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to have a distinction, that what is observed in common, such as what I call the uncreated, or what is beyond all comprehension or anything of that sort, we will not include in our judgment of what is particular, but we will seek only those things by which the concept of each will be clearly and unmixedly distinguished from what is contemplated along with it. 38.4 Therefore, it seems good to me to trace out the argument in this way. Every good thing which reaches us from the divine power, we say is an operation of the grace which works all things in all, as the Apostle says: "But all these things one and the same Spirit works, distributing to each one individually as He wills." But when we ask whether the supply of good things, taking its beginning from the Holy Spirit alone, thus comes to the worthy, we are again guided by Scripture to believe that the Only-begotten God is the source and cause of the supply of good things worked in us through the Spirit. For we have been taught by the holy Scripture that all things were made through him, and in him they consist. When, therefore, we are lifted up to that conception also, again, being led by the God-inspired guidance, we are taught that through that power all things are brought from non-being into being, yet not from it without a beginning, but there is a certain power subsisting unbegottenly and without beginning which is the cause of the cause of all existing things. For from the Father is the Son, through whom are all things, with whom the Holy Spirit is always inseparably conceived. For it is not possible to arrive at the thought of the Son without being first illumined by the Spirit. Since, therefore, the Holy Spirit, from whom the entire supply of good things for creation flows forth, is dependent on the Son, with whom He is inseparably apprehended, and has His being attached to the cause of the Father, from whom He also proceeds, this He has as a sign characteristic of his particular hypostasis: that He is known after the Son and with him, and that He subsists from the Father. But the Son, who makes known the Spirit who proceeds from the Father through himself and with himself, alone uniquely shining forth from the unbegotten light, has no communion with respect to the particularity of his marks either with the Father or with the Holy Spirit, but is known alone by the aforementioned signs. And the God over all has, as a special mark of his own hypostasis, this alone: to be the Father and to subsist from no cause; and by this sign, again, he himself is also particularly known. For this reason, in the commonality of the substance, we say that the characteristic marks observed in the Trinity, by which the particularity of the persons handed down in the faith is represented, are incompatible and incommunicable, each being apprehended distinctly by its own marks, so that through the aforementioned signs the distinction of the hypostases is discovered; but according to the infinite and incomprehensible and the being uncreated and not contained in any place and all such things, there is no variation in the life-giving nature (I speak of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit), but a certain continuous and undivided communion is observed in them. And by whatever concepts one might perceive the greatness of any one of those believed in the holy Trinity, through the same he will approach without variation to see the glory upon the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, with the mind stepping into no void in any interval between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Because there is nothing inserted between them, neither any other subsisting thing besides the divine nature, such that it could divide it against itself through the intrusion of something foreign, nor an unsubstantial void of any interval which would cause a gap in the harmony of the divine substance with itself, separating what is continuous by the insertion of the void. But he who has conceived of the Father has conceived of him in himself and has also admitted the Son into his thought. And he who has received this one has not separated the Spirit from the Son, but sequentially indeed according to order, and conjointly according to nature, of the three according to

