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as another, <for he is simple and uncompounded, nor is there another beside him>, for he is one and alone unbegotten, it would be unbegotten substance itself20. Therefore our teacher, having understood the harm arising from the deception for those who are deluded, that the assent to his not being truly God is a transgression of the confession in the Lord itself, to which point the consequence of these words overthrows the dogma, for this reason he does not dispute that unbegottenness should not be spoken of as a part of God, himself also agreeing that the divine is simple and without quantity and without magnitude and uncompounded, but that this appellation ought not to be said of him by conception, he both disputes and proves; Not abiding by these things, the writer again substitutes for us the wisdom from himself in the second of his books, fighting against what has been said about conception. It would now be time to mention the argument for this itself, having said only this much by way of preface. There is not in human nature the power for an accurate comprehension of the substance of God; perhaps it is a small thing to declare this of human power alone, but if someone says that even incorporeal creation is too small to grasp and contain in knowledge the indefinite nature, he will not be entirely wrong. As one can understand from examples among us, that although there are many and various beings who have received life in the flesh, some winged and some terrestrial, both that which is above the clouds by the power of its wings and that which is settled in and lurks in hollows, if they were judged against each other, the aerial would seem to be not a little distant from the terrestrial, but if the comparison were with the stars and the fixed sphere, that which travels the upper air by flight will be thought to be separated from heaven no less than the animals on the ground. So too the power of the angels, when compared to ours, seems to excel very greatly, because with no sense perception troubling it, with its cognitive power bare and unveiled, it reaches for the high things; but if their comprehension also were examined in relation to the majesty of Him who truly is, perhaps the one who dares to say that their power too is distant from the divine comprehension, not far from our own littleness, will not have dared something beyond what is probable. For great and impassable is the interval by which the uncreated nature has been walled off from the created substance. This one has been limited, that one has no limit; this one is contained within its own measures according to what pleased the wisdom of the one who made it, but of that one the measure is infinity; this one is co-extended with a certain dimensional extension, being confined by time and place, that one falls beyond every concept of interval, in whatever way one might apply the mind, in that way it escapes meddlesome inquiry; in this life it is possible to conceive both a beginning and an end for beings, but the blessedness beyond creation admits neither beginning nor end, but is by nature beyond what is signified in either, being always the same and established in itself, not journeying