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to be corrupted, there is certainly also added to it that of not being through generation, and thus the concept of unbegottenness will be pushed outside the meaning concerning essence. But if, because God is not corrupted, someone were to say that the essence is incorruptibility, and because He is greater than death, for this reason he were to define nature itself to be immortality, and the Son is incorruptible and immortal, then the essence of the Only-Begotten would also be incorruptibility and immortality. If, then, the Father is incorruptibility and the Son is incorruptibility, and each of these is essence, and no difference is conceived according to the notion of incorruptibility, then the essence will in no way differ from the essence, since in both equally the nature has been alienated from corruption. And even if, repeating the same things again, he binds us with what he thinks are the inescapable necessities of dilemmas, saying that if what is present in what is is distinguished by us, the divine is rendered composite, but if simplicity is confessed, incorruptibility and unbegottenness will certainly be shown to be significant of the essence itself, again we will show him to be an ally of our arguments. For if to say that something is present to the divine essence in every way makes it composite, he will certainly not reject fatherhood as being outside the essence, but he will confess a father by nature as also incorruptible and immortal, and thus, even unwillingly, he will receive the Son into the kinship of nature. For it will not be possible, when he is a father by nature, for the Son to be separated from the natural relation to him. But if he were to say that fatherhood is present to God outside of nature, he will certainly grant us the authority to say that something is present to the Father, with nothing of the simplicity being set aside, if what concerns unbegottenness is signified as being outside the essence. But if he says that the incorruptible and the unbegotten are significant of the essence itself and should strongly maintain that each of the names is equivalent to the other, so that there is no difference between them, because the same meaning is contained in each, and he should say that the concept of the incorruptible and the unbegotten is one, then he who is one of these is certainly also the other. But indeed, that the Son is incorruptible is not doubted even by them; therefore, according to Eunomius' argument, he too is unbegotten, if indeed the incorruptible signifies the same as unbegottenness. So it is one of two things: either he will agree that the unbegotten signifies something other than incorruptibility, or, persisting in his opinions, he will blaspheme in many ways concerning the