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being of the substance and energy and power of which the Son is, not teaching things contrary to the Son, just as the Son does not teach things contrary to the Father, he has been revealed an unchangeable image of himself, showing in himself the things of the Son just as He showed the things of the Father.
2.21 Do you wish that I add also that He is from Him, granting you all things for the sake of brotherly love? But even this has been considered rash by those who have philosophized more accurately concerning theology, as it gives an indication of procession, since without this it must be spoken of. And let the Son be the image of the Father, because He is from Him, and you know the manner of being from Him; but indeed the Spirit is also called the image of the Son, because He is from Him. But the manner is not the same; for who would dare to say "by generation"? It remains, therefore, to state the difference and that it is most certainly indisputable. For my part, I also objected when they said that the Spirit proceeds from the Son and is supplied and given. And you yourself agree with me on these things. What other manner of the image, then, do you seek, if you have, along with what has been said, the "from Him," only being silent about the procession, as it was never said by us nor by those before us concerning the Son? Behold, I have resolved for you the ambiguity of the image, setting out the arguments for you in all respects alike. Holding to such things, or rather, thinking such thoughts, you will never be tripped up from the right way, you will easily cast out all discord from your mind.
2.22 I was reminded of another argument of those who contradict us, not least to the truth and to the right rule of faith. For, attempting to demonstrate that something impossible follows from our arguments, they proceed to such a question: "If the Holy Spirit does not also proceed from the Son—for in this way the Trinity is established as co-natural, being held together in the hypostases, as the Son is from the Father, and the Spirit happens to be from the Son—by what reason or manner will the Son be joined to the Spirit? For both will be united to the Father in this way, since they are indeed from Him, but how will they be joined to each other? And where is the perfect union of the Trinity, the uncuttable cut, as one might say, and the indivisible division?" O you who say these things so easily and spew forth such words, you perhaps suppose that we make divisions in the super-essential Trinity, such as dialecticians work out from genera to species or from species to individuals or in any other way, and do you maintain that we posit these things as contraries or circumscribe the uncircumscribable by place or gather the unlimited in something? We do not think such things nor do we teach absurdities; we are not so senseless and ignorant as not to know that the blessed Trinity, which is without beginning and without end, transcends all substance and nature, shape and place and time and measure and knowledge, so as to mock, in these matters, anyone, whether one of us or one of our opponents, who wishes to compare the unfigurable to figures of numbers or of planes or of solids. But if we say these things are from one, that is, from the Father, and the Spirit as caused from the cause, of whom the Spirit proceeds from the Father, which is to say is brought into being, and remains perfectly with the Son in the Son, so that the Son is never without a share of the Spirit, and from there is given and supplied and whatever of such things is safe, what do we say that is absurd? What injustice is attributed to the Trinity from our words or what dishonor follows, when we posit the three as consubstantial and co-powerful so that from these the union is also preserved, if indeed we say that the Spirit receives in the Son its own substantial existence from the Father, and that all sayings are preserved, I mean the Lord's and the Fathers', and that not the slightest thing is harmed, whereas from your words the imperfect is introduced, and the first and the last, and definition and circumscription and division, for those who examine well? No longer, then, has anything absurd at all resulted from our words, or anything foreign to the teachings of Christ and alien to the right doctrines, upon which everyone established stands as upon a firm rock, upon which Christ also the church
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ὢν οὐσίας καὶ ἐνεργείας καὶ δυνάμεως ὧν ὁ υἱός, μὴ ἀντίφθογγα διδάσκων υἱοῦ ὡς οὐδὲ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ πατρός, ἀπαράλλακτος εἰκὼν ἑαυτοῦ ἀνα πέφανται, ἐν ἑαυτῷ παραδείξας τὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ καθὼς ἐκεῖνος τὰ τοῦ πατρός.
