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and by the artifice of the Holy Spirit. Let us then consider according to what thought he conceives the necessity of such a difference, whether in some corporeal comparison of the measured things with each other, or considered according to the intelligible in that which exceeds and is deficient in virtue, 1.1.283 or according to substance itself. But regarding substance, it has been shown by those who know how to philosophize on such matters that no difference can be conceived, if one strips it bare and denudes it of its observed qualities and properties and examines it by itself according to the principle of its being. But to conceive of such a difference with respect to the Only-begotten and the Spirit by way of intensification and remission of virtue, and for this reason to necessarily suppose their nature to be changeable in either direction, as being equally receptive of opposites and lying on the border of good and its contrary, 1.1.284 is of the utmost impiety. For he who says these things will establish that it is one thing according to its own principle, and becomes something else by participation in the good and the worse. As happens in the case of iron, which, having communed more with fire, takes on the quality of heat while remaining iron; but if it should be in snow or ice, it changes its quality toward what prevails, having received the cold of the snow into its own particles. 1.1.285 Therefore, just as we do not name the matter from the quality observed in the iron (for we do not call fire or ice that which has been qualified by one of these), so if it were granted, according to the argument of the impious, that goodness does not subsist in the life-giving power by substance, but accrues by participation, it will no longer be properly named from the designation of goodness, but such a supposition will compel one to think of something else, so that goodness is neither eternally beheld in it, nor is it comprehended as that which it is in the nature of goodness, but as goodness at one time not being in 1.1.286 it and at another time not going to be. For if they become good by partaking of the better, it is clear that before the participation they were not such, and if, being something else, they were tinged by the presence of the good, then if they are deprived of this, they will certainly be conceived as something other than the good; and if this should prevail, the divine nature will be apprehended not so much as providing good things 1.1.287 but as itself being in need of that which makes good. For how could someone provide to another that which he does not himself have? If therefore it has it perfectly, we shall conceive of no remission in its perfection, and he who argues for a lesser in the perfect is vain. But if the participation of the good in them is considered imperfect, and on this account they speak of the