only-begotten God, either by making Him corruptible so that he does not say He is unbegotten, or by making Him out to be unbegotten so that he does not prove Him corruptible. But I do not know what I ought to do, whether to go through all the preceding points in order or to limit the battle against these vanities to these points. For just as with those who sell poisons, a small sample guarantees to the buyers the destructive power of the whole drug, and no one, having learned by some test of the corruption from a part, doubts that the whole thing for sale is a drug of destruction, so I think it necessary also that this poisonous pharmacy of argument, having been exposed through what has been examined, should no longer be doubtful to those who have sense that it is entirely of such a kind as has been refuted by what has gone before, and for this reason I reckon it is more preferable not to proceed at length by dwelling on vain things. But since the champions of deceit find plausibility for themselves from many quarters, and there is a fear that the overlooking of any of their labored points might become a specious occasion for slander against us, as if we had omitted the stronger point, for this reason I have begged those who share in our zeal, condemning no idle talk, to follow eagerly the argument as it everywhere of necessity arrays itself against the attacks of falsehood. Since, therefore, having with difficulty at last ceased from fashioning the dream about conception in deep sleep, arming himself with those feeble and unintelligible arguments, he shifts his discourse to another dream much more foolish than the preceding fantasy. It is possible to know the vanity of the labor the

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φθείρεσθαι, πρόσεστιν αὐτῇ πάν τως καὶ τὸ μὴ διὰ γεννήσεως εἶναι, καὶ οὕτως ὁ τῆς ἀγεν νησίας λόγος ἔξω τῆς κατὰ τὴν οὐσίαν σημασίας ἀπ 2.1.556 ωσθήσεται. εἰ δὲ ὅτι οὐ φθείρεται ὁ θεός, ἀφθαρσίαν τις λέγοι τὴν οὐσίαν εἶναι, καὶ ὅτι θανάτου κρείττων ἐστί, διὰ τοῦτο αὐτὴν τὴν φύσιν ἀθανασίαν εἶναι ὁρίζοιτο, ἄφθαρτος δὲ ὁ υἱὸς καὶ ἀθάνατος, ἀφθαρσία ἂν εἴη καὶ ἀθανασία καὶ τοῦ μονογενοῦς ἡ οὐσία. εἰ οὖν ἀφθαρσία μὲν ὁ πατήρ, ἀφθαρσία δὲ ὁ υἱός, οὐσία δὲ τούτων ἑκάτερον, οὐδεμία δὲ κατὰ τὴν τῆς ἀφθαρσίας ἔννοιαν ἐπινοεῖται διαφορά, κατ' οὐδὲν πάντως ἡ οὐσία τῆς οὐσίας διενεχθήσεται, εἴπερ ἐπίσης ἐπ' ἀμφοτέρων ἡ φύσις τῆς φθορᾶς ἠλλο 2.1.557 τρίωται. κἂν τὰ αὐτὰ πάλιν ἐπαναλαμβάνων ταῖς ἀφύ κτοις ἡμᾶς, ὡς οἴεται, τῶν διλημμάτων ἀνάγκαις καταδῇ, λέγων εἰ μὲν διορίζοιτο παρ' ἡμῶν τὸ προσὸν τοῦ ὄντος, σύνθετον τὸ θεῖον κατασκευάζεσθαι, εἰ δὲ ἡ ἁπλότης ὁμο λογοῖτο, αὐτῆς τῆς οὐσίας σημαντικὴν τὴν ἀφθαρσίαν καὶ τὴν ἀγεννησίαν πάντως ἀναφανήσεσθαι, πάλιν αὐτὸν σύμ 2.1.558 μαχον τῶν ἡμετέρων ἀποδείξομεν λόγων. εἰ γὰρ πάντη σύνθετον ποιεῖ τὴν θείαν οὐσίαν