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in words; 20by all necessity the energies consequent on each of the essences are both less 1.1.256 and greater20. Now, the necessity which compels these things in the divine nature and which allots both the greater and the lesser, we have neither learned from him nor have we been able to comprehend from ourselves up to now. For hitherto the doctrine prevails among all who accept the simplicity of the more straightforward preaching, that no Necessity is superior to the divine nature, which bends and compels it towards the lesser, like some purchased 1.1.257 slave, the Only-begotten. But setting this aside, though it is worthy of no small inquiry, he dogmatizes only that one must think of him as lesser. And yet not only to this does his necessity bring the argument, but it also constructs something more, leading to blasphemy, as has already been partially examined before. For if the Son is not from the Father, but sprang from some unsubstantial energy, not only will he be conceived as lesser than the Father, but it is altogether 1.1.258 necessary for the dogma to Judaize. For the result of what is not, the consequence of this necessity shows to be not small, but something which it is not safe even for an accuser to say. For just as it is necessarily confessed to be that which has its generation from what is, so, on the contrary, it will of necessity be confessed <not to be> that which springs up from what is not. For when something itself is not, how will it bring another into existence from itself? 1.1.259 If, therefore, the energy which is consequent upon God but produces the Son is not in its own essence, who is so blind as not to perceive the construction of the blasphemy, that their aim looks toward the denial of our Savior himself? And if the consequence of their dogma steals the hypostasis of the Son from the faith, leaving him nothing but a bare name, hardly would the Holy Spirit be believed to be in his own hypostasis, who is generated through the succession of non-existent things. 1.1.260 For when the energy consequent upon God does not exist in essence, and the argument of necessity comprehends its result to be non-existent, and to this again some other non-existence of energy is consequent, and then through this the Spirit is constructed to have come into being, how is the blasphemy not manifest to all, that they construct nothing to subsist truly after the unbegottenly existing God, since their dogma proceeds through certain shadowy and non-existent fictions and is supported by nothing that truly subsists. 