49

and thus for us the account of piety will be preserved, neither with the Son lacking life in the higher sense nor with the eternity of the Father being curtailed by positing a definite beginning for the Son. 1.1.359 But perhaps one of those who oppose the argument will say, that creation also has an acknowledged beginning of its being, and the things that have come into being are neither co-conceived with the eternity of the Creator nor does it, through its own beginning, define the indefinable nature of the divine life, as the argument, when examined in the case of the Son and the Father, demonstrated the absurdity; so that it follows from this either to say fearlessly that creation is co-eternal with God or that the Son is of a later generation. For the argument from interval will similarly demonstrate the absurdity when measured from creation back to the 1.1.360 one who made it. But he who raises such an objection, having perhaps not accurately attended to the thought of the doctrine, makes his attack against what has been said with arguments that are foreign and entirely unconnected with the subject at hand. For if one could show something beyond creation that had the beginning of its subsistence at some point of interval, and if this were universally acknowledged to be possible, to conceive of the notion of interval even before creation, it would perhaps be opportune to try to dismantle with such arguments the eternity of the Only-begotten, which was demonstrated through what has been said. 1.1.361 But since it is confessed by all the votes of the pious, that of all existing things, one class is through creation, and the other is before creation, and that the divine nature is believed to be uncreated, in which the account of piety teaches that one is the Cause, and the other has its subsistence from the Cause without interval, while creation is considered in a certain extension of interval, every temporal order and sequence of events is comprehended through the ages, but the pre-eternal nature has escaped the distinctions of 20older20 and younger by not being considered together with the divine and blessed 1.1.362 life, as many things as the argument sees specifically concerning creation. For all creation, as has been said, having come into being according to a certain sequence of order, is measured by the interval of the ages, and if one were to ascend in thought through the sequence of created things to the beginning of what has come to be, he will bound his inquiry by the foundation of the ages 1.1.363. But the substance that is beyond creation, being separated from every concept of interval, has escaped all temporal sequence, proceeding from no such beginning to no end, and concluding in no way that is found according to 1.1.364 some order. For to the one who has traversed the ages and all that has come to be within them, like some gaping sea, the contemplation of the divine nature, having appeared to his thoughts, will give on itself no sign indicative of any beginning to him who stretches his apprehensive imagination to the things beyond; so that he who busies himself with what is older than the ages and ascends to the beginning of existing things is able to come to a halt in his reasoning at no point, since that which is sought always runs out ahead and shows no stopping-point for the busyness of the mind. 1.1.365 And the argument is clear even to one who has moderately considered the nature of existing things, that for the divine and blessed life, there is nothing that measures alongside it. For it is not in time, but time is from it; but creation, proceeding from some universally acknowledged beginning toward its own goal, is carried along through temporal intervals, so that it is possible, as Solomon somewhere says, to examine its beginning and end and middle, marking out through divisions of time 1.1.366 the sequence of things within it. But the transcendent and blessed life, since no interval journeys alongside it, does not have that which measures and divides. For all things that have come into being, having been circumscribed by their own measures according to what pleased the wisdom of the Creator, are contained by a fitting measure as by a kind of boundary for the harmony of the universe 1.1.367. And for this reason, even if the survey of things seen in creation is unattainable <is> for the weakness of human reasoning, yet that it has been limited

49

καὶ οὕτως ἡμῖν ὁ τῆς εὐσεβείας διασωθήσεται λόγος, οὔτε τῷ υἱῷ τῆς ζωῆς ἐπὶ τὸ ἄνω λειπούσης οὔτε τῆς ἀϊδιότητος τοῦ πατρὸς ἐν τῷ ὁριστὴν ὑποτίθεσθαι τοῦ υἱοῦ τὴν ἀρχὴν κολοβουμένης. 1.1.359 Ἀλλ' ἴσως ἐρεῖ τις τῶν ἐνισταμένων τῷ λόγῳ, ὅτι καὶ ἡ κτίσις ὁμολογουμένην ἀρχὴν τοῦ εἶναι ἔχει, καὶ οὔτε συνεπινοεῖται τῇ ἀϊδιότητι τοῦ δημιουργοῦ τὰ γενόμενα οὔτε ἵστησι διὰ τῆς ἰδίας ἀρχῆς τὸ ἀόριστον τῆς θείας ζωῆς, ὥσπερ ἐπὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐξεταζόμενος ὁ λόγος τὴν ἀτοπίαν ὑπέδειξεν· ὡς ἀκόλουθον εἶναι διὰ τού του ἢ καὶ τὴν κτίσιν συναΐδιον τῷ θεῷ ἢ καὶ τὸν υἱὸν μεταγενέστερον ἀφόβως λέγειν. ὁ γὰρ τοῦ διαστήματος λόγος ὁμοίως ὑποδείξει τὸ ἄτοπον καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς κτίσεως ἐπὶ τὸν 1.1.360 πεποιηκότα διαμετρούμενος. ὁ δὲ τὸ τοιοῦτον ἀνθυποφέ ρων οὐκ ἀκριβῶς τάχα τῇ διανοίᾳ τοῦ δόγματος ἐπιστὰς διὰ τῶν ἀλλοτρίων καὶ παντάπασιν ἀκοινωνήτων τοῦ προ κειμένου τὴν πρὸς τὰ εἰρημένα ποιεῖται μάχην. εἰ μὲν γάρ τι τῶν ὑπὲρ τὴν κτίσιν δεικνύειν εἶχεν ἔν τινι διαστηματικῷ σημείῳ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἔχον τῆς ὑποστάσεως, καὶ τοῦτο παρὰ πάντων ὡμολογεῖτο δυνατὸν εἶναι, τὴν τοῦ διαστήματος ἔν νοιαν καὶ πρὸ τῆς κτίσεως ἐννοεῖν, εἶχεν ἂν ἴσως καιρὸν τὴν ἐπὶ τοῦ μονογενοῦς ἀποδειχθεῖσαν διὰ τῶν εἰρημένων ἀϊδιότητα τοῖς τοιούτοις ἐπιχειρήμασιν ἀναλύειν πειρᾶσθαι. 