testimonies, if not rightly understood, would be able to assist those who excuse themselves unseasonably or to deliver them from their impiety and the eternal condemnation on account of it; but they will pay an eternal judgment, because having rejected the clear sayings and having investigated the unclear ones with a puffing up of knowledge, (p. 188) or rather not having investigated nor having been persuaded by those who truly investigated, justly from this puffed-up knowledge itself they have reaped true foolishness.

And yet these sayings are very many, which from those who are not very discerning take away from the Son His co-unoriginate and co-equal honor with the Father, and even His sovereign dignity and His unending kingdom: "for even the Son will be subjected," it says, and "He must reign for a certain time," and "the Father is greater," and "wisdom was created," and "He is ignorant of something created by Him," and "He can do nothing of Himself," and "He has come down not to do His own will," and "He was spending the night in prayer to God," and "He learned," and "He advanced," and "He was exalted," and "He was glorified," and "He has been perfected," and whatever belongs to the lowliness of our nature, and whatever belongs to the gratitude, so to speak, of the begotten towards the begetter, and whatever are signs of His not being opposed to God, and whatever are examples of virtue for us through His works.

What then? On account of these things, must the divine and, as it were, insurmountable height testified to the Son from another source be rejected, that "in the beginning was," "and was with God, and was God," and "before all hills He is begotten," and "His name remains before the sun," and "this is God, and no other shall be accounted of in comparison with him," for He it is who "afterward was seen upon earth, and conversed with men," that both He and the Father are one, and He is in the Father and the Father in Him, and "he who has seen Him has seen the Father," and "with Him is the dominion in the day of His power," "and He shall have dominion after (p. 190) the moon is taken away," and "to Him every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth," and "His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom," and "it shall not be left to another king."

These things then, and all others like them, so wonderful, so lofty, so insurmountable, shall we drag them down along with the humbling sayings? But shall we not seek and love the sublime hidden in what seems lowly, and, becoming possessed of the pious meaning, shall we not resolve the objection? But shall we stumble and fall over the apparent meaning, and remain in the letter? By no means; for the letter kills, dragging down from on high those who do not look up to the Spirit.

So then we too, as many as are purely of the Spirit, as many as theologize just as it has revealed itself, as many as think and proclaim nothing unworthy of it, nor departing from what we say; we, then, even if something seems not to accord with the theology concerning the holy, only, and worshipful Spirit, the Holy Spirit Himself also granting it, we will understand spiritually and make clear and cast away the stumbling blocks and in every way we will demonstrate that the later Fathers agree with the earlier ones, both commonly and privately among themselves, and we ourselves with them and all in common with the common Lord by nature and our Father by grace. But since whatever Scriptures they are almost ignorant of, out of perplexity or malice towards their own false opinion the Latins pervert by twisting, and the things they are ignorant of are more numerous for them than those which seem to them irrefutable and through which, as if they were obvious, they deceive the crowd around them, we having just now made mention of these things, and these things having been badly taken by them

μαρτυρίαι, μή καλῶς ἐκληφθεῖσαι, δυνηθεῖεν ἄν συνάρασθαι παραιτουμένοις οὐ κατά καιρόν ἤ τῆς ἀσεβείας αὐτούς καί τῆς δι᾿αὐτήν αἰωνιζούσης καταδίκης ἐξελέσθαι˙ ἀλλά κρίσιν τίσουσιν αἰώνιον, ὅτι τάς σαφεῖς ἀθετήσαντες φωνάς καί τάς ἀσαφεῖς φυσιώσει γνώσεως ἀνερευνήσαντες, (σελ. 188) μᾶλλον δέ μή ἐρευνήσαντες μηδέ τοῖς ὡς ἀληθῶς ἐρευνήσασι πεισθέντες, ἐξ αὐτῆς ἐνδίκως τῆς πεφυσιωμένης γνώσεως τήν ὄντως ἀφροσύνην ἐκαρπώσαντο.

Καίτοι πλεῖσται εἰσιν αὗται αἱ φωναί, αἵ τοῖς μή διορατικωτάτοις τό πρός τόν Πατέρα συνάναρχόν τε καί ὁμότιμον ἀφαιροῦνται τοῦ Υἱοῦ καί αὐτό δέ τό δεσποτικόν ἀξίωμα καί τήν βασιλείαν τήν ἄληκτον˙ «ὑποταγήσεται γάρ», φησί, «καί ὁ Υἱός», καί «χρή αὐτόν βασιλεύειν ἄχρι τινός», καί «μείζων ὁ Πατήρ», καί «ἡ σοφία ἔκτισται», καί «ἀγνοεῖ τι τῶν ἐκτισμένων ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ», καί «ἀφ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ οὐδέν δύναται ποιεῖν», καί «καταβέβηκεν οὐχ ἵνα τό οἰκεῖον θέλημα ποιῇ», καί «ἦν διανυκτερεύων ἐν τῇ προσευχῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ», καί «ἔμαθε», καί «προέκοψε», καί «ὑψώθη», καί «ἐδοξάσθη», καί «τετελείωται», καί ὅσα τῆς τοῦ ἡμετέρου φυράματος ταπεινότητος, καί ὅσα τῆς εὐγνωμοσύνης, ἵν᾿ οὕτως εἴπω, τοῦ γεννήματος πρός τόν γεννήτορα, καί ὅσα τοῦ μή ἀντίθεος εἶναι δείγματα, καί ὅσα πρός ἡμᾶς δι᾿ἔργων ἀρετῆς ὑποδείγματα.

