...becoming immortal from mortal, incorruptible from corruptible, eternal from ephemeral—and, in sum, God from man; for he who has been deemed worthy to become a son of God will surely possess in himself the dignity of the Father."
But the grace itself is uncreated not by grace (for [otherwise] there would be a grace of grace, and again another grace of this, and this would not stop, proceeding to infinity); the grace, therefore, is uncreated in very truth.
Do you, then, keep for me this fair deposit of the fathers: that the divine grace is uncreated, as being an energy of God's nature, and—according to the holy Isaac—as being the glory of His nature.
1:1986
Τίοὖνἔτιδεῖζητεῖνκαίδιαιρεῖν;
那麼，還有甚麼必要再去追問、再去區分呢？
What need is there, then, to inquire further and to divide?
Not being ignorant, then, of such cunning, we by no means agreed with the things he proposed; or rather, we did not even deign to say anything before exact examination, but we ourselves summoned him to discussion, so that the pious meaning might become evident.
Wherefore we also say to Him who promised these things: "Lord, do not lay this sin to his charge" (Acts 7:60), even though we grieve on account of those being harmed.
...in [the] chapters we composed against the things written by him against the Orthodox—subscribed by the most holy First [Prōtos], by the abbots, by the chosen elders, and by the most sacred bishop of Hierissos, all of them agreeing with us and declaring that whoever does not agree, whoever he may be, is not to be received into communion—after this, then, it was open to us to proceed straight to [the city] of Constantine; but first I bethought myself that the God of the fathers would raise up there too those who would speak on their behalf; and then I also said this to myself: "Let us grant that wretched man at least to take breath a little upon empty hopes, lest he even lay hands upon himself."
Whereupon I too, taking pity on him, said to him that nothing else was forcing us to contradict so vehemently except that he calls the monks heretics; and that if he would let this go, and the writings on this matter, but say that he is not [yet] persuaded regarding their [doctrines], the matter of [our] contradiction would cease—for our quarrel with him is a small one.
(For he was not yet then openly raging against me as well.) But he undertook these things, yet has written such things as you see; for from that time he poured himself out wholly and personally against me—and these things too we keep by us and examine, like the children of aliens whom we have taken captive.
It has now therefore become evident in deed that he will do great mercy with him—he who, employing a more vigorous rejoinder, will utterly tear apart these wicked writings; for, being goaded by them and expecting to do certain people harm, he will not rest.
Hold fast for me, then, his wicked tablet [book] and the father of it; for he will take to flight on learning that [I am] coming; and I will come—if God will—together with our most mighty and holy emperor, that we may smite the man with words and heal [him].
Yet more than anything it now occurs to me to marvel at how he has deceived you: as though something new had now been written or said, he himself seized upon and concocted the charge of ditheism; for this very thing, know well, is what he has been saying from the beginning—both before he met us and right up to the end: namely, that since you say some of those now or ever did see God in light, but God is invisible, there are therefore two gods and two Godheads, a visible and an invisible, an inferior and a superior.
And then he supposes we shall speak well only when we should say that the light which shone round about the apostles on Tabor, and such an illumination and grace, is either a created apparition seen through the air, or a phantasm fancifully fabricated—worse than a mere concept and altogether useless to any rational soul, as pertaining to imagination or sense—and a symbol, not such as one might call something even of the things that subsist or are contemplated about something, but it is (p. ...)
This we say, however: that if anyone shall show us innovating in our writings and writing or holding anything contrary to the things said and known by the fathers, him we shall welcome as a corrector of us who err unwillingly, and we shall yield to him most gladly—how could you say otherwise?—being in agreement with the saints; but if anyone wishes to say anything evil or to dispose [our words] evilly, this too we shall bear readily, so that we may share with the saints in both the blessing and the well-being that is in God.
For know that it is against the saints that the war has been stirred up and the outrage of [the charge of] ditheism is being directed; for the empty-minded man supposes that this [charge] arises out of the things said by them themselves. Yet wishing to escape the notice of his hearers, he sometimes [veils it] anonymously, sometimes [makes it] one of us [the pretext], and sometimes uses as a pretext one of those heretics of old.
Let no one, therefore, out of faintheartedness, put himself outside the seeming accusation; for he will both suffer loss of that concord and circumscribe himself away from the divine choir of the saints, and he will cause loss to the one who has senselessly resolved to tear apart that choir and to dim its wondrous harmony, having instilled in him no small boldness.