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But we will leave it to the dreamers to understand the spirit of the Only-begotten, or rather, in great abundance, we will also make use of their own words and will arm the truth with the arrows of our adversaries. For it is possible for the Egyptian to be despoiled by the Israelites and for their wealth to be made our 3.5.17 ornament. If the substance of the Son is called spirit, and God is also spirit (for so the Gospel also says), then the substance of the Father is also certainly called spirit. But if their argument is that things expressed dissimilarly are also dissimilar in nature, it surely follows that things spoken of in the same way are not alien to each other in nature either. Therefore, since according to their own argument the substance of the Son and of the Father is called spirit, it is clearly demonstrated by these things that there is no difference in substance. 3.5.18 For a little after this Eunomius says that 20of altered substances, the appellations significant of the substance are certainly also altered; but where there is one and the same term, that which is signified by the same appellation will also be certainly one20; so that in every way He who catches the wise in their own craftiness has turned the long labors of the writer and his countless sweats over his works to the establishment of our own dogma. For if God is called spirit in the Gospel, and the substance of the Only-begotten is constructed by Eunomius as spirit, with there being no difference between the name and the name, neither will the things signified by the names certainly differ from each other 3.5.19 in nature. And it seems good to me, having exposed this feeble and harmless shadow-boxing, to pass over without examination what he wrote next in accusation of the teacher's words. For a sufficient refutation of the futility of what was said is the argument itself, crying out its own weakness. But to engage in conflict with such things is equivalent to trampling on the dead. 3.5.20 For having set forth with great confidence a certain saying of the teacher, and having slandered and spat upon it and promised to show it to be of no account, he suffered the same fate as infants, for whom the undeveloped and immature state of the mind and the untrained condition of the senses do not give an accurate comprehension of what they see. For this reason, often thinking the stars to be a little above their heads, they throw clods of earth at them, which appear to their childish folly, then when the clod falls down, they boast with clapping and laughter to their peers as if their shot had been carried to the stars themselves. 3.5.21 Such is the one who struck the truth with the arrow of infants, who, having set forth those exceedingly brilliant words of the teacher like some stars, cast from below, from his trodden and groveling mind, earthy and unstable arguments, which, having been raised so high as not to have from where they might fall of their own accord, were overturned by their own weight. For the saying of the great Basil reads thus, word for word. "1And yet what sober person would agree with this argument, that for those things whose names are different, their substances must also necessarily be different? For of Peter and Paul and of men generally, the 3.5.22 appellations are different, but the substance of all is one. Therefore in most respects we are the same as one another, but we differ from one another only in the properties observed in each one. Hence the appellations are not indicative of substances, but of the properties which characterize each individual. Therefore when we hear 'Peter,' we do not understand his substance from the name (and by substance I do not now mean the material substrate), but we form an impression of the properties observed in him."2 3.5.23 Thus says the great one. But as for the one who fights against what was said, with what accuracy he has aimed at us, let him who has leisure to occupy himself with unprofitable things learn from the writing of Eunomius itself. For it is not my pleasure to insert into my own labors the nauseating nonsense of the rhetorician, and to publicize his ignorance and foolishness in the midst of my own words. 3.5.24
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δὲ τοῦ μονογενοῦς τὸ πνεῦμα νοεῖν τοῖς ὀνειροπόλοις ἀφήσομεν, μᾶλλον δὲ κατὰ περιουσίαν πολλὴν καὶ τοῖς ἐκείνων χρη σόμεθα καὶ διὰ τῶν ἐναντίων βελῶν καθοπλίσομεν τὴν ἀλήθειαν. ἔξεστι γὰρ συλαγωγεῖσθαι παρὰ τῶν Ἰσραηλιτῶν τὸν Αἰγύπτιον καὶ ποιῆσαι τὸν ἐκείνων πλοῦτον ἡμέ 3.5.17 τερον κόσμον· εἰ πνεῦμα λέγεται τοῦ υἱοῦ ἡ οὐσία, πνεῦμα δὲ καὶ ὁ θεός (οὕτω γὰρ λέγει καὶ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον), καὶ ἡ τοῦ πατρὸς οὐσία πάντως λέγεται πνεῦμα. ἀλλὰ εἰ μόνων ἐκείνων λόγος ἐστὶ τὰ ἀνομοίως προφερόμενα καὶ κατὰ τὴν φύσιν ἀνομοίως ἔχειν, συνάγεται πάντως τὰ ὡσαύτως λεγόμενα μηδὲ κατὰ τὴν φύσιν ἠλλοτριῶσθαι πρὸς ἄλληλα. ἐπεὶ οὖν κατὰ τὸν λόγον αὐτῶν πνεῦμα λέγεται τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ πατρὸς ἡ οὐσία, τὸ μὴ εἶναι τῆς οὐσίας διαφορὰν διὰ τούτων σαφῶς ἀποδέδεικται. 3.5.18 Μικρὸν γὰρ μετὰ ταῦτά φησιν ὁ Εὐνόμιος ὅτι 20τῶν παρηλλαγμένων οὐσιῶν παρηλλαγμέναι πάν τως καὶ αἱ σημαντικαὶ τῆς οὐσίας εἰσὶ προσ ηγορίαι ἐφ' ὧν δὲ μία καὶ ἡ αὐτὴ φωνή, ἓν πάντως ἔσται καὶ τὸ τῇ αὐτῇ προσηγορίᾳ δη λούμενον20· ὥστε διὰ πάντων ὁ δρασσόμενος τοὺς σοφοὺς ἐν τῇ πανουργίᾳ αὐτῶν τοὺς μακροὺς πόνους τοῦ λογο γράφου καὶ τοὺς μυρίους ἐπὶ τοῖς πονηθεῖσιν ἱδρῶτας πρὸς τὴν σύστασιν τοῦ καθ' ἡμᾶς δόγματος περιήγαγεν. εἰ γὰρ πνεῦμα μὲν ὁ θεὸς ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ λέγεται, πνεῦμα δὲ τοῦ μονογενοῦς ἡ οὐσία παρὰ τοῦ Εὐνομίου κατασκευάζεται, τῷ ὀνόματι πρὸς τὸ ὄνομα μηδεμιᾶς ὑπούσης διαφορᾶς, οὐδὲ τὰ σημαινόμενα πάντως ὑπὸ τῶν ὀνομάτων ἀπ' ἀλλή 3.5.19 λων κατὰ τὴν φύσιν διενεχθήσεται. καί μοι δοκεῖ καλῶς ἔχειν τὴν ἀδρανῆ ταύτην καὶ ἄπληκτον σκιαμαχίαν ἐλέγξαντα τὴν ἐφεξῆς αὐτῷ συγγεγραμμένην πρὸς κατηγορίαν τῶν τοῦ διδασκάλου λόγων παραδραμεῖν ἀνεξέταστον. ἔλεγχος γὰρ ἱκανὸς τῆς τῶν εἰρημένων ἐστὶ ματαιότητος αὐτὸς ὁ λόγος δι' ἑαυτοῦ βοῶν τὴν ἀσθένειαν. τὸ δὲ τοῖς τοιούτοις ἐν ἀγωνίᾳ συμπλέκεσθαι ἴσον ἐστὶ τῷ καὶ νεκροῖς ἐπεμβαίνειν. 3.5.20 ἐκθέμενος γὰρ ἐκ πολλῆς πεποιθήσεως ῥῆσιν τοῦ διδα σκάλου τινὰ καὶ προδιαβαλὼν καὶ διαπτύσας καὶ ἀντὶ τοῦ μηδενὸς εἶναι δείξειν ἐπαγγειλάμενος ταὐτὸν ἔπαθε τοῖς νηπίοις τῶν παίδων, οἷς τὸ ἀτελὲς καὶ ἄωρον τῆς διανοίας καὶ τὸ τῶν αἰσθητηρίων ἀγύμναστον οὐκ ἀκριβῆ δίδωσι τῶν φαινομένων τὴν κατανόησιν· διὰ τοῦτο πολλάκις μικρὸν ὑπὲρ κεφαλῆς εἶναι τοὺς ἀστέρας νομίζοντες βώλοις τισὶν ὑπὸ παιδικῆς ἀνοίας προφανέντας καταλιθάζουσιν, εἶτα καταπεσούσης τῆς βώλου σὺν κρότῳ καὶ γέλωτι πρὸς τοὺς ἡλικιώτας μεγαλαυχοῦσιν ὡς ἐπ' αὐτοὺς τοὺς ἀστέρας τῆς 3.5.21 βολῆς ἐνεχθείσης. τοιοῦτος ὁ τῷ βέλει τῶν νηπίων τὴν ἀλήθειαν βαλών, ὃς καθάπερ ἀστέρας τινὰς τοὺς ὑπερ λαμπεῖς ἐκείνους τοῦ διδασκάλου προεκθέμενος λόγους χαμόθεν ἐκ τῆς πεπατημένης καὶ χαμερποῦς διανοίας τοὺς γεώδεις τε καὶ ἀστάτους ἔρριψε λόγους, οἳ τοσοῦτον ὑψω θέντες, ὅσον μὴ ἔχειν ὅθεν πέσωσιν αὐτομάτως, τῷ ἑαυτῶν βάρει περιετράπησαν. ἡ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ μεγάλου Βασιλείου ῥῆσις οὕτως κατὰ τὴν λέξιν ἔχει. "1καίτοι τίς ἂν τῷ λόγῳ τούτῳ σωφρονῶν πρόσθοιτο, ὅτι ὧν τὰ ὀνόματά ἐστι διά φορα, τούτων παρηλλάχθαι καὶ τὰς οὐσίας ἀνάγκη; Πέ τρου γὰρ καὶ Παύλου καὶ ἁπαξαπλῶς ἀνθρώπων προσ 3.5.22 ηγορίαι μὲν διάφοροι, οὐσία δὲ πάντων μία. διόπερ ἐν τοῖς πλείστοις οἱ αὐτοὶ ἀλλήλοις ἐσμέν, τοῖς δὲ ἰδιώμασι μόνοις τοῖς περὶ ἕκαστον θεωρουμένοις ἕτερος ἑτέρου διενηνόχαμεν. ὅθεν καὶ αἱ προσηγορίαι οὐχὶ τῶν οὐσιῶν εἰσι σημαντικαί, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἰδιοτήτων, αἳ τὸν καθ' ἕνα χαρακτηρίζουσιν. ὅταν οὖν ἀκούσωμεν Πέτρον, οὐ τὴν οὐσίαν αὐτοῦ νοοῦμεν ἐκ τοῦ ὀνόματος (οὐσίαν δὲ λέγω νῦν οὐ τὸ ὑλικὸν ὑπο κείμενον), ἀλλὰ τῶν ἰδιωμάτων τῶν περὶ αὐτὸν θεωρου μένων τὴν ἔννοιαν ἐντυπούμεθα."2 3.5.23 Ταῦτα μὲν ὁ μέγας φησίν. ὁ δὲ μαχόμενος τοῖς εἰρη μένοις οἵᾳ κέχρηται καθ' ἡμῶν τῇ εὐστοχίᾳ, ὅτῳ σχολὴ τοῖς ἀνονήτοις ἐνευκαιρεῖν, ἐξ αὐτῆς τοῦ Εὐνομίου τῆς συγγραφῆς διδασκέσθω. οὐ γάρ μοι φίλον τοῖς ἐμοῖς παρ εντιθέναι πόνοις τὴν ναυτιώδη φλυαρίαν τοῦ ῥήτορος καὶ τὸ ἀμαθὲς αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀνόητον διὰ μέσου τῶν ἐμῶν λόγων 3.5.24 ἐνστηλιτεύεσθαι.