through life dimensionally from something to something; for it does not come to be in life by participation in another life, so that it would be consistent for an end and a beginning of the participation to be conceived, but it is that very thing which is life, energizing in itself, becoming neither greater nor less by addition or subtraction. For increase towards the greater has no place in the infinite, and its natural impassibility is unreceptive of the conception of diminution. And just as, seeing the heaven and in a way, through our organs of sight, touching the beauty in the height, we do not doubt that what appears exists, but if asked what it is, we are unable to explain its nature in words, but only marvel, seeing the circular revolution of the universe and the harmonious contrary motion of the planets and a certain circle called the zodiac inscribed obliquely to the pole, by which those who are wise in these things observe the motion of those that revolve in the opposite direction, and the differences of the luminaries both in their magnitudes and the properties of their rays, and their risings and settings, which happen invariably at the same times during the cyclical period of the year, and the conjunctions of the planets and the transits of the lower ones and the eclipses of the higher ones and the shadows of the earth and the restorations of the eclipsed bodies and the manifold alteration of the moon and the motion of the sun in the middle of the poles, and how, though it is full of its own light and crowned in a circle with its rays and embracing all things with its illuminating power, there are times when it too is eclipsed, with the lunar body, as they say, passing in front, and how according to the will of the one who ordained it it always travels, completing its own course, through its ordained advance and recession, the four of the year

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ὡς ἕτερον, <ἁπλοῦς γὰρ καὶ ἀσύνθετος, μήτε παρ' αὐτὸν ἕτερον>, εἷς γὰρ καὶ μόνος ἀγέννη 2.1.66 τος, αὐτὸ ἂν εἴη οὐσία ἀγέννητος20. συνιδὼν τοίνυν ὁ διδάσκαλος ἡμῶν τὴν ἐκ τῆς ἀπάτης ἐγγινομένην τοῖς παρακρουσθεῖσι ζημίαν, ὅτι αὐτῆς ἐστι τῆς εἰς τὸν κύριον ὁμολογίας παράβασις ἡ περὶ τοῦ μὴ εἶναι αὐτὸν ἀληθῶς θεὸν συγκατάθεσις, εἰς ὅπερ ἡ τῶν ῥημάτων τούτων ἀκολουθία καταστρέφει τὸ δόγμα, διὰ τοῦτο τὸ μὲν ὡς μέρος μὴ ἐπιλέγεσθαι τῷ θεῷ τὴν ἀγεννησίαν οὐκ ἀντιλέγει, ἁπλοῦν τε καὶ ἄποσον καὶ ἀμέγεθες καὶ ἀσύνθετον καὶ αὐτὸς συνομολο γῶν εἶναι τὸ θεῖον, τὸ δὲ κατ' ἐπίνοιαν μὴ δεῖν ἐπ' αὐτοῦ τὴν ἐπωνυμίαν λέγεσθαι ταύτην καὶ ἀντιλέγει καὶ ἀποδείκνυ σιν· οἷς οὐκ ἐμμένων ὁ λογογράφος πάλιν ἡμῖν τὴν παρ' ἑαυτοῦ σοφίαν ἀντικαθίστησιν ἐν τῷ δευτέρῳ τῶν λόγων, τοῖς περὶ τῆς ἐπινοίας εἰρημένοις ἀντιμαχόμενος. 2.1.67 Καιρὸς δ' ἂν εἴη λοιπὸν καὶ αὐτῆς μνησθῆναι τῆς εἰς τοῦτο κατασκευῆς, τοσοῦτον ὑπειπόντας μόνον. οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει δύναμις εἰς ἀκριβῆ κατανόησιν οὐσίας θεοῦ· τάχα δὲ μικρόν ἐστιν ἐπὶ μόνης ἀποφήνασθαι τοῦτο τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης δυνάμεως, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν ἀσώματον κτίσιν ἐλάττονά τις εἰπὼν ἢ ὥστε χωρῆσαι καὶ περιλαβεῖν τῇ γνώσει τὴν ἀόριστον φύσιν οὐ τοῦ παντὸς ἁμαρτήσεται. 