Τί οὖν, διά ταῦτα τό ἑτέρωθεν προσμαρτυρούμενον τῷ Υἱῷ θεῖον οἷον ἀδιεξίτητον ὕψος ἀθετητέον, ὅτι «ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν», «καί πρός τόν Θεόν ἦν, καί Θεός ἦν», καί «πρό πάντων βουνῶν γεννᾶται», καί «πρό τοῦ ἡλίου διαμένει τό ὄνομα αὐτοῦ», καί «οὗτος ὁ Θεός καί οὐ λογισθήσεται ἕτερος πρός αὐτόν», αὐτός γάρ ἐστιν ὁ «μετά ταῦτα τοῖς ἀνθρώποις συναναστραφείς», ὅτι τε αὐτός καί ὁ Πατήρ ἕν εἰσι, καί αὐτός ἐν τῷ Πατρί καί ὁ Πατήρ ἐν αὐτῷ, καί «ὁ ἑωρακώς αὐτόν ἑώρακε τόν Πατέρα», καί «μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ ἡ ἀρχή ἐν ἡμέρᾳ τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ», «καί κατακυριεύσει μετά (σελ. 190) τό ἀνταναιρεθῆναι τήν σελήνην», καί «πᾶν αὐτῷ γόνυ κάμψει ἐπουρανίων καί ἐπιγείων καί καταχθονίων», καί «ἡ βασιλεία αὐτοῦ, βασιλεία αἰώνιος», καί «βασιλεῖ ἑτέρῳ οὐχ ὑπολειφθήσεται».

Ταῦτα τοίνυν καί τ᾿ ἄλλα ὅσα τούτοις παραπλήσια, τά τοσοῦτο θαυμαστά, τά ἐπί τοσοῦτον ὑψηλά, τά οὕτως ἀνυπέρβλητα, διά τά ταπεινοῦντα τῶν ρημάτων συγκαθελκύσομεν αὐτοῖς; Ἀλλ᾿ οὐ ζητήσομέν τε καί στέρξομεν τό ἐγκεκρυμμένον τοῖς δοκοῦσι χαμερπέσιν ὑψηλόν καί τοῦ εὐσεβοῦς νοήματος γενόμενοι διαλύσομεν τό προσιστάμενον; Ἀλλά τῷ φαινομένῳ προσπταίσομέν τε καί πεσούμεθα καί ἐναπομενοῦμεν τῷ γράμματι; Οὔμενουν˙ ἀποκτένει γάρ τό γράμμα κατασπῶν ἀφ᾿ ὕψους τούς μή ἄνω πρός τό Πνεῦμα βλέποντας.

Ταῦτ᾿ ἄρα καί ἡμεῖς, ὅσοι καθαρῶς τοῦ Πνεύματος, ὅσοι καθάπερ αὐτό ἑαυτό διεσάφησε θεολογοῦμεν, ὅσοι μηδέν ἀνάξιον αὐτοῦ καί φρονοῦμεν καί κηρύττομεν, μηδ᾿ ἐξ ὧν λέγομεν ἐκβαῖνον˙ ἡμεῖς τοίνυν, κἄν τι μή ὁμόφωνον δοκῇ τῇ περί τοῦ ἁγίου μόνου καί προσκυνητοῦ Πνεύματος θεολογίᾳ καί αὐτό τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος διδόντος, νοήσομεν πνευματικῶς καί διευκρινήσομεν καί διαρρίψομεν τούς λίθους τοῦ προσκόμματος καί πᾶσι τρόποις ἀποδείξομεν τοῖς προτέροις τῶν Πατέρων ὁμολογοῦντας τούς ὑστέρους, κοινῇ τε καί ἰδίᾳ ἑαυτοῖς, καί ἡμᾶς αὐτούς αὐτοῖς καί κοινῇ πάντας τῷ κοινῷ τῇ φύσει δεσπότῃ καί κατά χάριν ἡμετέρῳ Πατρί. Ἐπεί δέ ὅσα σχεδόν ἀγνοοῦσι τῶν Γραφῶν ὑπ᾿ ἀπορίας ἤ κακοβουλίας πρός τήν οἰκείαν κακοδοξίαν οἱ Λατῖνοι περιτρέπουσι στρεβλοῦντες, πλείονα δέ εἰσιν αὐτοῖς τά ἀγνοούμενα τῶν δοκούντων αὐτοῖς ἀναντιρρήτων καί δι᾿ ὧν ὡς προφανῶν τόν περί αὐτούς ἐξαπατῶσιν ὄχλον, τούτων ἡμεῖς ἀρτίως μνησθέντας καί ταῦτα κακῶς παρ᾿ αὐτῶν ἐξειλλημένα