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διάκρισιν ἔχειν, τὸ μὲν κοινῶς ἐπιθεωρούμενον, οἷον τὸ ἄκτιστον λέγω, ἢ τὸ ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν κατάληψιν ἢ εἴ τι τοιοῦτο οὐ συμπαραληψόμεθα εἰς τὴν τοῦ ἰδιάζοντος κρίσιν, ἐπι ζητήσομεν δὲ μόνον δι' ὧν ἡ περὶ ἑκάστου ἔννοια τηλαυ γῶς καὶ ἀμίκτως τῆς συνθεωρουμένης ἀφορισθήσεται. 38.4 Καλῶς οὖν ἔχειν μοι δοκεῖ οὕτως ἀνιχνεῦσαι τὸν λόγον. Πᾶν ὅπερ ἂν εἰς ἡμᾶς ἐκ θείας δυνάμεως ἀγαθὸν φθάσῃ τῆς πάντα ἐν πᾶσιν ἐνεργούσης χάριτος ἐνέργειαν εἶναί φαμεν, καθώς φησιν ὁ Ἀπόστολος ὅτι· «Ταῦτα δὲ πάντα ἐνεργεῖ τὸ ἓν καὶ τὸ αὐτὸ Πνεῦμα διαιροῦν ἰδίᾳ ἑκάστῳ καθὼς βούλεται». Ζητοῦντες δὲ εἰ ἐκ μόνου τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος ἡ τῶν ἀγαθῶν χορηγία τὴν ἀρχὴν λαβοῦσα οὕτω παραγίνεται τοῖς ἀξίοις, πάλιν ὑπὸ τῆς Γραφῆς ὁδηγούμεθα εἰς τὸ τῆς χορηγίας τῶν ἀγαθῶν τῶν διὰ τοῦ Πνεύματος ἡμῖν ἐνεργουμένων ἀρχηγὸν καὶ αἴτιον τὸν Μονογενῆ Θεὸν εἶναι πιστεύειν. Πάντα γὰρ δι' αὐτοῦ γεγενῆσθαι καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ συνεστάναι παρὰ τῆς ἁγίας Γραφῆς ἐδιδάχθημεν. Ὅταν τοίνυν καὶ πρὸς ἐκείνην ὑψωθῶμεν τὴν ἔννοιαν, πάλιν ὑπὸ τῆς θεοπνεύστου χειραγωγίας ἀναγόμενοι διδασκόμεθα ὅτι δι' ἐκείνης μὲν πάντα τῆς δυνάμεως ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἰς τὸ εἶναι παρά γεται, οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ ἐξ ἐκείνης ἀνάρχως, ἀλλά τίς ἐστι δύναμις ἀγεννήτως καὶ ἀνάρχως ὑφεστῶσα ἥτις ἐστὶν αἰτία τῆς ἁπάντων τῶν ὄντων αἰτίας. Ἐκ γὰρ τοῦ Πατρὸς ὁ Υἱὸς δι' οὗ τὰ πάντα, ᾧ πάντοτε τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον ἀχωρίστως συνεπινοεῖται. Οὐ γάρ ἐστιν ἐν περινοίᾳ τοῦ Υἱοῦ γενέσθαι μὴ προκαταυγασθέντα τῷ Πνεύματι. Ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν τὸ Ἅγιον Πνεῦμα, ἀφ' οὗ πᾶσα ἐπὶ τὴν κτίσιν ἡ τῶν ἀγαθῶν χορηγία πηγάζει, τοῦ Υἱοῦ μὲν ἤρτηται ᾧ ἀδιαστάτως συγκαταλαμβάνεται, τῆς δὲ τοῦ Πατρὸς αἰτίας ἐξημμένον ἔχει τὸ εἶναι, ὅθεν καὶ ἐκπορεύεται, τοῦτο γνωριστικὸν τῆς κατὰ τὴν ὑπόστασιν ἰδιότητος σημεῖον ἔχει, τὸ μετὰ τὸν Υἱὸν καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ γνωρίζεσθαι καὶ τὸ ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς ὑφεστάναι. Ὁ δὲ Υἱὸς ὁ τὸ ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον Πνεῦμα δι' ἑαυτοῦ καὶ μεθ' ἑαυτοῦ γνωρίζων, μόνος μονογενῶς ἐκ τοῦ ἀγεννήτου φωτὸς ἐκλάμψας, οὐδεμίαν κατὰ τὸ ἰδιάζον τῶν γνωρισμά των τὴν κοινωνίαν ἔχει πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα ἢ πρὸς τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον, ἀλλὰ τοῖς εἰρημένοις σημείοις μόνος γνωρίζεται. Ὁ δὲ ἐπὶ πάντων Θεὸς ἐξαίρετόν τι γνώρισμα τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ὑποστάσεως τὸ Πατὴρ εἶναι καὶ ἐκ μηδεμιᾶς αἰτίας ὑποστῆναι μόνος ἔχει, καὶ διὰ τούτου πάλιν τοῦ σημείου καὶ αὐτὸς ἰδιαζόντως ἐπιγινώσκεται. Τούτου ἕνεκεν ἐν τῇ τῆς οὐσίας κοινότητι ἀσύμβατά φαμεν εἶναι καὶ ἀκοινώνητα τὰ ἐπιθεωρούμενα τῇ Τριάδι γνωρίσματα δι' ὧν ἡ ἰδιότης παρίσταται τῶν ἐν τῇ πίστει παραδεδο μένων προσώπων, ἑκάστου τοῖς ἰδίοις γνωρίσμασι διακε κριμένως καταλαμβανομένου, ὥστε διὰ τῶν εἰρημένων σημείων τὸ κεχωρισμένον τῶν ὑποστάσεων ἐξευρεθῆναι· κατὰ δὲ τὸ ἄπειρον καὶ ἀκατάληπτον καὶ τὸ ἀκτίστως εἶναι καὶ μηδενὶ τόπῳ περιειλῆφθαι καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς τοιού τοις μηδεμίαν εἶναι παραλλαγὴν ἐν τῇ ζωοποιῷ φύσει (ἐπὶ Πατρὸς λέγω καὶ Υἱοῦ καὶ Πνεύματος Ἁγίου), ἀλλά τινα συνεχῆ καὶ ἀδιάσπαστον κοινωνίαν ἐν αὐτοῖς θεω ρεῖσθαι. Καὶ δι' ὧν ἄν τις νοημάτων τὸ μεγαλεῖον ἑνός τινος τῶν ἐν τῇ ἁγίᾳ Τριάδι πιστευομένων κατανοήσειε, διὰ τῶν αὐτῶν προσελεύσεται ἀπαραλλάκτως ἐπὶ Πατρὸς καὶ Υἱοῦ καὶ Πνεύματος Ἁγίου τὴν δόξαν βλέπων, ἐν οὐδενὶ διαλείμματι μεταξὺ Πατρὸς καὶ Υἱοῦ καὶ Ἁγίου Πνεύ ματος τῆς διανοίας κενεμβατούσης. ∆ιότι οὐδέν ἐστι τὸ διὰ μέσου τούτων παρενειρόμενον οὔτε πρᾶγμα ὑφεστὼς ἄλλο τι παρὰ τὴν θείαν φύσιν, ὡς καταμερίζειν αὐτὴν πρὸς ἑαυτὴν διὰ τῆς τοῦ ἀλλοτρίου παρεμπτώσεως δύνασθαι, οὔτε διαστήματός τινος ἀνυποστάτου κενότης ἥτις κεχηνέναι ποιεῖ τῆς θείας οὐσίας τὴν πρὸς ἑαυτὴν ἁρμονίαν, τῇ παρενθήκῃ τοῦ κενοῦ τὸ συνεχὲς διαστέλ λουσα. Ἀλλ' ὁ τὸν Πατέρα νοήσας αὐτόν τε ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ ἐνόησε καὶ τὸν Υἱὸν τῇ διανοίᾳ συμπαρεδέξατο. Ὁ δὲ τοῦτον λαβὼν τοῦ Υἱοῦ τὸ Πνεῦμα οὐκ ἀπεμέρισεν, ἀλλ' ἀκολούθως μὲν κατὰ τὴν τάξιν, συνημμένως δὲ κατὰ τὴν φύσιν, τῶν τριῶν κατὰ