43. Do you maintain that the Son is numbered under the Father, and the Spirit under the Son, or do you confine your sub-numeration to the Spirit alone? If, on the other hand, you apply this sub-numeration also to the Son, you revive what is the same impious doctrine, the unlikeness of the substance, the lowliness of rank, the coming into being in later time, and once for all, by this one term, you will plainly again set circling all the blasphemies against the Only-begotten. To controvert these blasphemies would be a longer task than my present purpose admits of; and I am the less bound to undertake it because the impiety has been refuted elsewhere to the best of my ability.  5  i.e. in the second book of his work against Eunomius. If on the other hand they suppose the sub-numeration to benefit the Spirit alone, they must be taught that the Spirit is spoken of together with the Lord in precisely the same manner in which the Son is spoken of with the Father. “The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost”  6  Matt. xxviii. 19. is delivered in like manner, and, according to the co-ordination of words delivered in baptism, the relation of the Spirit to the Son is the same as that of the Son to the Father. And if the Spirit is co-ordinate with the Son, and the Son with the Father, it is obvious that the Spirit is also co-ordinate with the Father. When then the names are ranked in one and the same co-ordinate series,  7  ουστοιχία, a series of similar things, as in Arist. An. Pr. ii. 21, 2. In the Pythagorean philosophy, a co-ordinate or parallel series. Arist. Met. i. 5, 6, and Eth. Nic. i. 6, 7. what room is there for speaking on the one hand of connumeration, and on the other of sub-numeration? Nay, without exception, what thing ever lost its own nature by being numbered? Is it not the fact that things when numbered remain what they naturally and originally were, while number is adopted among us as a sign indicative of the plurality of subjects? For some bodies we count, some we measure, and some we weigh;  8  cf. Wis. xi. 20. “Thou hast ordered all things in measure and number and weight.” those which are by nature continuous we apprehend by measure; to those which are divided we apply number (with the exception of those which on account of their fineness are measured); while heavy objects are distinguished by the inclination of the balance. It does not however follow that, because we have invented for our convenience symbols to help us to arrive at the knowledge of quantity, we have therefore changed the nature of the things signified. We do not speak of “weighing under” one another things which are weighed, even though one be gold and the other tin; nor yet do we “measure under” things that are measured; and so in the same way we will not “number under” things which are numbered. And if none of the rest of things admits of sub-numeration how can they allege that the Spirit ought to be subnumerated? Labouring as they do under heathen unsoundness, they imagine that things which are inferior, either by grade of rank or subjection of substance, ought to be subnumerated.

[43] Καὶ τὸν Υἱὸν ὑπαριθμεῖσθαι τῷ Πατρὶ λέγετε, καὶ τὸ Πνεῦμα τῷ Υἱῷ, ἢ τῷ Πνεύματι μόνῳ τὴν ὑπαρίθμησιν ἀφορίζετε; Εἰ μὲν γὰρ καὶ τὸν Υἱὸν ὑπαριθμεῖτε, πάλιν τὸν αὐτὸν λόγον τῆς ἀσεβείας ἀνακαινίζετε, τὸ ἀνόμοιον τῆς οὐσίας, τὴν τοῦ ἀξιώματος ταπεινότητα, τὴν ἐν ὑστέρῳ γένεσιν, καὶ ἁπαξαπλῶς πάσας ὁμοῦ τὰς εἰς τὸν Μονογενῆ βλασφημίας, δι' ἑνὸς τούτου ῥήματος ἀνακυκλοῦντες ἐπιδειχθήσεσθε: οἷς ἀντιλέγειν μακρότερον ἢ κατὰ τὴν παροῦσαν ὁρμήν, ἄλλως τε καὶ ἐν ἄλλοις κατὰ δύναμιν ὑφ' ἡμῶν τῆς ἀσεβείας διελεγχθείσης. Εἰ δὲ τῷ Πνεύματι πρέπειν οἴονται μόνῳ τὴν ὑπαρίθμησιν, μανθανέτωσαν ὅτι κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον συνεκφωνεῖται τῷ Κυρίῳ τὸ Πνεῦμα, καθ' ὃν καὶ ὁ Υἱὸς τῷ Πατρί. Τὸ γὰρ ὄνομα Πατρὸς καὶ Υἱοῦ καὶ ἁγίου Πνεύματος ὁμοίως ἐκδέδοται. Ὡς τοίνυν ἔχει ὁ Υἱὸς πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα, οὕτω πρὸς τὸν Υἱὸν τὸ Πνεῦμα κατὰ τὴν ἐν τῷ βαπτίσματι παραδεδομένην τοῦ λόγου σύνταξιν. Εἰ δὲ τὸ Πνεῦμα τῷ Υἱῷ συντέτακται, ὁ δὲ Υἱὸς τῷ Πατρί, δηλονότι καὶ τὸ Πνεῦμα τῷ Πατρί. Τίνα οὖν ἔχει χώραν, τὸ μὲν συναριθμεῖσθαι, τὸ δὲ ὑπαριθμεῖσθαι λέγειν, ἐν μιᾷ καὶ τῇ αὐτῇ συστοιχίᾳ κατατεταγμένων τῶν ὀνομάτων; Ὅλως δέ, τί τῶν πάντων ἐξέστη ποτὲ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ φύσεως ἀριθμούμενον; Ἀλλ' οὐχὶ τὰ μὲν ἀριθμητὰ διαμένει οἷα πέφυκεν ἐξ ἀρχῆς, ὁ δὲ ἀριθμὸς σημεῖον γνωριστικὸν τοῦ πλήθους τῶν ὑποκειμένων παρ' ἡμῶν ἐφαρμόζεται; Τῶν γὰρ σωμάτων τὰ μὲν ἀριθμοῦμεν, τὰ δὲ μετροῦμεν, τὰ δὲ σταθμώμεθα: καὶ ὧν μὲν συνεχὴς ἡ φύσις, μέτρῳ καταλαμβάνομεν: ὧν δὲ διωρισμένη, τῷ ἀριθμῷ ὑποβάλλομεν, πλὴν ὅσα διὰ λεπτότητα καὶ αὐτὰ πάλιν μετρητὰ γίνεται: τὰ δὲ βάρη ταῖς ἐπὶ τοῦ ζυγοῦ ῥοπαῖς διακρίνομεν. Οὐ τοίνυν ἐπειδὴ ἑαυτοῖς σημεῖα πρὸς τὴν τοῦ ποσοῦ γνῶσιν ἐπενοήσαμεν, ἤδη καὶ τὴν φύσιν τῶν σημειωθέντων ἠλλάξαμεν. Ὥσπερ οὖν οὐχ ὑποσταθμώμεθα ἀλλήλοις τὰ σταθμητά, κἂν τὸ μὲν χρυσός, τὸ δὲ κασσίτερος ᾖ, οὐδὲ ὑπομετροῦμεν τὰ μετρητά: οὕτως οὐδὲ τὰ ἀριθμητὰ πάντως ὑπαριθμήσομεν. Εἰ δὲ οὐδὲν τῶν ἄλλων τὴν ὑπαρίθμησιν δέχεται, πῶς τῷ Πνεύματι φασὶ προσήκειν ὑπαριθμεῖσθαι; Ἀλλὰ τὰ Ἑλληνικὰ νοσοῦντες οἴονται τὰ κατὰ βαθμὸν ἀξιωμάτων ἢ κατὰ οὐσίας ὕφεσιν ὑποβαίνοντα, ταῦτα προσήκειν ὑπαριθμεῖσθαι.