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eternal, holding its dignity without end, not through something else, but through being self-God and self-eternal, will the offspring then also be of one substance, if in your view it has taken the name of "without end," since you plausibly discoursed that you were contrarily bestowing it on the Son. For you will grant, even compelled, and confess the immeasurable and incomprehensible name of "without end" in all things. How then will it not be of one substance? Since you seemed to be mocking, trying to insult the truth through a name of ill repute, you will be refuted by the very words you spoke. For you will either grant that the one whose substance is blasphemed by you as changed has an end, or, having defined him as without end, you will be forced to introduce him as in all things unchangeable and invariable in the dignity of being without end, since the truth does not admit that the Son has an end, for scripture says, "of his kingdom there will be no end," because he always reigns with the Father and with his Holy Spirit, since everything that has a beginning will also have an end, if he who granted being to the one who received a beginning should so wish; which is possible for all things, but for the Son is impossible. For he is always from the one who is and is always with the one who is, never ceasing to be. Therefore he was and is and will be of one substance, alone from the alone, and in no way altered in substance, but according to the dignity of the names, the Godhead remains in its identity, having neither confusion, nor providing a beginning of being for itself, nor admitting that what is unlike itself exists, she who is always and never ceases to be, being fitting to herself, always existing in the dignity of Father to Son and of Son to Father and of Holy Spirit with Father and Son, and never failing. For the Trinity is incomparable in itself, admitting no division in dignity. 3.369 22. e. If God is unbegotten in substance, that which was begotten was not begotten by a separation of substance, but from the substance that gave it subsistence. For no pious argument allows the same substance to be both begotten and unbegotten. Refutation. Many times you have come forward to us, O you, bringing "unbegotten" and "begotten," snorting the name of God, you who have buried your mind in all lawlessness. But that is longed for by everyone who is at a loss, the resourcefulness for what is perplexing for comfort, * and to have on one's lips, if one should not have a supply of such a thing. And you, since you happen to be an atheist, are not ashamed even to bear his name on your lips, since by nature you will never possess him according to his fear and faith and hope and love for him. For it would have been enough for you to say this once and not to transgress the appointed limit of the sequence. For the declarative proof from our Savior concerning you is clear, that "by their fruits you will know them," in that you are clothed in sheep's fleece, but inwardly you are a predator and comparable to a wolf. For if you had been born of the Holy Spirit and had been discipled by prophets and apostles, you should have gone through from the beginning of the world's creation to the times of Esther, in twenty-seven books of the Old Testament which are numbered as twenty-two, and in the four holy gospels and in the fourteen epistles of the holy apostle Paul