1.1.361 ἐπεὶ δὲ πάσαις ταῖς τῶν εὐσεβούντων ψήφοις ὁμολογεῖται, ὅτι πάντων τῶν ὄντων τὸ μὲν διὰ τῆς κτίσεώς ἐστι, τὸ δὲ πρὸ τῆς κτίσεως, καὶ ὅτι ἡ μὲν θεία φύσις ἄκτιστος εἶναι πεπίστευται, ἐν ᾗ τὸ μὲν αἴτιον, τὸ δὲ ἐξ αἰτίου τὴν ὑπό στασιν ἀδιαστάτως ἔχειν ὁ τῆς εὐσεβείας διδάσκει λόγος, τῆς δὲ κτίσεως ἐν παρατάσει τινὶ διαστηματικῇ θεωρου μένης, πᾶσα χρονικὴ τάξις καὶ ἀκολουθία τῶν γεγονότων διὰ τῶν αἰώνων καταλαμβάνεται, ἡ δὲ προαιώνιος φύσις ἐκπέφευγε τὰς κατὰ τὸ 20πρεσβύτερόν20 τε καὶ νεώτερον διαφορὰς τῷ μὴ συνθεωρεῖσθαι τῇ θείᾳ τε καὶ μακαρίᾳ 1.1.362 ζωῇ, ὅσα περὶ τὴν κτίσιν ἰδίως ὁ λόγος βλέπει. ἡ μὲν γὰρ κτίσις πᾶσα, καθὼς εἴρηται, κατά τινα τάξεως ἀκο λουθίαν γεγενημένη τῷ τῶν αἰώνων διαστήματι παραμε τρεῖται, καὶ εἴ τις ἀνίοι τῷ λόγῳ διὰ τῆς τῶν κτισθέντων ἀκολουθίας ἐπὶ τὴν τῶν γεγονότων ἀρχήν, τῇ τῶν αἰώνων 1.1.363 καταβολῇ περιορίσει τὴν ζήτησιν. ἡ δὲ ὑπὲρ τὴν κτίσιν οὐσία ἅτε παντὸς διαστηματικοῦ νοήματος κεχωρισμένη πᾶσαν χρονικὴν ἀκολουθίαν ἐκπέφευγεν, ἀπ' οὐδεμιᾶς τοι αύτης ἀρχῆς εἰς οὐδὲν πέρας δι' οὐδενὸς τρόπου τοῦ κατά 1.1.364 τινα τάξιν εὑρισκομένου προϊοῦσα καὶ καταλήγουσα. τῷ γὰρ διαβάντι τοὺς αἰῶνας καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς γεγο νότα καθάπερ τι πέλαγος ἀχανὲς ἡ τῆς θείας φύσεως θεωρία τοῖς λογισμοῖς προφανεῖσα οὐδὲν δώσει σημεῖον ἐφ' ἑαυτῆς γνωριστικὸν ἀρχῆς τινος τῷ εἰς τὰ ἐπέκεινα δια τείνοντι τὴν καταληπτικὴν φαντασίαν· ὥστε τὸν πολυπραγ μονοῦντα τὸ τῶν αἰώνων πρεσβύτερον καὶ ἀνιόντα ἐπὶ τὴν τῶν ὄντων ἀρχὴν ἐν μηδενὶ στῆναι τῷ λογισμῷ δυνηθῆναι, ἀεὶ τοῦ ζητουμένου ὑπεκπροθέοντος καὶ μηδεμίαν στάσιν τῇ πολυπραγμοσύνῃ τῆς διανοίας ὑποδεικνύοντος. 1.1.365 Σαφὴς δὲ ὁ λόγος καὶ τῷ μετρίως ἐπεσκεμμένῳ τὴν τῶν ὄντων φύσιν, ὅτι τῇ μὲν θείᾳ τε καὶ μακαρίᾳ ζωῇ τὸ παραμετρούμενόν ἐστιν οὐδέν. οὐ γὰρ ἐκείνη ἐν χρόνῳ, ἀλλ' ἐξ ἐκείνης ὁ χρόνος· ἡ δὲ κτίσις ἀπό τινος ὁμολο γουμένης πάντως ἀρχῆς ἐπὶ τὸν ἴδιον σκοπὸν διὰ τῶν χρο νικῶν διαστημάτων ὁδεύουσα φέρεται, ὡς ταύτης μὲν δυ νατὸν εἶναι, καθώς φησί που ὁ Σολομών, ἀρχὴν καὶ τέλος καὶ μεσότητα διασκοπῆσαι, διὰ τῶν χρονικῶν τμημάτων 1.1.366 τὴν ἀκολουθίαν τῶν κατ' αὐτὴν σημειούμενον. ἡ δὲ ὑπερ κειμένη τε καὶ μακαρία ζωὴ ἅτε μηδενὸς συμπαροδεύοντος αὐτῇ διαστήματος τὸ διαμετροῦν καὶ διαλαμβάνον οὐκ ἔχει. τὰ μὲν γὰρ γεγονότα πάντα τοῖς ἰδίοις μέτροις ἐμπεριγε γραμμένα κατὰ τὸ ἀρέσαν τῇ σοφίᾳ τοῦ κτίσαντος οἷόν τινι ὅρῳ τῷ προσήκοντι μέτρῳ ὡς πρὸς τὴν τοῦ παντὸς 1.1.367 εὐαρμοστίαν ἐμπεριείληπται. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο κἂν τῇ ἀσθενείᾳ τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων λογισμῶν ἀνέφικτος <ᾖ> ἡ τῶν ἐν τῇ κτίσει θεωρουμένων ἔφοδος, ἀλλ' οὖν τὸ πεπερατῶσθαι