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mixing it, he refashions it in every way, now with beautiful flowers, now with all sorts of shapes, now with sweet scents, now with alternating differences of fruits, now by taste providing all kinds of enjoyments. 11.17 Why must I dare to recount the powers of the divine Word and attempt impossible things, when its working surpasses every mortal thought? Some, then, have named this the nature of the universe, others the soul of the whole, and others fate; but others, I know not how, mixing things that are most widely separated, have declared it to be the God who is beyond all things, casting down to the earth the universal Ruler himself and the unbegotten and highest power, and intertwining him with a body and corruptible matter, and saying that he is enclosed in the midst of irrational and rational, mortal and immortal living beings. But so much for them. 12.1 But the inspired teaching says that the highest of good things, the very cause of all, is beyond all comprehension; wherefore it is unutterable and ineffable and unnameable and superior not only to voice but also to all thought, not comprehended in a place, not being in bodies, not in heaven nor in the ether nor in any part of the universe, but everywhere and outside of all things, stored up in an ineffable depth of knowledge. The divine oracles teach us to know this one alone as true God, separated from all corporeal substance, alien to all servile administration; wherefore it is handed down that the universe is from him, but not that it came to be through him. 12.2 But he himself, like a king somewhere within, in ineffable and inaccessible and unapproachable places, dwelling in light unapproachable, always legislates and ordains by his willing power alone; for by his willing, a thing exists, and by his not willing, it does not exist, and he wills all good things, because he happens to be in his substance goodness itself. But he, through whom are all things, the Word of God, from above from the good Father, as from a perpetual and infinite spring, raining down in unutterable words, goes forth like a river, flooding all things for the common salvation of the universe. 12.3 And just as in our own example, the mind in us is invisible and unseen, and no one among men has ever known what it is and of what sort it is in its substance, but, like a king within, in his own secret chambers, he alone plans what is to be done, and from him proceeds a single-born word, as though born from a father's innermost sanctuary, by an ineffable account and an unnameable power, who indeed is established as the first messenger to all of the father's thoughts, and openly proclaims what has been planned in secret by the father, and by his deeds he accomplishes the plans, going forth to the hearing of all, 12.4 then some partake of the benefit from the word, but no one has ever seen with eyes the unseen and invisible mind, the father of the word; in the same way, indeed, but rather beyond all image and example, is the perfect Word of the universal King, God, like a single-born son of a father, not constituted by a power of utterance, nor having his nature constructed from syllables and nouns and verbs, nor signified in a voice that strikes through the air, but being a living and active Word of the God over all, and subsisting in substance as the power of God and the wisdom of God, he proceeds from the paternal divinity and kingdom, and being the good offspring of a good Father and the common savior of all, he irrigates all things, flooding all things with life and reason and wisdom and light and all good things from his own fullness. And he waters not only what is near and closest, but also what is far distant on land and on sea, and whatever other portion of these happens to be among existing things; 12.5 for all of whom together he ordains boundaries and regions and laws and inheritances most justly, by royal authority assigning and supplying to each what is fitting, and appointing for some the super-cosmic vaults, for others to inhabit heaven itself, for others ethereal abodes, for others the air, and for others the earth, and then transferring them again from here to another place,

