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incongruous, so conversely it is undeniably acknowledged that what is congruous is in every way 3.2.150 unvarying. For just as what is altered is not harmonious, so what is harmonious is not altered; but he who says that the nature of the only-begotten is a variation from the good substance of the Father, necessarily sees the variation in the good itself. And what is a variation of the good? 'Understand, you simple ones, shrewdness,' says the proverb. 3.2.151 But I will pass over these things in my argument, as having a self-evident absurdity, and let us examine what comes before them. 20nothing20, he says, 20is found other than the substance of the Son that receives the generation20. What does he mean by saying these things? For having distinguished two names from each other and having separated in his argument the things signified by them, he sets forth each one by itself distinctly. One name is 20generation20 and another name is 20substance20. The substance, he says, receives the generation, being clearly something other than the 3.2.152 generation. For if generation were substance, which he indeed continuously declares, so that the two appellations are equivalent to each other in meaning, he would not have said that the substance 20receives20 the generation; for it would have been the same as saying that substance receives substance, or that generation receives generation, if generation were the same as substance. Therefore he understands generation as one thing, and substance, which receives the generation, as another. For what is received would not be the same as that which receives. This, then, the wise artifice of the writer says. But if there is any meaning in what has been said, let him who has carefully considered it examine the argument. And I will take up again what was said. 3.2.153 20To find nothing other20, he says, 20besides the substance of the Son that receives the generation20. But that no meaning is contained in what has been said is clear to anyone who understands arguments at all; it would remain, then, to bring to light the blasphemy which he constructs through these unintelligible sayings. For he wishes, even if he is not able due to his interpretative weakness, to instill this thought in his hearers, that the substance of the Son is a constructed thing; and he calls the construction generation, concealing the horror of the blasphemy with a most specious word, so that the consent to the Lord having been created might become readily acceptable, the construction being signified by the word of generation 3.2.154. He says, therefore, that the substance receives the generation, in order that just as every construction is seen in some underlying matter (for no one would say that which has not subsisted has been constructed), so, as if some constructed thing, the nature of the only-begotten God *** having proposed the creation in his argument. 