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we are compelled to think and speak these things piously concerning him, even if it is not written. Thus we are compelled to speak of the homoousios, even if it was not written, in our own tongue with poverty of words, even if it might seem that this is beyond us and beyond our nature to discourse on God. But yet may the Lord himself pardon us, who wish not to make a defense for the divinity, which has no need of our commendation; but it is necessary to speak piously and to think piously, lest we perish. 73. Therefore, answer us, you disciples of Arius; we all together call the Father unbegotten and uncreated, and the word is certainly admirable; where, then, is this written? Show us the place. For neither has the Law said it, nor the Prophets, nor the Gospel, nor the Apostles. If, then, we piously say an unwritten word and it is acceptable, spoken for the glory of God, who would blame us, even if the homoousion was not written; since we have found a word, by which word we will be able to confess the security of our salvation? But there are testimonies along with pious reasoning, both those set forth above and many others. But I will pass over this word, and in God I will expose their other sayings and devices of temptation spoken against the innocent. 74. For again the same ones say, along with all the words from the Apostle and the Gospels which they corrupt according to their own mind, wrongly suspecting them, bringing this forward also from the Apostle, as is said in the epistle to the Corinthians, in the chapter concerning the resurrection of the dead, as it says in sequence "then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when he has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. But when it says that all things have been subjected to him, it is clear that it is except for the one who subjected all things to him. But when all things have been subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all." 3.222 They therefore seize upon the saying and by the habit of their enmity towards the Only-begotten, they subvert his ineffable and glorious divinity, as I have often said, being carried away by foolishness, and they say: you see that it says, "then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when he has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, until he has put all enemies under his feet. And the 'must' and 'until' and 'when he delivers the kingdom' is a definition of time." And blaspheming they say, these things are indicative of a cessation and dissolution of the one who reigns, * until he delivers the kingdom to God and the Father. And they do not know from the beginning the mind of the truth, that because the Only-begotten partook of flesh and blood, things relating to human passions concerning him and his incarnate presence, things that are receptive of glory, are sung and spoken, but not apart from his always perfect and glorious divinity, which needs nothing to receive glory, but possesses self-glorification and self-perfection; as he himself pleads concerning the two parts, saying concerning the recent one, "glorify me, Father, with the glory that I had with you before the world was made." But the Father, announcing the glory of the two relationships, concerning the first according to the spirit, "I have glorified it," to show the indefinite, but concerning the recent one through the incarnate presence, "and I will glorify it again"; 75. so that here too the clear meaning may be demonstrated concerning what the Apostle also said, positing the truth about him in a twofold manner *, and the "until he delivers the kingdom to God and the Father," is because of the beginning in time of the incarnate presence. For the divinity of the Only-begotten was always with the Father, which is the Only-begotten God, the Word who came forth from the Father without beginning and without time.