2.21 Βούλει προσθήσω καὶ ὅτι γε ἐξ αὐτοῦ, πάντα σοι χαριζόμενος διὰ τὸ φιλάδελφον; ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦτο τολμηρὸν ὑπείληπται τοῖς ἀκριβέστερον ἐπὶ θεολογίᾳ φιλοσοφήσασιν, ἔμφασιν παρέχον τῆς ἐκπορεύσεως, ἐπεὶ χωρίς γε ταύτης λεκτέον. καὶ ἔστω εἰκὼν τοῦ πατρὸς ὁ υἱός, ὅτιπερ ἐξ αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὸν τρόπον γινώσκεις τοῦ ἐξ αὐτοῦ· ἀλλὰ δὴ καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα εἰκὼν λέγεται τοῦ υἱοῦ, ὅτιπερ ἐξ αὐτοῦ. ὁ τρόπος δὲ οὐ ταὐτός· τίς γὰρ ἂν τολμήσειεν εἰπεῖν γεν νητῶς; λείπεται οὖν ἐρεῖν τὸ διάφορον καὶ ὅτι γε μάλιστα ἄμαχον. ἔγωγε καὶ προϋπεκρουσάμην ἡνίκα προΐεσθαι ἐξ υἱοῦ τὸ πνεῦμα ἔλεγον καὶ χορηγεῖσθαι καὶ δίδοσθαι. ταῦτα δέ μοι καὶ αὐτὸς συμφῄς. τίνα γοῦν ἕτερον τρόπον τῆς εἰκόνος ζητεῖς, εἴπερ ἔχεις καὶ σὺν τοῖς λελεγμένοις τὸ ἐξ αὐτοῦ, τὴν ἐκπόρευσιν μόνον παρασιωπῶν, ὡς μήθ' ἡμῖν μήτε τοῖς πρὸ ἡμῶν ἐπὶ υἱοῦ λεχθεῖσάν ποτε; ἰδού σοι καὶ τὸ τῆς εἰκόνος ἀμφίβολον λέλυκα, κατὰ πάνθ' ὁμοίως τοὺς λόγους σοι παραθέμενος. τὰ τοιαῦτα κρατῶν, μᾶλλον δὲ τὰ τοιαῦτα τῶν νοημάτων φρονῶν οὔποτε σφαλῇ τοῦ ὀρθοῦ, πᾶσαν ῥᾳδίως ἀποβαλεῖ τοῦ νοός σου διχόνοιαν.
2.22 Ἐμνήσθην καὶ ἄλλου λόγου τῶν ἀντιλεγόντων ἡμῖν, οὐχ ἥκιστα τῇ ἀληθείᾳ καὶ τῷ ὀρθῷ κανόνι τῆς πίστεως. τοῖς γὰρ ἡμετέροις λόγοις ἀδύνατόν τι ἀκολουθοῦν ἀποδεῖξαι πειρώμενοι εἰς τοιαύτην προβαίνουσι τὴν ἐρώτησιν· «εἰ μὴ καὶ ἐκ τοῦ υἱοῦ ἐκπορεύεται τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον-τοῦτον γὰρ τὸν τρόπον συμφυὴς καθέστηκεν ἡ τρίας, ἀλληλουχου μένη ταῖς ὑποστάσεσιν, ὡς τοῦ μὲν υἱοῦ ἐκ πατρός, τοῦ δὲ πνεύματος ἐξ υἱοῦ τυγχάνοντος-ποίῳ λόγῳ ἢ τρόπῳ ὁ υἱὸς τῷ πνεύματι συναφθήσεται; τῷ μὲν γὰρ πατρὶ ἄμφω καὶ οὑτωσὶ ἑνωθήσεται, ἐπεί τοι γε ἐξ αὐτοῦ, ἀλλήλοις δὲ ὅπως συνάψεται; καὶ ποῦ ἡ ἄκρα τῆς τριάδος ἕνωσις, ἡ ἄτμητος ὡς ἄν τις εἴπῃ τομὴ καὶ ὁ ἀμέριστος μερισμός;» ὦ ταῦτα