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dull of heart? Why do you love vanity, and seek after falsehood, not introducing one, nor a simple, nature of divinity, but either three alienated from each other and torn apart, and it is not strange to say, even warring with excesses and deficiencies; or one, indeed, but some mean and narrow one, not having the ability to be the beginning of great things, as if it were unable, or unwilling; and this in two ways, either through envy, or through fear; the one, lest something of equal honor be introduced with it, the other, lest it be an enemy and at war? And yet, by as much as God is more honorable than creatures, by so much is it more magnificent for the first cause to be the beginning of divinity, than of creatures; and through a mediating divinity to come to the creatures, or the opposite, for divinity to exist for their sake, which seems to be the view of those who are overly inquisitive and sublime.

7. For if we were, while confessing the dignity of the Son and the Spirit, to introduce them as either without beginning, or to trace them to another beginning, there would truly be a fear that God might be dishonored, or that the contrary to God be endangered by us. But if, however much you exalt the Son, or the Spirit, 35.1160 you will not place them above the Father, nor will you alienate them from the cause, but you trace back the good offspring, and the wonderful procession, to that source; I will ask you a little, you lover of the unbegotten and lover of what is without beginning, which one dishonors God more, the one who establishes a beginning of such beings as you introduce, or the one who establishes a beginning not of such, but of those of like nature, and of like glory, and of such as our argument wills? But to you, your son is a great and very great honor, and all the more so, the more he resembles his father in all things, and is a genuine image of his begetter, and you would not accept to be a master of ten thousand slaves rather than the father of one child; but for God is there anything greater than to be the Father of a Son, which is an addition of glory, not a subtraction, as also the producer of the Spirit? Or are you ignorant, that you, by making him the beginning of creatures, I mean the Son and the Spirit, neither honor the beginning, nor do you not dishonor those who are from it? The former, because you introduce a beginning of small things, and unworthy of divinity; the latter, because you make them small, and not only creatures, but also more dishonored than all creatures; if indeed for their sake he came into being, and at some time, like tools for a craftsman that did not exist before the crafts, nor would they have come into being otherwise, if God had not willed to create something through them, as if the will were not sufficient. For everything that is for the sake of something, is less honorable than that for the sake of which it has come to be.

8. But I, introducing a beginning of divinity that is timeless, and inseparable, and undefined, honor both the beginning, and those from the beginning equally; the one, because it is the beginning of such; the others, because they are thus and of such a kind, and from such a one, separated neither by time, nor by nature, nor by majesty; being one dividedly, and divided unitedly, even if this is a paradoxical thing to say; no less praiseworthy in their relation to each other, than each is when conceived and taken by itself. A perfect Trinity from three perfect ones, the monad having been moved because of its richness, and the dyad having been surpassed (for it is beyond matter and form), from which bodies come, and the Trinity having been defined because of its perfection, for it is the first to transcend the composition of the dyad, so that divinity might neither remain constrained, nor be poured out into infinity. For the one is lacking in honor, the other is disorderly; and the one is entirely Jewish, the other is Greek and polytheistic. 35.1161

9. And I consider this too, and perhaps not without instruction, nor ignorantly, but even very thoughtfully, that for you there is not a single danger in introducing the Son as begotten. For the unbegotten, in begetting, will not suffer anything of what is bodily and material, because he is not a body, and this the common conceptions about God concede. So why do we fear a fear where there is no fear, and are impious in vain, as it is said? But for me there is a danger of being deprived of divinity, if I were to accept the creature. For what is created is not God, nor is what is a fellow-servant masterful, even if it holds the first place of servitude and creation, and this alone is treated kindly while being insulted. For he who deprives of due honor, not