lesser, consider the consequence, that what is in such a state will not benefit the one who is more deficient, but will be eager to fill up its own lack; so that according to them, false is the account of providence and of judgment and of the economy and of all things believed to have come to be and to always be coming to be from the Only-begotten, since he would likely be occupied with the care for his own good and letting go of the superintendence of the universe. 1.1.288 For if this suspicion should prevail, that the Lord is not perfected in every good, it is no longer difficult to see to what the blasphemy leads. For truly of such people, their faith is vain, their preaching is empty, and their hopes are without substance, which have their substance through faith. For why are they baptized into Christ, who does not have his own power of goodness? 1.1.289 But may the blasphemy be far from my mouth. And why do they believe in the Holy Spirit, if they reason the same things also concerning this one? How are they reborn from corruptible birth through baptism, when even the power that regenerates them does not, as they think, naturally possess the unfallen and the non-deficient? How is the body of their humiliation transformed, when they believe that the very one who transforms is in need of alteration for the better, himself needing another in turn to transform him? 1.1.290 For as long as it is in the lesser, because of the good nature of the one who is superior, a certain unceasing drawing toward itself

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καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος τεχνολογίᾳ. σκοπήσωμεν τοίνυν κατὰ τίνα διάνοιαν ἐπινοεῖ τῆς τοιαύτης διαφορᾶς τὴν ἀνάγκην, πότερον σωματικῆς τινος γενομένης τῆς πρὸς ἄλληλα τῶν παραμετρουμένων συγκρίσεως ἢ κατὰ τὸ νοητὸν ἐν τῷ κατ' ἀρετὴν ὑπερβάλλοντι καὶ ἐνδέοντι 1.1.283 θεωρουμένης ἢ κατὰ τὴν οὐσίαν αὐτήν. ἀλλ' ἐπὶ μὲν τῆς οὐσίας ἐδείχθη παρὰ τῶν τὰ τοιαῦτα φιλοσοφεῖν εἰδότων μηδεμίαν δύνασθαι διαφορὰν ἐννοῆσαι, ἐάν τις αὐτὴν ψι λώσας καὶ ἀπογυμνώσας τῶν ἐπιθεωρουμένων ποιοτήτων τε καὶ ἰδιωμάτων αὐτὴν ἐφ' ἑαυτῆς ἐξετάζῃ κατὰ τὸν τοῦ εἶναι λόγον. ἐπιτάσει δὲ καὶ ὑφέσει τῆς ἀρετῆς τὴν τοι αύτην διαφορὰν ἐννοεῖν περὶ τοῦ μονογενοῦς καὶ τοῦ πνεύ ματος καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μεταπτωτὴν ἀναγκαίως ἐφ' ἑκάτερα τὴν φύσιν αὐτῶν ὑποτίθεσθαι ὡς δεκτικὴν οὖσαν ἐπ' ἴσης τῶν ἐναντίων καὶ ἐν μεθορίῳ καλοῦ τε καὶ τοῦ ἐναντίου 1.1.284 κειμένην, τῆς ἐσχάτης ἀσεβείας ἐστίν. ἄλλο γάρ τι εἶναι αὐτὴν κατὰ τὸν ἴδιον λόγον καὶ ἄλλο τι γίνεσθαι τῇ μετ ουσίᾳ τοῦ καλοῦ καὶ τοῦ χείρονος ὁ ταῦτα λέγων κατα σκευάσει. οἷον ἐπὶ τοῦ σιδήρου συμβαίνει, ὃς ἐπὶ πλέον μὲν τοῦ πυρὸς καθομιλήσας τὴν ποιότητα τοῦ θερμοῦ ὑπο δύεται, μένων ἐν τῷ σίδηρος εἶναι, εἰ δὲ ἐν χιόνι γένοιτο ἢ κρυστάλλῳ, μεταβάλλει πρὸς τὸ ἐπικρατοῦν τὴν ποιότητα, τὸ ψυχρὸν τῆς χιόνος τοῖς ἰδίοις μορίοις ἀναδεξάμενος. 1.1.285 Ὥσπερ οὖν οὐκ ἐκ τῆς ἐπιθεωρουμένης τῷ σιδήρῳ ποιότητος τὴν ὕλην προσαγορεύομεν (οὐ γὰρ πῦρ αὐτὸν ἢ κρύσταλλον ὀνομάζομεν τὸν ἑνὶ τούτων πεποιωμένον), οὕτως εἰ δοθείη κατὰ τὸν τῶν ἀσεβῶν λόγον ἐπὶ τῆς ζωοποιοῦ δυνάμεως μὴ κατ' οὐσίαν ἐνυπάρχειν αὐτῇ τὸ ἀγαθόν, ἀλλ' ἐκ μετουσίας προσγίνεσθαι, οὐκέτι ἐκ τῆς τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ προσηγορίας κυρίως ὀνομασθήσεται, ἀλλά τι ἕτερον ἐννοεῖν ἡ τοιαύτη ὑπόληψις ἀναγκάσει, ὡς μήτε ἀϊδίως αὐτῇ τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἐνθεωρεῖσθαι μήτε αὐτὸ ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἐν τῇ τοῦ ἀγα θοῦ φύσει καταλαμβάνεσθαι, ἀλλ' ὡς καὶ ποτὲ μὴ ὂν ἐν 1.1.286 αὐτῇ τὸ ἀγαθὸν καὶ ποτὲ μὴ ἐσόμενον. εἰ γὰρ τῷ μετέ χειν τοῦ κρείττονος ἀγαθὰ γίνεται, δῆλον ὅτι πρὸ τῆς μετου σίας τοιαῦτα οὐκ ἦν, καὶ εἰ ἄλλο τι ὄντα τῇ παρουσίᾳ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ἐπεχρώσθη, πάντως κἂν μονωθῇ τούτου, ἄλλο τι παρὰ τὸ ἀγαθὸν νοηθήσεται· καὶ ἐὰν τοῦτο κρατήσῃ, οὐ μᾶλλον ἀγαθῶν παρεκτικὴ ἡ θεία φύσις καταληφθήσεται 1.1.287 ἢ καὶ αὐτὴ προσδεομένη τοῦ ἀγαθύνοντος. πῶς γὰρ ἄν τις ἑτέρῳ παράσχοι τὸ ὃ μὴ αὐτὸς ἔχει; εἰ μὲν οὖν τελείως ἔχει, οὐδεμίαν ὕφεσιν ἐπὶ τῆς τελειότητος ἐννοήσομεν, καὶ μάταιος ὁ κατασκευάζων ἐν τῷ τελείῳ τὸ ἔλαττον. εἰ δὲ ἀτελὴς ἐν αὐτοῖς ἡ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ μετουσία νομίζεται καὶ κατὰ τοῦτο τὸ ἔλαττον λέγουσι, σκόπησον τὴν ἀκολουθίαν, ὅτι τὸ οὕτως ἔχον οὐχὶ τὸ ὑποδεέστερον εὐεργετήσει, ἀλλ' ὅπως τὸ ἑαυτῷ ἐνδέον ἀναπληρώσῃ τὴν σπουδὴν ἕξει· ὥστε ψευδὴς κατ' αὐτοὺς καὶ τῆς προνοίας ὁ λόγος καὶ τῆς κρίσεως καὶ τῆς οἰκονομίας καὶ πάντων τῶν παρὰ τοῦ μονογενοῦς γεγε νῆσθαι καὶ εἰσαεὶ γίνεσθαι πεπιστευμένων, ἐν τῇ περὶ τὸ ἴδιον ἀγαθὸν ἐπιμελείᾳ κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς ἀσχολουμένου καὶ τὴν τοῦ παντὸς ἐπιστασίαν διαφιέντος. 1.1.288 Εἰ γὰρ αὕτη κρατήσειεν ἡ ὑπόνοια, τὸ μὴ τετελειῶσθαι τὸν κύριον ἐν παντὶ ἀγαθῷ, οὐκέτι δύσκολον συνιδεῖν, εἰς ὅ τι καταστρέφει ἡ βλασφημία. ὄντως γὰρ τῶν τοιούτων μα ταία μὲν ἡ πίστις, κενὸν δὲ τὸ κήρυγμα, ἀνυπόστατοι δὲ αἱ ἐλπίδες, αἳ διὰ τῆς πίστεως τὴν ὑπόστασιν ἔχουσι. τί γὰρ βαπτίζονται εἰς Χριστόν, ᾧ μὴ ἰδία δύναμις ἀγαθωσύνης; 1.1.289 ἀπίτω δὲ τοῦ στόματός μου τὸ βλάσφημον. τί δὲ πι στεύουσιν εἰς τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, εἰ τὰ αὐτὰ καὶ περὶ τούτου λογίζονται; πῶς δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς φθαρτῆς γεννήσεως διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσματος ἀναγεννῶνται, οὐδὲ τῆς ἀναγεννώσης αὐ τοὺς δυνάμεως τὸ ἄπτωτον καὶ τὸ ἀπροσδεὲς φυσικῶς καθὼς οἴονται κεκτημένης; πῶς δὲ μετασχηματίζεται τὸ σῶμα τῆς ταπεινώσεως αὐτῶν, ὅταν αὐτὸν τὸν μετασχη ματίζοντα τῆς πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον ἀλλοιώσεως ἐπιδεῖσθαι νομί ζωσιν, ἄλλου πάλιν τοῦ καὶ αὐτὸν μετασχηματίζοντος προσ 1.1.290 δεόμενον; ἕως γὰρ ἂν ἐν τῷ ἐλάττονι ᾖ, διὰ τὸ ἀγαθὸν τῆς φύσεως τοῦ ὑπερκειμένου ἄπαυστόν τινα πρὸς ἑαυτὸ τὴν ὁλκὴν