Письмо XIV. Тому же послание учительное

God, being good by nature, does not create anything bad that it is His nature to create. Man, having become good through diligent striving, always rejoices in what God creates by nature. After all, there is no other distinguishing sign of goodness in a person except the mere inclination towards what arises from God. For it is God’s nature to do good, and man’s to love it. After all, the virtue of a husband is to show himself to be loving what God has done according to the will. This means that if indeed everything that has the cause of its origin in God is good, then, of course, good, and the greatest of good, is the union of those who diverge in faith, for it is clear that this is the work of God. If this is completely true, then I know that you rejoice, seeing how the scattered are gathered together - you are good in your striving for good. Therefore, I ask you, good and God-protected, to accept the most godly deacon, my lord Cosmas, who will deliver this not too long letter of mine, a virtuous and prudent man, and adorned with a godly disposition, and to count him among your close friends, and if the need arises to submit a petition for him to the revered pope, so that he receives the degree of deacon that belongs to him in the Church in which he was ordained, don't hesitate. After all, he has so deeply grasped the pious meaning of the Divine teaching of the Church that he ardently fights for it, and knows that the goal and law of piety is not to deny the existence of any of the parts of which Christ consists after the ineffable union, for [308] He, all one and the same, is truly together God and man. He did not reject what he was when he truly became what he was not - for he did not change. And he did not change what he became, remaining what he was - for he loves mankind; but the whole is, according to hypostasis, naturally both one and the other, one from both, preserving both in its unity without transformation or change, for truly, by hypostatic union, there is both the one and the other itself. After all, the hypostatic union is opposed to division, but not to the natural difference of the things united in it, and therefore completely eliminates the former, while the latter unshakably preserves what is expressed by number. Since no one could ever conceive of a difference completely unrelated to quantity, even if he were the most skillful and invincible debater. After all, as long as the parts of a complex whole, of which the whole consists, are preserved without merging, it is impossible not to recognize the natural difference between the parts of the whole that are preserved in the combination. And while the logos of the essential difference of parts is preserved as a whole, it is impossible not to recognize the number of parts of the whole, essentially different from each other, which is what is characteristic of expressing number, and not division, because number does not express the relationship of things, that is, unity or division, but only simple quantity, but not its image. If number tends to express quantity and not correlation, then the one who piously uses number solely to express the distinction of the natures of which He consists, which remains in Christ after the union, does not at all separate the union, but only recognizes that after the union there remain unfused natures, of which the one Christ, and the Lord, and the Son, and God is composed - it is clear that he is incarnate and fully incarnate. Therefore, such a person preaches the one nature of the Word after the union, incarnated in flesh, possessing an intelligent and rational soul, not denying the differences, but eliminating and removing the divisions, in order by these very expressions (1) to expel from the Divine church together both the fusion of Apollinaris, [309] and the division of Nestorius, two opposing evils, and in purity to worship the mystery; he confesses that Christ was born again from the Father before all ages, and that He was born for us below by the adoption of flesh, animated by mind and understanding, from the Mother in recent times. And therefore he believes that the Holy Virgin is truly and truly the Mother of God, for, having conceived instead of the seed of God the Word Himself, She carried and gave birth to Him, who became incarnate from Her; that He performed miracles, that He voluntarily endured the trials of human suffering, He was crucified, buried, rose on the third day according to Scripture (1 Cor. 15:4), was taken in the flesh to heaven, from where He appeared to us disembodied, and He Himself knows how, for how God by nature does not pass from one place to another. After all, it is infinite by nature, and therefore is not at all contained by anything that exists, for it is free from any limitation; and by nature loving of mankind, and therefore voluntarily endured our carnal birth and entered into our existence; He will come in His glory to judge the living and the dead and to give to each in justice the portion prepared for him. The said most godly Mr. Cosmas, who willingly accepted this confession, I accepted with joy, and I loved him more than my own soul, having recognized the simplicity of his character in Christ, and to the questions he asked about the doctrine, I gave him a brief written answer, which it would be worth it for you, God-protected ones, to accept and develop. You will help him with your excellent explanation of what is being discussed, filling in what was missed due to brevity; and enough about that. I remind you, God-protected: let us watch and pray, according to the command of God (Matthew 26:41), so as not to fall into the traps of temptation that surround us on all sides. After all, if we stay awake and sober, then, I am sure, we will be preserved from the wiles of demons; if we pray, we will attract to our aid Divine grace, which [310] fights with us and makes us conquerors of all opposing power, and protects us from all delusion and ignorance; and especially now we must do this, because even if there is no commandment, nature itself, pushed by difficult circumstances, teaches us to resort to God. For what is more disastrous than the evils that are now sweeping the entire universe? What’s scarier than what we see and hear about what’s happening? What is more pitiful and more terrible for the sufferers? We see a tribe of wild inhabitants of the desert, sweeping through a foreign