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the end and cause of being, and having its motion towards the cause according to its being. But that which properly is not being, even if it is said to be, both is and is said to be by participation through the will of that which properly is being.

3. If the Word precedes the generation of beings, neither was, nor is, nor will there be a word superior to the Word. But the Word is not without mind or devoid of life; but is mindful and living, as having as begetter Mind (1180) subsisting essentially, the Father; and Life subsisting essentially and coexisting, the Holy Spirit.

4. One God, Father, begetter of one Son, and source of one Holy Spirit; an unconfused monad, and an undivided Trinity; Mind without beginning, alone the begetter of the alone essentially unbegotten Word; and source of the alone eternal Life, that is, the Holy Spirit.

5. One God, because one Godhead. A monad without beginning, and beyond-essence, and impartible and indivisible; the same monad and Trinity, and so forth.

6. If all participation is preconceived before the participants; then clearly the cause of beings incomparably in every way transcends all beings, both pre-existing by nature and being preconceived before beings; not as a substance of accidents; since the Divine would be shown to be composite, having the hypostasis of beings for the completion of its own existence; but as beyond-essence is to essence. For if the arts invented the forms of things from themselves, and nature in general, the species of things under it, much more did God bring the substances of beings into existence from non-beings, as one who is beyond-essence, and even more infinitely removed than the thesis of being beyond-essence; he who also joined the sciences to the arts for the invention of forms, and gave to nature the productive energy of the species, and brought into existence being itself of the substances, which is what it is.

7. He who is participated in by beings not according to essence, but willing to be participated in by those who are able in another manner, in no way departs from the hiddenness according to essence; since even the manner itself, in which he is willingly participated, remains perpetually unmanifest to all. Therefore, just as God is willingly participated in, in a manner he himself knows; (1181) so also did he willingly bring into existence the participants, according to a principle he himself understands, through an exceeding power of goodness. Therefore that which came to be by the will of the maker, could never be co-eternal with him who willed it to come to be.

8. The Word of God, having been born once according to the flesh, is always willingly born according to the spirit through love for mankind in those who are willing; and becomes an infant, forming himself in them through the virtues; and appearing as much as he knows the one receiving him can contain; not diminishing the manifestation of his own greatness out of envy, but weighing by measure the capacity of those who long to see. Thus the Word of God, always appearing even in the ways of the participants, always remains unseen by all according to the transcendence of the mystery. Whence the divine Apostle, having wisely considered the power of the mystery, says: Jesus Christ, yesterday and today, the same and unto the ages; knowing the mystery to be ever new, and never made old by the comprehension of the mind.

9. Christ the God is born, becoming man by the assumption of flesh having a rational soul; he who granted generation to beings from non-beings; whom a Virgin, having supernaturally given birth, destroyed no proof of her virginity. For as he himself became man, not altering his nature, nor changing his power; so also he makes her who bore him both a mother, and preserves her a virgin, simultaneously interpreting a wonder by a wonder, and by the one concealing the other. Because God, through himself, is always a mystery according to essence, bringing himself out of his natural hiddenness to such an extent, as to make it more hidden through the manifestation; and again making the one who bore him, a mother, a virgin to such an extent, as to make the conception an unbreakable bond of virginity [unus Reg. ἀπεργάζεσθαι].

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τέλος καί αἰτίαν τοῦ εἶναι, καί τήν κατά τό εἶναι πρός αἰτίαν κίνησιν ἔχον. Τό δέ κυρίως οὐκ ὄν, κἄν εἶναι λέγηται, κατά μέθεξιν βουλήσει τοῦ κυρίως ὄντος, καί ἔστι καί λέγεται.

γ΄. Εἰ Λόγος προκαθηγεῖται τῆς τῶν ὄντων γενέσεως, οὔτε ἦν, οὔτε ἔστιν, οὔτε ἔσται τοῦ Λόγου λόγος ἀνώτερος. Λόγος δέ, οὐκ ἄνους ἤ ζωῆς ἄμοιρος· ἀλλ᾿ ἔννους καί ζῶν, ὡς γεννῶτα Νοῦν ἔχων (1180) οὐσιωδῶς ὑφεστῶτα, τόν Πατέρα· καί Ζωήν ὑφεστῶσαν οὐσιωδῶς συνυπάρχουσαν, τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον.

δ΄. Εἷς Θεός, ἑνός Υἱοῦ γεννήτωρ, Πατήρ, καί Πνεύματος ἑνός ἁγίου πηγή· μονάς ἀσύγχυτος, καί Τριάς ἀδιαίρετος· Νοῦς ἄναρχος, μόνου μόνος οὐσιωδῶς ἀνάρχου Λόγου Γεννήτωρ· καί μόνης ἀϊδίου Ζωῆς, ἤγουν Πνεύματος ἁγίου, πηγή.

ε΄. Εἷς Θεός, ὅτι μία Θεότης. Μονάς ἄναρχος, καί ὑπερούσιος, καί ἀμερής καί ἀδιαίρετος· ἡ αὐτή μονάς καί Τριάς, καί τά ἑξῆς.

στ΄. Εἰ πᾶσα μετοχή τῶν μετεχόντων προεπινοεῖται· πάντων δηλαδή σαφῶς ὑπέρκειται τῶν ὄντων ἀσυγκρίτως κατά πάντα τρόπον ἡ τῶν ὄντων αἰτία, κατά φύσιν προϋπάρχουσά τε καί προεπινοουμένη τῶν ὄντων· οὐχ ὡς οὐσία συμβεβηκότων· ἐπεί σύνθετον ἀποδειχθήσεται τό Θεῖον, εἰς συμπλήρωσιν ἔχον τῆς οἰκείας ὑπάρξεως τήν τῶν ὄντων ὑπόστασιν· ἀλλ' ὡς οὐσίας, τό ὑπερούσιον. Εἰ γάρ αἱ μέν τέχναι, τῶν ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐφεῦρον τά σχήματα, ἡ δέ καθόλου φύσις, τά εἴδη τῶν ὑπ᾿ αὐτήν, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ὁ Θεός τάς τῶν ὄντων οὐσίας ἐκ μή ὄντων ὑπέστησεν, ὡς ὑπερούσιος, καί ἔτι μᾶλλον τῆς καθ᾿ ὑπερουσιότητα θέσεως, ἀπείρως ἐξῃρημένος· ὁ καί τάς τέχνας συζεύξας πρός ἐξεύρεσιν σχημάτων τάς ἐπιστήμας, καί τῇ φύσει δούς τήν ἀπεργαστικήν τῶν εἰδῶν ἐνέργειαν, καί αὐτό τό εἶναι τῶν οὐσιῶν, ὅπερ ἐστίν ὑποστησάμενος.

ζ΄. Ὁ τοῖς οὖσι μή κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ὑπάρχων μεθεκτός, κατ᾿ ἄλλον δέ τρόπον μετέχεσθαι τοῖς δυναμένοις βουλόμενος, τοῦ κατ᾿ οὐσίαν κρυφίου παντελῶς οὐκ ἐξίσταται· ὁπότε καί αὐτός ὁ τρόπος, καθ᾿ ὅν θέλων μετέχεται, μένει διηνεκῶς τοῖς πᾶσιν ἀνέκφαντος. Οὐκοῦν, ὥσπερ ὁ Θεός θέλων μετέχεται, καθ᾿ ὅν αὐτός οἶδε τρόπον· (1181) οὕτω καί θέλων ὑπέστησε τά μετέχοντα, καθ᾿ ὅν αὐτός ἐπίσταται λόγον, δι᾿ ὑπερβάλλουσαν ἀγαθότητος δύναμιν. Οὐκοῦν τό θελήσει τοῦ πεποιηκότος γενόμενον, οὐκ ἄν εἴη ποτέ θελήσαντι αὐτό γενέσθαι, συναΐδιον.

η΄. Ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος ἐφάπαξ κατά σάρκα γεννηθείς, ἀεί γεννᾶται θέλων κατά πνεῦμα διά φιλανθρωπίαν τοῖς θέλουσι· καί γίνεται βρέφος, ἑαυτόν ἐν ἐκείνοις διαπλάττων ταῖς ἀρεταῖς· καί τοσοῦτον φαινόμενος, ὅσον χωρεῖν ἐπίσταται τόν δεχόμενον· οὐ φθόνῳ σμικρύνων τοῦ οἰκείου μεγέθους τήν ἔκφανσιν, ἀλλά μέτρῳ σταθμίζων τῶν ὁρᾷν ποθούντων τήν δύναμιν. Οὕτως ἀεί καί φαινόμενος ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος τοῖς τρόποις τῶν μετόχων, ἀεί διαμένει κατά τήν ὑπερβολήν τοῦ μυστηρίου, τοῖς πᾶσιν ἀθέατος. Ὅθεν σοφῶς τοῦ μυστηρίου τήν δύναμιν διασκοπήσας ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος, φησίν· Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, χθές καί σήμερον, ὁ αὐτός καί εἰς τούς αἰῶνας· εἰδώς ἀεί καινόν τό μυστήριον, καί μηδέποτε περιλήψει νοός παλαιούμενον.

θ΄. Γεννᾶται Χριστός ὁ Θεός, προσλήψει σαρκός ψυχήν ἐχούσης νοεράν γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος· ὁ παρασχόμενος τοῖς οὖσιν ἐκ μή ὄντων τήν γένεσιν· ὅν Παρθένος ὑπερφυῶς τεκοῦσα, παρέλυσεν οὐδέν τῆς παρθενίας τεκμήριον. Ὡς γάρ αὐτός ἄνθρωπος γέγονεν, οὐκ ἀλλοιώσας τήν φύσιν, οὐδ᾿ ἀμείψας τήν δύναμιν· οὕτω τήν τεκοῦσαν καί μητέρα ποιεῖ, καί παρθένον διατηρεῖ, θαύματι θαῦμα κατά ταυτό διερμηνεύων ἅμα, καί θατέρῳ κρύπτων τό ἕτερον. Ἐπειδή δι᾿ ἑαυτόν ὁ Θεός ἀεί κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ὑπάρχει μυστήριον, τοσοῦτον ἑαυτόν ἐξάγων τῆς φυσικῆς κρυφιότητος, ὅσον ταύτην πλέον διά τῆς ἐκφάνσεως κρυφιωτέραν ἐργάζεσθαι· καί τοσοῦτον πάλιν μητέρα τήν τεκοῦσαν παρθένον ποιούμενος, ὅσον τήν κύησιν ἄλυτον τῆς παρθενίας δεσμόν ἀπεργάζεσθαι [unus Reg. ἀπεργάζεσθαι].