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of those whose mind is corrupted, as the apostle says, no one of sound mind would call a technical proof. 3.2.117 But let us proceed to what follows. 20unmediated20, he says, is 20the generation of the substance and it indivisibly preserves the relation to the one who has begotten and made and created20. 3.2.118 If, then, having said the indivisible and unmediated of the substance, he had stopped his argument at this point, he would not have deviated from the pious conception, since it is also confessed by us that the Son's relation to the Father is connected and unmediated, so that there is nothing inserted between them, which is found between the Son's connection to the Father, not some notion involving an interval, not the very instant and atom, which, when time is cut in two into past and future, is conceived indivisibly in itself according to the present, being able to become a part of neither the past nor the future because it is altogether without extension and indivisible and imperceptible to whatever it might be added. What is purely immediate, therefore, 3.2.119 we say is not mediated by any such thing. for that which is separated by some medium would no longer be immediate; if, therefore, he too, having said that the generation of the Son is unmediated, had introduced none of the things mentioned, he would have been teaching the piously conceived connection of the Son to the Father. But since, as if repenting of what he had said, he immediately added that 20it preserves the relation to the one who has begotten and made and created20, he polluted the former with the latter, mixing the blasphemous utterance with the pure statement. 3.2.120 For it is clear that there too "the unmediated" does not look to the pious sense, but as one might say the hammer mediates between the nail and the smith, but its own fashioning is unmediated, for since the tools had not yet been invented by the craft, the hammer, by some device, was made first by the craftsman, <not> through some other tool, and thus through it the other things were made; the word "unmediated" shows that the writer thinks these things also about the Only-begotten. 3.2.121 And Eunomius is not the only one who has erred in this, according to the absurdity of his dogma, but it is possible to find the same thing in the works of Theognostus, who says that God, wishing to fashion this universe, first brought the Son into existence beforehand as a kind of rule for the creation, he too not seeing the absurdity in his statement, that what comes to be not for its own sake, but for the sake of something else, is in every way less honorable than that for which it comes to be, just as we use the agricultural tool for the sake of life, but the plough is not honored equally with life. 3.2.122 So