land as if it were their own, indomitable ferocious animals, people by their mere appearance, ruining a cultural state, as well as the Jewish people, who from ancient times rejoiced in human blood and saw the propitiation of God only in the killing of a statue and therefore became even more maddened, and all those who became famous for their atrocities became more famous an abundance of vice, and hating God, imagining to worship Him; the most unfaithful of all the peoples of the earth and therefore the most inclined to accept opposing power, by custom and structure preceding the coming of the evil one and by his deeds heralding the coming of the Antichrist, for he did not know the true Savior; a hostile and lawless people, hating people and God, and therefore even more misanthropic because they hate God; not afraid to insultingly mock the saints, for which punishment is close - and to make it even fairer, his God-hating tyranny is clearly visible in his deeds; a people who stand for lies, commit murders and are at war against the truth; the cruel persecutor of my faith, by which the error of polytheism was dispelled and the armies of demons were driven out, by which “all nations clasped their hands,” according to prophecy, “and cried out to God with a voice of joy; for the Lord Most High is awesome, the great King over all the earth” (Ps. 47:2-3). Mysteriously they knew the only begotten Son, who came [311] in the flesh: He is the Lord, for He established the law of virtue to His servants, who adhered to the commandments in their work; The Almighty, for he bestows true knowledge on those who, out of a thirst for wisdom, through contemplation, strive to comprehend the mysteries, naked from allegory; but terrible, for he judges and punishes crimes; and the King, for he gives to everyone the share prepared for him according to his deserts; and great, for he supernaturally creates the opposite of the opposite, creating dispassion through passion and death - life and with miraculous power, granting, through His deprivations in the flesh, the unchangeable possession of good by nature. But this does not shame the insane people, who never cease to persecute faith and virtue. There is no doubt that he pursues them out of envy, for he fell away from both, and not knowing that he fell away, he limps on both knees (1 Kings 18:21) and in no way can, or, more accurately, does not want to rise from the fall into wickedness, for for the sake of arrogance and pleasure he always betrays faith and virtue, like a rebellious and stupid people (Deut. 32:6) and a foolish tribe. Having divided their lives between them, this apostate people, filled with lawlessness, makes the first the mother of apostasy, and the second the creator of misanthropy, so that he insults both God and creation: he despises him, and corrupts her with the abomination of his morals. What could be, as I have already said, more terrible for the eyes and ears of Christians than this - a cruel and alien tribe that dares to raise its hand to God’s heritage? But this happened due to many of our sins. We did not “live worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Phil. 1:27). We have all sinned, we have all acted lawlessly, we have all abandoned the Path of the Commandments (Dan.9:5), who said: “I am the way” (John 14:6), and we have become brutal towards each other, not knowing the grace of love for mankind and the mystery of the suffering suffered for us by the incarnate God, and have gone along impassable paths (Wisdom 5:7), that is, we have been affirmed by the disposition of the will in shameful passions ( Rom.1:26). But let us watch and pray, so that our hearts do not become even more burdened with gluttony and drunkenness (Luke 21:34). [312] After all, overeating is wavering in the word of faith over time and persecution, and drunkenness is the rejection of reasoning following nature, which naturally leads to true knowledge of things, when the soul, through lethargy, bends under the blows of trials and, darkened, wavers, as I said, in faith. If we pray and watch, our faith in our Lord and God Jesus Christ will be strengthened, for we will see and experience from our own experience the fulfillment of what He predicted, and we will not be amazed and waver in our souls, as if we were undergoing something that does not agree with the promise, but we will have even stronger faith, seeing how the Lord’s prediction is actually fulfilled. If the fulfillment of what was predicted can lead to the strengthening of faith, then we must strengthen our faith even more because of what is happening, discovering that the truth has been spoken, and confess God before people, not at all fearing any death, so that He also confesses us before the Father (Luke 12:8) and accepts us as saved by a good confession, which He Himself initiated for the depiction of our goods, “witnessing before Pontius Pilate and confessing a good confession” ( 1 Tim. 6:13), which we may be worthy to imitate with His help, if such a time comes, not rushing rashly into dangers for the sake of the word of godliness, but, as far as possible, avoiding trials - both in order to spare persecutors, and for the sake of the natural weakness inherent in us, learned from experience, and raising like infants, and waiting for the calling of God the Word, who, invisibly helping those who struggle, as he commands the law, for piety, goes through the path of martyrdom, for He alone is able to conquer feelings and nature; after all, it is clear that martyrdom is a victory over feelings and nature, and from it comes the revolt of the mind and reason against the passions, which strengthens the thirst for God, miraculously convincing those who love to pass through death to the Desired One, with Whom may we be worthy to become, shining with His confessions, inseparable from us both when leaving here, [313] and during the transition to the infinite world - through the prayers and intercession of the all-holy Our Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary and all the saints. Amen. He says that the one who uses the expression “two natures” only to explain the difference in Christ opposes Nestorius, and the one who utters the expression “one incarnate nature of God the Word” rejects the division of Nestorius. For he who equally avoids the wickedness of both uses two expressions. That is, between arrogance and pleasure. – Approx. lane You might be interested in: