Lord Lord, God God, the unvarying image of essence and of will and of power and of glory. These sayings clearly refute his base opinion concerning the Godhead. For how can the Lord who was begotten and God, as he himself previously stated, be an image of God? For an image of God is one thing, and God is another. So that if he is an image, he is not Lord nor God, but an image of a Lord and a God; but if he is truly Lord and God, then the Lord and God can no longer be an image of a Lord and a God. 97 Therefore he does not want him to be any of the things he said before; for he says he is an image of all these things. Therefore, if he is an image of essence, he can no longer be self-existent essence; and if he is an image of will, he can no longer be self-existent will; and if he is an image of power, he is no longer power; and if he is an image of glory, he is no longer glory. For the image is not an image of itself but of another. 98 For behold, the matter concerning Asterius does not so much grieve us, that he was led to write such things, but that some of those who seem to be leaders of the church, having forgotten the apostolic tradition, and preferring things external to the divine, dared to write and to teach such things, which are in no way less than the error of the aforementioned. 99 It was necessary, on the contrary, with tears and mourning to cry out to the Lord, “We have sinned, we have acted impiously, we have transgressed,” and we have done evil in your sight, and now repenting we ask to receive your loving-kindness. These things were fitting for him, these things were profitable to say on account of the immeasurable goodness and loving-kindness of God. And yet it would have been fitting for God, who takes care with loving-kindness and justice, to speak in opposition, saying, “If an enemy had reproached me, I would have borne it, and if one who hated me had spoken great things against me, I would have hidden myself from him. But you, O man of one soul, my guide and my acquaintance, who together with me sweetened my foods, in the house of God we walked in harmony.” For we know from his own saying that he is with us his ministers, for “Behold,” he said, “I will be with you all the days” of your life “until the end of the age.” Then, consequently, he would have surely added the sayings that follow those preceding, “Let death come upon them, and let them go down alive into Hades; for wickedness is in their hearts.” For Scripture says that the dead who are in ignorance of impiety are swallowed up by Hades; for they were dead, even while seeming to live. 100 For they want the Savior to be a man; and this is clear from how Eusebius craftily transferred the