has inclined towards the race and has all but already leaned out of the gates and awaits the signal of the starter; and for you who wish to signal the question, he is ready to set out and to cast down unbelief and to shut up the God-fighting tongues and to distinguish what must be inquired about divine things, and what must be believed, and to be proclaimed victor by the law of the race. How then, he says, is the Word everywhere in substance and how in his own temple? For if he is there as in all things, the temple will have no advantage over all things. And where shall we place "In whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily"? But if one should grant that he is more in the temple, he is not present to all things in substance, which is proper to God. To say "how" concerning God is a clear proof of unbelief. For how is he the creator of heaven, how of earth and sea, and of air and plants and all living things, and indeed of you yourself, who inquires about everything concerning God with precision? But you will surely say that by an abundance of power he produced all things. Was then the power of God present to the things that came into being accidentally or substantially? If then accidentally, it was present as they were existing, and before they came into being, since what is accidental is not by nature of itself, but exists in some pre-existing subjects. But if this is ridiculous, it remains that the power is present to all things substantially. Therefore, since the power was present substantially to all things that came into being, did the so-called temple have nothing more than they? This argument is a difficulty, and that one is a difficulty, and faith is the solution of both. You have seen how the argument, having set out, has cast down unbelief; behold the God-fighting tongues being shut up. For tell us, you who pretend to profess Christianity, who both inquire into and propose such things for the abolition of the two natures, who treat of mixture and confusion and the change from body into Godhead and such like difficulties, who at one time say that the Word became flesh, at another that the flesh was substantiated into the Word, and through such perversions of your mind are shown to think nothing at all; tell us, then, how the Word, having become flesh, did not leave the heavens. You will surely say that remaining God he became so. Tell us again, then, how, while remaining, he became. For if he remained what he was, how did he become what he was not? But if he became what he was not, how did he remain what he was? You are at a loss for the solution; be at a loss also for the manner of the union. But you believe that while remaining he became; believe also that the Word is present everywhere in substance and exists in his own temple in a special manner. Let us ask again, how after the union the body was deified. Was it by changing into the substance of Godhead, or did the body remain the body of a man, but through the union of the Word it remained incorruptible and immortal? But if the latter, the body remains a body, if indeed God is not a body, but it has partaken of divine dignity, not nature, by the good pleasure of the Word. But if the Word through the union

