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when we hear that a man is a father, then we also take on the notion of passion; but when, that God is Father, we run back in our thoughts to the impassible cause. But he, having been accustomed to this address in the case of passible nature, denies as impossible that which is beyond the grasp of his own reasonings. For it was not fitting for one who gives heed to the passion of corruptible things to disbelieve in the impassibility of God, nor for one who compares the immutable and unchangeable substance with a nature that is in flux and subject to countless changes. Nor because mortal creatures beget through passion, should one think it was necessary for God to be so; but from this rather one should be led to the truth: that, since corruptible things are so, the incorruptible is the opposite. And indeed he would not say this, that these names, having been properly and primarily assigned to men, we apply improperly to God. For our Lord Jesus Christ, leading us back to the origin of all things and the true cause of beings, says, 'And call no one your father on earth; for one is your Father, the heavenly one.' How then does he require us to reject these words as primarily indicative of carnal passions, which the Lord, as befitting the impassibility of God, transfers from men to Himself? But if 29.624 He is also called Father of created things, this does not yet conflict with our argument. For He who begot the clods of dew, according to the word of Job, did not beget the clods and the Son in the same way. Or if they dare to say this, so as to call the substance of the dew a son in equal rank, they will release us from all argument against them, having advanced their blasphemy to most manifest shamelessness. For not even when God is called the Father of us all, is He Father of us and of the Only-begotten in the same way. But if it is because the Lord has been called firstborn of all creation, and firstborn among many brethren, that this trains them toward impiety; let them be taught from the Gospel, that the Lord also calls His mother and brothers those who have become His own through the works of virtue. For who, He says, is my mother, and who are my brothers, but those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven? So that God is called our Father not improperly nor by metaphor, but properly, and primarily, and truly; having brought us into being from not being through our physical parents, and making us His own by His care. But if we say that God is truly called Father of us who have been deemed worthy of the grace of adoption, what argument will take away from the Son by nature, and who came forth from His substance, that He should not be fittingly addressed as Father? {EUN.