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συγκερασάμενος, μεταρρυθμίζει παντοίως τοτὲ μὲν ὡραίοις ἄνθεσιν, τοτὲ δὲ σχήμασι παντοίοις, τοτὲ δὲ ὀδμαῖς ἡδείαις, τοτὲ δὲ καρπῶν ἐναλλαττούσαις διαφοραῖς, τοτὲ δὲ τῇ γεύσει παντοδαπὰς ἀπολαύσεις παρέχων. 11.17 τί με δεῖ τοῦ θείου λόγου τὰς δυνάμεις ἐπεξιέναι τολμᾶν καὶ ἀδυνάτοις ἐπιχειρεῖν, πᾶσαν θνητὴν διάνοιαν ὑπερνικώσης τῆς ἐνεργείας; ἄλλοι μὲν οὖν τοῦτον φύσιν τοῦ παντὸς ὠνομάκασιν, ἄλλοι δὲ τὴν καθ' ὅλου ψυχήν, ἄλλοι δὲ εἱμαρμένην· οἱ δ' αὐτὸν εἶναι τὸν ἐπέκεινα τῶν ὅλων θεὸν οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως τὰ πορρωτάτω διεστῶτα μιγνύντες ἀπεφήναντο, αὐτὸν τὸν πανηγεμόνα καὶ τὴν ἀγέννητον καὶ ἀνωτάτω δύναμιν κάτω βάλλοντες ἐπὶ γῆν, καὶ σώματι ὕλῃ τε φθαρτῇ συμπλέξαντες, ζώων τε ἀλόγων καὶ λογικῶν θνητῶν τε καὶ ἀθανάτων μέσον εἰλεῖσθαι φήσαντες. ἀλλ' οἱ μὲν ταῦτα. 12.1 Ἡ δ' ἔνθεος διδασκαλία τὸ τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀνώτατον αὐτὸ δὴ τὸ πάντων αἴτιον ἐπέκεινα πάσης καταλήψεως εἶναί φησιν· διὸ δὴ ἄρρητον καὶ ἄλεκτον καὶ ἀνωνόμαστον καὶ φωνῆς οὐ μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐννοίας ἁπάσης ὑπέρτερον εἶναι, οὐκ ἐν τόπῳ περιληπτόν, οὐκ ἐν σώμασιν ὄν, οὐκ ἐν οὐρανῷ οὐκ ἐν αἰθέρι οὐδ' ἔν τινι μέρει τοῦ παντός, ἀλλὰ πάντη καὶ πάντων ἐκτὸς ἐν ἀπορρήτῳ βυθῷ γνώσεως τεταμιευμένον. τοῦτον μόνον ἀληθῆ θεὸν εἰδέναι τὰ θεῖα λόγια παιδεύει, πάσης κεχωρισμένον σωματικῆς οὐσίας, πάσης ἀλλότριον ὑπηρετικῆς οἰκονομίας· διὸ δὴ ἐξ αὐτοῦ τὸ πᾶν, οὐ μὴν δι' αὐτοῦ φῦναι παραδέδοται. 12.2 ἀλλ' αὐτὸς μὲν οἷα βασιλεὺς εἴσω που ἐν ἀρρήτοις καὶ ἀδύτοις καὶ ἀβάτοις φῶς οἰκῶν ἀπρόσιτον διὰ παντὸς μόνῃ τῇ θελητικῇ δυνάμει νομοθετεῖ καὶ διατάττεται· θέλον τος γὰρ ἔστιν ὅ τι καὶ ἔστιν, καὶ μὴ θέλοντος οὐκ ἔστιν, θέλει δὲ ἀγαθὰ πάντα, ὅτι δὴ καὶ αὐτοαγαθὸν τὴν οὐσίαν τυγχάνει. ὁ δέ, δι' οὗ τὰ πάντα, θεοῦ λόγος ἄνωθεν ἐξ ἀγαθοῦ πατρὸς ὡς ἐξ ἀενάου καὶ ἀπείρου πηγῆς ἀνομβρῶν λόγοις ἀρρήτοις ποταμοῦ δίκην πρόεισιν, ὅλος πλημμυρῶν ἐς τὸ κοινὸν τῆς τοῦ παντὸς σωτηρίας. 12.3 ὡς δὲ ἐπὶ τοῦ καθ' ἡμᾶς παραδείγματος ὁ μὲν ἀόρατος καὶ ἀφανὴς ἐν ἡμῖν νοῦς, ὃν ὅστις ποτὲ καὶ ὁποῖος ὢν τὴν οὐσίαν ὑπάρχει οὐδεὶς πώποτε ἀνθρώπων ἔγνω, βασιλεὺς δ' οἷα ἐν ἀπορρήτοις εἴσω τοῖς αὐτοῦ ταμείοις ὑπάρχων μόνος τὰ πρακτέα βουλεύεται, λόγος δ' ἐξ αὐτοῦ πρόεισι μονογενής, οἷα πατρὸς ἐξ ἀδύτου μυχοῦ γεγεννημένος, ἀρρήτῳ λόγῳ καὶ δυνάμει ἀκατονομάστῳ, ὃς δὴ καὶ πρῶτος τῶν πατρικῶν τοῖς πᾶσι καθίσταται νοημάτων ἄγγελος εἰς φανερόν τε κηρύττει τὰ ἐν ἀπορρήτοις τῷ πατρὶ βεβουλευμένα, ἔργοις τε ἐπιτελεῖ τὰ βουλεύματα προϊὼν εἰς τὰς πάντων ἀκοάς, 12.4 εἶθ' οἱ μὲν τῆς ἐκ τοῦ λόγου μεταλαμβάνουσιν ὠφελείας, τὸν δ' ἀφανῆ καὶ ἀόρατον νοῦν τὸν δὴ τοῦ λόγου πατέρα οὐδεὶς πώποτε εἶδεν ὀφθαλμοῖς· κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ δὴ μᾶλλον δὲ ἐπέκεινα πάσης εἰκόνος τε καὶ παραδείγματος ὁ τοῦ παμβασιλέως θεοῦ τέλειος λόγος, οἷα μονογενὴς πατρὸς υἱός, οὐ προφορικῇ δυνάμει συνεστώς, οὐδ' ἐκ συλλαβῶν ὀνομάτων τε καὶ ῥημάτων τὴν φύσιν κατεσκευασμένος, οὐδ' ἐν φωνῇ δι' ἀέρος πληττομένῃ σημαινόμενος, θεοῦ δὲ τοῦ ἐπὶ πάντων ζῶν καὶ ἐνεργὴς ὑπάρχων λόγος, κατ' οὐσίαν τε ὑφεστὼς οἷα θεοῦ δύναμις καὶ θεοῦ σοφία, πρόεισι μὲν τῆς πατρικῆς θεότητός τε καὶ βασιλείας, ἀγαθοῦ δὲ πατρὸς ἀγαθὸν τυγχάνων γέννημα κοινός τε ἁπάντων σωτὴρ ἐποχετεύει τὰ σύμπαντα, ζωῆς καὶ λόγου καὶ σοφίας καὶ φωτὸς καὶ πάντων ἀγαθῶν ἐκ τοῦ οἰκείου πληρώματος τοῖς πᾶσιν ἐπιλιμνάζων. ἄρδει τε οὐ τὰ προσεχῆ μόνον καὶ ἐγγυτάτω, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ πόρρω διεστῶτα κατὰ γῆν καὶ κατὰ θάλατταν, καὶ εἴ τις ἑτέρα τούτων ἐν τοῖς οὖσιν τυγχάνει λῆξις· 12.5 οἷς ὁμοῦ πᾶσιν ὅρους καὶ χώρας καὶ νόμους καὶ κλήρους διατάττεται κατὰ τὸ δικαιότατον, ἐξουσίᾳ βασιλικῇ τὰ πρόσφορα νέμων ἑκάστῳ καὶ χορηγῶν, καὶ τοῖς μὲν ὑπερκοσμίους ἁψῖδας τοῖς δ' αὐτὸν οὐρανὸν οἰκεῖν, τοῖς δ' αἰθερίους διατριβάς, τοῖς δ' ἀέρα, τοῖς δὲ γῆν ἀφορίζων, κἄπειτα μεθιστῶν ἐνθένδε πάλιν ἀλλαχόσε,