20if therefore it receives this generation20, he says, wishing to signify such a thing, that it would not exist, if it had not been constructed. What else of the things seen in creation is there that has not come into being? Heaven, air, earth, sea, everything that exists, has certainly come into being; none of which would exist, if 3.2.155 it had not come into being. How then did he consider it as something exceptional in the nature of the only-begotten, to receive generation into its very substance (for so he calls construction, as if the silkworm and the gnat received their generation not into themselves, but into something other than themselves)? Therefore it is confessed through what has been written that the substance of the only-begotten is made common by them even with the smallest parts of creation, and every argument by which the alienation of the Son from the Father is constructed has equal force also in the case of individual things. 3.2.156 What need, then, does he have of this varied subtlety for the construction of alienation according to nature, when he ought to have turned to the short road of denial by openly forbidding the name of the Son to be confessed or the only-begotten God to be proclaimed in the churches, but to judge Jewish worship to have more authority than the confession of Christians, and confessing the Father alone as creator and maker, to subject all other things to the name and concept of creation, and among these, to call the work set before others a 20creature20 through some constructive

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ἀνάρμοστον, οὕτω τὸ ἔμ παλιν ἀναντιρρήτως ὁμολογεῖται τὸ εὐάρμοστον ἀπαράλ 3.2.150 λακτον πάντως. ὡς γὰρ τὸ παρηλλαγμένον οὐχ ἁρμόζεται, οὕτω τὸ ἁρμοζόμενον οὐ παρήλλακται· ὁ δὲ λέγων τῆς ἀγαθῆς τοῦ πατρὸς οὐσίας τὴν τοῦ μονογενοῦς παραλλάττειν φύσιν, ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ ἀγαθῷ τὴν παραλλαγὴν πάντως βλέπει. τὸ δὲ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ παρηλλαγμένον τί ἐστι, Νοήσατε οἱ ἄκακοι τὴν πανουργίαν, ἡ παροιμία φησίν. 3.2.151 Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν ὡς πρόδηλον ἔχοντα τὴν ἀτοπίαν παραδραμοῦμαι τῷ λόγῳ, τὸ δὲ πρὸ αὐτῶν ἐξετάσωμεν. 20οὐδέν20 φησιν 20ἕτερον εὑρίσκεσθαι παρὰ τὴν οὐ σίαν τοῦ υἱοῦ τὸ δεχόμενον τὴν γέννησιν20. τί νοῶν ταῦτα λέγει; δύο γὰρ ἀπ' ἀλλήλων διακρίνας ὀνό ματα καὶ τὰ δι' αὐτῶν σημαινόμενα συνδιαχωρίσας τῷ λόγῳ, ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ ἑκάτερον ἰδιαζόντως ἐκτίθεται. ἓν ὄνομα ἡ 20γέννησις20 καὶ ἕτερον ὄνομα ἡ 20οὐσία20. δέχεται, φησίν, ἡ οὐσία τὴν γέννησιν, ἄλλο τι οὖσα δηλονότι παρὰ τὴν 3.2.152 γέννησιν. εἰ γὰρ ἡ γέννησις οὐσία ἦν, ὅπερ δὴ συνεχῶς ἀποφαίνεται, ὥστε τὰς δύο προσηγορίας ἰσοδυναμεῖν ἀλλή λαις κατὰ τὴν ἔμφασιν, οὐκ ἂν εἶπεν ὅτι 20δέχεται20 ἡ οὐσία τὴν γέννησιν· ἴσον γὰρ ἂν ἦν τῷ εἰπεῖν ὅτι τὴν οὐσίαν ἡ οὐσία ἢ ὅτι τὴν γέννησιν ἡ γέννησις δέχεται, εἴπερ ταὐτὸν ἦν τῇ οὐσίᾳ ἡ γέννησις. οὐκοῦν ἄλλο μέν τι νοεῖ τὴν γέννησιν, ἄλλο δέ τι τὴν οὐσίαν, ἣ τὴν γέννησιν δέχεται. οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἦν ταὐτὸν τῷ ὑποδεχομένῳ τὸ λαμβα νόμενον. τοῦτο μὲν οὖν ἡ σοφὴ τοῦ λογογράφου τεχνο λογία φησίν. εἰ δέ τις ἔγκειται νοῦς τοῖς εἰρημένοις, ὁ κρίνειν ἐπεσκεμμένος ἐπισκεψάσθω τὸν λόγον. πάλιν δὲ τὸ ῥηθὲν ἀναλήψομαι. 3.2.153 20Οὐδὲν ἕτερον εὑρίσκειν20 λέγει 20παρὰ τὴν οὐσίαν τοῦ υἱοῦ τὸ δεχόμενον τὴν γέννησιν20. ἀλλὰ τὸ μηδεμίαν ἐγκεῖσθαι τοῖς εἰρημένοις διάνοιαν παντὶ δῆλόν ἐστι τῷ καὶ ὁπωσοῦν ἐπαΐοντι λόγων· ὑπόλοιπον δὲ ἂν εἴη τὴν βλασφημίαν εἰς τὸ ἐμφανὲς ἀγαγεῖν, ἣν διὰ τῶν ἀδιανοήτων τούτων κατασκευάζει ῥημάτων. βούλεται γάρ, εἰ καὶ μὴ δύναται διὰ τὴν ἑρμηνευτικὴν ἀτονίαν, ταύτην ἐμποιῆσαι τοῖς ἀκροαταῖς τὴν διάνοιαν, ὅτι κατασκευαστή ἐστι τοῦ υἱοῦ ἡ οὐσία· γέννησιν δὲ τὴν κατασκευὴν ὀνο μάζει, τῇ εὐσημοτάτῃ φωνῇ τὸ φρικτὸν περιστέλλων τῆς βλασφημίας, ὡς ἂν εὐπαράδεκτος γένοιτο ἡ τοῦ ἐκτίσθαι τὸν κύριον συγκατάθεσις, τῇ τῆς γεννήσεως λέξει τῆς 3.2.154 κατασκευῆς δηλουμένης. λέγει τοίνυν ὅτι ἡ οὐσία τὴν γέννησιν δέχεται, ἵν' ὥσπερ ἐν ὑποκειμένῳ τινὶ πράγματι πᾶσα κατασκευὴ θεωρεῖται (οὐ γὰρ ἄν τις εἴποι κατε σκευάσθαι ὃ μὴ ὑφέστηκεν), οὕτως οἷόν τι κατασκεύασμα τὴν τοῦ μονογενοῦς θεοῦ φύσιν *** προτείνας τῷ λόγῳ τὴν ποίησιν. 20εἰ τοίνυν τὴν γέννησιν δέχεται ταύ την20, φησί, τοιοῦτο σημᾶναι βουλόμενος, ὅτι οὐκ ἂν ἦν, εἰ μὴ κατεσκευάσθη. τί δὲ ἄλλο τῶν ἐν τῇ κτίσει θεωρουμένων ἐστὶ μὴ γενόμενον; οὐρανός, ἀήρ, γῆ, θάλαττα, πᾶν ὅτιπερ ἔστι, γενόμενον πάντως ἐστίν· ὧν οὐδὲν ἂν ἦν, εἰ 3.2.155 μὴ γενόμενον ἦν. πῶς οὖν ὡς ἐξαίρετόν τι τῇ τοῦ μονο γενοῦς ἐνεθεώρησε φύσει τὸ εἰς αὐτὴν τὴν οὐσίαν ἀνα δέχεσθαι τὴν γέννησιν (οὕτω γὰρ τὴν κατασκευὴν ὀνο μάζει, ὡς τοῦ βομβυλιοῦ καὶ τοῦ κώνωπος οὐκ εἰς ἑαυτόν, ἀλλ' εἰς ἕτερόν τι παρ' ἑαυτὸν δεξαμένου τὴν γέννησιν); οὐκοῦν ὁμολογεῖται διὰ τῶν γεγραμμένων ὅτι καὶ πρὸς τὰ μικρότατα τῆς κτίσεως μόρια κοινοποιεῖται παρ' αὐτῶν τοῦ μονογενοῦς ἡ οὐσία καὶ πᾶν ἐπιχείρημα, δι' οὗ κατασκευ άζεται ἡ πρὸς τὸν πατέρα τοῦ υἱοῦ ἀλλοτρίωσις, τὴν ἴσην ἰσχὺν καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν καθ' ἕκαστον ἔχει. 3.2.156 Τίς οὖν αὐτῷ χρεία τῆς ποικίλης ταύτης λεπτουργίας εἰς κατασκευὴν τῆς κατὰ τὴν φύσιν ἀλλοτριότητος, δέον τὴν σύντομον τῆς ἀρνήσεως ὁδὸν τραπῆναι τῷ φανερῶς ἀπειπεῖν μὴ δεῖν ὁμολογεῖσθαι τοῦ υἱοῦ τὸ ὄνομα μηδὲ τὸν μονογενῆ θεὸν ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις κηρύσσεσθαι, ἀλλὰ τὴν Ἰουδαϊκὴν λατρείαν κυριωτέραν τῆς τῶν Χριστιανῶν κρί νειν ὁμολογίας, καὶ μόνον κτίστην καὶ δημιουργὸν ὁμολο γοῦντας τὸν πατέρα τὰ λοιπὰ πάντα τῷ τῆς κτίσεως ὑπά γειν ὀνόματί τε καὶ νοήματι, ἐν δὲ τούτοις τὸ τῶν ἄλλων προτεταγμένον ἔργον 20ποίημα20 λέγειν διά τινος κατασκευα στικῆς