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of the hypostasis are divided without division. We say that each of the three has a perfect hypostasis, so that we may not know one perfect composite nature from three imperfect ones, but one simple substance in three perfect hypostases, super-perfect and pre-perfect; for everything composed of imperfect things is necessarily composite, but from perfect hypostases, it is impossible for a composition to arise. Therefore we do not say the form is from hypostases, but in hypostases. We spoke of imperfect things as those not preserving the form of the thing completed from them. For a stone and wood and iron, each in itself is perfect according to its own nature, but in relation to the house completed from them, each of them is imperfect; for neither is each of them a house in itself. We say, then, that the hypostases are perfect, so that we may not conceive of composition in the divine nature; “for composition is the beginning of division.” And again we say the three hypostases are in one another, so that we may not introduce a multitude and crowd of gods. Through the three hypostases we know the non-composite and unconfused, and through the consubstantiality and the being of the hypostases in one another and the identity of the will and of the energy and of the power and of the authority and of the movement, so to speak, we know the indivisible and the fact of being one God. For truly one God is God and His Word and His Spirit. But one must know that it is one thing to be observed in reality and another in reason and thought. In the case of all created things, therefore, the division of the hypostases is observed in reality; for in reality Peter is observed as separated from Paul. But the community and the connection and the oneness are observed in reason and thought. For we understand with the mind that Peter and Paul are of the same nature and have one common nature; for each of them is a rational, mortal animal, and each is flesh animated with a rational and intellectual soul. This common nature, therefore, is observable by reason. For the hypostases are not in one another; but each is private and separate, that is, separated in itself, having very many things that divide it from the other; for they are also distinct in place and differ in time and are divided in judgment and in strength and in form, that is, shape, and in disposition and temperament and in dignity and in pursuit and in all the characteristic properties, and more than all things in that they are not in one another but are separate. Hence they are called two and three men and many. And this can be seen in all of creation. But in the case of the holy and super-essential and transcendent and incomprehensible Trinity, the opposite is true. For there the common and one is observed in reality on