John IV, 640-642

derived, such (questions) should not concern us, leaving them to the grammarians, who are accustomed to sell to children words acquired by derivation. For in sacred literature we have perceived that the Lord Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit operated not one operation or two, but we have learned that (He) operated in many ways.

[From the epistle (2) "Scripta dilectissimi filii" to the same Sergius]

252. . . . So far as pertains to ecclesiastical doctrine, what we ought to hold or to preach on account of the simplicity of men and the inextricable ambiguities of questions (which) must be removed . . . , is to define not one or two operations in the mediator of God and of men, but both natures united in one Christ by a natural union, when we should confess those operating with the participation of the other and the operators, both the divine, indeed, performing what is of God, and the human performing what is of the flesh; teaching [that they operate] neither separately, nor confusedly, nor interchangeably, the nature of God changed into man, and the human changed into God; but confessing the complete differences of the natures. . . . Therefore, doing away with . . . the scandal of the new invention, we, when we are explaining, should not preach one or two operations; but instead of one operation, which some affirm, we should confess one operator, Christ the Lord, in both natures; and instead of two operations—when the expression of two operations has been done away with—rather of the two natures themselves, that is of divinity and of the flesh assumed, in one person, the Only-begotten of God the Father unconfusedly, inseparably, and unchangeably performing their proper (works) with us.

[More from this epistle see Kch. n. 1065-1069]

SEVERINUS 640

JOHN IV 640-642

The Meaning of the Words of HONORIUS about the Two Wills¹

[From the epistle "Dominus qui dixit" to Constantius the Emperor, 641]

253. . . . One and He alone is without sin, the mediator of God and of men, the man Christ Jesus [cf. I Tim. 2:5] who was conceived and born free among the dead [Ps. 87:6]. Thus in the dispensation of His sacred