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...with matter and its qualities, so that all things are to Him, and instead of all things, the impulse of His omnipotent will: matter, instrument, place, time, substance, quality, 69 everything whatever is conceived in creation. For as soon as He willed what ought to be, the power that brings beings into existence ran with His thought, making His will a deed. For thus does the great Moses philosophize concerning the divine power in his cosmogony, ascribing the creation of each of the things that appear in creation to commanding words. For God said, he says, "Let there be light," and there was light; and concerning the other things likewise he mentioned neither matter nor the service of an instrument. Therefore, in this part, the argument of Eunomius is not to be rejected. For God, when creating all things that had their generation through creation, needed neither any underlying matter nor instruments for their construction; for the power and wisdom of God are in no need of another's help. 70 But Christ is the power and wisdom of God, through whom all things were made and without whom nothing that exists was made, as John testifies. If, then, all things were made through Him, both visible and invisible, and His will alone is sufficient for the subsistence of beings (for His will is power), Eunomius has spoken our argument with a weakened expression. For He who upholds all things by the word of His power, of what instrument and of what matter would He have need in bringing about the subsistence of beings through His all-powerful word? 71 But if he constructs this argument concerning the Son, which we have believed concerning the Only-begotten with respect to creation—that the Father created him in a like manner as the creation was made by the Son—we take up again now the argument mentioned before, that such a conception is a denial of the divinity of the Only-begotten. For we have learned from the great voice of Paul that it is characteristic of idolaters to worship and serve the creation rather than the Creator, and from David saying, "There shall be no new god among you, nor shall you worship a foreign god," we use this rule and standard for the knowledge of the one who is worshipped, so as to be persuaded that this is truly 72 God which is neither new nor foreign. Since, therefore, we have been taught to believe that the only-begotten God is God, we confess that He is neither new nor foreign through our belief that He is God. If, then, He is God, He is not new; and if not new, He is certainly eternal. Therefore, the eternal is neither new nor is He who is from the Father and in the bosom of the Father and has the Father in Himself foreign to the true divinity. So that he who separates the Son from the nature of the Father either rejects worship altogether, so as not to worship a foreign god, or he worships an idol, having set up a creature and not God for his worship and given the name of Christ to the idol.

73 That he looks to this meaning in his conception of the Only-begotten would become clearer through what he recounts concerning the Only-begotten himself, in this manner: We believe also in the Son of God, the only-begotten God, firstborn of all creation, true Son, not unbegotten, truly begotten before the ages, not named Son without generation before He existed, having come into being before all creation, not uncreated. I think the mere reading of what has been set forth, even without examination by us, is sufficient to reveal the impiety of the dogma 74. For after calling Him firstborn, lest he create any doubt in his hearers that He is created, he immediately added "not uncreated," lest, when the meaning of "Son" was understood as it naturally is, some pious thought concerning Him might arise in those who heard; for this reason, after first confessing "Son of God" and "only-begotten God," he immediately, by what follows, diverts the mind of his hearers from the pious conception to the heretical meaning. For one who hears "Son of God" and "only-begotten God" necessarily toward the higher significations

