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glory and all such things, except for the difference in hypostases, this one, whenever he wishes to make the substance of the only-begotten common with creation, calls him the firstborn of all creation according to his pre-eternal existence, declaring by this term that all things understood in creation are brothers of the Lord; for the firstborn is not the firstborn of those of a different kind, but always of those of the same kind; but when he separates the Spirit from its connection to the Son, he calls him only-begotten, as not having a brother of the same kind, not so that one might understand him to be without brothers, but so that through this he might establish that the Spirit is alien in substance. 6 For we have learned from Scripture not to call the Holy Spirit "1brother"2; but that one must not call the Spirit of the same kind as the Son is in no way proven from the divine words. For if the life-giving power is shown to be in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit according to the voice of the gospel, if the incorruptible and immutable and the unsusceptible of any evil, if the good and the upright and the ruling principle and that which works all in all as it wills, if all such things can be seen in like manner in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, how is it possible, through the identity in these things, to conceive of a different kind? 7

Therefore the argument of piety agrees that one must not contemplate any brotherhood concerning the only-begotten, but that the Spirit is not of the same kind as the Son, the upright with the upright, the good with the good, the life-giving with the life-giving, this is clearly proven from the consequence of the argument to be of heretical villainy. How then is the majesty of the Spirit diminished by these things? For there is nothing in the God-befitting concepts that can cause an increase or a decrease, and since all of these are equally attributed to both the Son and the Spirit by the holy Scripture, in what respect he sees the inequality he could not say. But he puts forward his impiety against the Holy Spirit naked and unadorned and not dependent on any logical sequence. 8 Nor indeed, he says, is it ranked with anything else; for it has ascended above all the creations that came to be through the Son, in generation and nature and glory and knowledge, as the first and best work of the only-begotten, the greatest and most beautiful. But I for my part will leave the uneducated and vulgar quality of his diction for others to mock, judging it unseemly for my elder's grey hair to reproach the impious one for his lack of education in his words on the present argument. But this I will add 9 to the examination. If the Spirit has ascended above all the "1creations"2 of the Son (for I will use this solecistic and senseless phrase of his, or rather, for greater clarity, I will present the thought in my own words), if it excels all things that have come to be from the Son, the Holy Spirit is unranked with the rest of creation; and if it has an advantage, as Eunomius says, in having come to be before the others, it is absolutely necessary for him to confess that, in the rest of creation too, the things that come first in the order of generation are more honorable than those that follow. But surely the nature of the irrational animals 210 preceded the creation of man. Therefore, through these arguments he will certainly establish that the irrational is more honorable than the rational substance. Thus also Cain will be shown to be greater than Abel according to Eunomius' argument, being prior in time according to birth, thus also the nature of the stars will be revealed to be less and inferior to all things that grow from the earth; for the latter sprang up from the earth on the third of the days, while the great lights and all the stars are recorded by Moses 211 to have come into being on the fourth. But surely no one is so foolish as to consider the grass of the earth more honorable than the wonders of the heavens because of its precedence in time, or to give Cain the victory over Abel, or to subject to the irrational animals man who came into being after them. Therefore, what is said by him has no sense, that because the Spirit came to be before the others, it has a more honorable nature than the things that came to be after. 212

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δόξαν καὶ πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα κηρύσσοντος πλὴν τῆς κατὰ τὰς ὑποστάσεις δια φορᾶς, οὗτος ὅταν μὲν βούληται κοινοποιῆσαι πρὸς τὴν κτίσιν τοῦ μονογενοῦς τὴν οὐσίαν, πρωτότοκον αὐτὸν λέγει πάσης τῆς κτίσεως κατὰ τὴν προαιώνιον ὕπαρξιν, ἀδελφὰ τοῦ κυρίου πάντα τὰ ἐν τῇ κτίσει νοούμενα διὰ τῆς φωνῆς ταύτης εἶναι ἀποφαινόμενος· ὁ γὰρ πρωτότοκος οὐ τῶν ἑτερογενῶν, ἀλλὰ τῶν ὁμογενῶν πάντως ἐστὶ πρωτότοκος· ὅταν δὲ τῆς πρὸς τὸν υἱὸν συναφείας ἀποσχίζῃ τὸ πνεῦμα, μονογενῆ αὐτὸν λέγει, μὴ ἔχοντα ἀδελφὸν ὁμογενῆ, οὐχ ἵνα ἄνευ ἀδελφῶν αὐτὸν νοήσῃ, ἀλλ' ἵνα διὰ τούτου κατα σκευάσῃ περὶ τοῦ πνεύματος τὸ κατὰ τὴν οὐσίαν ἀλλό 6 τριον. τὸ μὲν γὰρ μὴ λέγειν "1ἀδελφὸν"2 τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον παρὰ τῆς γραφῆς μεμαθήκαμεν· τὸ δὲ μὴ δεῖν ὁμογενὲς τῷ υἱῷ λέγειν τὸ πνεῦμα οὐδαμόθεν ἐκ τῶν θείων ἀποδείκνυται λόγων. εἰ γὰρ ἡ ζωοποιὸς δύναμις ἐν πατρὶ καὶ υἱῷ ἀποδείκνυται καὶ πνεύματι ἁγίῳ κατὰ τὴν τοῦ εὐαγγελίου φωνήν, εἰ τὸ ἄφθαρτόν τε καὶ ἄτρεπτον καὶ τὸ κακοῦ παντὸς ἀνεπίδεκτον, εἰ τὸ ἀγαθὸν καὶ τὸ εὐθὲς καὶ τὸ ἡγεμονικὸν καὶ τὸ πάντα ἐν πᾶσιν ἐνεργοῦν καθὼς βούλεται, εἰ πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα ὡσαύτως ἔστιν ἰδεῖν ἐπὶ πατρός τε καὶ υἱοῦ καὶ πνεύματος ἁγίου, πῶς ἔστι διὰ 7 τῆς ἐν τούτοις ταὐτότητος τὸ ἑτερογενὲς ἐννοῆσαι;