account of the co-eternity and the identity of the substance and of the energy and of the will and the harmony of judgment and the identity of authority and of power and of goodness—I did not say similarity, but identity—and the one impulse of movement; for there is one substance, one goodness, one power, one will, one energy, one authority, one and the same, not three similar to each other, but one and the same movement of the three hypostases. "For each of them is united to the other no less than to itself," that is, that in all things the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one, except for the unbegottenness and the begetting and the procession; but what is divided is in thought. For we know one God, but only in the properties of the Fatherhood and of the Sonship and of the Procession, according to the cause and the caused and the perfection of the hypostasis, that is, the mode of existence, do we perceive the difference. For we cannot speak of local distance in the case of the uncircumscribable Godhead as we do in our own case—for the hypostases are in one another, not so as to be confounded, but so as to cleave to one another according to the word of the Lord, who said, “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me”—nor a difference of will or of judgment or of energy or of power or of anything else, things which produce in us a real and complete division. Therefore we do not say three Gods, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, but rather one God, the Holy Trinity, unto one cause of the Son and the Spirit

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ὑποστάσεως ἀδιαιρέτως διαιρούμεναι. Φαμὲν δὲ ἕκαστον τῶν τριῶν τελείαν ἔχειν ὑπόστασιν, ἵνα μὴ ἐκ τριῶν ἀτελῶν μίαν σύνθετον φύσιν τελείαν γνωρίσωμεν, ἀλλ' ἐν τρισὶ τελείαις ὑποστάσεσι μίαν ἁπλῆν οὐσίαν, ὑπερτελῆ καὶ προτέλειον· πᾶν γὰρ ἐξ ἀτελῶν συγκείμενον σύνθετον πάντως ἐστίν, ἐκ δὲ τελείων ὑποστάσεων, ἀδύνατον σύνθεσιν γενέσθαι. Ὅθεν οὐδὲ λέγομεν τὸ εἶδος ἐξ ὑποστάσεων, ἀλλ' ἐν ὑποστάσεσιν. Ἀτελῶν δὲ εἴπομεν τῶν μὴ σῳζόντων τὸ εἶδος τοῦ ἐξ αὐτῶν ἀποτελουμένου πράγματος. Λίθος μὲν γὰρ καὶ ξύλον καὶ σίδηρος, ἕκαστον καθ' ἑαυτὸ τέλειόν ἐστι κατὰ τὴν ἰδίαν φύσιν, πρὸς δὲ τὸ ἐξ αὐτῶν ἀποτελούμενον οἴκημα ἀτελὲς ἕκαστον αὐτῶν ὑπάρχει· οὐδὲ γάρ ἐστιν ἕκαστον αὐτῶν καθ' ἑαυτὸ οἶκος. Τελείας μὲν οὖν τὰς ὑποστάσεις φαμέν, ἵνα μὴ σύνθεσιν ἐπὶ τῆς θείας νοήσωμεν φύσεως· «σύνθεσις γὰρ ἀρχὴ διαστάσεως». Καὶ πάλιν ἐν ἀλλήλαις τὰς τρεῖς ὑποστάσεις λέγομεν, ἵνα μὴ πλῆθος καὶ δῆμον θεῶν εἰσαγάγωμεν. ∆ιὰ μὲν τῶν τριῶν ὑποστάσεων τὸ ἀσύνθετον καὶ ἀσύγχυτον, διὰ δὲ τοῦ ὁμοουσίου καὶ ἐν ἀλλήλαις εἶναι τὰς ὑποστάσεις καὶ τῆς ταυτότητος τοῦ θελήματός τε καὶ τῆς ἐνεργείας καὶ τῆς δυνάμεως καὶ τῆς ἐξουσίας καὶ τῆς κινήσεως, ἵν' οὕτως εἴπω, τὸ ἀδιαίρετον καὶ τὸ εἶναι ἕνα θεὸν γνωρίζομεν. Εἷς γὰρ ὄντως θεὸς ὁ θεὸς καὶ ὁ λόγος καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα αὐτοῦ. Χρὴ δὲ εἰδέναι, ὅτι ἕτερόν ἐστι τὸ πράγματι θεωρεῖσθαι καὶ ἄλλο τὸ λόγῳ καὶ ἐπινοίᾳ. Ἐπὶ μὲν οὖν πάντων τῶν κτισμάτων ἡ μὲν τῶν ὑποστάσεων διαίρεσις πράγματι θεωρεῖται· πράγματι γὰρ ὁ Πέτρος τοῦ Παύλου κεχωρισμένος θεωρεῖται. Ἡ δὲ κοινότης καὶ ἡ συνάφεια καὶ τὸ ἓν λόγῳ καὶ ἐπινοίᾳ θεωρεῖται. Νοοῦμεν γὰρ τῷ νῷ, ὅτι ὁ Πέτρος καὶ ὁ Παῦλος τῆς αὐτῆς εἰσι φύσεως καὶ κοινὴν μίαν ἔχουσι φύσιν· ἕκαστος γὰρ αὐτῶν ζῷόν ἐστι λογικὸν θνητόν, καὶ ἕκαστος σάρξ ἐστιν ἐμψυχωμένη ψυχῇ λογικῇ τε καὶ νοερᾷ. Αὕτη οὖν ἡ κοινὴ φύσις τῷ λόγῳ ἐστὶ θεωρητή. Οὐδὲ γὰρ αἱ ὑποστάσεις ἐν ἀλλήλαις εἰσίν· ἰδίᾳ δὲ ἑκάστη καὶ ἀναμέρος ἤγουν καθ' ἑαυτὴν κεχώρισται πλεῖστα τὰ διαιροῦντα αὐτὴν ἐκ τῆς ἑτέρας ἔχουσα· καὶ γὰρ καὶ τόπῳ διεστήκασι καὶ χρόνῳ διαφέρουσι καὶ γνώμῃ μερίζονται καὶ ἰσχύι καὶ μορφῇ εἴτουν σχήματι καὶ ἕξει καὶ κράσει καὶ ἀξίᾳ καὶ ἐπιτηδεύματι καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς χαρακτηριστικοῖς ἰδιώμασι, πλέον δὲ πάντων τῷ μὴ ἐν ἀλλήλαις ἀλλὰ κεχωρισμένως εἶναι. Ὅθεν καὶ δύο καὶ τρεῖς ἄνθρωποι λέγονται καὶ πολλοί. Τοῦτο δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ πάσης ἔστιν ἰδεῖν τῆς κτίσεως. Ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς ἁγίας καὶ ὑπερουσίου καὶ πάντων ἐπέκεινα καὶ ἀλήπτου τριάδος τὸ ἀνάπαλιν. Ἐκεῖ γὰρ τὸ μὲν κοινὸν καὶ ἓν πράγματι θεωρεῖται διά τε τὸ συναΐδιον καὶ τὸ ταυτὸν τῆς οὐσίας καὶ τῆς ἐνεργείας καὶ τοῦ θελήματος καὶ τὴν τῆς γνώμης σύμπνοιαν τήν τε τῆς ἐξουσίας καὶ τῆς δυνάμεως καὶ τῆς ἀγαθότητος ταυτότητα-οὐκ εἶπον ὁμοιότητα, ἀλλὰ ταυτότητα- καὶ τὸ ἓν ἔξαλμα τῆς κινήσεως· μία γὰρ οὐσία, μία ἀγαθότης, μία δύναμις, μία θέλησις, μία ἐνέργεια, μία ἐξουσία, μία καὶ ἡ αὐτὴ οὐ τρεῖς ὅμοιαι ἀλλή λαις, ἀλλὰ μία καὶ ἡ αὐτὴ κίνησις τῶν τριῶν ὑποστάσεων. «Ἓν γὰρ ἕκαστον αὐτῶν ἔχει πρὸς τὸ ἕτερον οὐχ ἧττον ἢ πρὸς ἑαυτό», τουτέστιν ὅτι κατὰ πάντα ἕν εἰσιν ὁ πατὴρ καὶ ὁ υἱὸς καὶ τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα πλὴν τῆς ἀγεννησίας καὶ τῆς γεννήσεως καὶ τῆς ἐκπορεύσεως· ἐπινοίᾳ δὲ τὸ διῃρημένον. Ἕνα γὰρ θεὸν γινώσκομεν, ἐν μόναις δὲ ταῖς ἰδιότησι τῆς τε πατρότητος καὶ τῆς υἱότητος καὶ τῆς ἐκπορεύσεως κατά τε τὸ αἴτιον καὶ αἰτιατὸν καὶ τὸ τέλειον τῆς ὑποστάσεως ἤτοι τὸν τῆς ὑπάρξεως τρόπον τὴν διαφορὰν ἐννοοῦμεν. Οὔτε γὰρ τοπικὴν διάστασιν ὡς ἐφ' ἡμῶν δυνάμεθα ἐπὶ τῆς ἀπεριγράπτου λέγειν θεότητος-ἐν ἀλλήλαις γὰρ αἱ ὑποστάσεις εἰσίν, οὐχ ὥστε συγχεῖσθαι, ἀλλ' ὥστε ἔχεσθαι κατὰ τὸν τοῦ κυρίου λόγον· «Ἐγὼ ἐν τῷ πατρί, καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἐν ἐμοί», φήσαντος- οὔτε θελήματος διαφορὰν ἢ γνώμης ἢ ἐνεργείας ἢ δυνάμεως ἤ τινος ἑτέρου, ἅτινα τὴν πραγματικὴν καὶ δι' ὅλου ἐν ἡμῖν γεννῶσι διαίρεσιν. ∆ιὸ οὐδὲ τρεῖς θεοὺς λέγομεν τὸν πατέρα καὶ τὸν υἱὸν καὶ τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα, ἕνα δὲ μᾶλλον θεόν, τὴν ἁγίαν τριάδα, εἰς ἓν αἴτιον υἱοῦ καὶ πνεύματος