δὲ νένευκεν πρὸς τὸν δρόμον καὶ τῶν θυρῶν ὅσον οὐκ ἤδη προέκυψεν καὶ τοῦ σημαντῆρος ἀναμένει τὸ σύνθημα· σοί τε βουλομένῳ τὸ ζήτημα σημᾶναι ἕτοιμος παρορμῆσαι καὶ κατα βαλεῖν τὴν ἀπιστίαν καὶ περικλεῖσαι τὰς θεομάχους γλώσσας καὶ διαστεῖλαι, τί μὲν δεῖ περὶ τῶν θείων ζητεῖν, τί δὲ πι στεύειν, καὶ τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ δρόμου νικητὴς ἀναῤῥηθῆναι. Πῶς οὖν, φησίν, ὁ λόγος πανταχοῦ κατ' οὐσίαν ἐστὶν καὶ πῶς ἐν τῷ οἰκείῳ ναῷ; Eἰ γὰρ ὡς ἐν ἅπασιν κἀκεῖ, οὐδὲν πλέον ὁ ναὸς τῶν πάντων ἕξει. Καὶ ποῦ θήσομεν τὸ Ἐν ᾧ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος σωματικῶς; Eἰ δὲ ἐν τῷ ναῷ δοίη τις πλέον εἶναι, οὐ τοῖς πᾶσιν κατ' οὐσίαν πάρεστιν, ὅπερ ἴδιον θεοῦ. Σαφὴς ἔλεγχος ἀπιστίας τὸ πῶς ἐπὶ θεοῦ λέγειν. Πῶς γὰρ οὐρανοῦ δημιουργός, πῶς γῆς καὶ θαλάσσης, ἀέρος τε καὶ φυτῶν καὶ τῶν ζώων ἁπάντων καὶ σοῦ γε αὐτοῦ, τοῦ πάντα μετὰ ἀκριβείας περὶ θεοῦ ζητοῦντος; Ἀλλὰ πάντως ἐρεῖς ὅτι δυνάμεως περιουσίᾳ πάντα παρήγαγεν. Ἀρ' οὖν ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ δύναμις τοῖς γινομένοις κατὰ συμβεβηκὸς ἢ κατ' οὐσίαν παρῆν; Eἰ μὲν οὖν κατὰ συμβεβηκός, ὡς οὖσίν γε, καὶ πρὸ τοῦ γενέσθαι, ἐπείπερ τὸ συμβεβηκὸς οὐ καθ' αὑτὸ πέ φυκεν, ἀλλ' ἔν τισιν προϋποκειμένοις ὑπάρχει. Eἰ δὲ γελοῖον τοῦτο, λείπεται κατ' οὐσίαν τὴν δύναμιν παρεῖναι πᾶσιν. Ἀρ' οὖν, ἐπειδὴ πᾶσιν κατ' οὐσίαν ἡ δύναμις τοῖς γινομέ νοις παρῆν, οὐδὲν πλέον αὐτῶν εἶχεν ὁ κεκλημένος ναός; Ἄπορος οὗτος ὁ λόγος, ἄπορος κἀκεῖνος, καὶ πίστις ἀμ φοτέρων ἡ λύσις. Eἶδες πῶς ὁρμήσας ὁ λόγος κατέβαλεν τὴν ἀπιστίαν· βλέπε περικλειομένας τὰς θεομάχους γλώσσας. Eἴπατε γὰρ ἡμῖν οἱ τὸν χριστιανισμὸν πρεσβεύειν σχηματιζόμενοι, οἱ ἐπ' ἀναιρέσει τῶν δύο φύσεων τὰ τοιαῦτα καὶ ζητοῦντες καὶ προϊσχόμενοι, οἱ τὰ τῆς κράσεως καὶ συγ χύσεως καὶ τῆς ἀπὸ σώματος εἰς θεότητα μεταβολῆς καὶ τὰς τοιαύτας ἐπαπορήσεις πραγματευόμενοι, οἱ ποτὲ μὲν σάρκα τὸν λόγον γεγενῆσθαι λέγοντες, ποτὲ δὲ τὴν σάρκα εἰς λόγον οὐσιωθῆναι, καὶ διὰ τὰς τοιαύτας τοῦ νοὸς ὑμῶν παρατροπὰς μηδὲ ὁτιοῦν φρονεῖτε δῆλοι καθιστάμενοι· λέγετε τοίνυν ἡμῖν, πῶς ὁ λόγος σὰρξ γενόμενος τοὺς οὐρανοὺς οὐ κατέλιπεν. Πάντως ἐρεῖτε, ὅτι μείνας θεὸς οὕτως ἐγένετο. Πάλιν οὖν ἡμῖν εἴπατε, πῶς μείνας ἐγένετο. Eἰ γὰρ ἔμεινεν ὃ ἦν, πῶς γέγονεν ὃ οὐκ ἦν; Eἰ δὲ γέγονεν ὃ οὐκ ἦν, πῶς ἔμεινεν ὅπερ ἦν; Ἀπορεῖς τὴν ἐπίλυσιν· ἀπόρει καὶ τῆς ἑνώσεως τὸν τρόπον. Ἀλλὰ πιστεύεις ὅτι μείνας ἐγένετο· πίστευε καὶ παρεῖναι πανταχοῦ κατ' οὐσίαν τὸν λόγον καὶ κατ' ἐξαί ρετον λόγον ὑπάρχειν ἐν τῷ οἰκείῳ ναῷ. Πάλιν ἐρωτή σωμεν, πῶς μετὰ τὴν ἕνωσιν ἀπεθεώθη τὸ σῶμα. Ἀρ' εἰς θεότητος οὐσίαν μεταπεσόν, ἢ ἔμεινεν μὲν ἀνθρώπου σῶμα τὸ σῶμα, ἄφθαρτον δὲ καὶ ἀθάνατον διὰ τὴν ἕνωσιν τοῦ λόγου διέμεινεν; Ἀλλ' εἰ μὲν τοῦτο, μένει μὲν σῶμα τὸ σῶμα, εἴπερ οὐ σῶμα θεός, μετείληφεν δὲ θείας ἀξίας, οὐ φύσεως, εὐδοκίᾳ τοῦ λόγου. Eἰ δὲ ὁ λόγος διὰ τὴν ἕνωσιν