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μενος μετὰ τῆς ὕλης καὶ τὰς ποιότητας, ὡς εἶναι αὐτῷ τὰ πάντα καὶ ἀντὶ πάντων τὴν ὁρμὴν τοῦ παντοδυνάμου θελήματος, ὕλην ὄργανον τόπον χρόνον οὐσίαν ποιότητα, 69 πᾶν ὅτιπέρ ἐστιν ἐν τῇ κτίσει νοούμενον. ὁμοῦ τε γὰρ ἠθέλησε τὸ δέον γενέσθαι καὶ συνέδραμεν ἡ ἐξεργαστικὴ τῶν ὄντων δύναμις τῷ νοήματι, ἔργον ποιοῦσα τὸ θέλημα. οὕτω γὰρ φιλοσοφεῖ περὶ τῆς θείας δυνάμεως ὁ πολὺς Μωϋσῆς ἐν τῇ κοσμογενείᾳ, προστακτικαῖς φωναῖς ἀνατι θεὶς ἑκάστου τῶν ἐν τῇ κτίσει φαινομένων τὴν ποίησιν. Εἶπε γάρ, φησίν, ὁ θεὸς ὅτι γενηθήτω φῶς, καὶ ἐγένετο φῶς· καὶ περὶ τῶν ἄλλων ὡσαύτως οὔτε ὕλης ἐμνήσθη οὔτε ὀργανικῆς ὑπουργίας. οὐκοῦν οὐκ ἀπόβλητος ἐν τῷ μέρει τούτῳ τοῦ Εὐνομίου ὁ λόγος. ὁ γὰρ θεὸς κτίζων, ὅσα διὰ κτίσεως ἔσχε τὴν γένεσιν, οὔτε τινὸς ὑποκειμένης ὕλης οὔτε ὀργάνων εἰς τὴν κατασκευὴν ἐδεήθη· ἀπροσδεὴς γὰρ ἀλλοτρίας βοηθείας ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ δύναμίς τε καὶ σοφία. 70 Χριστὸς δέ ἐστιν ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ δύναμις καὶ σοφία, δι' οὗ τὰ πάντα ἐγένετο καὶ οὗ χωρὶς τῶν ὄντων ἔστιν οὐδέν, καθὼς Ἰωάννης μαρτύρεται. εἰ οὖν πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, ὁρατά τε καὶ ἀόρατα, ἐξαρκεῖ δὲ πρὸς τὴν τῶν ὄντων ὑπό στασιν ἡ βούλησις μόνη (δύναμις γάρ ἐστιν ἡ βούλησις), τὸν ἡμέτερον εἶπε λόγον ἐν ἀτονούσῃ τῇ λέξει Εὐνόμιος. ὁ γὰρ τὰ σύμπαντα φέρων τῷ ῥήματι τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ τίνος ἂν ὀργάνου καὶ ποίας ὕλης δεηθείη ἐν τῷ φέρειν διὰ τοῦ παντοδυνάμου ῥήματος τὴν τῶν ὄντων ὑπόστασιν; 71 εἰ δὲ ὅπερ ἐπὶ τῆς κτίσεως περὶ τοῦ μονογενοῦς πεπιστεύκαμεν, τοῦτο ἐπὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ κατασκευάζει, ὡς ὁμοιοτρόπως αὐτὸν τοῦ πατρὸς κτίσαντος, καθάπερ παρὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ ἡ κτίσις ἐγένετο, τὸν ἐν τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν ῥηθέντα λόγον καὶ νῦν πάλιν ἀναλαμβάνομεν, ὅτι ἡ τοιαύτη ὑπόληψις ἄρνησις τῆς τοῦ μονογενοῦς ἐστι θεότητος. ἡμεῖς γὰρ ἴδιον εἶναι τῶν εἰδωλολατρούντων παρὰ τῆς μεγάλης τοῦ Παύλου φω νῆς μεμαθήκαμεν τὸ σέβεσθαι καὶ λατρεύειν τῇ κτίσει παρὰ τὸν κτίσαντα, καὶ τοῦ ∆αβὶδ εἰπόντος ὅτι Οὐκ ἔσται ἐν σοὶ θεὸς πρόσφατος, οὐδὲ προσκυνήσεις θεῷ ἀλλοτρίῳ, κανόνι τούτῳ καὶ γνώμονι χρώμεθα πρὸς τὴν τοῦ προσ κυνουμένου ἐπίγνωσιν, ὥστε πεπεῖσθαι τοῦτο ἀληθῶς εἶναι 72 θεὸν ὃ μήτε πρόσφατόν ἐστι μήτε ἀλλότριον. ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν θεὸν πιστεύειν εἶναι τὸν μονογενῆ θεὸν ἐδιδάχθημεν, τὸ μήτε πρόσφατον αὐτὸν εἶναι μήτε ἀλλότριον συνομολογοῦμεν διὰ τοῦ πιστεύειν ὅτι ἐστὶ θεός. εἰ οὖν θεός ἐστι, πρόσ φατος οὐκ ἔστιν· εἰ δὲ μὴ πρόσφατος, ἀΐδιος πάντως ἐστίν. οὔτε οὖν πρόσφατός ἐστιν ὁ ἀΐδιος οὔτε ἀλλότριος τῆς ἀληθινῆς θεότητος ὁ ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς ὢν καὶ ἐν τοῖς κόλποις ὢν τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὸν πατέρα ἔχων. ὥστε ὁ ἀποσχίζων τῆς τοῦ πατρὸς φύσεως τὸν υἱὸν ἢ καθόλου ἀθετεῖ τὴν προσκύνησιν, ἵνα μὴ ἀλλοτρίῳ θεῷ προσκυνήσῃ, ἢ εἴδωλον σέβεται, κτίσμα καὶ οὐ θεὸν τῆς προσκυνήσεως αὐτοῦ προστησάμενος καὶ Χριστὸν ὄνομα τῷ εἰδώλῳ θέμενος.

73 Ὅτι δὲ πρὸς ταύτην βλέπει τὴν διάνοιαν ἐν τῇ περὶ τοῦ μονογενοῦς ὑπολήψει, φανερώτερον ἂν γένοιτο δι' ὧν τὰ περὶ αὐτοῦ τοῦ μονογενοῦς διεξέρχεται, τοῦτον ἔχοντα τὸν τρόπον· πιστεύομεν καὶ εἰς τὸν τοῦ θεοῦ υἱόν, τὸν μονογενῆ θεόν, πρωτότοκον πάσης κτίσεως, υἱὸν ἀληθινόν, οὐκ ἀγέννητον, ἀλη θῶς γεννηθέντα πρὸ αἰώνων, οὐκ ἄνευ τῆς πρὸ τοῦ εἶναι γεννήσεως ὀνομαζόμενον υἱόν, πρὸ πάσης κτίσεως γενόμενον, οὐκ ἄκτιστον. ἀρκεῖν ἡγοῦμαι μόνην τὴν ἀνάγνωσιν τῶν ἐκτεθέντων καὶ δίχα τῆς παρ' ἡμῶν ἐξετάσεως φανερῶσαι τοῦ δόγματος 74 τὴν ἀσέβειαν. πρωτότοκον γὰρ εἰπὼν αὐτόν, ἵνα μή τινα τοῖς ἀκούουσιν ἀμφιβολίαν ἐμποιήσῃ τοῦ μὴ εἶναι αὐτὸν κτιστόν, ἐπήγαγεν εὐθὺς τὸ οὐκ ἄκτιστον, ἵνα μή ποτε τῆς τοῦ υἱοῦ σημασίας ὡς πέφυκε νοηθείσης εὐσεβές τι περὶ αὐτοῦ νόημα τοῖς ἀκηκοόσιν ἐγγένηται· τούτου χάριν ὁμολογήσας ἐν πρώτοις υἱὸν θεοῦ καὶ μονογενῆ θεὸν εὐθὺς διὰ τῶν ἐπιφερομένων παρατρέπει τῶν ἀκουόντων τὴν γνώ μην πρὸς τὴν αἱρετικὴν διάνοιαν ἀπὸ τῆς εὐσεβοῦς ὑπολή ψεως. ὁ γὰρ ἀκούσας υἱὸν θεοῦ καὶ μονογενῆ θεὸν ἀναγ καίως πρὸς τὰς ὑψηλοτέρας ἐμφάσεις