Οὐκοῦν τὸ μὴ δεῖν ἀδελφότητά τινα περὶ τὸν μονογενῆ θεωρεῖν ὁ τῆς εὐσεβείας συντίθεται λόγος, τὸ δὲ μὴ εἶναι τῷ υἱῷ ὁμογενὲς τὸ πνεῦμα, τῷ εὐθεῖ τὸ εὐθές, τῷ ἀγαθῷ τὸ ἀγαθόν, τῷ ζωοποιῷ τὸ ζωοποιόν, τοῦτο τῆς αἱρετικῆς κακουργίας ἐκ τῆς τοῦ λόγου ἀκολουθίας σαφῶς ἀποδέ δεικται. τί οὖν διὰ τούτων κολοβοῦται ἡ μεγαλειότης τοῦ πνεύματος; οὐδὲν γάρ ἐστι τὸ πλεονασμὸν ἢ ὕφεσιν ἐμποι ῆσαι δυνάμενον ἐκ τῶν θεοπρεπῶν νοημάτων, ὧν πάντων κατὰ τὸ ἴσον ἐπιλεγομένων τῷ τε υἱῷ καὶ τῷ πνεύματι παρὰ τῆς ἁγίας γραφῆς ἐν τίνι βλέπει τὸ ἄνισον οὐκ ἂν εἰπεῖν ἔχοι. ἀλλὰ γυμνὴν καὶ ἀκατάσκευον καὶ μηδεμιᾶς ἠρτημένην ἀκολουθίας τὴν κατὰ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος προ φέρει ἀσέβειαν. 8 Οὔτε μὴν ἄλλῳ, φησί, τινὶ συντασσόμενον· ἁπάντων γὰρ ἀναβέβηκε τῶν διὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ γε νομένων ποιημάτων γενέσει καὶ φύσει καὶ δόξῃ καὶ γνώσει, ὡς πρῶτον ἔργον καὶ κρά τιστον τοῦ μονογενοῦς μέγιστόν τε καὶ κάλλι στον. ἐγὼ δὲ τὸ μὲν ἀπαίδευτον καὶ συρφετῶδες τῆς λέ ξεως ἄλλοις κωμῳδεῖν καταλείψω, ἀπρεπὲς εἶναι κρίνων πρεσβυτικῇ πολιᾷ τὴν ἐν τοῖς ῥήμασιν ἀπαιδευσίαν προφέ ρειν τῷ ἀσεβοῦντι εἰς τὸν προκείμενον λόγον. ἐκεῖνο δὲ 9 προσθήσω τῇ ἐξετάσει. εἰ πάντων ἀναβέβηκε τῶν τοῦ υἱοῦ "1ποιημάτων"2 τὸ πνεῦμα (χρήσομαι γὰρ αὐτοῦ τῇ σεσο λοικισμένῃ ταύτῃ καὶ ἀνοήτῳ φωνῇ, μᾶλλον δὲ πρὸς τὸ σαφέστερον διὰ τῆς ἐμαυτοῦ λέξεως παραστήσω τὸ νόημα), εἰ πάντων προέχει τῶν παρὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ γεγονότων, ἀσύν τακτόν ἐστι τῇ λοιπῇ κτίσει τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον· καὶ εἰ πλεονεκτεῖ δέ, καθώς φησιν ὁ Εὐνόμιος, τῷ πρὸ τῶν ἄλ λων γενέσθαι, ἀνάγκη πᾶσα καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς ἄλλης κτίσεως τὰ τῇ γενέσει κατὰ τὴν τάξιν προήκοντα τῶν ἐφεξῆς αὐτὸν ὁμολογεῖν προτιμότερα. ἀλλὰ μὴν τῆς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου 210 κατασκευῆς ἡ τῶν ἀλόγων προϋπέστη φύσις. οὐκοῦν κατα σκευάσει πάντως διὰ τούτων προτιμοτέραν εἶναι τῆς λογικῆς οὐσίας τὴν ἄλογον. οὕτω καὶ ὁ Κάϊν τοῦ Ἄβελ κρείττων κατὰ τὸν τοῦ Εὐνομίου λόγον δειχθήσεται, προτερεύων τῷ χρόνῳ κατὰ τὴν γένεσιν, οὕτω καὶ τῶν ἐκ τῆς γῆς φυο μένων ἁπάντων ἐλάττων καὶ καταδεεστέρα ἡ τῶν ἄστρων φύσις ἀναδειχθήσεται· τὰ μὲν γὰρ τῇ τρίτῃ τῶν ἡμερῶν ἐκ τῆς γῆς ἐξανέτειλεν, οἱ δὲ μεγάλοι φωστῆρες καὶ τὰ ἄστρα πάντα κατὰ τὴν τετάρτην γεγενῆσθαι παρὰ τοῦ 211 Μωϋσέως ἱστόρηνται. ἀλλὰ μὴν οὐδεὶς οὕτως ἀνόητος, ὡς τῶν οὐρανίων θαυμάτων τὴν γηΐνην πόαν προτιμοτέραν διὰ τὰ τοῦ χρόνου πρεσβεῖα λογίσασθαι ἢ τῷ Κάϊν δοῦναι κατὰ τοῦ Ἄβελ τὰ νικητήρια ἢ ὑποζεῦξαι τοῖς ἀλόγοις τὸν ἄνθρωπον τὸν μετ' ἐκεῖνα γενόμενον. οὐκ ἄρα νοῦν ἔχει τινὰ τὸ παρὰ τούτου λεγόμενον, ὅτι διὰ τὸ πρὸ τῶν ἄλλων γενέσθαι τὸ πνεῦμα προτιμοτέραν ἔχει τῶν ἐφεξῆς γεγονότων τὴν φύσιν. 212