink(5): let us pursue
a life of pleasure and enjoyment. If there is no resurrection, wherein do
we differ from the irrational brutes? If there is no resurrection, let us
hold the wild beasts of the field happy who have a life free from sorrow.
If there is no resurrection, neither is there any God nor Providence, but
all things are driven and borne along of themselves. For observe how we see
most righteous men suffering hunger and injustice and receiving no help in
the present life, while sinners  and unrighteous men abound in riches and
every delight. And who in his senses would take this for the work of a
righteous judgment or a wise providence? There must be, therefore, there
must be, a resurrection. For God is just and is the rewarder of those who
submit patiently to Him. Wherefore if it is the soul alone that engages in
the contests of virtue, it is also the soul alone that will receive the
crown. And if it were the soul alone that revels in pleasures, it would
also be the soul alone that would be justly punished. But since the soul
does not pursue either virtue or vice separate from the body, both together
will obtain that which is their just due.

   Nay, the divine Scripture bears witness that there will be a
resurrection of the body. God in truth says to Moses after the flood, Even
as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life
thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely your
blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I
require it, and at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life
of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, for his blood his own shall be shed,
for in the image of God made I man(6). How will He require the blood of man
at the hand of every beast, unless because the bodies of dead men will rise
again? For not for man will the beasts die.

   And again to Moses, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the
God of Jacob: God is not the God of the dead (that is, those  who are dead
and will be no more), but of the living(7), whose souls indeed live in His
hand(8), but whose bodies will again come to life through the resurrection.
And David, sire of the Divine, says to God, Thou takest away their breath,
they die and return to their dust(9). See how he speaks about bodies. Then
he subjoins this, Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created: and Thou
renewest the face of the earth(1).

   Further Isaiah says: The dead shall rise again, and they that are in
the graves shall awake(2). And it is clear that the souls do not lie in the
graves, but the bodies.

   And again, the blessed Ezekiel says: And it was as I prophesied, and
behold a shaking and the bones came together, bone to his bone, each to its
own joint: and when I beheld, lo, the sinews came up upon them and the
flesh grew and rose up on them and the skin covered them above(3). And
later he teaches how the spirits came back when they were bidden.

   And divine Daniel also says: And at that time shall Michael stand up,
the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there
shall be a time of trouble, such trouble as never was since there was a
nation on the earth even to that same time. And at that time thy people
shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And
many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake: some to
everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that
be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and out of the
multitude of the just shall shine like stars into the ages and beyond(4).
The words, many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,
clearly shew that there will be a resurrection of bodies. For no one surely
would say that the souls sleep in the dust of the earth.

   Moreover, even the Lord in the holy Gospels clearly allows that there
is a resurrection of the bodies. For they that are in the graves, He says,
shall hear His voice and shall come forth: they that have done good unto
the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the
resurrection of damnation(5). Now no one in his senses would ever say that
the souls are in the graves.

   But it was not only by word, but also by deed, that the Lord revealed
the resurrection of the bodies. First He raised up Lazarus, even after he
had been dead four days, and was stinking(6). For He did not raise the soul
without the body, but the body along with the soul: and not another body
but the very one that was corrupt. For how could the resurrection of the
dead man have been known or believed if it had not been established by his
characteristic properties? But it was in fact to make the divinity of His
own nature manifest and to confirm the belief in His own and our
resurrection, that He raised up Lazarus who was destined once more to die.
And the Lord became Himself the first-fruits of the perfect resurrection
that is no longer subject to death Wherefore also the divine Apostle Paul
said: If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not
raised, our faith is vain: we are jet in our sins(7). And, Now, is Christ
risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that slept(8), and
the first-born pyre the dead(9); and again, For if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring
with Him(1). Even so, he said, as Christ rose again. Moreover, that  the
resurrection of the Lord was the union of uncorrupted body and soul (for it
was these that had been divided) is manifest: for He said, Destroy this
temple, and in three days I will raise it up(2). And the holy Gospel is a
trustworthy witness that He spoke of His own body. Handle Me and see, the
Lord said to His own disciples when they were thinking that they saw a
spirit, that it is I Myself, and that I am not changed(3): for a spirit
hath not flesh or bones, as ye see Me have(4). And when He had said this He
shewed them His hands and His side, and stretched them forward for Thomas
to touch(5). Is not this sufficient to establish belief in the resurrection
of bodies?

   Again the divine apostle says, For this corruptible must put on
incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality(6). And again: It is
sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption: it is sawn in weakness,
it is raised in power: it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory: it
is sown a natural body (that is to say, crass and mortal), it is raised a
spiritual body(7), such as was our Lord's body after the resurrection which
passed through closed doors, was unwearying, had no need of food, or sleep,
or drink. For they will be, saith the Lord, as the angels of God(8): there
will no longer be marriage nor procreation of children. The divine apostle,
in truth, says, For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look
for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus, Who shall change our vile body that it may
be fashioned like unto His glorious body(9): not meaning change into
another form (God forbid!), but rather the change from corruption into
incorruption(1).

   But some one will say, How are the dead raised up? Oh, what disbelief!
Oh, what folly! Will He, Who at His solitary will changed earth into body,
Who commanded the little drop of seed to grow in the mother's womb and
become in the end this varied and manifold organ of the body, not the
rather raise up again at His solitary will that which was and is dissolved?
And with what body do they come(2)? Thou fool, if thy hardness will not
permit you to believe the words of God, at least believe His works(3). For
that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die(4). And that which
thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it
may chance of wheat or of some other grain. But God giveth it a body as it
hath pleased Him, and to every seed his own body(5). Behold, therefore, how
the seed is buried in the furrows as in tombs. Who is it that giveth them
roots and stalk and leaves and ears and the most delicate beards? Is it not
the Maker of the universe? Is it not at the bidding of Him Who hath
contrived all things? Believe, therefore, in this wise, even that the
resurrection of the dead will come to pass at the divine will and sign. For
He has power that is able to keep pace with His will.

   We shall therefore rise again, our souls being once more united with
our bodies, now made incorruptible and having put off corruption, and we
shall stand beside the awful judgment-seat of Christ: and the devil and his
demons and the man that is his, that is the Antichrist and the impious and
the sinful, will be given over to everlasting fire: not material fire(6)
like our fire, but such fire as God would know. But those who have done
good will shine forth as the sun with the angels into life eternal, with
our Lord Jesus Christ, ever seeing Him and being in His sight and deriving
unceasing joy from Him, praising Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit
throughout the limitless ages of ages(7). Amen.


Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland, beginning in
1867. (LNPF II/IX, Schaff and Wace). The digital version is by The
Electronic
Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.

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