and "having made it"; and to say that the world, without interval, eternally co-exists with God, the world which received its existence from the Creator in a created manner through the composition of matter and form; and to say that the world is both incorruptible and corruptible; incorruptible in its being, but corruptible in that it is guarded; and to say "The world comes into being, but that which has come into being is subject to time, and that which is subject to time is corruptible"; and to say that the world is the receptacle of all making and creation of God, and that God is not the creator of corruptible things; for God, according to the respondent, makes nothing subject to time, and all things that have come into being and are subject to time are, according to him, always corruptible; these and such things are not of men who demonstrate the things concerning God and the world through noble proof according to the knowledge of the nature of things, but of reckless men who, according to their shamelessness, declare what seems right to them concerning God and the world. And to criticize the expression of God's dwelling in heaven, as not being fitting for God, is characteristic of men who have no sense of things said improperly; for an ill-sounding expression also has an ill-sounding meaning. But we did not set forth in the question the manner of God's dwelling in heaven, which the respondent slandered, but rather this: "If the heaven is uncreated, it is not of God, and those who say that God dwells in it speak to the insult of God dwelling in a heaven not his own." We call the heaven the house and throne of God, not as if God, being entirely uncircumscribed and without need, requires this for a dwelling or for a seat; but so that we, looking at the magnitude of its substance and the incorruptibility of its essence, might not suppose it to be God or equal in honor to God, for this reason we name it the house and throne of God, separating it by these names from all fellowship with God according to essence and according to the appellations of His essence. For just as the house and the throne are posterior to the one who made it, so also is the heaven posterior to God, as created is to uncreated. And if we now say the heaven is incorruptible, we do not call it incorruptible synonymously with God; for God uncreatedly and eternally has incorruptibility from His own essence, but the heaven has its incorruptibility in a created manner from the will of God for the need of things here, and when the need is fulfilled, it is transferred to another mode of incorruptibility. For the God who gave it a bodily magnitude as great as He willed and not as great as He was able (for He was able to make it much greater in magnitude than it is), has Himself now ordained it to remain within its own limit in incorruptibility, until the time of the remaking of existing things for the better according to the faith of the orthodox, of those who have known God from the teaching of the God made known to them and according to the testimony of the respondent.