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βαρυκάρδιοι; Ἵνα τί ἀγαπᾶτε ματαιότητα, καὶ ζητεῖτε ψεῦδος, οὐ μίαν, οὐδ' ἁπλὴν θεότητος φύσιν εἰσάγοντες, ἀλλ' ἤτοι τρεῖς ἀπεξενωμένας ἀλλήλων καὶ διεσπασμένας, οὐ θαυμαστὸν δὲ εἰπεῖν, καὶ μα χομένας ὑπερβολαῖς καὶ ἐλλείψεσιν· ἢ μίαν μὲν, μι κροπρεπῆ δέ τινα καὶ στενὴν, οὐκ ἔχουσαν τὸ μεγά λων εἶναι ἀρχὴν, ὥσπερ οὐ δυνηθεῖσαν, ἢ οὐ θελήσα σαν· καὶ τοῦτο διχῶς, ἢ διὰ φθόνον, ἢ διὰ φόβον· τὸ μὲν, ἵνα μή τι ὁμότιμον συνεισάγηται, τὸ δὲ, ἵνα μὴ ἐχθρὸν καὶ μαχόμενον; Καίτοι ὅσῳ τιμιώτερον Θεὸς κτισμάτων, τοσούτῳ μεγαλοπρεπέστερον τῇ πρώτῃ αἰτίᾳ, θεότητος εἶναι ἀρχὴν, ἢ κτισμάτων· καὶ διὰ θεότητος μέσης ἐλθεῖν ἐπὶ τὰ κτίσματα, ἢ τοὐναν τίον, τούτων ἕνεκεν ὑποστῆναι θεότητα, ὃ δοκεῖ τοῖς λίαν ἐξεταστικοῖς τε καὶ μετεώροις.

Ζʹ. Εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἐμέλλομεν, Υἱοῦ καὶ Πνεύματος τὴν ἀξίαν ὁμολογοῦντες, ἢ ἄναρχα ταῦτα εἰσάγειν, ἢ εἰς ἑτέραν ἀρχὴν ἀνάγειν, δέος ἂν ἦν ὄντως μὴ ἀτι μασθῇ Θεὸς, ἢ κινδυνεύσῃ παρ' ἡμῶν τὸ ἀντίθεον. Εἰ δὲ ὅσον ἂν ἐξαίρῃς τὸν Υἱὸν, ἢ τὸ Πνεῦμα, 35.1160 οὐχ ὑπὲρ τὸν Πατέρα θήσεις, οὐδὲ τῆς αἰτίας ἀποξενώσεις, ἀλλ' ἐκεῖσε ἀνάγεις τὸ καλὸν γέννημα, καὶ τὴν θαυμασίαν πρόοδον· προσερήσομαί σε ὀλίγον, φιλαγέννητε σὺ καὶ φιλάναρχε, πότερος Θεὸς ἀτιμά ζει μᾶλλον, ὁ τοιούτων τιθεὶς ἀρχὴν, οἵων αὐτὸς εἰσ άγεις, ἢ ὁ μὴ τοιούτων, ἀλλ' ὁμοίων τὴν φύσιν, καὶ ὁμοδόξων, καὶ οἵων ὁ ἡμέτερος βούλεται λόγος; Ἀλλὰ σοὶ μὲν εἰς τιμὴν μέγα καὶ μέγιστον ὁ σὸς υἱὸς, καὶ τοσούτῳ μᾶλλον, ὅσῳπερ ἂν τὰ πάντα πατρῴζῃ, καὶ χαρακτὴρ ᾖ γνήσιος τοῦ γεννήσαντος, καὶ οὐκ ἂν δέξαιο μυρίων ἀνδραπόδων εἶναι μᾶλλον δεσπότης, ἢ ἑνὸς γεννήτωρ παιδός· τῷ Θεῷ δὲ ἄλλο τι μεῖζον, ἢ Υἱοῦ τυγχάνειν Πατέρα, ὃ προσθήκη δόξης ἐστὶν, οὐχ ὑφαίρεσις, ὡς δὲ καὶ προβολέα Πνεύματος; Ἢ ἀγνοεῖς, ὅτι σὺ μὲν κτισμάτων τιθεὶς ἀρχὴν, λέγω δὴ Υἱοῦ καὶ Πνεύματος, οὔτε τὴν ἀρχὴν τιμᾷς, καὶ ἀτιμάζεις τὰ ἐξ αὐτῆς; Τὴν μὲν, ὅτι μικρῶν εἰσ άγεις ἀρχὴν, καὶ ἀναξίων θεότητος· τὰ δὲ, ὅτι μι κρὰ, καὶ μὴ κτίσματα μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πάντων κτι σμάτων ποιεῖς ἀτιμότερα· εἴ γε τούτων ἕνεκεν ὑπ έστη, καὶ ποτὲ, ὥσπερ ὄργανα τεχνίτῃ πρὸ τῶν τε χνιτῶν πρότερον οὐκ ὄντα, οὐδ' ἂν ἄλλως γενόμε να, εἰ μή τι κτίσαι δι' αὐτῶν ἐβουλήθη Θεὸς, ὡς οὐκ ἀρκοῦντος τοῦ βούλεσθαι. Πᾶν γὰρ ὅ τινος ἕνεκεν, ἀτιμότερον ἐκείνου δι' ὃ γεγένηται.

