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grants mind and reason, so also he will lovingly bestow the knowledge of him, as far as is expedient.

Otherwise, how could you say that the one made by God could know his own maker? It is impossible for this to happen otherwise, completely impossible for all. But indeed, he has given the measure of knowledge according to the measure of faith to us who believe in him, so that knowledge might confirm the faith that is without knowledge, and that he who has been instructed in the word and has believed that God exists, in whom he has believed through the word of teaching, might be confirmed through knowledge. The faithful, therefore, receive this through various and manifold signs, through riddles, through mirrors, through mystical and ineffable energies, through divine revelations, through faint illuminations, through the contemplation of the principles of creation, and many other ways, by which the faith of such ones increases daily and ascends to the love of God. Not only this; but God also fully assures them, just as the apostles, through the sending and presence of the Holy Spirit; (20) and they are more perfectly enlightened and taught through the light, that God is ineffable and inexpressible, uncreated and eternal and everlasting and incomprehensible. For all knowledge and full knowledge and every word of wisdom and word of more mystical knowledge, and in addition the working of miracles and the grace of prophecy and kinds of tongues and the interpretation of tongues, and helping and governing cities and people, and the full knowledge of the good things to come, and the attainment of the kingdom of heaven, and adoption as sons, and the very putting on of Christ and the knowing of the mysteries of Christ and the knowledge of the mystery of his economy for us, and, in a word, all things which the unbelievers do not know, but which we, who have been deemed worthy to be believers, are able to know and to think and to say, are taught through the Spirit alone.

From these and similar things, therefore, we are fully assured and confirmed that he is the God who made all things, who also brought us forth, taking dust from the earth, who bestowed upon us mind and reason and a rational soul, who made us in his image and likeness and drove away the darkness of our ignorance; and it is he who deemed us worthy that things beyond us should be somehow faintly shown to us, as in a shadow, from things within our experience, from which we have also learned, through which we also see, from which we also believe, that just as he brought forth at the same time our mind and soul and our own indwelling reason in the fashioning of our body, for to say that "God formed man, taking dust from the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life and he became for him a living soul" shows that our mind and reason co-existed with the soul, (21) none of them pre-existing or pre-subsisting, since the three are one together and were given to us in one breath of life, just as, therefore, among these one did not pre-exist nor did one pre-subsist before the other, being of one substance and nature, so neither in the holy and consubstantial and co-equal Trinity did one pre-exist the other. For God, the maker of the image, being three-hypostases, never had one of the three pre-subsisting, but the three are at once one, God, and the one is likewise always three.

Therefore, confessing this we believe and we protest to all others for whom it is not bold to speak and inquire about God, that God is three-hypostases, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity, into whom we have been baptized; which has been confirmed to us from the energies and gifts of the Spirit that have come into us and from the sacred ordinances and gospels themselves. But how or when or what kind and sort of Trinity, she who is the creator of all things, we who were created do not know. If we do not know, as indeed we do not, how many thunderbolts are we worthy of, for speaking about things we do not know? For that which is not anything of all the things that have come to be, neither of the visible things, nor of the invisible things, how

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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 τόν λόγον κατηχηθείς καί πιστεύσας ὅτι ἐστί Θεός, εἰς ὅν διά τοῦ λόγου τῆς διδασκαλίας ἐπίστευσεν. Ταύτην οὖν διά ποικίλων καί πολυτρόπων σημείων λαμβάνουσιν οἱ πιστοί, δι᾿ αἰνιγμάτων, δι᾿ ἐσόπτρων, διά μυστικῶν καί ἀνεκφράστων ἐνεργειῶν, διά θείων ἀποκαλύψεων, δι᾿ ἐλλάμψεων ἀμυδρῶν, διά θεωρίας τῶν λόγων τῆς κτίσεως, καί ἑτέρων πολλῶν ἐξ ὧν καθ᾿ ἑκάστην αὔξει ἡ πίστις τῶν τοιούτων καί εἰς ἀγάπην Θεοῦ ἄνεισιν. Οὐ μόνον δέ· ἀλλά γάρ καί πληροφορεῖ αὐτούς ὁ Θεός, ὥσπερ τούς ἀποστόλους, διά τῆς ἀποστολῆς καί παρουσίας τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος· (20) καί φωτίζονται τελεώτερον καί διδάσκονται διά τοῦ φωτός, ὡς ἄρρητος καί ἀνέκφραστος, ἄκτιστος καί αἰώνιος καί ἀΐδιος καί ἀκατάληπτός ἐστιν ὁ Θεός. Πᾶσαν γάρ γνῶσιν καί ἐπίγνωσιν καί πάντα λόγον σοφίας καί λόγον γνώσεως μυστικωτέρας, πρός δέ καί θαυμάτων ἐνέργειαν καί προφητείας χάριν καί γένη γλωσσῶν καί ἑρμηνείαν γλωσσῶν, ἀντιλήψεις τε καί κυβερνήσεις πόλεων καί λαοῦ, καί ἐπίγνωσιν τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν, καί τῆς βασιλείας τῶν οὐρανῶν ἐπίτευξιν, υἱοθεσίαν τε καί αὐτό τό ἐνδεδύσθαι Χριστόν καί τό εἰδέναι τά μυστήρια Χριστοῦ καί τό γνῶναι τό περί ἡμᾶς τῆς οἰκονομίας αὐτοῦ μυστήριον καί ἁπαξαπλῶς πάντα, ὅσα μέν οἱ ἄπιστοι ἀγνοοῦσιν, ἡμεῖς δέ, οἱ καταξιωθέντες εἶναι πιστοί, εἰδέναι καί φρονεῖν καί λέγειν δυνάμεθα, διά μόνου τοῦ Πνεύματος ἐκδιδάσκονται.