καὶ τὸ ποιήσας· καὶ τὸ λέγειν ἀϊδίως συνυφίστασθαι ἀδια στάτως τῷ θεῷ τὸν κόσμον, τὸν ἐκ τῆς ὕλης καὶ τοῦ εἴδους γενητῶς διὰ συνθέσεως τὴν ὕπαρξιν παρὰ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ λαβόντα· καὶ τὸ λέγειν ἄφθαρτον καὶ φθαρτὸν εἶναι τὸν κό σμον· ἄφθαρτον μὲν τῷ εἶναι, φθαρτὸν δὲ τῷ φρουρεῖσθαι· καὶ τὸ λέγειν Γίνεται ὁ κόσμος, τὸ δὲ γενητὸν ἔγχρονον, καὶ τὸ ἔγχρονον φθαρτόν· καὶ τὸ λέγειν πάσης ποιήσεώς τε καὶ δημιουργίας θεοῦ ὑποδοχὴν εἶναι τὸν κόσμον, καὶ τὸ φθαρ τῶν μὴ εἶναι δημιουργὸν τὸν θεόν· ὁ γὰρ θεὸς κατὰ τὸν ἀπο κρινάμενον οὐδὲν ἔγχρονον ποιεῖ, τὰ δὲ γενητὰ καὶ ἔγχρονα πάντα κατ' αὐτόν ἐστιν ἀεὶ φθαρτά· ταῦτα καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα οὐκ ἔστιν ἀνδρῶν τῶν κατὰ τὴν εἴδησιν τῆς τῶν πραγμάτων φύσεως διὰ γενναίας ἀποδείξεως τὰ περὶ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τοῦ κόσμου ἀποδεικνύντων, ἀλλὰ ·ιψοκινδύνων ἀνθρώπων τῶν κατὰ τὴν ἀναισχυντίαν τὸ δοκοῦν αὐτοῖς περὶ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τοῦ κόσμου ἀποφαινομένων. Τὸ δὲ κακίζειν μὲν τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ οἰκή σεως τὴν λέξιν, ὡς μὴ πρέπουσαν θεῷ, ἀνθρώπων ἐστὶν οὐκ ἐχόντων τῶν ἀτόπως λεγομένων τὴν αἴσθησιν· ἡ γὰρ κακέμ φατος λέξις κακέμφατον ἔχει καὶ τὴν ἔννοιαν. Ἡμεῖς δὲ οὐκ ἐθήκαμεν ἐν τῇ ἐρωτήσει τὸν τρόπον τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν τῷ οὐ ρανῷ οἰκήσεως, ὃν ὁ ἀποκρινάμενος διέβαλεν, ἀλλὰ τὸ Eἰ ἀγένητός ἐστιν ὁ οὐρανός, οὐκ ἔστι τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ οἱ λέγοντες κατοικεῖν τὸν θεὸν ἐν αὐτῷ ἐφ' ὕβρει λέγουσι τοῦ θεοῦ κατοι κοῦντος ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ οὐκ αὐτοῦ. Oἶκον δὲ καὶ θρόνον λέ γομεν τοῦ θεοῦ τὸν οὐρανόν, οὐχ ὡς τοῦ θεοῦ τούτου πρὸς οἴ κησιν ἢ πρὸς καθέδραν χρῄζοντος, ἀπεριγράπτου καὶ ἀνενδεοῦς παντελῶς ὑπάρχοντος· ἀλλ' ἵνα μή, πρὸς τὸ μέγεθος τῆς αὐ τοῦ ὑποστάσεως καὶ τὸ ἄφθαρτον τῆς οὐσίας αὐτοῦ ἀφορῶντες, θεὸν τοῦτον ἢ ἰσότιμον θεῷ ὑπολάβωμεν, διὰ τοῦτο ὀνομά ζομεν αὐτὸν οἶκον καὶ θρόνον τοῦ θεοῦ, ταύταις ταῖς ὀνομα σίαις πάσης τῆς πρὸς τὸν θεὸν κατ' οὐσίαν καὶ κατὰ τὰς τῆς οὐσίας προσηγορίας κοινωνίας αὐτὸν χωρίζοντες. Ὥσπερ γὰρ ὁ οἶκος καὶ ὁ θρόνος ὕστερός ἐστι τοῦ πεποιηκότος αὐτόν, οὕτως καὶ ὁ οὐρανὸς ὕστερός ἐστι τοῦ θεοῦ, ὡς γενητὸς τοῦ ἀγενήτου. Καὶ εἰ ἄφθαρτον λέγομεν τὸν οὐρανὸν τανῦν, οὐ συνωνύμως αὐτὸν τῷ θεῷ ὀνομάζομεν ἄφθαρτον· ὁ μὲν γὰρ θεὸς ἀκτίστως ἐκ τῆς αὑτοῦ οὐσίας καὶ ἀϊδίως τὸ ἄφθαρτον ἔχει, ὁ δὲ οὐρανὸς κτιστῶς ἐκ τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ βουλήσεως ἔχει τὸ ἄφθαρτον πρὸς τὴν χρείαν τῶν τῇδε, καὶ πληρωθείσης τῆς χρείας εἰς ἕτερον τρόπον ἀφθαρσίας μεταφέρεται. Ὁ γὰρ δε δωκὼς αὐτῷ θεὸς σώματος μέγεθος, ὅσον ἠβουλήθη καὶ οὐχ ὅσον ἠδυνήθη (ἠδύνατο γὰρ ποιῆσαι αὐτὸν τῷ μεγέθει πολὺ μείζονα ἢ ὅπερ ἐστί), νῦν αὐτὸς αὐτὸν ἔταξε τῷ οἰκείῳ ὅρῳ ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ διαμένειν, ἕως τοῦ καιροῦ τῆς τῶν ὄντων εἰς τὸ κρεῖττον μεταποιήσεως κατὰ τὴν πίστιν τῶν ὀρθοδόξων, τῶν ἐκ διδασκαλίας τοῦ γνωσθέντος αὐτοῖς θεοῦ θεὸν ἐγνωκότων καὶ κατὰ τὴν μαρτυρίαν τοῦ ἀποκριναμένου.