Ηʹ. Ἐγὼ δὲ θεότητος ἀρχὴν εἰσάγων ἄχρονον, καὶ ἀχώριστον, καὶ ἀόριστον, τήν τε ἀρχὴν τιμῶ, καὶ τὰ ἐκ τῆς ἀρχῆς ἐπίσης· τὴν μὲν, ὅτι τοιούτων ἀρχή· τὰ δὲ, ὅτι οὕτως καὶ τοιαῦτα, καὶ ἐκ τοιού του, μήτε τῷ ποτὲ, μήτε τῇ φύσει, μήτε τῷ σεπτῷ διειργόμενα· ἓν ὄντα διῃρημένως, καὶ διαιρούμενα συνημμένως, εἰ καὶ παράδοξον τοῦτο εἰπεῖν· οὐχ ἧτ τον ἐπαινετὰ τῆς πρὸς ἄλληλα σχέσεως, ἢ καθ' ἑαυ τὸ ἕκαστον νοούμενόν τε καὶ λαμβανόμενον. Τριάδα τελείαν ἐκ τελείων τριῶν, μονάδος μὲν κινηθείσης διὰ τὸ πλούσιον, δυάδος δὲ ὑπερβαθείσης (ὑπὲρ γὰρ τὴν ὕλην καὶ τὸ εἶδος), ἐξ ὧν τὰ σώματα, Τριά δος δὲ ὁρισθείσης διὰ τὸ τέλειον, πρώτη γὰρ ὑπερ βαίνει δυάδος σύνθεσιν, ἵνα μήτε στενὴ μένῃ ἡ θεό της, μήτε εἰς ἄπειρον χέηται. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ ἀφιλότιμον, τὸ δὲ ἄτακτον· καὶ τὸ μὲν Ἰουδαϊκὸν παντελῶς, τὸ δὲ Ἑλληνικὸν καὶ πολύθεον. 35.1161

Θʹ. Σκοπῶ δὲ κἀκεῖνο, καὶ ἴσως οὐκ ἀπαιδεύτως, οὐδὲ ἀμαθῶς, ἀλλὰ καὶ λίαν ἐπεσκεμμένως, ὅτι σοὶ μὲν κίνδυνος οὐδὲ εἷς γεννητὸν εἰσάγοντι τὸν Υἱόν. Οὐ γὰρ μὴ πάθῃ τι γεννῶν ὁ ἀγέννητος τῶν σωματι κῶν τε καὶ ὑλικῶν, ὅτι μηδὲ σῶμα, καὶ τοῦτο αἱ κοι ναὶ περὶ Θεοῦ παραχωροῦσιν ὑπολήψεις. Ὥστε τί φοβούμεθα φόβον οὗ μὴ ἔστι φόβος, καὶ ἀσεβοῦμεν διακενῆς, ὃ δὴ λέγεται; Ἐμοὶ δὲ κίνδυνος ζημιωθῆ ναι θεότητα, εἰ τὸ κτίσμα παραδεχοίμην. Οὐ γὰρ Θεὸς τὸ κτιζόμενον, οὐδὲ δεσποτικὸν τὸ ὁμόδουλον, κἂν τὰ πρῶτα φέρηται δουλείας καὶ κτίσεως, καὶ τοῦτο μόνον φιλανθρωπεύηται ὑβριζόμενον. Ὁ γὰρ τῆς ὀφειλομένης ἀποστερῶν τιμῆς, οὐ