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cause of the Son, nor is the Son second, even though from the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit third, even though it proceeds from the Father. For if the Trinity is one from the beginning and this is called Trinity according to the hypostases, then the one can be neither first of itself, nor of the hypostases with it; for neither did one pre-exist the other, so that the one that pre-existed might become first of the one that shone forth from it. For the one Trinity is one Godhead, and is called this, as has been said, on account of the persons and the hypostases; but since it is divided indivisibly, and united unconfusedly, God is called one Trinity, with no one of these pre-existing in any way, neither the Father of the Son, nor the Son of the Father, nor both of the Spirit, so that one might become first of the other; for they have a concurrent and co-eternal beginning without beginning.

Therefore, the Trinity is one God, ineffable, without beginning, uncreated, incomprehensible, indivisible, able to be neither conceived by us nor spoken. But lest by long silence (18) we should suffer a complete forgetfulness of God and live as certain atheists in the world, it has been permitted to us, as far as is possible for human nature, to speak about God and divine things as we have been taught by the divine apostles and our God-inspired fathers, so that by continually reviving the memory of him we might glorify his goodness and his philanthropic dispensation towards us. But we, who are earth and ashes, as if ignoring ourselves and stretching out to what is beyond measure, do not shudder to investigate and meddle with, to conceive and devise and fashion things that are incomprehensible and ineffable to angels and all the heavenly powers, but as certain unbelievers and wholly uninitiated into the mysteries of Christ, so we both think and speak unsparingly with a shameless soul about the things of God.

Tell me then, you who do not scruple to investigate the things of the divine nature: do you believe that God is tri-hypostatic, without beginning, uncreated, incomprehensible, unsearchable, invisible, neither comprehensible to the mind nor expressible in speech, and that he was always the same, having neither beginning of days, nor of times or ages, but ever-being? Yes, he says. If then you believe this, that he was, just as he was, God alone, the Holy Trinity, and when he willed, he brought forth heaven and earth and all that is in them from non-being into being and made all the heavenly powers, and then also made man last of all these, and there is nothing either in heaven or on earth or in the nether regions that was not brought forth and came to be from non-being, and only God, the maker and creator of these things, is uncreated, without beginning, and ever-being and being before all things, why do you yourself not worship the creator in silence and fear, as do all the powers of heaven, but leaving aside the examination of yourself, (19) you pry into his incomprehensible nature with a bold and audacious soul? Do you not shudder lest a thunderbolt come down from above and consume you with fire? For if God, the tri-hypostatic monad, was uncreated, without beginning, and ever and before all things, and all things, whether visible or invisible, whether corporeal or incorporeal, whether known by us or unknown, were brought forth by the one godhead of the consubstantial and undivided Trinity, how, tell me, will the things brought forth be able to know the one who brought them forth, and the things that have come to be the one who is ever-being, the created things the uncreated, and the things that later received their existence from him the one without beginning, to know what kind and how great he is and how he was begotten at all? In no way, unless the maker himself, just as he grants breath and life, and soul and mind and reason to each of the things made, so also philanthropically and insofar as it is expedient, will bestow the knowledge of himself.

For otherwise how could you say that the thing made by God could know its own maker? It is impossible for this to happen in any other way, completely impossible for all. But indeed he has also given the measure of knowledge according to the measure of faith to us who believe in him, so that knowledge may confirm faith which is without knowledge, and through knowledge the

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αἴτιος τοῦ Υἱοῦ, οὔτε δεύτερος ὁ Υἱός, κἄν ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός, οὔτε τρίτον τό Πνεῦμα τό Ἅγιον, κἄν ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός ἐκπορεύηται. Εἰ γάρ ἕν ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἡ Τριάς καί τοῦτο καλεῖται κατά τάς ὑποστάσεις Τριάς, ἄρα τό ἕν οὔτε ἑαυτοῦ πρῶτον δύναται εἶναι, οὔτε τῶν σύν αὐτῷ ὑποστάσεων· οὐδέ γάρ προϋπέστη τοῦ ἑτέρου τό ἕτερον, ἵνα τό προϋποστάν πρῶτον τοῦ ἐξ αὐτοῦ λάμψαντος γένηται. Μία γάρ θεότης ἡ μία Τριάς καί τοῦτο διά τά πρόσωπα, ὥσπερ εἴρηται, καί τάς ὑποστάσεις καλεῖται· ἐπεί δέ μερίζεται μέν ἀμερίστως, ἥνωται δέ ἀσυγχύτως, μία καλεῖται Τριάς ὁ Θεός, μή προϋπάρξαντος τούτων ἑνός οὐδαμῶς πως, ἤ τοῦ Πατρός αὐτοῦ τοῦ Υἱοῦ, ἤ τοῦ Υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ τοῦ Πατρός, ἤ τῶν ἀμφοτέρων τοῦ Πνεύματος, ἵνα καί πρῶτον τοῦ ἑτέρου τό ἕτερον γένηται· σύνδρομον γάρ τήν ἄναρχον ἔσχον ἀρχήν καί συναΐδιον.

