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the Creator himself, just as He bestows upon each of His creatures breath and life, soul and mind and reason, so also will He philanthropically grant the knowledge of Himself, and insofar as it is expedient.

For otherwise how could you say that the creature of God could come to know its own Creator? It is impossible for this to happen in any other way, altogether 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 so 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, may be confirmed through knowledge. The faithful, therefore, receive this through various and manifold signs, through riddles, through mirrors, through mystical and inexpressible energies, through divine revelations, through faint illuminations, through the contemplation of the principles of creation, and many other ways from which the faith of such people grows daily and ascends to the love of God. Not only that; but indeed God also gives them full assurance, just as to 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 recognition and every word of wisdom and word of more mystical knowledge, and furthermore the working of miracles and the grace of prophecy and kinds of tongues and the interpretation of tongues, helps and administrations of cities and people, and the recognition of future goods, and the attainment of the kingdom of heaven, and adoption as sons and the very act of putting on Christ and of knowing the mysteries of Christ and of understanding the mystery of his economy concerning us and, in short, everything that the unbelievers are ignorant of, but we, who have been deemed worthy to be believers, are able to know and to think and to say, are taught by 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 He it is who deemed it worthy to show us, from things that concern us, in a faint way as in a shadow, things that are above us, from which we have also learned, through which we also see, from which we also believe, that just as He brought forth our mind and our soul and our own immanent reason together in the formation of our body—for the saying that "God formed man, taking dust from the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and he became a living soul" shows that our mind and reason co-existed with the soul, (21) with none of them pre-existing or pre-subsisting, since the three are one together and were given to us as one breath of life—just as, therefore, in these things 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-honored Trinity did one pre-exist before the other. For God, the creator of the image, being of three hypostases, never had one of the three pre-subsisting, but the three are together one, God, and the one is likewise ever three.

Confessing this, therefore, we believe and we testify to all others for whom it is not presumptuous to speak and inquire about God that there is a God of three hypostases, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity, into which we have been baptized; which has been confirmed to us from the energies and gifts of the Spirit that have come to be in us and from the sacred ordinances and gospels themselves. But how she is Trinity, or when, or of what kind and quality, who is the creator of all things, we who are created do not know. If we do not know, just as we indeed do not know, of how many thunderbolts are we worthy, speaking about things we do not know? For that which is not

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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 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