1.1.261 But the construction of those who dogmatize such things casts the argument into such absurdity. But let it be granted for the sake of argument that it is not so. For indeed they pretend to confess and are benevolent in word, conceding <the> being to both the Only-begotten Son and the 1.1.262 Holy Spirit in their own hypostasis. But if, in confessing these things, they also confessed the pious beliefs about them, they would not at all fight against the dogma of the Church nor would they have been separated from the common hope of Christians; but if, as if supplying for themselves some material and occasion for blasphemy, for this reason they grant being to the Son and to the Spirit, perhaps, though it be bold to say, it would have been more profitable for them to desert to the worship of the Jews, having renounced the faith, than to insult the name of Christians through the seeming 1.1.263 confession. For they, having remained unreceptive to the Word until now, are impious only to this extent, that they do not confess the Christ who has come, but hope that he will come; but it is not possible to hear them speak any wicked and subversive notion of the glory of the one expected by them 1.1.264. But those of the new circumcision, or rather of the, as the apostle says, 'concision,' do not deny that the expected one has come, but they imitate those who dishonor the Lord's presence in the flesh through unbelief and insolence. They attempted to throw stones at the Lord; these stone the word of truth 1.1.265 with blasphemous voices. They brought up of the birth according to the flesh the

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ῥήμασιν· 20ἀνάγκη πᾶσα τὰς ἑκάστῃ τῶν οὐσιῶν ἑπομένας ἐνεργείας ἐλάτ 1.1.256 τους τε καὶ μείζους εἶναι20. τὴν μὲν οὖν ἀνάγκην τὴν ταῦτα ἐν τῇ θείᾳ φύσει βιαζομένην καὶ τὸ μεῖζον καὶ τὸ ἔλαττον διακληροῦσαν οὔτε παρ' αὐτοῦ μεμαθήκαμεν οὔτε ἀφ' ἡμῶν αὐτῶν συνεῖναι μέχρι τοῦ νῦν δεδυνήμεθα. τέως γὰρ παρὰ πᾶσι κρατεῖ τὸ δόγμα τοῖς τὸν ἰδιωτισμὸν καταδεχομένοις τοῦ ἁπλουστέρου κηρύγματος, ὅτι οὐδεμία τις Ἀνάγκη τῆς θείας ὑπέρκειται φύσεως, ἣ πρὸς τὸ ἔλαττον κάμπτει καὶ βιάζεται καθάπερ τινὰ τῶν ἀργυρω 1.1.257 νήτων τὸν μονογενῆ. ἀλλὰ τοῦτο παρεὶς καίτοι οὐ μικρᾶς ζητήσεως ἄξιον ὂν μόνον τὸ δεῖν ἔλαττον νοεῖν δογματίζει. καὶ μὴν οὐκ εἰς τοῦτο μόνον ἡ ἀνάγκη τὸν λόγον καθί στησιν, ἀλλά τι καὶ πλέον εἰς βλασφημίαν κατασκευάζει, καθὼς ἤδη μερικῶς προεξήτασται. εἰ γὰρ μὴ ἐκ πατρὸς ὁ υἱός, ἀλλ' ἔκ τινος ἀνυποστάτου ἐνεργείας ἀνεφύη, οὐκ ἐλάττων μόνον τοῦ πατρὸς νοηθήσεται, ἀλλὰ τὸ παράπαν 1.1.258 ἰουδαΐζειν ἀνάγκη τῷ δόγματι. τὸ γὰρ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος ἀποτέ λεσμα οὐχὶ μικρὸν ἡ τῆς ἀνάγκης ταύτης ἀκολουθία δεί κνυσιν, ἀλλ' ὅπερ οὐδὲ κατηγοροῦντι λέγειν ἀκίνδυνον. ὥσπερ γὰρ ἀναγκαίως ὁμολογεῖται εἶναι τὸ ἐκ τοῦ ὄντος ἔχον τὴν γέννησιν, οὕτως τὸ ἔμπαλιν ἐξ ἀνάγκης