Глава LXVI. Еще об ипостасном соединении

It should be borne in mind that the hypostatic union gives one complex hypostasis of the natures included in the union, in which the natures involved in the union, their differences and their inherent natural properties are preserved unfused and invariably. The hypostasis in relation to itself does not have any hypostatic difference, for the differences of each of the natures included in the combination are transferred to it - the differences by which each of them is separated from things of the same type as it. So. for example, this is the case with soul and body. In fact, from the soul and body one complex hypostasis is obtained, say, of Peter or Paul, but at the same time both complete natures are preserved in it - the nature of the soul and the nature of the body, and their species differences are not mixed and their properties do not merge. It contains the distinctive properties of each nature: the properties of the soul, by which it is isolated from other souls, and the properties of the body, which isolate it from other bodies, but which in no way separate the soul from the body, but, on the contrary, connect and connect it with it. At the same time, these distinctive properties separate the single hypostasis composed of them from other hypostases of the same type. If natures at a certain moment were hypostatically united with each other, then they forever remain inseparable from each other. In fact, although with death the soul is separated from the body, nevertheless their hypostasis remains one and the same, for hypostasis is the original independent source of all being. Thus, both body and soul always retain the same principle of their being and hypostatic unity, although they are separated from each other. It should be borne in mind that just as natures can be united with each other hypostatically, it is also possible for nature to be perceived as a hypostasis and have its existence in it. We see both in Christ. In fact, in Him both natures: Divine and human, united, and His animate flesh received its existence in the previously existing hypostasis of God the Word and has the same hypostasis. But it is absolutely impossible for one complex nature to be formed from two natures, or one hypostasis from two hypostases. In fact, it is impossible for opposite essential differences to be in the same nature, for their job is to separate from each other those natures to which they belong. On the other hand, it is impossible for something that once existed in itself to have another beginning of its hypostatic existence, for hypostasis is precisely existence in itself. It should be noted that in relation to the Holy Trinity, hypostasis denotes the beginningless image of the eternal existence of each person. It must be borne in mind that when a complex nature is formed, its parts must be simultaneous, and it must also differ from its constituent elements, not preserving them, but rather transforming and changing them. Thus, when a body is formed from the four elements, it becomes different from them, so that it is no longer fire or any other element and is not called by it. Likewise, from a horse and a donkey comes a hinny, which is no longer a horse or a donkey and is called neither the first nor the second; it differs from both and does not preserve in an unfused and unchangeable form the nature of either of those from whom it originated. You might be interested in: