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obviously the unity being understood according to the principle of substance, so that the difference exists in number, and in the properties characterizing each one; but in the principle of divinity the unity is contemplated. Since it has been defined, therefore, how one must understand the community of substance, let us examine what follows, what connection it has with what went before. But in order, he says, and in the prerogatives of time, the one is first, and the other second. What is the necessity for those whose substance is common, for these to be subjected to order and to be second in time? For it is not possible for the God of all not to coexist from eternity with his own image that shines forth without time, and not only beyond time, but beyond all ages to have their connection. For on this account he is called radiance, so that we may understand the conjunction, and the character of his substance, so that we may learn the consubstantiality. But order is of one kind natural, and of another by convention. Natural, on the one hand, like that of creatures arranged according to the creative principles, and like the position of things that can be numbered, and like the relation of causes to their effects, it being previously acknowledged that God is the maker and creator of nature itself; but conventional and artificial, like that in manufactured things, and in studies, and in ranks, and in number, and in such things. This man, therefore, having concealed the former of these, made mention of the second kind of order, and says that one must not speak of order in God's case, since order is second to the one who orders. But that he either did not understand, or willingly concealed, that there is a kind of order, not constituted by our arrangement, but resulting from the natural sequence itself, as is the case for fire in relation to the light that comes from it. For in these cases we call the cause first, and second that which is from it; not separating these from each other by an interval, but by reason conceiving the cause before the effect. How then is it reasonable to deny order, in cases where there is a first and a second, not according to our arrangement, but from the natural sequence inherent in them? For what reason then does he reject that order be taken in the case of God? He thinks, if he could show that "the first" is in no other way understood in God's case, it would be left to show the pre-eminence in substance itself. But we, according to the relation of causes to the things from them, say that the Father is placed before the Son; but not according to a difference of nature, nor according to a superiority of time; or thus indeed we will reject even this, that God is Father, since an otherness in substance would reject the natural connection. However, since he who is wise in all things was brought forth to define for us the nature of time, let us see here also the soundness and circumspection of his thought. Time, then, he says is a certain movement of the stars; obviously of the sun and moon and the rest, which have the power to move by themselves. The interval, therefore, from the creation of heaven and earth until the making of the stars, what then will this one, clever in celestial matters, declare it to be? For clearly he who wrote the account of the world's creation by the power of the Spirit says that on the fourth day the great lights and the other stars came to be. So there was no time, it seems, in the preceding days; for the stars were not yet moving. For how could they, seeing that they had not been created in the first place? And again, when Joshua the son of Nun was making war on the Gibeonites, since the sun remained motionless, shackled by his command, and the moon stood in its place, was there no time then? What then should we call that interval of the day? What name will you devise? For if the nature of time had failed, an age evidently entered in its place. But to call a small part of a day an age, what excess of folly does that not leave behind? But he seems, out of great sagacity, to think that day and night are produced in a certain motion of the stars, and that these are parts of time; whence he has declared time to be a certain movement of stars, not even understanding this very thing that he is saying.

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δηλονότι κατὰ τὸν τῆς οὐσίας λόγον τῆς ἑνότητος νο ουμένης, ὥστε ἀριθμῷ μὲν τὴν διαφορὰν ὑπάρ χειν, καὶ ταῖς ἰδιότησι ταῖς χαρακτηριζούσαις ἑκάτε ρον· ἐν δὲ τῷ λόγῳ τῆς θεότητος τὴν ἑνότητα θεωρεῖ σθαι. ∆ιωρισμένου τοίνυν πῶς χρὴ τὸ κοινὸν τῆς οὐ σίας ἐκδέχεσθαι, τὰ ἐφεξῆς ἐξετάσωμεν, τίνα συν άφειαν ἔχει πρὸς τὰ προάγοντα. Τάξει δὲ, φησὶ, καὶ τοῖς ἐκ χρόνου πρεσβείοις ὁ μὲν ἔστι πρῶτος, ὁ δὲ δεύτερος. Τίς ἡ ἀνάγκη ἐφ' ὧν ἡ οὐσία κοινὴ, τάξει τε ὑποβεβλῆσθαι ταῦτα, καὶ χρόνου εἶναι δεύτε ρα; Οὐ γὰρ δυνατὸν τῇ ἑαυτοῦ εἰκόνι ἀχρό νως ἀπαυγασθείσῃ τὸν Θεὸν τῶν ὅλων μὴ ἐξ ἀϊδίου συνεῖναι, καὶ μὴ χρόνον μόνον, καὶ αἰώνων δὲ πάντων ἐπέκεινα τὴν συνάφειαν ἔχειν. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο γὰρ ἀπαύγασμα εἴρηται, ἵνα τὸ συνημμένον νοήσωμεν, καὶ χαρακτὴρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως, ἵνα τὸ ὁμοούσιον ἐκ μανθάνωμεν. Ἀλλὰ καὶ τάξις ἡ μὲν φυσική τίς ἐστιν, ἡ δὲ κατ' ἐπιτήδευσιν. Φυσικὴ μὲν, ὡς ἡ τῶν κτι 29.557 σμάτων κατὰ τοὺς δημιουργικοὺς λόγους διαταχθεῖ σα, καὶ ὡς ἡ τῶν ἀριθμητῶν θέσις, καὶ ὡς ἡ τῶν αἰτίων πρὸς τὰ αἰτιατὰ σχέσις, ἐκείνου προ διωμολογημένου τοῦ καὶ τῆς φύσεως αὐτῆς ποιητὴν εἶναι καὶ δημιουργὸν τὸν Θεόν· ἐπιτετηδευμένη δὲ καὶ τεχνικὴ, ὡς ἡ ἐν τοῖς κατασκευάσμασι, καὶ μα θήμασι, καὶ ἀξιώμασι, καὶ ἀριθμῷ, καὶ τοῖς τοιού τοις. Τούτων τοίνυν τὸ πρότερον ἀποκρυψάμενος οὗ τος, τοῦ δευτέρου εἴδους τῆς τάξεως ἐπεμνήσθη, καί φησι, μὴ χρῆναι λέγειν ἐπὶ Θεοῦ τάξιν, ἐπείπερ ἡ τάξις δευτέρα ἐστὶ τοῦ τάττοντος. Ἐκεῖνο δὲ ἢ οὐ συνεῖδεν, ἢ ἑκὼν ἀπεκρύψατο, ὅτι ἔστι τι τάξεως εἶδος, οὐκ ἐκ τῆς παρ' ἡμῶν θέσεως συνιστάμενον, ἀλλ' αὐτῇ τῇ κατὰ φύσιν ἀκολουθίᾳ συμβαῖνον, ὡς τῷ πυρὶ πρὸς τὸ φῶς ἐστι τὸ ἐξ αὐτοῦ. Ἐν τούτοις γὰρ πρότερον τὸ αἴτιον λέγομεν, δεύτερον δὲ τὸ ἐξ αὐ τοῦ· οὐ διαστήματι χωρίζοντες ἀπ' ἀλλήλων ταῦτα, ἀλλὰ τῷ λογισμῷ τοῦ αἰτιατοῦ προεπινοοῦν τες τὸ αἴτιον. Πῶς οὖν εὔλογον ἀρνεῖσθαι τὴν τάξιν, ἐφ' ὧν ἐστι πρότερον καὶ δεύτερον, οὐ κατὰ τὴν ἡμε τέραν θέσιν, ἀλλ' ἐκ τῆς κατὰ φύσιν αὐτοῖς ἐνυπαρ χούσης ἀκολουθίας; Τίνος οὖν ἕνεκεν ἀθετεῖ τὴν τά ξιν ἐπὶ Θεοῦ λαμβάνεσθαι; Ἡγεῖται, εἰ ἐπιδείξειε μηδαμῶς ἄλλως τὸ πρότερον ἐπὶ Θεοῦ νοεῖσθαι, λειπόμενον ἕξειν, κατ' αὐτὴν τὴν οὐσίαν τὴν ὑπερ οχὴν ἐπιδείκνυσθαι. Ἡμεῖς δὲ, κατὰ μὲν τὴν τῶν αἰτίων πρὸς τὰ ἐξ αὐτῶν σχέσιν, προτε τάχθαι τοῦ Υἱοῦ τὸν Πατέρα φαμέν· κατὰ δὲ τὴν τῆς φύσεως διαφορὰν, οὐκέτι, οὐδὲ κατὰ τὴν τοῦ χρό νου ὑπεροχήν· ἢ οὕτω γε καὶ αὐτὸ, τὸ Πα τέρα εἶναι τὸν Θεὸν, ἀθετήσομεν, τῆς κατὰ τὴν οὐσίαν ἀλλοτριότητος τὴν φυσικὴν συνάφειαν ἀθε τούσης. Ἐπεὶ μέντοι ἀφορίσασθαι ἡμῖν τοῦ χρόνου τὴν φύσιν ὁ σοφὸς τὰ πάντα προήχθη, καὶ ἐνταῦθα αὐτοῦ τὸ βέβαιον καὶ περιεσκεμμένον τῆς διανοίας ἴδωμεν. Χρόνον τοίνυν εἶναί φησι ποιάν τινα κίνησιν ἀστέρων· ἡλίου δηλονότι καὶ σελήνης καὶ τῶν λοι πῶν, ὅσοις καθ' ἑαυτὰ κινεῖσθαι δύναμίς ἐστι. Τὸ τοίνυν ἀπὸ γενέσεως οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς μέχρι τῆς 29.560 ποιήσεως τῶν ἀστέρων διάστημα τί ποτε ἄρα εἶναι ὁ δεινὸς τὰ μετέωρα οὗτος ἀποφανεῖται; Σαφῶς γὰρ ὁ τὴν κοσμογονίαν τῇ δυνάμει τοῦ Πνεύματος ἀνα γράψας τῇ τετάρτῃ ἡμέρᾳ τοὺς μεγάλους φωστῆρας καὶ τοὺς λοιποὺς ἀστέρας γεγενῆσθαί φησι. Χρό νος οὖν οὐκ ἦν, ὡς ἕοικεν, ἐν ταῖς κατόπιν ἡμέ ραις· οὐ γὰρ ἐκινοῦντό πω οἱ ἀστέρες. Πῶς γὰρ, οἵ γε μηδ' ἐγεγόνεισαν τὴν ἀρχήν· Καὶ πάλιν, ὅτε ἐπολέμει τοῖς Γαβαωνίταις ὁ τοῦ Ναυῆ Ἰη σοῦς, ἐπειδὴ ἀκίνητος ὁ ἥλιος ἔμεινε τῷ προσ τάγματι πεδηθεὶς, καὶ ἡ σελήνη κατὰ χώραν εἱστή κει, χρόνος οὐκ ἦν τηνικαῦτα; Τί ἐκεῖνο οὖν τὸ διάστημα τῆς ἡμέρας εἴπωμεν; τίνα προσηγορίαν ἐπινοήσεις; Εἰ γὰρ ἡ τοῦ χρόνου φύσις ἐπιλε λοίπει, αἰὼν ἀντεισῆλθε δηλονότι. Αἰῶνα δὲ μικρὸν ἡμέρας μέρος προσαγορεύειν τίνα τῆς ἀνοίας ὑπερ βολὴν ἀπολείπει; Ἀλλ' ἔοικεν ἐκ πολλῆς ἀγχινοίας ἡμέραν μὲν καὶ νύκτα ἐν τῇ ποιᾷ τῶν ἀστέρων κινή σει νομίζειν γίνεσθαι, ταῦτα δὲ εἶναι τοῦ χρόνου μέρη· ὅθεν τὸν χρόνον ποιάν τινα κίνησιν ἀστέρων ἀπεφήνατο, οὐδὲ αὐτὸ τοῦτο συνεὶς ὅ τι λέγει.