then, if the Lord is for the sake of the world, and not all things for his sake, all things would be more honorable than the Lord, for whose sake they say he came to be. This is what they now establish through their argument, by which they insist that the Son has an unmediated relation to the one who created and made him. 3.2.123 But he is benevolent with what remains and says 20to be compared to none of the things that came to be through it and after it20. Such gifts do the enemies of truth bear to the Lord, through which the blasphemy is more manifestly constructed. For what, tell me, of the rest of all that is in creation, has comparison to each other, since the property appearing in each thing does not admit of communion with things of a different kind? There is no comparison of heaven to earth, nor of this to the stars, nor of the stars to the seas, nor of water to stone, nor of animals to trees, nor of land creatures to birds, nor of quadrupeds to swimming creatures, nor of irrational to rational creatures. 3.2.124 And why should one waste time speaking about each particular thing, showing that it is possible to say the same thing of each thing observed in creation which, as something exceptional, was attributed to the Only-begotten, namely, to have comparison to none of the things that came to be after him and through him? For it is manifest that whatever you conceive in itself is incomparable both to the whole and to particulars; and what can truly be said of any random creature, as is sufficient, this is also self-sufficient for honor

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τῶν, καθώς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος, κατεφθαρμένων τὸν νοῦν οὐκ ἄν τις τῶν σωφρονούντων ἀπόδειξιν τεχνικὴν ὀνομάσειεν. 3.2.117 Ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὴν ἀκολουθίαν μετέλθωμεν. 20ἀμεσί τευτον20 δέ φησιν εἶναι 20τῆς οὐσίας τὴν γέννησιν καὶ ἀμερίστως σῴζειν τὴν πρὸς τὸν γεγεννη 3.2.118 κότα καὶ ποιήσαντα καὶ κτίσαντα σχέσιν20. εἰ μὲν οὖν τὸ ἀμέριστόν τε καὶ ἀμεσίτευτον εἰπὼν τῆς οὐσίας ἐν τούτῳ τὸν λόγον ἔστησεν, οὐκ ἂν τῆς εὐσεβοῦς ὑπο λήψεως παρετράπη, ἐπεὶ καὶ παρ' ἡμῶν ὁμολογεῖται τοῦ υἱοῦ τὸ πρὸς τὸν πατέρα συναφές τε καὶ ἀμεσίτευτον, ὡς μηδὲν εἶναι τὸ διὰ μέσου τούτων παρενειρόμενον, ὃ μεταξὺ τῆς τοῦ υἱοῦ πρὸς τὸν πατέρα συναφείας εὑρίσκεται, μὴ διαστηματικόν τι νόημα, μὴ αὐτὸ τὸ ἀκαρές τε καὶ ἄτομον, ὃ διχῇ τεμνομένου τοῦ χρόνου τῷ παρῳχηκότι τε καὶ τῷ μέλλοντι κατὰ τὸ ἐνεστὼς ἀμερῶς ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ νοεῖται, οὔτε τοῦ παρῳχηκότος οὔτε τοῦ μέλλοντος μέρος γενέσθαι δυνά μενον διὰ τὸ εἶναι καθόλου ἀδιάστατόν τε καὶ ἄτομον καὶ ᾧπερ ἂν προστεθῇ ἀνεπίδηλον. τὸ οὖν καθαρῶς ἄμεσον 3.2.119 οὐδενὶ τοιούτῳ μεσιτεύεσθαι λέγομεν. οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἔτι ἄμεσον εἴη τὸ μέσῳ τινὶ διειργόμενον· εἰ τοίνυν κἀκεῖνος ἀμεσίτευτον εἶναι εἰπὼν τοῦ υἱοῦ τὴν γέννησιν μηδὲν τῶν εἰρημένων ἐπήνεγκε, τὴν εὐσεβῶς νοουμένην τοῦ υἱοῦ πρὸς τὸν πατέρα συνάφειαν ἐδογμάτιζεν. ἐπειδὴ δὲ καθάπερ μεταμεληθεὶς ἐφ' οἷς εἴρηκεν εὐθὺς ἐπήγαγεν ὅτι 20σῴζει τὴν πρὸς τὸν γεγεννηκότα καὶ πεποιηκότα καὶ κτίσαντα σχέσιν20, ἐμόλυνε τοῖς δευτέροις τὰ πρότερα, τῷ καθαρῷ λόγῳ τὴν βλάσφημον φωνὴν ἐπε 3.2.120 μέσας. δῆλον γὰρ ὅτι κἀκεῖ τὸ ἀμεσίτευτον οὐ πρὸς τὸ εὐσεβὲς βλέπει, ἀλλ' ὡς ἄν τις λέγοι μεταξὺ τοῦ ἥλου καὶ τοῦ χαλκέως μεσιτεύειν τὴν σφύραν, ταύτης δὲ εἶναι τὴν κατασκευὴν ἀμεσίτευτον, οὔπω γὰρ τῶν ὀργάνων ὑπὸ τῆς τέχνης ἐξευρημένων, ἐπινοίᾳ τινὶ τὴν σφύραν, <οὐ> δι' ἑτέρου τινὸς ὀργάνου, παρὰ τοῦ τεχνίτου πρώτην γενέσθαι καὶ οὕτω διὰ ταύτης τὰ ἄλλα, ταῦτα καὶ περὶ τοῦ μονογενοῦς νοεῖν ἡ τοῦ ἀμεσιτεύτου λέξις τὸν λογο 3.2.121 γράφον ἐνδείκνυται. καὶ οὐ μόνος ἐν τούτῳ πεπλάνηται κατὰ τὴν ἀτοπίαν τοῦ δόγματος ὁ Εὐνόμιος, ἀλλ' ἔστι καὶ ἐν τοῖς Θεογνώστῳ πεπονημένοις τὸ ἴσον εὑρεῖν, ὅς φησι τὸν θεὸν βουλόμενον τόδε τὸ πᾶν κατασκευάσαι πρῶτον τὸν υἱὸν οἷόν τινα κανόνα τῆς δημιουργίας προϋποστήσασθαι, οὐδὲ ἐκεῖνος συνιδὼν ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τὸ ἄτοπον, ὅτι τὸ μὴ ἑαυτοῦ χάριν, ἀλλὰ δι' ἄλλο τι γινόμενον ἀτιμότερόν ἐστι πάντως τοῦ δι' ὃ γίνεται, ὡς τὸ γεωργικὸν ἐργαλεῖον τῆς ζωῆς χάριν ἐπιτηδεύομεν, οὐ μὴν ἐπίσης τιμᾶται τῇ ζωῇ 3.2.122 καὶ τὸ ἄροτρον. οὕτω τοίνυν καὶ εἰ διὰ τὸν κόσμον ὁ κύριος, καὶ οὐχὶ δι' ἐκεῖνον τὰ πάντα, προτιμότερα ἂν εἴη τοῦ κυρίου τὰ πάντα ὧν χάριν ἐκεῖνον γενέσθαι λέγουσι. τοῦτο καὶ νῦν διὰ τοῦ λόγου κατασκευάζουσι, δι' ὧν ἀμεσί τευτον ἔχειν τὸν υἱὸν τὴν πρὸς τὸν κτίσαντα καὶ πεποιηκότα σχέσιν διϊσχυρίζονται. 3.2.123 Ἀλλὰ φιλανθρωπεύεται τοῖς ὑπολοίποις καί φησιν 20οὐδενὶ τῶν δι' αὐτῆς καὶ μετ' αὐτὴν γενομένων συγκρίνεσθαι20. τοιαῦτα δωροφοροῦσιν οἱ τῆς ἀληθείας ἐχθροὶ τῷ κυρίῳ, δι' ὧν περιφανέστερον ἡ βλασφημία κατασκευάζεται. τί γάρ, εἰπέ μοι, τῶν ὑπολοίπων, ὅσα κατὰ τὴν κτίσιν ἐστί, τὴν πρὸς ἑκάτερον σύγκρισιν ἔχει, καθόλου τῆς ἐν ἑκάστῳ φαινομένης ἰδιότητος οὐ προσιεμένης τὴν πρὸς τὰ ἑτερογενῆ κοινωνίαν; οὐκ οὐρανῷ πρὸς γῆν ἐστιν ἡ σύγκρισις, οὐ ταύτῃ πρὸς τοὺς ἀστέρας, οὐ πρὸς τὰ πελάγη τοῖς ἄστροις, οὐ πρὸς τὸν λίθον τῷ ὕδατι, οὐ πρὸς τὰ δένδρα τοῖς ζῴοις, οὐ πρὸς τὰ πτηνὰ τοῖς χερ σαίοις, οὐ πρὸς τὰ νηκτὰ τοῖς τετράποσιν, οὐ πρὸς τὰ 3.2.124 λογικὰ τοῖς ἀλόγοις. καὶ τί ἄν τις περὶ τῶν καθ' ἕκαστον λέγων διατρίβοι, δεικνὺς ὅτι ταὐτὸν ἔστιν ἐφ' ἑκάστου τῶν ἐν τῇ κτίσει θεωρουμένων εἰπεῖν, ὅπερ ὡς ἐξαίρετον τῷ μονογενεῖ προσερρίφη, τὸ πρὸς μηδὲν τῶν μετ' αὐτὸν καὶ δι' αὐτοῦ γεγενημένων τὴν σύγκρισιν ἔχειν; φανερὸν γάρ ἐστιν ὅτι πᾶν, ὅπερ ἂν ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ νοήσῃς, ἀσύγκριτόν ἐστι τῷ παντί τε καὶ τοῖς καθ' ἕκαστον· καὶ ὅπερ ἐπὶ τοῦ τυ χόντος κτίσματος ἀληθῶς ἔστιν εἰπεῖν ὡς ἱκανόν ἐστι, τοῦτο καὶ αὔταρκες εἰς τιμὴν