sayings of the Apostle to his own will. For as if wishing to bring forth a very great blasphemy from some old labor pain, “he poured out from his own treasure,” according to the saying of the Savior, “what is evil.” For wishing to show the Savior to be only a man, as if revealing to us a very great secret mystery of the Apostle, he spoke thus: wherefore also the divine Apostle, delivering to us the secret and mystical theology, cries out and exclaims, “One is God,” then after the one God he says, “one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” If, therefore, he says he is a man, attending only to his economy according to the flesh, he certainly also agrees with that other point, that we should not have hope in him. For “cursed is the man,” said the prophet Jeremiah, “who has his hope in man.” 101 But the aforementioned, caring little for the holy prophets, explaining it as some secret and hidden theology of the Apostle, said, “one God,” and “one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” And he who wrote these things, and boasted greatly in remembering the Scriptures, did not consider that the most holy Apostle who wrote this also wrote that other thing, “who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man.” Do you see how (as if foreseeing their malice in the Spirit) the sacred Apostle thus in another part wrote “as a man” and “being made in the likeness of men,”

κύριος κύριον, θεὸς θεόν, οὐσίας τε καὶ βουλῆς καὶ δυνάμεως καὶ δόξης ἀπαράλλακτον εἰκόνα. ταῦτα τὰ ῥητὰ σαφῶς τὴν φαύλην αὐτοῦ περὶ θεότητος ἐλέγχει δόξαν. πῶς γὰρ ὁ κύριος γεννηθεὶς καὶ θεός, ὡς αὐτὸς προλαβὼν ἔφη, δύναται εἰκὼν θεοῦ εἶναι; ἕτερον γὰρ εἰκὼν θεοῦ, καὶ ἕτερον θεός. ὥστε εἰ μὲν εἰκών, οὐ κύριος οὐδὲ θεός, ἀλλ' εἰκὼν κυρίου καὶ θεοῦ· εἰ δὲ κύριος ὄντως καὶ θεός, οὐκέτι ὁ κύριος καὶ θεὸς εἰκὼν κυρίου καὶ θεοῦ εἶναι δύναται. 97 οὐδὲν οὖν αὐτὸν ὧν προεῖπεν εἶναι βούλεται· πάντων γὰρ τούτων εἰκόνα αὐτὸν εἶναι λέγει. οὐκοῦν εἰ οὐσίας ἐστὶν εἰκών, οὐκέτι αὐτοουσία δύναται εἶναι· καὶ εἰ βουλῆς ἐστιν εἰκών, οὐκέτι αὐτοβουλὴ εἶναι δύναται· καὶ εἰ δυνάμεως εἰκών, οὐκέτι δύναμις· καὶ εἰ δόξης εἰκών, οὐκέτι δόξα. ἡ γὰρ εἰκὼν οὐχ ἑαυτῆς ἀλλ' ἑτέρου τινὸς εἰκών ἐστιν. 98 ἰδοὺ γὰρ τὸ κατὰ Ἀστέριον ἡμᾶς οὐ τοσοῦτον λυπεῖ, εἰ τοιαῦτα προήχθη γράφειν, ἀλλ' ὅτι καί τινες τῶν προεστάναι δοκούντων τῆς ἐκκλησίας, τῆς μὲν ἀποστολικῆς ἐπιλαθόμενοι παραδόσεως, τὰ δὲ ἔξωθεν τῶν θείων προτιμήσαντες τοιαῦτά τινα γράψαι τε καὶ διδάξαι ἐτόλμησαν, ἃ οὐδὲν ἔλαττον τῆς τῶν προειρημένων ἔχεται πλάνης. 99 δέον τἀναντία μετὰ δακρύων τε καὶ πένθους πρὸς κύριον βοᾶν "ἡμάρτομεν, ἠσεβήσαμεν, ἠνομήσαμεν", καὶ τὸ πονηρὸν ἐνώπιόν σου ἐποιήσαμεν, καὶ νῦν μεταγνόντες τῆς παρά σου τυχεῖν ἀξιοῦμεν φιλανθρωπίας. ταῦθ' ἥρμοττεν αὐτῷ, ταῦτα συνέφερεν λέγειν διὰ τὴν ἄμετρον τοῦ θεοῦ χρηστότητα καὶ φιλανθρωπίαν. καίτοι ἀκόλουθον ἦν τὸν μετὰ φιλανθρωπίας καὶ δικαιοσύνης ἐπιμελούμενον θεὸν ἀντειπεῖν λέγοντα "εἰ ἐχθρὸς ὠνείδισέν με, ὑπήνεγκα ἄν, καὶ εἰ ὁ μισῶν με ἐπ' ἐμὲ ἐμεγαλορημόνησεν, ἐκρύβην ἂν ἀπ' αὐτοῦ. σὺ δέ, ἄνθρωπε ἰσόψυχε, ἡγεμών μου καὶ γνῶστά μου· ὃς ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ ἐγλύκανάς μοι ἐδέσματα, ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐπορεύθημεν ἐν ὁμονοίᾳ". ὅτι γὰρ σύνεστιν ἡμῖν τοῖς αὐτοῦ λειτουργοῖς ἴσμεν ἀπὸ τῆς αὐτοῦ ῥήσεως, "ἰδοὺ" γὰρ "ἔσομαι μεθ' ὑμῶν" ἔφη "πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας" τῆς ζωῆς ὑμῶν "ἕως τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος". εἶτα ἀκολούθως πάντως που καὶ τὰ ἑπόμενα τοῖς προάγουσιν ἐπήγαγεν ἂν ῥητά, "ἐλθέτω θάνατος ἐπ' αὐτούς, καὶ καταβήτωσαν εἰς ᾅδου ζῶντες· ὅτι πονηρία ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις αὐτῶν". τοὺς γὰρ ἐν ἀγνοίᾳ τῆς ἀσεβείας ὄντας νεκροὺς ὑπὸ τοῦ ᾅδου καταπίνεσθαί φησιν ἡ γραφή· νεκροὶ γάρ, καὶ ζῆν δοκοῦντες, ἐτύγχανον ὄντες. 100 ἄνθρωπον γὰρ τὸν σωτῆρα εἶναι βούλονται· δῆλον δὲ ἀφ' ὧν πανούργως τὰ τοῦ ἀποστόλου ῥητὰ Εὐσέβιος πρὸς τὸ ἑαυτοῦ μετήνεγκεν βούλημα. ὡς γὰρ ἐκ παλαιᾶς τινος ὠδῖνος μεγίστην ἀποκυῆσαι βουλόμενος βλα σφημίαν, "ἐξέχεεν ἀπὸ τοῦ ἰδίου θησαυροῦ" κατὰ τὴν τοῦ σωτῆρος ῥῆσιν "τὸ πονηρόν". ἄνθρωπον γὰρ μόνον τὸν σωτῆρα δεῖξαι βουλόμενος, ὡς μέγιστον ἡμῖν ἀπόρρητον τοῦ ἀποστόλου ἀνακαλύπτων μυστήριον, οὕτως ἔφη· διὸ σαφέστατα καὶ ὁ θεῖος ἀπόστολος τὴν ἀπόρρητον ἡμῖν καὶ μυστικὴν παραδιδοὺς θεολογίαν βοᾷ καὶ κέκραγεν "εἷς ὁ θεός", εἶτα μετὰ τὸν ἕνα θεόν φησιν "εἷς μεσίτης θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων, ἄνθρωπος Χριστὸς Ἰησοῦς". εἰ τοίνυν ἄνθρωπον αὐτὸν εἶναί φησιν τῇ κατὰ σάρκα αὐτοῦ μόνῃ προσέχων οἰκονομίᾳ, πάντως κἀκεῖνο συνομολογεῖ, τὸ μηδὲ ἔχειν ἐλπίδα ἐπ' αὐτόν. "ἐπικατάρατος" γὰρ "ἄνθρωπος" ὁ προφήτης Ἱερεμίας ἔφη "ὃς τὴν ἐλπίδα ἔχει ἐπ' ἄνθρωπον". 101 ἀλλ' ὁ προειρημένος, βραχέα τῶν ἁγίων προφητῶν φροντίσας, ὡς ἀπόρρητόν τινα καὶ λανθάνουσαν τοῦ ἀποστόλου θεολογίαν ἐξηγούμενος, "εἷς θεὸς" ἔφη "εἷς καὶ μεσίτης θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων, ἄνθρωπος Χριστὸς Ἰησοῦς". καὶ ὁ ταῦτα γράψας καὶ σφόδρα ἐπὶ τῷ μεμνῆσθαι τῶν γραφῶν μεγαλαυχῶν οὐκ ἐνενόησεν ὅτι ὁ τοῦτο γράψας ἁγιώτατος ἀπόστολος κἀκεῖνο γέγραφεν "ὃς ἐν μορφῇ θεοῦ ὑπάρχων οὐχ ἁρπαγμὸν ἡγήσατο τὸ εἶναι ἴσα θεῷ, ἀλλ' ἐκένωσεν ἑαυτόν, μορφὴν δούλου λαβών, ἐν ὁμοιώματι ἀνθρώπου γενόμενος καὶ σχήματι εὑρεθεὶς ὡς ἄνθρωπος". ὁρᾷς ὅπως (ὥσπερ προϊδὼν τῷ πνεύματι τὴν τούτων κακουργίαν) ὁ ἱερὸς ἀπόστολος οὕτως ἐν ἑτέρῳ μέρει τὸ "ὡς ἄνθρωπος" ἔγραψεν καὶ "ἐν ὁμοιώματι ἀνθρώπου γενόμενος",