τῷ προσεῖναί τι λέγειν αὐτῇ, οὐδὲ τὴν πατρότητα πάντως ἐκτὸς τῆς οὐσίας ἀπο ποιήσεται, ἀλλὰ φύσει πατέρα ὁμολογήσει ὡς ἄφθαρτόν τε καὶ ἀθάνατον, καὶ οὕτως καὶ μὴ βουλόμενος εἰς τὴν τῆς φύσεως οἰκειότητα τὸν υἱὸν καταδέξεται. οὐ γὰρ ἔσται δυνατὸν ἐκείνου φύσει πατρὸς ὄντος τῆς φυσικῆς πρὸς 2.1.559 αὐτὸν σχέσεως τὸν υἱὸν ἀφορίζεσθαι. εἰ δὲ ἔξω τῆς φύ σεως προσεῖναι λέγοι τῷ θεῷ τὴν πατρότητα, καὶ ἡμῖν δώσει πάντως κατ' ἐξουσίαν προσεῖναί τι λέγειν τῷ πατρί, ὡς οὐδὲν τῆς ἁπλότητος ἀθετουμένης, εἰ ἔξω τῆς οὐσίας τὸ κατὰ τὴν ἀγεννησίαν σημαίνοιτο. εἰ δὲ αὐτῆς φησι τῆς οὐσίας σημαντικὸν τὸ ἄφθαρτον καὶ τὸ ἀγέννητον καὶ ἰσοδυναμεῖν ἀλλήλοις ἑκάτερα τῶν ὀνομάτων διϊσχυρίζοιτο, ὡς μηδεμίαν ἐπ' αὐτῶν εἶναι διαφορὰν τῷ ταὐτὸν ἑκατέροις ἐγκεῖσθαι τὸ σημαινόμενον, καὶ μίαν λέγοι τοῦ ἀφθάρτου καὶ τοῦ ἀγεννήτου τὴν ἔννοιαν, ὁ τὸ ἓν τούτων ὢν καὶ τὸ 2.1.560 ἕτερον πάντως ἐστίν. ἀλλὰ μὴν ἄφθαρτος ὁ υἱὸς εἶναι καὶ παρὰ τούτων οὐκ ἀμφιβάλλεται· ἀγέννητος ἄρα κατὰ τὸν Εὐνομίου λόγον καὶ οὗτός ἐστιν, εἴπερ ταὐτὸν σημαίνει τῇ ἀγεννησίᾳ τὸ ἄφθαρτον. ὥστε δυοῖν θάτερον, ἢ ἄλλο τι παρὰ τὴν ἀφθαρσίαν τὸ ἀγέννητον σημαίνειν συνθήσεται ἢ ἐπιμένων τοῖς δεδογμένοις πολλαχῶς περὶ τὸν μονογενῆ θεὸν βλασφημήσει, ἤτοι φθαρτὸν αὐτὸν ποιῶν ἵνα μὴ ἀγέν νητον λέγῃ, ἢ ἀγέννητον εἶναι κατασκευάζων ἵνα μὴ φθαρ τὸν ἀποδείξῃ. 2.1.561 Ἀλλ' οὐκ οἶδ' ὅ τι προσήκει πράττειν, εἴτε δι' ἀκολου θίας ἐπεξιέναι πᾶσι τοῖς προκειμένοις εἴτε καὶ τούτοις περιορίσαι τὴν πρὸς τὰ μάταια μάχην. καθάπερ γὰρ ἐπὶ τῶν τὰ δηλητήρια πωλούντων ἡ ἐν ὀλίγῳ πεῖρα παντὸς τοῦ φαρμάκου τὴν πρὸς τὸν ὄλεθρον δύναμιν τοῖς ὠνου μένοις κατεγγυᾶται, καὶ οὐδεὶς ἀμφιβάλλει τὴν ἐκ τοῦ μέρους διαφθορὰν διά τινος πείρας καταμαθὼν μὴ ὅλον εἶναι τὸ πωλούμενον ὀλέθρου φάρμακον, οὕτως οἶμαι δεῖν καὶ τὴν δηλητηριώδη ταύτην φαρμακείαν τοῦ λόγου διὰ τῶν ἐξητασμένων ἐπιδειχθεῖσαν μηκέτι ἀμφίβολον εἶναι τοῖς γε νοῦν ἔχουσι τὸ διὰ παντὸς εἶναι τοιαύτην οἵα διὰ τῶν φθασάντων ἐλήλεγκται, καὶ τούτου χάριν τὸ μὴ προάγειν εἰς μῆκος τοῦ τοῖς ματαίοις ἐμφιλοχωρεῖν αἱρετώτερον εἶναι 2.1.562 λογίζομαι. ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ πολλαχόθεν τὸ πιθανὸν ἑαυτοῖς οἱ προστάται τῆς ἀπάτης εὑρίσκουσι καὶ δέος μὴ τὸ παρο φθῆναί τι τῶν πεπονημένων αὐτοῖς εὐπρόσωπος καθ' ἡμῶν γένηται διαβολῆς ἀφορμή, ὡς τὸ ἰσχυρότερον ἐλλελοιπότων, τούτου χάριν παρῃτησάμην τοὺς καθομιλοῦντας ἡμῶν τῇ σπουδῇ μηδεμίαν καταγνόντας ἀδολεσχίαν ἕπεσθαι προθύ μως τῷ λόγῳ πανταχοῦ κατ' ἀνάγκην πρὸς τὰς τοῦ ψεύ 2.1.563 δους ἐπιχειρήσεις ἑαυτὸν ἀντεξάγοντι. ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν μόγις ποτὲ τὸν περὶ τῆς ἐπινοίας ὄνειρον ἐν βαθεῖ τῷ ὕπνῳ δια πλάσσων ἐπαύσατο, τοῖς ἀτόνοις ἐκείνοις καὶ ἀδιανοήτοις τῶν ἐπιχειρημάτων ἑαυτὸν καθοπλίζων μετάγει τὸν λόγον ἐπὶ ἕτερον ὄνειρον πολὺ τῆς προλαβούσης φαντασίας ἀνοη τότερον. ἔξεστι δὲ γνῶναι τοῦ πόνου τὸ μάταιον τὴν