ὁμολογη θήσεται <μὴ εἶναι> τὸ ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος ἀναφυόμενον. ὅταν γὰρ αὐτό τι μὴ ᾖ, πῶς ἕτερον ἐξ αὑτοῦ ὑποστήσει; 1.1.259 Εἰ οὖν οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν ἰδίᾳ οὐσίᾳ ἡ τῷ θεῷ μὲν παρεπο μένη ἐνέργεια, τὸν δὲ υἱὸν ἐργαζομένη, τίς οὕτω τυφλός, ὡς μὴ συνιδεῖν τὴν τῆς βλασφημίας κατασκευήν, ὅτι πρὸς τὴν αὐτοῦ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ἄρνησιν ὁ σκοπὸς αὐτῶν βλέπει; καὶ εἰ τοῦ υἱοῦ τὴν ὑπόστασιν ἡ τοῦ δόγ ματος αὐτῶν ἀκολουθία ὑποκλέπτει τῆς πίστεως, οὐδὲν αὐτῷ πλὴν ψιλοῦ ὀνόματος καταλείπουσα, σχολῇ γ' ἂν εἶναι κατ' ἰδίαν ὑπόστασιν πιστευθείη τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον τὸ διὰ τῆς τῶν ἀνυπάρκτων ἀκολουθίας γενεαλογούμενον. 1.1.260 ὅταν γὰρ μὴ ὑπάρχῃ μὲν κατ' οὐσίαν ἡ παρεπομένη τῷ θεῷ ἐνέργεια, ἀνύπαρκτον δὲ τὸ ταύτης ἀποτέλεσμα κατα λαμβάνῃ ἐξ ἀνάγκης ὁ λόγος, τούτῳ δὲ πάλιν ἄλλη τις ἐνεργείας ἀνυπαρξία παρέπηται, εἶτα διὰ τούτου γεγενῆσθαι τὸ πνεῦμα κατασκευάζηται, πῶς οὐκ εὔδηλος πᾶσιν ἡ βλασφημία, ὅτι μετὰ τὸν ἀγεννήτως ὄντα θεὸν οὐδὲν ἀλη θῶς ὑφεστάναι κατασκευάζουσι, διὰ σκιωδῶν τινων καὶ ἀνυπ άρκτων ἀναπλασμῶν προϊόντος αὐτῶν τοῦ δόγματος καὶ οὐδενὶ τῶν κατ' ἀλήθειαν ὑφεστώτων ἐπερειδομένου. 1.1.261 Ἀλλ' ἡ μὲν κατασκευὴ τῶν τὰ τοιαῦτα δογματιζόν των εἰς τοιαύτην ἀτοπίαν ἐκβάλλει τὸν λόγον. διδόσθω δὲ καθ' ὑπόθεσιν μὴ οὕτως ἔχειν. καὶ γὰρ ὁμολογοῦσι δῆθεν καὶ τῷ λόγῳ φιλανθρωπεύονται συγχωροῦντες <τὸ> εἶναι τῷ τε μονογενεῖ υἱῷ καὶ τῷ πνεύματι τῷ 1.1.262 ἁγίῳ κατ' ἰδίαν ὑπόστασιν. ἀλλ' εἰ μὲν ὁμολογοῦντες ταῦτα καὶ τὰς εὐσεβεῖς περὶ αὐτῶν ὑπολήψεις συνωμολόγουν, οὐδ' ἂν ἐμάχοντο πάντως πρὸς τὸ δόγμα τῆς ἐκκλησίας οὐδὲ τῆς κοινῆς ἐλπίδος τῶν Χριστιανῶν ἀπεσχίζοντο· εἰ δὲ καθάπερ ὕλην τινὰ καὶ ἀφορμὴν βλασφημίας ἑαυτοῖς ὑποβάλλοντες διὰ τοῦτο τῷ υἱῷ καὶ τῷ πνεύματι τὸ εἶναι χαρίζονται, τάχα, κἂν τολμηρὸν εἰπεῖν ᾖ, λυσιτελέστερον ἦν αὐτοῖς αὐτομολῆσαι πρὸς τὴν τῶν Ἰουδαίων λατρείαν ἐξομοσαμένοις τὴν πίστιν, ἢ καθυβρίζειν διὰ τῆς δοκούσης 1.1.263 ὁμολογίας τῶν Χριστιανῶν τὴν προσηγορίαν. ἐκεῖνοι μὲν γὰρ ἀπαράδεκτοι τοῦ λόγου μέχρι τοῦ νῦν διαμείναντες τοσοῦτον ἀσεβοῦσι μόνον, ὅσον τὸν ἐλθόντα Χριστὸν μὴ ὁμολογεῖν, ἀλλ' ἐλπίζειν ἐλεύσεσθαι· πονηρὰν δέ τινα καὶ καθαιρετικὴν ἔννοιαν τῆς τοῦ προσδοκωμένου παρ' αὐτοῖς 1.1.264 δόξης οὐδεμίαν ἔστι λεγόντων ἀκούειν. οἱ δὲ τῆς νέας περιτομῆς, μᾶλλον δὲ τῆς, καθώς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος, κατατομῆς, ἐληλυθέναι μὲν οὐκ ἀρνοῦνται τὸν προσδοκώ μενον, μιμοῦνται δὲ τοὺς τὴν κατὰ σάρκα τοῦ κυρίου παρ ουσίαν δι' ἀπιστίας καὶ ὕβρεως ἀτιμάζοντας. ἐκεῖνοι λίθοις βαλεῖν ἐπεχείρουν τὸν κύριον, οὗτοι ταῖς βλασφήμοις φωναῖς 1.1.265 τὸν τῆς ἀληθείας λόγον καταλιθάζουσιν. ἐκεῖνοι προέφερον τῆς κατὰ σάρκα γεννήσεως τὸ