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to a later time of teachers, the God-bearing men; let us use their words for our own utterance, let us put forth the same concepts for our teachings, lest the common enemy take the hope of our salvation as an occasion for destruction and, whence salvation is for us, thence may come our ruin. The adversary is terrible, and if he grows weary with attacks from the left, he attacks with those from the right, and he brings forth zeal and perhaps manipulates the truth. He mixes a cup full of honey, and it is known by the right-minded to be full of poison; it fawns with what is apparent and bites with what is hidden. A common seal has been made for us all who have believed in Christ. By this seal we are all marked, and perhaps the destroying devil will pass us by. We are the flock of Christ, of the good shepherd and chief shepherd; let us guard our seal inviolable, lest we be plundered by the thief unnoticed and not be known by the master. Not a few heresies have appeared from time to time, like tares wanting to defile the pure wheat of Christ, but they were rooted out by the words of truth. But the teachers did not in any way counterfeit the seal with these words, but were content only to cast out what was foreign; and the seal was preserved as it was by nature from the beginning. For that which has been fulfilled secondly by many canons, and most excellently made precise, they decreed its perfection as needing nothing more; but they corrected what was in error, while what was well-established they kept completely unharmed. If, then, you wish to be a sheep of Christ and to be known as such by all who see, bear the seal as it has been formed in the image of piety, and do not have a counterfeit one, having forged it according to your will, lest the Lord, upon meeting you, who says he knows his own and is known by his own, should justly say, “I do not know you.”

1.12 But the images are on the tongue and the examples are ready at hand: root and branch and the fruit, and the sun and ray and radiance; for I am silent about that of the spring, as it is unsuited for adoption. I will refute your arguments from the examples, if only you are willing to listen without contention to what I say. The Spirit is by nature fruit, according to your suppositions, and in others again, radiance. But the otherness is great and the difference not simple. Why then did not he who is wise in all things and knows his own things best declare the fruit from the branch and the radiance from the ray, but rather from the root and from the sun? Perhaps then both are branches and both fruits or also rays and radiances, united in one another and mingled in ineffable ways, not counterfeiting their properties. And how will things defined by place and interval have a place in what is without shape, without contact, in all things free from sensible perception and appearance? I myself also wish to speak of these as three suns, with two having their existence from one, but distinction