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saying, “the pride of your heart” has done these things to you. “For you said these things in your mind: I will ascend into heaven and 3.363 above the stars of heaven I will set my throne; I will sit on a high mountain, upon the high mountains toward the north; I will ascend above the clouds and I will be like the Most High. But now you shall descend into Hades, to the foundations of the earth” and so on. 18. And this is the beginning of the chapters of Aetius: a. Whether it is possible for the unbegotten God to make the begotten unbegotten. Refutation. First, to reckon impossibility in God is impious, or impossibility is only what is unfitting to his divinity, and this not because he is unable to do it, but because worthlessness is unfitting for God, for whom nothing is impossible, but because what is worthless is impossible for his divine, powerful goodness and for him who is good. And otherwise. If making the begotten unbegotten were considered by God a good work, but he were unable to accomplish well what is done for good, this would be a defeat for the one who is powerful, wishing to perform the preferable thing and not being able. but if the unbegotten is good, and the begotten has been brought into being well in its own order, since the order of the begotten is good from the good God and has been so considered by him, he would not make what is well begotten unbegotten, since it has been well considered by him that to be so is good. Therefore, since the order of the good is not changed, not because of impossibility, but because it is good to be so, then the unbegotten God is good, and the things that have come from him are good in their own order, not taking the name of unbegotten. For he did not make created gods, so that one extended to the other might obliterate through its appellation the opposite name of the greater in relation to the lesser. For if one is unbegotten God, and the other begotten God, their natures being incommunicable, it is impossible for them to share by nature in the dignity of the name, but if at all by some improper grace, and this by participation of the rich one bestowing it on the lesser. But the lesser would never call himself by the name of the greater, knowing himself to be completely alien to the dignity and name according to nature. But someone might say to you, O Aetius, “the Word was God” and 3.364 not “the Word became God”; how will the name of nobility according to nature hold, or how will he be made equal, if indeed he has become something, to the dignity of God? Or how will “was God” be cut off, since the “was” does not admit of time making a division even in a random instance? But you will know that a God without beginning and an