λέγων ῥᾳδίως καὶ τοιαύτας ἀπερευγόμενος τὰς φωνάς, σὺ τάχ' ἂν καὶ διαιρέσεις ἡμᾶς ἐπὶ τῆς ὑπερουσίου τριάδος ὑπολαμβάνεις ποιεῖν, οἵας οἱ διαλεγόμενοι ἀπὸ γενῶν εἰς εἴδη ἢ ἀπὸ εἰδῶν εἰς ἄτομα ἢ ὁπωσοῦν ἑτέρως ἐργάζονται, καὶ ἐναντία ταῦτα τιθέναι διισχυρίσῃ ἢ καὶ τόπῳ περιγρά φειν τὰ ἀπερίγραπτα ἢ ἔν τινι συνάγειν τὰ ἀπεριόριστα; οὐ τοιαῦτα φρονοῦμεν οὐδὲ δογματίζομεν ἄτοπα, οὐχ οὕτως ἡμεῖς ἄφρονές τε καὶ ἀμαθεῖς, ὡς μὴ εἰδέναι πάσης οὐσίας καὶ φύσεως σχήματός τε καὶ τόπου καὶ χρόνου καὶ μέτρου καὶ γνώσεως τὴν μακαρίαν ὑπερκειμένην τριάδα τὴν ἄναρχόν τε καὶ ἀτελεύτητον, ὡς ἐν τούτοις καταγελᾶν, κἄντε τῶν ἡμετέρων τις εἴη κἄντε τῶν ἐναντίων τῶν ἐν σχήμασιν ἀριθμῶν ἢ ἐπιπέδων ἢ στερεῶν παραλληλίζειν βουλομένων τὰ ἀσχημάτιστα. εἰ δ' ἐξ ἑνὸς ταῦτά φαμεν ἤγουν ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα ὡς ἐξ αἰτίου αἰτιατά, ὧν τὸ μὲν πνεῦμα ἐκ πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον, ταὐτὸν δὲ εἰπεῖν οὐσιού μενον, τέλεον σὺν υἱῷ ἐν υἱῷ μένει, ὡς μὴ ἄμοιρον εἶναί ποτε τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ πνεύματος κἀντεῦθεν δίδοσθαι καὶ χορη γεῖσθαι καὶ ὅσα ἀσφαλῆ τῶν τοιούτων, τί φάσκομεν ἄτοπον; ποία δὲ προστρίβεται τῇ τριάδι ἐκ τῶν λόγων ἀδικία τῶν ἡμετέρων ἢ ἐφέπεται ἀτιμία, τὰ τρία ὁμοούσια τιθεμένων καὶ ὁμοδύναμα ὡς ἐκ τούτων φυλάττεσθαι καὶ τὴν ἕνωσιν, εἴ γέ φαμεν ἐν υἱῷ λαμβάνειν τὸ πνεῦμα τὴν οἰκείαν οὐσίωσιν ἐκ πατρός, σώζεσθαι δὲ καὶ πάσας φωνάς, τὰς κυριακάς φημι καὶ τὰς πατρικάς, καὶ μὴ τὸ οἱονοῦν παραβλάπτεσθαι, ὡς ἐκ τῶν ὑμετέρων λόγων τὸ ἀτελὲς συνεισφέρεται καὶ τὸ πρῶτον καὶ ὕστερον καὶ διορισμὸς καὶ περιγραφὴ καὶ μερισ μὸς τοῖς σκοποῦσι καλῶς; οὐκέτι οὐδ' ὅλως τοῖς ἡμετέροις ἐπισυμβέβηκεν ἄτοπον ἢ ξένον τῶν διδαγμάτων Χριστοῦ καὶ τῶν ὀρθῶν δογμάτων ἀλλότριον, οἷς πᾶς ἑδραζόμενος ὡς ἐπὶ στερρᾶς βέβηκε πέτρας, ἐφ' ᾗ καὶ Χριστὸς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν