Andrew Louth - Syriac Christian Church

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TEXTS 195
well as the person that had been introduced. If then the will is
destroyed together with the energy, and the person together
with the will, then according to Severus Christ will be nonexistent,
since, through the will destroyed together with the
energy, the person introduced with the will will have been
destroyed too. And again, if wills necessarily follow energies,
and persons are introduced together with the wills, and they
say that every divine and human energy proceeds from the
same God the Word Incarnate, then every will (clearly divine
and human) will also proceed from one and the same Word
Incarnate, following the energies and together with them
introducing the same number of persons. And no reason will
gainsay it. Therefore, according to Severus, Christ will be
without being through the destruction of his natural energies,
and again through the impugning of one [energy], deprived of
will and hypostasis, and, with every advance of the divine and
human energy, be many-willed and many-personed, or to
speak more exactly, have an infinity of wills and persons. For
to say ‘every energy’ is to signify an innumerable quantity.
Therefore there follows from the Severan premiss the
collapse of theology, and there is introduced Arian
polytheism, 16 Sabellian atheism, 17 and a pagan kind of
Godhead that fights against itself. According to the premiss
itself, the doctrine of the economy is clearly corrupted: the one
Christ is without being, will or hypostasis, and again the same
has an infinity of wills and persons. What could be more
ungodly than this? Do you see where the rule of Severus leads
those who are convinced by it? For such is every doctrine that
does not have truth as its unconquerable foundation.
If, my dear friend, you say that Christ has one will, how do
you say this and what kind of thing are you saying? If this will
of Christ’s is natural, then you have alienated him by nature
from both his Father and his Mother, for he is united to
neither of them by nature. For Christ is neither of them by
nature. And how, if you say this, are you going to escape the
danger of polytheism? If, however, this will is gnomic, then it
will be characteristic of his single hypostasis. For the gnomic
is defined by the person, and, according to you, it will be shown
to have another will from the Father and the Spirit, and to
fight against them. If, furthermore, this will belongs to his sole
Godhead, then the Godhead will be subject to passions and,
contrary to nature, long for food and drink. If, finally, this will
belongs to his sole human nature, then it will not be
efficacious by nature. For how can it be, if it is human? And