unbegotten God begot from himself a God like himself, not only, but also equal in all things. And he did not create, so that the one created, being unlike, might not obliterate the name of God through the separation of the difference. For it is impossible for the begetter to beget one unlike and unequal to himself, and for the one begotten to be unlike the begetter. Wherefore here * the identity of nature will be comprehended from the evangelical testimony “that all things that are the Father’s are mine,” that is, the Father is God, I am God; the Father is life, I am life, and all the rest that befits the Father, befits also the Son and the Holy Spirit in one divinity, the Trinity having nothing altered; the hypostatic Word of the Father being clearly begotten for us without beginning and without time, and the hypostatic Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and receiving from the Son being secured for us in perfect knowledge. 19. b. If the unbegotten God is superior to every cause, for this reason he would also be superior to generation. But if he is superior to every cause, it is clear that he is also superior to generation. For neither has he received being from another nature, nor has he provided being to himself. Refutation. If the unbegotten God is superior to every cause, but the begotten from him has been begotten unworthily of him and not according to equality, and he stands in the superior name of the Father, the offspring [brings] dishonor to the begetter

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λέγοντες «ἡ ὑπερηφανία τῆς καρδίας σου» ἐποίησέ σοι ταῦτα. «σὺ γὰρ εἶπας ταῦτα ἐν τῇ διανοίᾳ σου· ἀναβήσομαι εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ 3.363 ἐπάνω τῶν ἀστέρων τοῦ οὐρανοῦ θήσομαι τὸν θρόνον μου· καθιῶ ἐν ὄρει ὑψηλῷ, ἐπὶ τὰ ὄρη τὰ ὑψηλὰ τὰ πρὸς βορρᾶν ἀναβήσομαι ἐπάνω τῶν νεφελῶν καὶ ἔσομαι ὅμοιος τῷ ὑψίστῳ. νυνὶ δὲ εἰς Ἅιδου καταβήσῃ, εἰς τὰ θεμέλια τῆς γῆς» καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. 18. Καὶ ἔστιν ἡ ἀρχὴ τῶν Ἀετίου κεφαλαίων αὕτη· ˉα. Εἰ δυνατόν ἐστι τῷ ἀγεννήτῳ θεῷ τὸ γεννητὸν ἀγέννητον ποιῆσαι. Ἀνατροπή. Πρῶτον μὲν τὸ εἰς θεὸν λογίσασθαι ἀδύνατον ἀσεβές, ἢ ἀδύνατον μόνον τὸ ἀπρεπὲς τῇ αὐτοῦ θεότητι, καὶ αὐτὸ οὐκ ἀδυνάτου ὄντος αὐτοῦ ποιεῖν, ἀλλ' ἀπρεποῦς οὔσης τῆς φαυλότητος θεῷ, ᾧ οὐδὲν ἀδύνατον, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ τὸ φαῦλον ἀδύνατον εἶναι τῇ ἐνθέῳ αὐτοῦ δυνατῇ ἀγαθότητι καὶ αὐτῷ ἀγαθῷ ὄντι. Καὶ ἄλλως. Εἰ τὸ γεννητὸν ἀγέννητον ποιῆσαι παρὰ θεῷ ἀγαθὸν εἰς ἔργον νομισθείη, ἀδυνάτως δὲ ἔχοι τὸ εἰς ἀγαθὸν γινόμενον ἀγαθῶς ἐπιτελέσαι, τοῦτο ἧττα περὶ τὸν δυνατὸν εἴη, βουλομένου τὸ προκριτέον ἐργάσασθαι καὶ μὴ δυναμένου. εἰ δὲ τὸ ἀγέννητον ἀγαθόν, τὸ γεννητὸν δὲ ἐν τῇ ἰδίᾳ τάξει ἀγαθῶς γεγένηται, ἀγαθῆς οὔσης ἐξ ἀγαθοῦ θεοῦ τῆς τάξεως τοῦ γεννητοῦ καὶ παρ' αὐτῷ νομισθείσης, οὐκ ἂν ποιήσειε τὸ καλῶς γεννητὸν ἀγέννητον, ἐπειδὴ καλῶς νενόμισται αὐτῷ τὸ οὕτως εἶναι καλόν. ἐπεὶ οὖν τοῦ καλοῦ οὐχὶ διὰ τὸ ἀδύνατον οὐ μεταβάλλεται ἡ τάξις, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ ἀγαθῶς οὕτως εἶναι, ἀγαθὸς ἄρα ὁ ἀγέννητος θεός, ἀγαθὰ δὲ τὰ ἐξ αὐτοῦ γενόμενα ἐν τῇ ἰδίᾳ τάξει, μὴ λαβόντα ἀγεννήτου ὄνομα. οὐ γὰρ θεοὺς κτιστοὺς ἐποίησεν, ἵνα θάτερον θατέρῳ παρεκτεινόμενον ἀφανίζῃ διὰ τῆς ἐπωνυμίας τὸ ἀντώνυμον τοῦ μείζοντος πρὸς τὸ ἧττον. εἰ μὲν γὰρ ὁ μέν ἐστι θεὸς ἀγέννητος, ὁ δὲ θεὸς γεννητός, τῶν φύσεων ἀκοινωνήτων οὐσῶν, ἀδύνατόν ἐστι κοινωνῆσαι κατὰ φύσιν ἐν τῷ τοῦ ὀνόματος ἀξιώματι, ἀλλ' εἰ ἄρα καταχρηστικῇ τινι χάριτι, καὶ αὐτὸ κατὰ συμμετοχὴν τοῦ πλουσίου χαριζομένου τῷ ἥσσονι. ὁ δὲ ἥσσων οὐκ ἄν ποτε εἰς τὸ τοῦ μείζονος ὄνομα ἑαυτὸν καλέσειε, παντάπασι γινώσκων ἀλλότριον ἑαυτὸν ὄντα τοῦ κατὰ φύσιν ἀξιώματός τε καὶ ὀνόματος. λέξειε δ' ἄν τίς σοι, ὦ Ἀέτιε, τὸ «θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος» καὶ 3.364 οὐκ «ἐγένετο θεὸς ὁ λόγος»· πῶς ἕξει τὸ κατὰ φύσιν τὸ τῆς εὐγενείας ὄνομα ἢ πῶς ἰσωθήσεται, εἴπερ τι γέγονε, τῷ τοῦ θεοῦ ἀξιώματι; ἢ πῶς τὸ «θεὸς ἦν» ἐκκοπήσεται, χρόνου μὴ ἐπιδεχομένου τοῦ ἦν διαίρεσιν ἐργάσασθαι κἂν ἐν τῷ τυχόντι; γνώσῃ δὲ ὅτι ἄναρχος θεὸς καὶ ἀγέννητος θεὸς ἐγέννησεν ἐξ αὑτοῦ θεὸν ὅμοιον ἑαυτῷ, οὐ μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἴσον κατὰ πάντα. καὶ οὐκ ἔκτισεν, ἵνα μὴ ἀνόμοιος ὁ κτισθεὶς γενόμενος ἀφανίσῃ τὸ τοῦ θεοῦ ὄνομα διὰ τῆς διαστάσεως τῆς παραλλαγῆς. ἀδύνατον γὰρ τὸν γεννῶντα ἀνόμοιον καὶ ἄνισον γεννᾶν ἑαυτοῦ, καὶ τὸν γεγεννημένον ἀνόμοιον εἶναι τοῦ γεγεννηκότος. διὸ ἐνταῦθα * περιλήψεται τῆς ταυτότητος τὸ κατὰ φύσιν ἐξ εὐαγγελικῆς μαρτυρίας «ὅτι πάντα τὰ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐμά ἐστι», τουτέστι θεὸς ὁ πατήρ, θεὸς ἐγώ· ζωὴ ὁ πατήρ, ζωὴ ἐγώ, καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς πάντα ὅσα πρέπει πατρί, πρέπει καὶ υἱῷ καὶ ἁγίῳ πνεύματι ἐν μιᾷ θεότητι, μηδὲν τῆς τριάδος παρηλλαγμένον ἐχούσης· σαφῶς ἡμῖν ἀνάρχως καὶ ἀχρόνως γεγεννημένου τοῦ ἐνυποστάτου λόγου τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ ἐνυποστάτου πνεύματος τοῦ ἁγίου ἐκ πατρὸς ἐκπορευομένου καὶ τῶν τοῦ υἱοῦ λαμβάνοντος ἡμῖν ἐν γνώσει τελείᾳ ἠσφαλισμένου. 19. ˉβ. Εἰ πάσης αἰτίας κρείττων ὑπάρχει ὁ ἀγέννητος θεός, διὰ τοῦτο καὶ γενέσεως κρείττων ἂν εἴη. εἰ δὲ κρείττων ἐστὶ πάσης αἰτίας, δῆλον ὅτι καὶ γενέσεως. οὔτε γὰρ παρ' ἑτέρας φύσεως εἴληφε τὸ εἶναι οὔτε αὐτὸς ἑαυτῷ τὸ εἶναι παρέσχε. Ἀνατροπή. Εἰ πάσης αἰτίας κρείττων ὑπάρχει ὁ ἀγέννητος θεός, ὁ δὲ γεννητὸς ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἀναξίως αὐτοῦ γεγέννηται καὶ οὐ κατ' ἰσότητα, καὶ ἐν τῷ τοῦ πατρὸς προκριτέῳ ὀνόματι ἕστηκεν, ἀτιμίαν τῷ γεγεννηκότι τὸ γέννημα