Ἐκ τούτων οὖν καί τῶν τοιούτων πληροφορούμεθα καί βεβαιούμεθα ὅτι αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ τά πάντα ποιήσας Θεός, ὁ καί παραγαγών ἡμᾶς χοῦν λαβών ἀπό τῆς γῆς, ὁ νοῦν καί λόγον καί ψυχήν νοεράν ἡμῖν χαρισάμενος, ὁ κατ᾿ εἰκόνα καί καθ᾿ ὁμοίωσιν αὐτοῦ ποιήσας ἡμᾶς καί τό σκότος τῆς ἀγνωσίας ἀποδιώξας ἡμῶν· καί αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ τά ὑπέρ ἡμᾶς ἐκ τῶν καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ἀμυδρῶς πως καταξιώσας ὡς ἐν σκιᾷ ὑποδεῖξαι ἡμῖν ἀφ᾿ ὧν καί ἐμάθομεν, δι᾿ ὧν καί ὁρῶμεν, παρ᾿ ὧν καί πιστεύομεν, ὅτι ὥσπερ τόν νοῦν τόν ἡμέτερον καί τήν ψυχήν καί αὐτόν ἡμῶν τόν ἐνδιάθετον λόγον ἐν τῇ πλάσει τοῦ σώματος ἡμῶν ἅμα παρήγαγε, τό γάρ εἰπεῖν ὅτι "ἔπλασεν ὁ Θεός τόν ἄνθρωπον, χοῦν λαβών ἀπό τῆς γῆς, καί ἐνεφύσησεν εἰς τό πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ πνεῦμα ζωῆς καί ἐγένετο αὐτῷ εἰς ψυχήν ζῶσαν" δείκνυσιν ὅτι συνυπῆρχε τῇ ψυχῇ ὁ νοῦς ἡμῶν καί ὁ λόγος, (21)μή προϋπάρξαντος ἑνός ἐξ αὐτῶν μηδέ προϋποστάντος, ὡς ἕν ὄντων ἅμα τῶν τριῶν καί εἰς ἕν πνεῦμα ζωῆς δοθέντων ἡμῖν ὥσπερ οὖν ἐν τούτοις οὐ προϋπῆρξεν ἕν οὐδέ προϋπέστη τοῦ ἑτέρου τό ἕτερον, μιᾶς οὐσίας ὄντων καί φύσεως, οὕτως οὐδέ ἐν τῇ ἁγίᾳ καί ὁμοουσίῳ καί ὁμοτίμῳ Τριάδι προϋπῆρξε τοῦ ἑτέρου τό ἕτερον. Οὐδέ γάρ ἔσχε ποτέ ὁ ποιητής τῆς εἰκόνος Θεός, τρισυπόστατος ὤν, προϋποστάν τῶν τριῶν ἕν, ἀλλ᾿ ἅμα τά τρία ἕν, ὁ Θεός, καί τό ἕν ὡσαύτως ἀεί τρία.

Τοῦτο τοιγαροῦν ὁμολογοῦντες πιστεύομεν και πᾶσιν ἄλλοις οἷς οὐ τολμηρόν τά περί Θεοῦ λέγειν καί ἐρευνᾶν διαμαρτυρόμεθα ὅτι ἐστί Θεός τρισυπόστατος, Πατήρ, Υἱός καί Ἅγιον Πνεῦμα, ἡ Ἁγία Τριάς, εἰς ἥν βεβαπτίσμεθα· ὅ ἐκ τῶν εἰς ἡμᾶς γεγενημένων ἐνεργειῶν καί χαρισμάτων τοῦ Πνεύματος καί ἐξ αὐτῶν τῶν ἱερῶν θεσμῶν τε καί εὐαγγελίων ἐβεβαιώθημεν. Πῶς δέ Τριάς ἤ πότε ἤ ὁποία καί ποδαπή, ἡ οὖσα κτίστις τῶν ὅλων, οἱ κτισθέντες οὐκ ἴσμεν ἡμεῖς. Εἰ δέ οὐκ ἴσμεν, ὥσπερ οὐδέ οἴδαμεν, πόσων ἐσμέν σκηπτῶν ἄξιοι, περί ὧν οὐκ οἴδαμεν λέγοντες; Τό γάρ μή ὅν τῶν γεγενημένων ἁπάντων μηδέν, μήτε τῶν ὁρωμένων, μήτε τῶν ἀοράτων, πῶς