and circumscription and the fact that these are not all known in one another disturbs me. The root and the branch and the fruit also trouble me, if in one hypostasis they are the same parts, from which the whole is constituted. But the sun is also an individual thing, and how will the tri-hypostatic nature be imaged in one individual thing, being torn and divided into parts, each of which neither constitutes nor is named by the nature of the whole? But God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit; from the one the two, as effects from a cause, the one by generation, the other by procession, and connate with one another and ever-existing together as consubstantial. And if consubstantial, then entirely also co-powerful, not in any way inferior to the substance or energy or power of the cause. And if there is also another property of both, as that the one is given from each or is sent or is supplied or however else you wish to call it, only being cautious of the name of procession as indicating a principle of substantiation, but each from each, you no longer for these reasons bring the procession against me as following by necessity,

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ἐς ὕστερον διδασκά λων, τῶν θεοφόρων ἀνδρῶν· ταῖς λέξεσιν ἐκείνων εἰς τὴν ἡμετέραν χρησώμεθα προφοράν, τὰς αὐτὰς ἐννοίας προβά λωμεν εἰς διδάγματα, μὴ ἀφορμὴν ἀπωλείας τὴν τῆς σωτη ρίας ἡμῶν ἐλπίδα ὁ κοινὸς προσλάβῃ ἐχθρὸς καί, ὅθεν ἡ μῖν τὸ σώζεσθαι, ἐκεῖθεν γένηται ἡ φθορά. δεινός ἐστιν ὁ ἀντίπαλος, καὶ εἰ τοῖς ἀριστεροῖς ἀποκάμοι, ἐπιβάλλει τοῖς δεξιοῖς, καὶ τὸν ζῆλον προφέρει καὶ τάχα μεταχειρίζεται τὴν ἀλήθειαν. κιρνᾷ κρατῆρα μέλιτος πλήρη, καὶ δηλητηρίου μεστὸς τοῖς εὖ φρονοῦσι γινώσκεται· σαίνει τῷ φαινομένῳ καὶ δάκνει τῷ κρυπτομένῳ. σφραγὶς ἡμῖν ἐγεγόνει πᾶσι τοῖς εἰς Χριστὸν πεπιστευκόσι κοινή. ταύτῃ τῇ σφραγῖδι πάντες ἐνσημαινώμεθα, καὶ τάχα παραδράμῃ ἡμᾶς ὁ ὀλο θρεύων διάβολος. ποίμνη ἐσμὲν τοῦ Χριστοῦ, τοῦ καλοῦ ποιμένος καὶ ἀρχιποιμένος· φυλάττωμεν ἡμῶν τὴν σφρα γῖδα ἀπαρεγχείρητον, μὴ λάθωμεν τῷ κλέπτῃ σεσυλημένοι καὶ τῷ δεσπότη μὴ γινωσκόμενοι. αἱρέσεις οὐκ ὀλίγαι κατὰ καιροὺς ἀνεφάνησαν, καθάπερ ζιζάνια τὸν καθαρὸν σῖτον μολῦναι θέλουσαι τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἀλλὰ λόγοις ἀληθείας ἐξ ερριζώθησαν. οὐδὲν δὲ τὴν σφραγῖδα τοῖς διὰ ταῦτα λόγοις παρεποιήσαντο οἱ διδάσκαλοι, ἀλλ' ἠρκέσθησαν καὶ μόνον ἀποβαλεῖν τὸ ἀλλότριον· ἡ δὲ σφραγὶς ἐτηρήθη ὡς ἔσχε φύσεως ἐξ ἀρχῆς. ὃ γὰρ ἐκ δευτέρου πολλοῖς κανόσι καὶ ἀρίστως ἠκριβωμένοις πεπλήρωται, τούτου τὴν τελείωσιν ὡς μηδενὸς προσδεομένην ἐθέσπισαν· ἀλλ' ὤρθουν μὲν τὸ σφαλλόμενον, τὸ δὲ καλῶς ἐγκείμενον ἐτήρουν πάμπαν ἀλώ βητον. εἰ γοῦν θέλεις πρόβατον Χριστοῦ καὶ εἶναι καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς ὁρῶσι γινώσκεσθαι, φέρε τὴν σφραγῖδα καθὰ τῷ εἴδει τῆς εὐσεβείας μεμόρφωται, καὶ μὴ κίβδηλον ἔχῃς παρα ποιήσας σου πρὸς τὸ βούλημα, μή ποτέ σοι ὁ κύριος ἐν τυχών, ὁ λέγων γινώσκειν τὰ αὐτοῦ καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ἐκείνου γινώσκεσθαι, «οὐκ οἶδά σε» δικαίως ἐρεῖ.

