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that Your Son also may glorify You" and: "I and the Father are one." If, therefore, even after the incarnation of God the Word, the Son and the Father are one, much more so before the incarnation.

And consider with me wisely the power of the words. For He says: "I and the Father are one" and He placed Himself before the Father. What is this? That He might show His equality in honor and glory in all things with the Father, and that neither is the Father first, though He is the cause of the Son, nor is the Son second, though He is from the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit third, though He proceeds from the Father. For if the Trinity is one from the beginning and 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 it is called this because of the persons, as has been said, and the hypostases; and since it is divided indivisibly, and united without confusion, God is called one Trinity, with none of these pre-existing in any way, neither the Father of the Son Himself, nor the Son of the Father Himself, 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 complete forgetfulness of God and live as some 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 calling Him to mind we may glorify His goodness and His loving providence for us. But we, who are earth and ashes, as if ignoring ourselves and stretching to immoderation, do not shudder to search out and meddle with, to conceive and devise and fashion things incomprehensible and ineffable to angels and all the heavenly powers, but as some unbelievers and entirely uninitiated in the mysteries of Christ, so we think and speak lavishly with a shameless soul about the things of God.

Tell me then, you who do not spare to investigate the things of the divine nature: do you believe that God is three-hypostases, without beginning, uncreated, incomprehensible, unsearchable, invisible, neither comprehensible by the mind nor expressible in words, and that He was always the same, having never had a beginning of days, or of times or of ages, but always existing? Yes, he says. If then you believe this, that the Holy Trinity was, as indeed He was, God alone, and when He willed, He brought forth the heaven and the earth and all that is in them from non-being into being, and made all the heavenly powers, and then last of all these He made man, and there is nothing either in heaven or on earth or in the underworld 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 always existing and existing before all things, why do you not also worship the creator in silence and fear, as do all the powers of heaven, but abandoning the examination of yourself, (19) you meddle with His incomprehensible nature with a rash and audacious soul? Do you not shudder lest a thunderbolt from above come down and make you a consumption of fire? For if God, the three-hypostases monad, was uncreated, without beginning, and always 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 consubstantial and undivided Trinity of the one Godhead, how, tell me, will the things brought forth be able to know the one who brought them forth, and the things that came to be the one who always is, the created things the uncreated, and those that later received their existence from him the one without beginning, what kind He is and how great and how He was begotten at all? In no way, except insofar as the maker himself certainly to each of the things made, as indeed breath and life, and soul

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ἵνα καί ὁ Υἱός σου δοξάσῃ σε" καί· "Ἐγώ καί ὁ Πατήρ ἕν ἐσμεν". Εἰ τοίνυν καί μετά τήν σάρκωσιν τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου ἕν ὁ Υἱός καί ὁ Πατήρ εἰσι, πολλῷ μᾶλλον πρό τῆς σαρκώσεως.

Καί σκόπει μοι συνετῶς τῶν ῥημάτων τήν δύναμιν. Λέγει γάρ· "Ἐγώ καί ὁ Πατήρ ἕν ἐσμεν" καί προέταξεν ἑαυτόν τοῦ Πατρός. Τί τοῦτο; Ἵνα δείξῃ τό ἐν πᾶσιν ἰσότιμον καί ὁμόδοξον ἑαυτοῦ μετά τοῦ Πατρός καί ὅτι οὔτε "Πατήρ πρῶτος, κἄν 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