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ἀναγκαζόμεθα ταῦτα εὐσεβῶς περὶ αὐτοῦ φρονεῖν τε καὶ λέγειν, κἄν τε μὴ ᾖ γεγραμμένον. οὕτως τὸ περὶ τοῦ ὁμοουσίου ἀναγκαζόμεθα λέγειν, εἰ καὶ μὴ ἦν γεγραμμένον, κατὰ τὴν ἰδίαν γλῶσσαν μετὰ στενωπῆς τῶν λόγων, εἰ καὶ δόξειεν τοῦτο εἶναι ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς καὶ ὑπὲρ τὴν ἡμῶν φύσιν τὸ περὶ θεοῦ διαλέγεσθαι. ἀλλ' ὅμως αὐτὸς ὁ κύριος συγγνωμονήσειεν ἡμῖν, βουλομένοις οὐχ ὑπὲρ θεότητος ἀπολογεῖσθαι, τῆς ἀνενδεοῦς οὔσης τῆς ἡμῶν συστάσεως· ἀλλὰ δεῖ εὐσεβῶς λέγειν καὶ εὐσεβῶς νοεῖν, ἵνα μὴ ἀπολώμεθα. 73. Τοίνυν ἀποκρίθητε ἡμῖν οἱ τοῦ Ἀρείου μαθηταί· ἀγέννητον λέγομεν πάντες ὁμοῦ τὸν πατέρα καὶ ἄκτιστον, καὶ θαυμαστὴ ἡ λέξις δηλονότι· ποῦ τοίνυν γέγραπται τοῦτο; δείξατε τὸν τόπον. οὔτε γὰρ νόμος εἴρηκεν οὔτε προφῆται οὔτε εὐαγγέλιον οὔτε ἀπόστολοι. εἰ τοίνυν εὐσεβῶς λέγομεν λέξιν μὴ γεγραμμένην καὶ ἐστὶν ἀποδεκτὴ ὑπὲρ δόξης θεοῦ λεγομένη, τίς ἡμῖν ἐγκαλέσειεν, εἰ μὴν καὶ μὴ ἦν τὸ ὁμοούσιον γεγραμμένον· εὑρόντων ἡμῶν λόγον, δι' οὗ λόγου δυνησόμεθα τὸ ἀσφαλὲς ὁμολογῆσαι τῆς ἡμῶν σωτηρίας; ἀλλ' εἰσὶ μαρτυρίαι μετὰ καὶ τοῦ εὐσεβοῦς λογισμοῦ, αἵ τε προτεταγμέναι καὶ ἄλλαι πλείους. παρελεύσομαι δὲ καὶ ταύτην τὴν λέξιν, καὶ τὰς ἄλλας αὐτῶν τοῦ δελεασμοῦ κατὰ τῶν ἀκεραίων λεγομένας ἐν θεῷ ἀναξανῶ ῥήσεις τε καὶ ἐπινοίας. 74. Λέγουσι γὰρ πάλιν οἱ αὐτοὶ μετὰ πασῶν, ὧν ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀποστόλου καὶ τῶν εὐαγγελίων κατὰ τὸν νοῦν αὐτῶν παραφθείρουσι κακῶς ὑπονοοῦντες λέξεις, καὶ ταύτην εἰς μέσον φέροντες ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀποστόλου, ὡς εἴρηται ἐν τῇ πρὸς Κορινθίους ἐπιστολῇ, ἐν τῷ περὶ νεκρῶν ἀναστάσεως κεφαλαίῳ, ὡς καθεξῆς φησιν «εἶτα τὸ τέλος, ὅταν παραδιδῷ τὴν βασιλείαν τῷ θεῷ καὶ πατρί, ὅταν καταργήσῃ πᾶσαν ἀρχὴν καὶ πᾶσαν ἐξουσίαν καὶ δύναμιν. δεῖ γὰρ αὐτὸν βασιλεύειν ἄχρις οὗ θῇ πάντας τοὺς ἐχθροὺς αὐτοῦ ὑπὸ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ. ἔσχατος ἐχθρὸς καταργεῖται ὁ θάνατος. ὅταν δὲ εἴπῃ ὅτι πάντα αὐτῷ ὑποτέτακται, δῆλον ὅτι ἐκτὸς τοῦ ὑποτάξαντος αὐτῷ τὰ πάντα. ὅταν δὲ ὑποταγῇ αὐτῷ τὰ πάντα, τότε καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ υἱὸς ὑποταγήσεται τῷ ὑποτάξαντι αὐτῷ τὰ πάντα, ἵνα ᾖ ὁ θεὸς τὰ πάντα ἐν πᾶσιν». 3.222 ἐπιλαμβάνονται τοίνυν τοῦ ῥητοῦ καὶ τῷ ἔθει τῆς αὐτῶν ἔχθρας πρὸς τὸν μονογενῆ ἀνασκευάζοντες τὴν αὐτοῦ ἄφραστον καὶ ἔνδοξον θεότητα, ὡς καὶ πολλάκις εἶπον, ἀνοίᾳ φερόμενοι, καὶ φασίν· ὁρᾷς ὅτι λέγει «εἶτα τὸ τέλος ὅταν παραδιδῷ τὴν βασιλείαν τῷ θεῷ καὶ πατρί, ὅταν καταργήσῃ πᾶσαν ἀρχὴν καὶ πᾶσαν ἐξουσίαν καὶ δύναμιν. δεῖ γὰρ αὐτὸν βασιλεύειν, ἄχρις οὗ θῇ πάντας τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ὑπὸ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ. τὸ δὲ δεῖ καὶ ἄχρι καὶ ὅταν παραδιδῷ τὴν βασιλείαν χρόνου ἐστὶν ὁρισμός.» καὶ βλασφημοῦντές φασι, παύσεως καὶ καταλύσεως τοῦ βασιλεύοντός ἐστι ταῦτα δηλωτικά, * ἕως οὗ παραδιδῷ τὴν βασιλείαν τῷ θεῷ καὶ πατρί. καὶ οὐκ ἴσασιν ἐξ ὑπαρχῆς τὸν νοῦν τῆς ἀληθείας, ὅτι διὰ τὸ μετεσχηκέναι τὸν μονογενῆ σαρκὸς καὶ αἵματος τὰ ἀνθρωποπαθῆ περὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ τῆς ἐνσάρκου αὐτοῦ παρουσίας προσληπτικὰ τῆς δόξης ᾄδεται καὶ λέγεται, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐκτὸς τῆς τελείας ἀεὶ καὶ ἐνδόξου αὐτοῦ θεότητος τῆς μηδὲν ἐνδεομένης προσλαβέσθαι δόξαν, ἐχούσης δὲ τὸ αὐτοδεδοξασμένον καὶ τὸ αὐτοτέλειον· ὡς αὐτὸς περὶ τῶν δύο ἀπολογεῖται μερῶν, φάσκων περὶ μὲν τοῦ προσφάτου «δόξασόν με, πάτερ, ἐν τῇ δόξῃ ᾗ εἶχον παρὰ σοὶ πρὸ τοῦ τὸν κόσμον γενέσθαι». ὁ δὲ πατὴρ τῶν δύο σχέσεων ἀπαγγέλλων τὴν δόξαν, περὶ μὲν τῆς πρώτης κατὰ τὸ πνεῦμα, «ὅτι ἐδόξασα», ἵνα δείξῃ τὸ ἀόριστον, περὶ δὲ τοῦ προσφάτου διὰ τὴν ἔνσαρκον παρουσίαν, ὅτι «καὶ πάλιν δοξάσω»· 75. ἵνα καὶ ἐνταῦθα τὸ σαφὲς ἀποδειχθείη περὶ ὧν καὶ ὁ ἀπόστολος εἴρηκε, περὶ αὐτοῦ διττῶς τὴν ἀλήθειαν ὑποτιθέμενος *, καὶ τὸ «ἄχρις οὗ παραδιδῷ τὴν βασιλείαν τῷ θεῷ καὶ πατρί», διὰ τὴν ἀπὸ χρόνου ἀρχὴν γενομένην ἐνσάρκου παρουσίας. ἡ γὰρ θεότης τοῦ μονογενοῦς ἦν ἀεὶ σὺν πατρί, ὅπερ ἐστὶ μονογενὴς θεὸς λόγος ἐκ πατρὸς προελθὼν ἀνάρχως καὶ ἀχρόνως.