1.12 Ἀλλ' ἐπὶ γλώττης αἱ εἰκόνες καὶ ἐξ ὑπογυίου τὰ παρα δείγματα, ῥίζα καὶ κλάδος καὶ ὁ καρπὸς καὶ ὁ ἥλιος καὶ ἀκτὶς καὶ ἀπαύγασμα· τὸ γὰρ τῆς πηγῆς σιωπῶ, ἀξύμφυλον ὂν εἰς παράληψιν. ἐγώ σου τοὺς λόγους διαλύσω τῶν παραδειγμάτων, εἰ μόνον ἐθέλεις ἀφιλονείκως ἐπαΐειν τῶν λεγομένων μοι. καρπὸς τὸ πνεῦμα κατὰ τὰς ὑποθέσεις σου πέφυκε, καὶ ἐν ἑτέροις πάλιν ἀπαύγασμα. ἀλλ' ἡ ἑτερότης πολλὴ καὶ οὐχ ἁπλοῦν τὸ διάφορον. ἵνα τί γοῦν μὴ τὸν καρπὸν ἐκ τοῦ κλάδου καὶ τὸ ἀπαύγασμα ἐξ ἀκτῖνος ὁ σοφὸς τὰ πάντα καὶ τὰ ἑαυτοῦ εἰδὼς ἄριστα ἀπεφήνατο, ἀλλ' ἐκ τῆς ῥίζης καὶ ἐξ ἡλίου; μήποτε οὖν καὶ ἄμφω κλάδοι καὶ ἄμφω καρποὶ ἢ καὶ ἀκτῖνες καὶ ἀπαυγάσματα ἐν ἀλλήλοις ἡνωμένα καὶ ἀνακεκραμένα ἀρρήτοις λόγοις, μὴ παραποιοῦντα τὰ ἰδιώματα. πῶς δὲ καὶ ἕξει χώραν ἐν ἀσχηματίστοις, ἐν ἀναφέσιν, ἐν πᾶσιν ἀπηλλαγμένοις αἰσθητι κῆς ἀντιλήψεως καὶ ἐμφάσεως τὰ τόπῳ καὶ διαστάσει περι γραφόμενα; βούλομαι καὶ αὐτὸς τρεῖς ταῦτα λέγειν ἡλίους, ἐξ ἑνὸς τῶν δύο ἐχόντων τὴν ὕπαρξιν, ἀλλὰ θροεῖ με διο ρισμὸς καὶ περιγραφὴ καὶ τὸ μὴ πάντα ἐν ἀλλήλοις ταῦτα γνωρίζεσθαι. θράττει με καὶ ἡ ῥίζα καὶ ὁ κλάδος καὶ ὁ καρπός, εἰ ἐν ὑποστάσει μιᾷ μέρη ταὐτά εἰσιν, ἐξ ὧν τὸ ὅλον συνέστηκεν. ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁ ἥλιος ἄτομον, καὶ πῶς ἡ τρισυπόστατος φύσις ἐν ἑνὶ ἀτόμῳ εἰκονισθήσεται, μέρεσι σπαραττομένη καὶ διαιρουμένη, ὧν ἕκαστον τῇ τοῦ ὅλου φύσει οὔτε συνέστηκεν οὔτε ὠνόμασται; θεὸς δὲ ὁ πατήρ, θεὸς ὁ υἱός, θεὸς τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον· ἐξ ἑνὸς τὰ δύο ὡς αἰτίου αἰτιατά, τὸ μὲν γεννητῶς, τὸ δ' ἐκπορευτῶς, καὶ ἀλλήλοις συμπεφυκότα καὶ ἀεὶ συνόντα ὡς ὁμοούσια. εἰ δ' ὁμοούσια, πάντως καὶ ὁμοδύναμα, μὴ τῆς τοῦ αἰτίου οὐσίας ὁπωσοῦν εἴτουν ἐνεργείας εἴτε δυνάμεως ὑφιέμενα. εἰ δ' ἔστι καὶ ἑτέρα ἰδιότης ἀμφοῖν, ὡς τὸ μὲν ἐξ ἑκατέρου δίδοσθαι ἢ ἀποστέλλεσθαι ἢ χορηγεῖσθαι ἢ ὁπωσοῦν ἄλλως ἐθέλεις καλεῖν, τὸ τῆς ἐκπορεύσεως μόνον εὐλαβούμενος ὄνομα ὡς ἀρχὴν παραδηλοῦν οὐσιώσεως, ἑκάτερον δὲ ἐξ ἑκατέρου, οὐκέτι γε καὶ διὰ ταῦτα ἐπιφέρεις μοι σὺ τὴν ἐκπόρευσιν ὡς ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἑπομένην,