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is past. For you are the unoriginate knowledge, the eternal vision, the unbegotten hearing, the untaught wisdom, the first by nature and alone in being and greater than all number; who brought all things from non-being into being through your only-begotten Son, whom you begot before all ages by will and power and goodness, without intermediary, the only-begotten Son, God the Word, living wisdom, firstborn of all creation, the angel of your great counsel, your high priest and worthy worshiper, and king and Lord of all intelligible and sensible nature, the one before all things, through whom are all things. For you, eternal God, through him have made all things and through him you deem the whole worthy of fitting providence; for through whom you granted being, through him you also bestowed well-being; the God and Father of your only-begotten Son, who through him before all things made the Spirit of truth, the interpreter and minister of the only-begotten, and after him the Cherubim and the Seraphim, and ages and hosts, and powers and authorities, and principalities and thrones, and archangels and angels, and after all these things you made through him this visible world and all things in it. For you are the one who set up the heaven like a vault and stretched it out like a curtain and founded the earth upon nothing by your will alone, who fixed the firmament and prepared night and day, who brought forth light from treasuries and by its contraction brought on darkness for the repose of the living creatures that move in the world, who appointed the sun to rule the day in heaven and the moon to rule the night and inscribed the choir of the stars in heaven for the praise of your magnificence. Who made water for drinking and for cleansing, life-giving air for inhalation and exhalation and the production of voice by the tongue striking the air and hearing, which is aided by it, so as to perceive by receiving the speech that falls upon it; who made fire for comfort in darkness, for the relief of want and that we might be warmed and enlightened by it; who separated the great sea from the land and made the one navigable, and made the other passable on foot, and the one he filled with living creatures small and great, and the other he filled with tame and untamed animals, and crowned it with various plants and wreathed it with herbs and adorned it with flowers and enriched it with seeds; who established the abyss and set a great gulf around it,

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παρῆλθεν. Σὺ γὰρ εἶ ἡ ἄναρχος γνῶσις, ἡ ἀΐδιος ὅρασις, ἡ ἀγέννητος ἀκοή, ἡ ἀδίδακτος σοφία, ὁ πρῶτος τῇ φύσει καὶ μόνος τῷ εἶναι καὶ κρείττων παντὸς ἀριθμοῦ· ὁ τὰ πάντα ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἰς τὸ εἶναι παραγαγὼν διὰ τοῦ μονογενοῦς Υἱοῦ σου, αὐτὸν δὲ πρὸ πάντων αἰώνων γεννήσας βουλήσει καὶ δυνάμει καὶ ἀγαθότητι ἀμεσιτεύτως, Υἱὸν μονογενῆ, Λόγον Θεόν, σοφίαν ζῶσαν, πρωτότοκον πάσης κτίσεως, ἄγγελον τῆς μεγάλης βουλῆς σου, ἀρχιερέα σὸν καὶ προσκυνητὴν ἀξιόχρεων, βασιλέα δὲ καὶ Κύριον πάσης νοητῆς καὶ αἰσθητῆς φύσεως, τὸν πρὸ πάντων, δι' οὗ τὰ πάντα. Σὺ γάρ, Θεὲ αἰώνιε, δι' αὐτοῦ τὰ πάντα πεποίηκας καὶ δι' αὐτοῦ τῆς προσηκούσης προνοίας τὰ ὅλα ἀξιοῖς· δι' οὗ γὰρ τὸ εἶναι ἐχαρίσω, δι' αὐτοῦ καὶ τὸ εὖ εἶναι ἐδωρήσω· ὁ Θεὸς καὶ Πατὴρ τοῦ μονογενοῦς Υἱοῦ σου, ὁ δι' αὐτοῦ πρὸ πάντων ποιήσας τὸ Πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας, τὸν τοῦ μονογενοῦς ὑποφήτην καὶ διάκονον, καὶ μετ' αὐτὸν τὰ Χερουβὶμ καὶ τὰ Σεραφίμ, αἰῶνάς τε καὶ στρατιάς, δυνάμεις τε καὶ ἐξουσίας, ἀρχάς τε καὶ θρόνους, ἀρχαγγέ λους τε καὶ ἀγγέλους, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα πάντα ποιήσας δι' αὐτοῦ τὸν φαινόμενον τοῦτον κόσμον καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ. Σὺ γὰρ εἶ ὁ τὸν οὐρανὸν ὡς καμάραν στήσας καὶ ὡς δέρριν ἐκτείνας καὶ τὴν γῆν ἐπ' οὐδενὸς ἱδρύσας γνώμῃ μόνῃ, ὁ πήξας στερέωμα καὶ νύκτα καὶ ἡμέραν κατασκευάσας, ὁ ἐξαγαγὼν φῶς ἐκ θησαυρῶν καὶ τῇ τούτου συστολῇ ἐπαγαγὼν τὸ σκότος εἰς ἀνάπαυλαν τῶν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ κινου μένων ζóων, ὁ τὸν ἥλιον τάξας εἰς ἀρχὰς τῆς ἡμέρας ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ τὴν σελήνην εἰς ἀρχὰς τῆς νυκτὸς καὶ τὸν χορὸν τῶν ἀστέρων ἐν οὐρανῷ καταγράψας εἰς αἶνον τῆς σῆς μεγαλοπρεπείας. Ὁ ποιήσας ὕδωρ πρὸς πόσιν καὶ κάθαρσιν, ἀέρα ζωτικὸν πρὸς εἰσπνοὴν καὶ ἀναπνοὴν καὶ φωνῆς ἀπόδοσιν διὰ γλώττης πληττούσης τὸν ἀέρα καὶ ἀκοὴν συνεργου μένην ὑπ' αὐτοῦ ὡς ἐπαΐειν εἰσδεχομένην τὴν προσπί πτουσαν αὐτῇ λαλιάν· ὁ ποιήσας πῦρ πρὸς σκότους παραμυθίαν, πρὸς ἐνδείας ἀναπλήρωσιν καὶ τὸ θερμαίνεσθαι ἡμᾶς καὶ φωτίζεσθαι ὑπ' αὐτοῦ· ὁ τὴν μεγάλην θάλασσαν χωρίσας τῆς γῆς καὶ τὴν μὲν ἀναδείξας πλωτήν, τὴν δὲ ποσὶ βάσιμον ποιήσας, καὶ τὴν μὲν ζóοις μικροῖς καὶ μεγάλοις πληθύνας, τὴν δὲ ἡμέροις καὶ ἀτιθάσσοις πληρώσας, φυτοῖς τε διαφόροις στέψας καὶ βοτάναις στε φανώσας καὶ ἄνθεσι καλλύνας καὶ σπέρμασι πλουτίσας· ὁ συστησάμενος ἄβυσσον καὶ μέγα κύτος αὐτῇ περιθείς,