An Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 60

1 BOOK III — CHAPTER 16: In reply to those who say if man has two natures and two energies, Christ must be held to have three natures and as many energies.

2 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 the 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 nor the soul visible to bodily eyes: but the soul is rational and intellectual, and incorporeal, while the body is dense and visible, and irrational.

3 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. 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.

4 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. 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.