2.1.68 οἷον ἔστιν ἐπὶ τῶν καθ' ἡμᾶς ὑποδειγμάτων κατανοῆσαι, ὅτι πολλῶν ὄντων καὶ διαφόρων τῶν διὰ σαρκὸς τὴν ζωὴν εἰληχότων, τῶν μὲν πτηνῶν τῶν δὲ χερσαίων, τό τε ὑπερ νεφὲς ἐν τῇ τῶν πτερῶν δυνάμει γενόμενον καὶ τὸ τοῖς κοίλοις ἐγκαθιδρυμένον καὶ ἐμφωλεῦον εἰ μὲν πρὸς ἄλληλα κρίνοιντο, οὐκ ὀλίγον ἂν ἀφεστάναι δόξειε τοῦ χερσαίου τὸ ἐναέριον, εἰ δὲ πρὸς τὰ ἄστρα καὶ τὴν ἀπλανῆ σφαῖραν ἡ σύγκρισις εἴη, οὐδὲν ἔλαττον κεχωρίσθαι τοῦ οὐρανοῦ τὸ μετεωροποροῦν διὰ πτήσεως τῶν περὶ γῆν νομισθήσεται 2.1.69 ζῴων. οὕτως καὶ ἡ τῶν ἀγγέλων δύναμις τῷ μὲν ἡμετέρῳ συγκρινομένη πάμπολυ προέχειν δοκεῖ, ὅτι οὐδεμιᾶς αἰσθή σεως ἐνοχλούσης γυμνῇ τε καὶ ἀπαρακαλύπτῳ τῇ γνωστικῇ δυνάμει τῶν ὑψηλῶν ἐπορέγεται· εἰ δὲ πρὸς τὸ μεγαλεῖον τοῦ ὄντως ὄντος καὶ ἡ ἐκείνων κατάληψις ἐξετάζοιτο, τάχα ὁ τολμήσας εἰπεῖν μὴ πόρρω τῆς ἡμετέρας βραχύτητος καὶ τὴν ἐκείνων δύναμιν ἀφεστάναι τῆς θείας κατανοήσεως οὐκ ἔξω τοῦ εἰκότος ἀποτολμήσει. πολὺ γὰρ τὸ μέσον καὶ ἀδιεξίτητον, ᾧ πρὸς τὴν κτιστὴν οὐσίαν ἡ ἄκτιστος φύσις 2.1.70 διατετείχισται. αὕτη πεπεράτωται, ἐκείνη πέρας οὐκ ἔχει· αὕτη τοῖς ἰδίοις μέτροις κατὰ τὸ ἀρέσαν τῇ σοφίᾳ τοῦ πεποιηκότος ἐμπεριείληπται, τῆς δὲ μέτρον ἡ ἀπειρία ἐστίν· αὕτη διαστηματικῇ τινι παρατάσει συμπαρεκτείνεται, καὶ χρόνῳ καὶ τόπῳ περιειργομένη, ἐκείνη ὑπερεκπίπτει πᾶσαν διαστήματος ἔννοιαν, καθ' ὅπερ ἄν τις ἐπιβάλλῃ τὸν νοῦν, κατ' ἐκεῖνο τὴν πολυπραγμοσύνην ἐκφεύγουσα· ἐν ταύτῃ τῇ ζωῇ καὶ ἀρχὴν τοῖς οὖσι καὶ τέλος ἔστιν ἐπινοῆσαι, ἡ δὲ ὑπὲρ τὴν κτίσιν μακαριότης οὔτε ἀρχὴν οὔτε τέλος προσίεται, ἀλλ' ὑπὲρ τὸ ἐν ἑκατέρῳ σημαινόμενον πέφυκεν ἀεὶ ὡσαύτως ἔχουσα καὶ ἐφ' ἑαυτῆς βεβηκυῖα, οὐ διαστη ματικῶς ἔκ τινος εἴς τι τῇ ζωῇ διοδεύουσα· οὔτε γὰρ μετ ουσίᾳ ζωῆς ἑτέρας ἐν τῷ ζῆν γίνεται, ὡς ἀκόλουθον εἶναι καὶ πέρας καὶ ἀρχὴν τῆς μετουσίας νοεῖσθαι, ἀλλ' αὐτὸ ὅπερ ἐστὶ ζωή ἐστιν ἐν ἑαυτῇ ἐνεργουμένη, οὔτε μείζων οὔτε ἐλάττων ἐκ προσθήκης ἢ ὑφαιρέσεως γίνεται. ἡ μὲν γὰρ εἰς τὸ μεῖζον ἐπαύξησις ἐν τῷ ἀπείρῳ χώραν οὐκ ἔχει, τῆς δὲ κατὰ τὴν ἐλάττωσιν ἐπινοίας τὸ κατὰ φύσιν 2.1.71 ἀπαθὲς ἀνεπίδεκτον. ὥσπερ δὲ τὸν οὐρανὸν ὁρῶντες καὶ τρόπον τινὰ διὰ τῶν ὁρατικῶν αἰσθητηρίων τοῦ κατὰ τὸ ὕψος ἐφαπτόμενοι κάλλους εἶναι μὲν τὸ φαινόμενον οὐκ ἀμφιβάλλομεν, τὸ δὲ τί ἐστιν ἐρωτηθέντες διερμηνεῦσαι τῷ λόγῳ τὴν φύσιν οὐκ ἔχομεν, θαυμάζομεν δὲ μόνον τὴν ἐγκύκλιον τοῦ παντὸς ὁρῶντες περιφορὰν καὶ τῶν πλανητῶν τὴν ἐναρμόνιον ἐπὶ τὸ ἔμπαλιν κίνησιν κύκλον τέ τινα τὸν λεγόμενον ζῳοφόρον κατὰ τὸ λοξὸν ἐγκεχαραγμένον τῷ πόλῳ, ᾧ τὴν κίνησιν τῶν κατὰ τὸ ἐναντίον ἀνειλουμένων παρατηροῦσιν οἱ ταῦτα σοφοί, φωστήρων τε διαφορὰς κατά τε τὰ μεγέθη καὶ τὰς τῶν αὐγῶν ἰδιότητας ἐπιτολάς τε καὶ δύσεις κατὰ τὴν ἐγκύκλιον τοῦ ἔτους περίοδον ἐπὶ τῶν αὐτῶν ἀεὶ καιρῶν γινομένας ἀπαραβάτως, συνόδους τε τῶν πλανωμένων καὶ ὑποδρομὰς τῶν ὑποβεβηκότων καὶ ἐκλεί ψεις τῶν ὑπερκειμένων καὶ γῆς ἀποσκιάσεις καὶ ἀποκατα στάσεις τῶν ἐκλειπόντων τήν τε πολυειδῆ τῆς σελήνης ἀλ λοίωσιν καὶ τοῦ ἡλίου τὴν ἐπὶ τοῦ μέσου τῶν πόλων κί νησιν, καὶ ὡς ἀνάπλεως ὢν τοῦ ἰδίου φωτὸς καὶ ταῖς ἀκτῖσιν ἐν κύκλῳ καταστεφὴς πάντα τε τῇ φωτιστικῇ δυ νάμει περιπτυσσόμενος ἔστιν ὅτε καὶ αὐτὸς ἐκλείπει, τοῦ σεληναίου σώματος ὥς φασιν ἐπιπροσθοῦντος, καὶ ὡς κατὰ τὸ βούλημα τοῦ διατάξαντος ἀεὶ τὸν ἴδιον δρόμον ἀνύων περιπορεύεται διὰ τῆς τεταγμένης προόδου καὶ ὑποβάσεως, τὰς τέσσαρας τοῦ ἔτους