} One ought not, he says, because of the title of Father and Son, to conceive of the Lord's generation in a human way. {BAS.} I say so too. But what prevents the pious from believing it to be divine and impassible? But, I think, he uses these words not to show that God begot impassibly, but that He did not beget at all. How then in the arguments above, my good sir, did you declare the substance of the Only-begotten to be an offspring? For if He has not been begotten, from where, according to your argument, did being an offspring belong to Him? But on the one hand, because of the opposition of the begotten to the unbegotten, he strove to show 29.625 that the substance is an offspring; but now, on the other hand, seeing again the appropriation of substance signified by this word, he takes away the 'having been begotten' from the offspring. And yet if he rejects this as indicative of passion, what prevents him from not accepting that He is creator for the same reasons? Because with all physical activities some greater or lesser toil is certainly joined, according to the proportion of the power of the one acting and the difference with respect to the magnitude of the things being worked on. To say, however, that the divine and blessed nature is constrained by weariness is no less impious than to subject it to the most shameful passions. But if He creates impassibly, accept that the generation is also impassible. So then as

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μὲν οὖν ἀκούσωμεν, ὅτι ἄνθρωπος πατὴρ, τότε καὶ τὴν τοῦ πάθους ἔννοιαν προσλαμ βάνομεν· ὅταν δὲ, ὅτι ὁ Θεὸς Πατὴρ, ἐπὶ τὴν ἀπαθῆ αἰτίαν τοῖς λογισμοῖς ἀνατρέχομεν. Ὁ δὲ, ἐπὶ τῆς ἐμπαθοῦς φύσεως τῇ προσηγορίᾳ ταύτῃ συνεθισθεὶς, τὸ ὑπὲρ τὴν κατάληψιν τῶν ἑαυτοῦ λογισμῶν ὡς ἀδύνατον ἀπαρνεῖται. Οὐ γὰρ, τῷ πάθει τῶν φθαρ τῶν προσέχοντα, τῇ ἀπαθείᾳ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀπιστεῖν προσῆκεν, οὐδὲ, τῇ ῥευστῇ φύσει καὶ μυρίαις ὑπο κειμένῃ μεταβολαῖς, τὴν ἄτρεπτον καὶ ἀναλλοίωτον οὐσίαν παρατιθέντα. Μηδ' ὅτι τὰ θνητὰ ζῶα διὰ πάθους γεννᾷ, καὶ τὸν Θεὸν ἐχρῆν οὕτως οἴεσθαι· ἀλλ' ἐντεῦθεν μᾶλλον ὁδηγεῖσθαι πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν· ὅτι, ἐπειδὴ τὰ φθαρτὰ οὕτως, ὁ ἄφθαρτος ἐναντίως. Καὶ μὴν οὐδὲ ἐκεῖνό γε ἂν εἴποι, ὡς κυρίως καὶ πρώτως ἐπὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων τεταγμένων τῶν ὀνο μάτων τούτων, καταχρηστικῶς ἡμεῖς ἐπιλέγομεν τῷ Θεῷ. Ὁ γάρ τοι Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς, πρὸς τὴν πάντων ἀρχὴν καὶ τὴν ἀληθῆ τῶν ὄντων αἰτίαν ἐπανάγων ἡμᾶς, Ὑμεῖς δὲ μὴ καλέσητε, φησὶ, πατέρα ὑμῶν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς· εἷς γάρ ἐστι Πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὁ οὐράνιος. Πῶς οὖν ὡς σαρκι κῶν παθῶν προηγουμένως ἐνδεικτικὰς ταύτας ἡμᾶς ἀξιοῖ τὰς φωνὰς ἀποπέμπεσθαι, ἃς ὁ Κύριος, ὡς τῇ ἀπαθείᾳ τοῦ Θεοῦ πρεπούσας, ἀπὸ τῶν ἀν θρώπων πρὸς αὐτὸν μετατίθησιν; Εἰ δὲ καὶ 29.624 τῶν κτισμάτων Πατὴρ ὀνομάζεται, οὔπω τῷ λόγῳ τῷ ἡμετέρῳ μάχεται. Ὁ γὰρ τετοκὼς βώλους δρό σου, κατὰ τὸν τοῦ Ἰὼβ λόγον, οὐχ ὁμοίως τάς τε βώλους καὶ τὸν Υἱὸν ἐτεκνώσατο. Ἢ εἰ τοῦτο λέγειν τολμήσουσιν, ὥστε ἐν ἴσῃ τάξει καὶ τὴν οὐσίαν τῆς δρόσου υἱὸν ὀνομάζειν, παντὸς ἡμᾶς τοῦ πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἀπαλλάξουσι λόγου, εἰς περιφανεστάτην ἀν αισχυντίαν τὴν βλασφημίαν προαγαγόντες. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ὅταν Πατὴρ πάντων ἡμῶν λέγηται ὁ Θεὸς, κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον ἡμῶν τε καὶ τοῦ Μονογενοῦς ἐστι Πατήρ. Εἰ δὲ ὅτι πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως, καὶ πρωτότοκος ἐν πολλοῖς ἀδελφοῖς, ὁ Κύριος προσηγό ρευται, τοῦτο αὐτοὺς παιδοτριβεῖ πρὸς ἀσέβειαν· διδασκέσθωσαν ἐκ τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου, ὅτι καὶ μητέ ρα ἑαυτοῦ καὶ ἀδελφοὺς ὁ Κύριος τοὺς ἐκ τῶν ἔργων τῆς ἀρετῆς οἰκειωθέντας προσαγορεύει. Τίς γάρ ἐστι, φησὶ, ἡ μήτηρ μου, καὶ τίνες οἱ ἀδελ φοί μου, ἀλλ' ἢ οἱ ποιοῦντες τὸ θέλημα τοῦ Πατρός μου τοῦ ἐν οὐρανοῖς; Ὥστε Πατὴρ ἡμῶν ὁ Θεὸς οὐ καταχρηστικῶς οὐδ' ἐκ μεταφορᾶς, ἀλλὰ κυ ρίως, καὶ πρώτως, καὶ ἀληθινῶς ὀνομάζεται· διὰ τῶν σωματικῶν γονέων εἰς τὸ εἶναι ἡμᾶς ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος παραγαγὼν, καὶ ταῖς κηδεμονίαις προσοικειου μένους. Εἰ δὲ ἡμῶν τῶν χάριτι τῆς υἱοθεσίας ἠξιου μένων ἀληθῶς κεκλῆσθαι Πατέρα τὸν Θεὸν λέγο μεν, τίς ἀφαιρήσεται λόγος τοῦ κατὰ φύσιν Υἱοῦ, καὶ ἐκ τῆς οὐσίας αὐτοῦ προελθόντος, μὴ οὐχὶ πρεπόντως αὐτὸν Πατέρα προσαγορεύεσθαι; {ΕΥΝ.} Οὐ χρὴ, φησὶ, διὰ τὴν Πατρὸς καὶ Υἱοῦ προσηγορίαν ἀνθρωπικὴν τὴν τοῦ Κυρίου γέν νησιν ἐννοεῖν. {ΒΑΣ.} Φημὶ κἀγώ. Θείαν μέντοι καὶ ἀπαθῆ τί κω λύει πιστεύειν τοὺς εὐσεβεῖς; Ἀλλ', οἶμαι, οὐχ ἵνα ἀπαθῶς γεγεννηκότα τὸν Θεὸν ἐπιδείξῃ, χρῆται τοῖς λόγοις τούτοις, ἀλλ' ἵνα μηδὲ γεννήσαντα ὅλως. Πῶς οὖν ἐν τοῖς ἄνω λόγοις, ὦ βέλτιστε, γέννημα εἶ ναι τὴν οὐσίαν τοῦ Μονογενοῦς ἀπεφαίνου; Εἰ γὰρ μὴ γεγέννηται, πόθεν αὐτῷ τὸ γέννημα εἶναι κατὰ τὸν σὸν λόγον προσῆν; Ἀλλὰ διὰ μὲν τὴν τοῦ γεννη τοῦ πρὸς τὸ ἀγέννητον ἐναντίωσιν γέννημα οὖσαν 29.625 δεικνύναι τὴν οὐσίαν ἐφιλονείκει· νυνὶ δὲ, πάλιν τὴν τῆς οὐσίας οἰκείωσιν διὰ τῆς φωνῆς ταύτης ση μαινομένην ὁρῶν, τὸ γεγεννῆσθαι τοῦ γεννήματος ἀφαιρεῖται. Καὶ μὴν εἰ τοῦτο ὡς πάθους δηλω τικὸν παραιτεῖται, τί κωλύει καὶ τὸ δημιουργὸν αὐ τὸν εἶναι διὰ τὰς αὐτὰς αὐτίας μὴ παραδέχεσθαι; ∆ιότι πάσαις ταῖς σωματικαῖς ἐνεργείαις ἢ πλείων τις πάντως ἢ ἐλάττων κόπος συνέζευκται, κατὰ τὴν ἀναλογίαν τῆς τοῦ ποιοῦντος δυνάμεως καὶ τῆς πρὸς τὰ μεγέθη τῶν ἐνεργουμένων διαφορᾶς. Τήν γε μὴν θείαν καὶ μακαρίαν φύσιν καμάτῳ λέγειν συνέχεσθαι οὐχ ἧττον ἀσεβὲς, ἢ τοῖς αἰσχίστοις αὐτὴν πάθεσιν ὑποβάλλειν. Εἰ δὲ ἀπαθῶς κτίζει, ἀπαθῆ εἶναι δέξα σθε καὶ τὴν γέννησιν. Ὡς μὲν οὖν