32

all things, and one our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, the Lord of all, through whom are all things, and one Holy Spirit who worked in Moses and the prophets and the apostles, and one baptism which is given for the death of the Lord, and one chosen church; there ought to be also one faith according to Christ. For there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, and through all, and in all.

One God and Father, therefore, and not two nor three; one who is, and there is no other besides him, the only true one. For "the Lord your God," it says, "is one Lord," and again, "Has not one God created us? Do we not all have one Father?"and one Son, God the Word. For "the only-begotten," it says, "who is in the bosom of the Father," and again, "One Lord Jesus Christ," and in another place, "What is his name, or what is his son's name, that we may know?" and one Paraclete. For "one Spirit," it says, "since we were called in one hope of our calling," and again, "we were all made to drink of one Spirit," and what follows. But all these things, the gifts that is, one and the same Spirit works. Therefore, neither three Fathers nor three Sons nor three Paracletes, but one Father and one Son and one Paraclete. Wherefore also the Lord, sending the apostles to make disciples of all nations, commanded them to baptize into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, neither into one with three names nor into three who became incarnate, but into three of equal honor.

For one became incarnate, neither the Father nor the Paraclete, but only the Son, not in appearance, not in fantasy, but in truth; for the Word became flesh, for Wisdom built a house for herself. And God the Word was born as a man with a body from the virgin without intercourse with a man; for "the virgin shall conceive in her womb and bear a son." Truly, therefore, was he born, truly he grew, truly he ate and drank, truly he was crucified and died and rose again. Blessed is he who believes these things, as they are, as they happened; accursed is he who does not believe these things, no less than those who crucified the Lord. For the ruler of this world rejoices when anyone denies the cross; for he knows that the confession of the cross is his own destruction. For this is the trophy against his power, which seeing he shudders and hearing he fears.

And before the cross came to be, he was eager for this to happen, and he was at work in the sons of disobedience, at work in Judas, in the Pharisees, in the Sadducees, in the elders, in the young, in the priests. But when it was about to happen, he is disturbed and puts regret into the betrayer and shows him a noose and teaches him hanging; and he also frightens the woman, greatly troubling her in dreams, and he tries to stop the events of the cross, he who set every rope in motion for its construction; not repenting of so great an evil (for if he had, he would not be altogether wicked), but he perceived his own ruin; for the cross of Christ is for him the beginning of condemnation, the beginning of death, the beginning of destruction. Therefore he also works in some to deny the cross, to be ashamed of the passion, to call the death an appearance, to do away with the birth from a virgin, to slander his very nature as abominable. He allies himself with the Jews for the denial of the cross, with the Greeks for the false accusation of magic, with the heretics for fantasy. For the general of wickedness is multifaceted, stealthy-minded, unstable, contrary to himself, proposing one thing, but showing another; for he is wise to do evil, but what good is, he does not know, he is filled with ignorance through voluntary madness. For how is he not such a one, who does not even see the argument before his own feet?

For if the Lord is a mere man of soul and body, why do you do away with the birth of the common nature of men? And why do you call the passion, which happened to a man, something strange and call it an appearance, and consider the death of a mortal an opinion? But if he is God and man, why do you call the Lord of glory, who is immutable by nature, unlawful? Why do you say the lawgiver is unlawful, the one not a human soul

32

τὰ πάντα, εἷς δὲ καὶ ὁ κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, ὁ μονογενὴς υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ, ὁ τῶν ὅλων κύριος, δι' οὗ τὰ πάντα, ἓν δὲ καὶ πνεῦμα ἅγιον τὸ ἐνεργῆσαν ἐν Mωσῇ καὶ προφήταις καὶ ἀποστόλοις, ἓν δὲ καὶ τὸ βάπτισμα τὸ εἰς τὸν θάνατον τοῦ κυρίου διδόμενον, μία δὲ καὶ ἡ ἐκλεκτὴ ἐκκλησία· μία ὀφείλει εἶναι καὶ ἡ κατὰ Χριστὸν πίστις. εἷς γὰρ κύριος, μία πίστις, ἓν βάπτισμα, εἷς θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ πάντων καὶ διὰ πάντων καὶ ἐν πᾶσιν.

Eἷς οὖν θεὸς καὶ πατήρ, καὶ οὐ δύο οὐδὲ τρεῖς· εἷς ὁ ὤν, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν πλὴν αὐτοῦ, ὁ μόνος ἀληθινός. κύριος γάρ, φησίν, ὁ θεός σου, κύριος εἷς ἐστιν, καὶ πάλιν· Oὐχ εἷς θεὸς ἔκτισεν ἡμᾶς, οὐχ εἷς πατὴρ πάντων ἡμῶν;εἷς δὲ καὶ υἱός, λόγος θεός. ὁ μονογενὴς γάρ, φησίν, ὁ ὢν εἰς τοὺς κόλπους τοῦ πατρός, καὶ πάλιν· Eἷς κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, καὶ ἐν ἄλλῳ· Tί ὄνομα αὐτῷ ἢ τί ὄνομα τῷ υἱῷ, ἵνα γνῶμεν; εἷς δὲ καὶ ὁ παράκλητος. ἓν γάρ, φησίν, καὶ πνεῦμα, ἐπειδὴ ἐκλήθημεν ἐν μιᾷ ἐλπίδι τῆς κλήσεως ἡμῶν, καὶ πάλιν· Ἓν πνεῦμα ἐποτίσθημεν καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. πάντα δὲ ταῦτα, τὰ χαρίσματα δηλον ότι, ἐνεργεῖ ἓν καὶ τὸ αὐτὸ πνεῦμα. οὔτε οὖν τρεῖς πατέρες οὔτε τρεῖς υἱοὶ οὔτε τρεῖς παράκλητοι, ἀλλ' εἷς πατὴρ καὶ εἷς υἱὸς καὶ εἷς παράκλητος. διὸ καὶ ὁ κύριος ἀποστέλλων τοὺς ἀποστόλους μαθητεῦσαι πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, ἐνετείλατο αὐτοῖς βαπτίζειν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος, οὔτε εἰς ἕνα τριώνυμον οὔτε εἰς τρεῖς ἐνανθρωπήσαντας, ἀλλ' εἰς τρεῖς ὁμοτίμους. Eἷς γὰρ ὁ ἐνανθρωπήσας, οὔτε ὁ πατὴρ οὔτε ὁ παράκλητος, ἀλλὰ μόνον ὁ υἱός, οὐ δοκήσει, οὐ φαντασίᾳ ἀλλ' ἀληθείᾳ· ὁ λόγος γὰρ σὰρξ ἐγένετο, ἡ γὰρ σοφία ᾠκοδόμησεν ἑαυτῇ οἶκον. καὶ ἐγεννήθη ὡς ἄνθρωπος ὁ θεὸς λόγος μετὰ σώματος ἐκ τῆς παρθένου ἄνευ ὁμιλίας ἀνδρός· ἡ παρθένος γὰρ ἐν γαστρὶ λήψεται καὶ τέξεται υἱόν. ἀληθῶς οὖν ἐγεννήθη, ἀληθῶς ηὐξήθη, ἀληθῶς ἔφαγεν καὶ ἔπιεν, ἀληθῶς ἐσταυρώθη καὶ ἀπέθανεν καὶ ἀνέστη. ὁ ταῦτα πιστεύσας, ὡς ἔχει, ὡς γεγένηται, μακάριος· ὁ ταῦτα μὴ πιστεύσας ἐναγής, οὐχ ἧττον τῶν τὸν κύριον σταυρωσάντων. ὁ γὰρ ἄρχων τοῦ κόσμου τούτου χαίρει, ὅταν τις ἀρνῆται τὸν σταυρόν· ὄλεθρον γὰρ ἑαυτοῦ γινώσκει τὴν ὁμολογίαν τοῦ σταυροῦ. τοῦτο γάρ ἐστιν τὸ τρόπαιον κατὰ τῆς αὐτοῦ δυνάμεως, ὅπερ ὁρῶν φρίττει καὶ ἀκούων φοβεῖται. Kαὶ πρὶν μὲν γένηται ὁ σταυρός, ἔσπευδεν γενέσθαι τοῦτο, καὶ ἐνήργει ἐν τοῖς υἱοῖς τῆς ἀπειθείας, ἐνήργει ἐν Ἰούδᾳ, ἐν Φαρισαίοις, ἐν Σαδδουκαίοις, ἐν πρεσβύταις, ἐν νέοις, ἐν ἱερεῦσιν. μέλλοντος δὲ γίνεσθαι θορυβεῖται καὶ μετάμελον ἐμβάλλει τῷ προδότῃ καὶ βρόχον αὐτῷ δείκνυσιν καὶ ἀγχόνην διδάσκει· φοβεῖ δὲ καὶ τὸ γύναιον, ἐν ὀνείροις αὐτὸ καταταράττων, καὶ παύειν πειρᾶται τὰ κατὰ τὸν σταυρόν, ὁ πάντα κάλων κινῶν εἰς τὴν αὐτοῦ κατασκευήν· οὐ μεταγινώσκων ἐπὶ τῷ τοσούτῳ κακῷ (εἰ γὰρ ἄν, οὐ πάντα ἦν πονηρός), ἀλλ' ἐπῄσθετο τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ἀπωλείας· ἀρχὴ γὰρ αὐτῷ καταδίκης ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ σταυρός, ἀρχὴ θανάτου, ἀρχὴ ἀπωλείας. διὸ καὶ ἔν τισιν ἐνεργεῖ ἀρνεῖσθαι τὸν σταυρόν, τὸ πάθος ἐπαισχύνεσθαι, τὸν θάνατον δόκησιν καλεῖν, τὴν ἐκ παρθένου γέννησιν περικόπτειν, τὴν φύσιν αὐτὴν διαβάλλειν ὡς μυσεράν. Ἰουδαίοις συμμαχεῖ εἰς ἄρνησιν τοῦ σταυροῦ, Ἕλλησιν εἰς συκοφαντίαν μαγείας, αἱρετικοῖς εἰς φαντασίαν. ποικίλος γάρ ἐστιν ὁ τῆς κακίας στρατηγός, κλεψίνους, ἄστατος, ἑαυτῷ ἐναντίος καὶ ἄλλα μὲν προβαλλόμενος, ἕτερα δὲ δεικνύς· σοφὸς γάρ ἐστι τοῦ κακοποιῆσαι, τὸ δὲ καλὸν ὅ τί ποτέ ἐστιν ἀγνοεῖ, ἀγνοίας πεπλήρωται δι' ἑκούσιον παράνοιαν. πῶς γὰρ οὐκ ἔστιν τοιοῦτος, ὃς μηδὲ πρὸ ποδῶν τὸν ἑαυτοῦ λόγον βλέπει; Eἰ γὰρ ψιλὸς ἄνθρωπος ὁ κύριος ἐκ ψυχῆς καὶ σώματος, τί περικόπτεις τὴν γέννησιν τῆς κοινῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων φύσεως; τί δὲ ὡς παράδοξόν τι ἐπ' ἀνθρώπου γενόμενον τὸ πάθος δόκησιν καλεῖς καὶ τὸν θάνατον τοῦ θνητοῦ δόξαν νομίζεις; εἰ δὲ θεὸς καὶ ἄνθρωπος, τί παράνομον καλεῖς τὸν τῆς δόξης κύριον, τὸν τῇ φύσει ἄτρεπτον; τί παράνομον λέγεις τὸν νομοθέτην, τὸν οὐκ ἀνθρωπείαν ψυχὴν