Τοιγαροῦν εἷς Θεός ἡ Τριάς, ἄφραστος, ἄναρχος, ἄκτιστος, ἀκατάληπτος, ἀμέριστος, μήτε νοηθῆναι παρ᾿ ἡμῶν μήτε ῥηθῆναι δυναμένη. Ἵνα δέ μή τῇ μακρᾷ σιωπῇ (18) λήθην Θεοῦ παντελῆ νοσήσωμεν καί ὡς ἄθεοί τινες ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ διάξωμεν, συνεχωρήθη ἡμῖν κατά τό ἐγχωροῦν τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει λαλεῖν τά περί Θεοῦ καί τῶν θείων καθώς ἀπό τῶν θείων ἀποστόλων καί τῶν θεοπνεύστων πατέρων ἡμῶν ἐδιδάχθημεν, ὡς ἄν συνεχῆ τήν περί αὐτοῦ μνήμην ἀναλαμβάνοντες δοξάζωμεν τήν αὐτοῦ ἀγαθότητα καί τήν περί ἡμᾶς φιλάνθρωπον οἰκονομίαν αὐτοῦ. Ἡμεῖς δέ, οἱ γῆ καί σποδός, ὥσπερ ἑαυτούς οἱονεί ἀγνοήσαντες εἰς ἀμετρίαν ἐπεκτεινόμενοι, τά ἀγγέλοις καί πάσαις ταῖς οὐρανίαις δυνάμεσιν ἀκατάληπτα καί ἀνέκφορα ἐξερευνᾶν καί πολυπραγμονεῖν, νοεῖν τε καί ἐπινοεῖν καί ἀναπλάττειν οὐ φρίττομεν, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς ἄπιστοί τινες καί πάντῃ τῶν τοῦ Χριστοῦ μυστηρίων ἀμύητοι οὕτω καί φρονοῦμεν καί ἀφειδῶς λαλοῦμεν ἀναισχύντῳ ψυχῇ τά περί Θεοῦ.

Εἰπέ οὖν μοι, ὦ οὗτος, ὁ τά τῆς θείας φύσεως μή φειδόμενος ἐρευνᾶν· πιστεύεις ὅτι ἐστί Θεός τρισυπόστατος, ἄναρχος, ἄκτιστος, ἀκατάληπτος, ἀνεξιχνίαστος, ἀόρατος, μήτε νῷ καταληπτός, μήτε λόγῳ ῥητός, καί ὅτι ἦν ἀεί ὁ αὐτός, μήτε ἀρχήν ἡμερῶν, μήτε χρόνων ἤ αἰώνων ποτέ ἐσχηκώς, ἀλλά ἀεί ὤν; Ναί, φησίν. Εἰ οὖν τοῦτο πιστεύεις ὅτι ἦν, ὥσπερ καί ἦν, μόνος Θεός ἡ Ἁγία Τριάς, ὅτε δέ ἠβουλήθη, τόν οὐρανόν καί τήν γῆν καί πάντα τά ἐν αὐτοῖς ἐκ τοῦ μή ὄντος εἰς τό εἶναι παρήγαγε καί τάς οὐρανίους πάσας δυνάμεις ἐποίησεν, εἶτα καί τόν ἄνθρωπον τούτων ἁπάντων ἐποίησεν ἔσχατον, καί οὐδέν ἐστιν ἤ τῶν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ ἤ τῶν ἐπί τῆς γῆς ἤ τῶν ἐν τοῖς καταχθονίοις ὅ μή παρήχθη καί γέγονεν ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων, μόνος δέ ὁ τούτων ποιητής καί κτίστης Θεός ἄκτιστος, ἄναρχος, καί ἀεί ὤν καί πρό πάντων ὤν, τί καί αὐτός οὐ σιωπῇ καί φόβῳ τόν δημιουργόν προσκυνεῖς, καθά πᾶσαι τῶν οὐρανῶν αἱ δυνάμεις, ἀλλά τό ἑαυτόν ἀφείς ἐπισκέπτεσθαι, (19) τήν ἀκατάληπτον αὐτοῦ φύσιν τολμηρᾷ καί αὐθάδει περιεργάζῃ ψυχῇ; Οὐ φρίττεις μή που σκηπτός ἄνωθεν κατελθών παρανάλωμά σε ποιήσει πυρός; Εἰ γάρ ἄκτιστος, ἄναρχος, καί ἀεί καί πρό πάντων ἦν ἡ τρισυπόστατος μονάς ὁ Θεός, πάντα δέ, εἴτε ὁρατά, εἴτε ἀόρατα, εἴτε ἐνσώματα, εἴτε ἀσώματα, εἴτε γινωσκόμενα παρ᾿ ἡμῶν, εἴτε ἀγνοούμενα, διά τῆς ὁμοουσίου καί ἀδιαιρέτου Τριάδος τῆς μιᾶς παρήχθη θεότητος, πῶ, εἰπέ, τά παραχθέντα τόν παραγαγόντα καί τά γεγονότα τόν ἀεί ὄντα, τά κτιστά τόν ἄκτιστον, καί τόν ἄναρχον τά ὕστερον παρ᾿ ἐκείνου λαβόντα τήν ὕπαρξιν, ἐπιγνῶναι τό οἷος καί ὅσος καί ὅπως ἐγεννήθη ὅλως δυνήσονται; Οὐδαμῶς, εἰ μή ὅσον πάντως ὁ ποιητής αὐτός τῶν ποιηθέντων ἑκάστῳ, ὥσπερ δή πνοήν καί ζωήν, ψυχήν τε καί νοῦν καί λόγον χαρίζεται, οὕτω καί τήν περί αὐτοῦ γνῶσιν φιλανθρώπως καί καθ᾿ ὅσον συμφέρει δωρήσεται.

Ἄλλως δέ πῶς εἴποις ἄρα τό ποιηθέν ἐκ Θεοῦ τόν ἑαυτοῦ ποιητήν ἐπιγνῶναι; Ἀμήχανον ἑτέρως τοῦτο γενέσθαι πᾶσι πάντῃ ἀδύνατον. Ἀλλά γάρ καί τό μέτρον τῆς γνώσεως κατά τό μέτρον τῆς πίστεως ἡμῖν τοῖς πιστεύουσιν εἰς αὐτόν δέδωκεν, ὡς ἄν ἡ γνῶσις τήν δίχα γνώσεως πίστιν ἐπιβεβαιώσῃ καί βεβαιωθῇ διά τῆς γνώσεως ὁ