and in the Acts of the Apostles and the catholic epistles of James and Peter and John and Jude, which are before these and contemporary with them, and in the Apocalypse of John, and in the Wisdom books, I mean both of Solomon and of the son of Sirach, and in simply all the divine scriptures to search and condemn yourself, because you came bringing us a name, which is nowhere appointed, a name not unbecoming to God, but pious towards God, the name of "unbegotten," but spoken nowhere in divine scripture; for no one unless mad ever thought of a begotten God. But they had no need to say that God 3.370 the Father alone is unbegotten on account of the one begotten from him, lest someone think this is fulfilled only in the Father, but also in the Son and in the Holy Spirit, of the mind

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ἀΐδιος, ἀτελευτήτως ἔχουσα τὸ ἀξίωμα, οὐ διά τι ἕτερον, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ αὐτόθεον καὶ αὐτοαΐδιον, ἆρά γε καὶ τὸ γέννημα ὁμοούσιον ἔσται, εἰ παρὰ σοὶ τὸ τοῦ ἀτελευτήτου εἴληφεν ὄνομα, ὡς παλιμβόλως τῷ υἱῷ χαρίσασθαι πιθανῶς ἐφυσιολόγησας. δώσεις γὰρ καὶ ἀναγκαζόμενος ὁμολογῆσαι τὸ τοῦ ἀτελευτήτου ἐν ἅπασιν ἄπλετον καὶ ἀχώρητον ὄνομα. πῶς οὖν οὐκ ἔσται ὁμοούσιον; ἐπειδὴ ἔδοξας σκώπτειν, διὰ κακοδόξου ὀνόματος τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἐξυβρίσαι πειρασάμενος, ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐλεγχόμενος ἔσῃ ὧν ἔφης ῥημάτων. ἢ γὰρ δώσεις τέλος ἔχειν τὸν ὑπὸ σοῦ παρηλλαγμένον βλασφημούμενον τὴν οὐσίαν, ἢ ἀτελεύτητον αὐτὸν ὁρισάμενος ἐν ἅπασιν ἀμετάστατον καὶ ἀπαράλλακτον τῆς τοῦ ἀτελευτήτου ἀξίας εἰσάγειν ἀναγκασθήσῃ, τῆς ἀληθείας μὴ παραδεχομένης τέλος ἔχειν τὸν υἱόν, «ὅτι τῆς βασιλείας αὐτοῦ» φησιν ἡ γραφὴ «οὐκ ἔσται τέλος», διὰ τὸ σὺν πατρὶ βασιλεύειν ἀεὶ καὶ σὺν τῷ ἁγίῳ αὐτοῦ πνεύματι, ἐπειδήπερ πᾶν τὸ ἀρχὴν ἔχον καὶ τέλος ἕξει, εἰ βούλοιτο ὁ τὸ εἶναι τῷ τὴν ἀρχὴν εἰληφότι παρεσχημένος· ὅπερ ἐπὶ πᾶσι μὲν ἐνδέχεται, ἐπὶ δὲ τῷ υἱῷ ἀνένδεκτόν ἐστιν. ἔστι γὰρ ἀεὶ ἐκ τοῦ ὄντος καὶ παρὰ τῷ ὄντι ἀεί, τοῦ εἶναι μηδέποτε λήγων. διὸ καὶ ὁμοούσιος ἦν καὶ ἔστι καὶ ἔσται, μόνος ἐκ μόνου καὶ ἐν οὐδενὶ τῇ οὐσίᾳ παρηλλαγμένος, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸ ἀξίωμα τῶν ὀνομάτων μενούσης τῆς θεότητος ἐν τῇ ταυτότητι, οὔτε συναλοιφὴν ἔχουσα οὔτε ἀρχὴν ἑαυτῇ παρέχουσα τοῦ εἶναι οὔτε δεχομένη τὸ ἀνόμοιον ἑαυτῇ ὑπάρχειν, ἡ ἀεὶ οὖσα καὶ μηδέποτε τοῦ εἶναι λήγουσα, συμπρέπουσα δὲ αὐτῇ, ἀεὶ ἐν τῷ ἀξιώματι πατρὸς πρὸς υἱὸν καὶ υἱοῦ πρὸς πατέρα καὶ ἁγίου πνεύματος σὺν πατρὶ καὶ υἱῷ ὑπάρχουσα καὶ μηδέποτε διαλείπουσα. ἔστι γὰρ ἐν ἑαυτῇ ἀσύγκριτος ἡ τριάς, διαίρεσιν οὐδεμίαν ἐν τῷ ἀξιώματι ὑποδεχομένη. 3.369 22. ˉε. Εἰ ἀγέννητός ἐστιν ὁ θεὸς τὴν οὐσίαν, οὐκ οὐσίας διαστάσει τὸ γεννηθὲν ἐγεννήθη, ἀλλ' ἐξ οὐσίας ὑποστησάσης αὐτό. τὴν γὰρ αὐτὴν οὐσίαν καὶ γεννητὴν εἶναι καὶ ἀγέννητον οὐδεὶς λόγος εὐσεβὴς ἐπιτρέπει. Ἀνατροπή. Πολλάκις ἡμῖν προῆλθες φέρων, ὦ οὗτος, τὸ ἀγέννητον καὶ γεννητόν, τὸ τοῦ θεοῦ ὄνομα φρυαττόμενος, ὁ ἐν πάσῃ ἀνομίᾳ σεαυτοῦ τὴν διάνοιαν ἐνθάψας. ἐκεῖνο δὲ παντὶ τῷ ἀπόρως ἔχοντί ἐστι ποθητόν, ἡ τοῦ ἀπορουμένου εὐπορία εἰς παραμυθίαν, * καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ στόματος φέρειν, ἐὰν μὴ εὐποροίη τοῦ τοιούτου. καὶ σὺ ἐπειδὴ ἄθεος τυγχάνεις, οὐ σεμνύνῃ κἂν διὰ τοῦ στόματος φέρειν τούτου τὸ ὄνομα, ἐπειδὴ φύσει κατὰ τὸν αὐτοῦ φόβον καὶ πίστιν καὶ ἐλπίδα καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἀγάπην οὐδέποτε αὐτὸν ἐκτήσω. ἢ γὰρ ἂν ἤρκει σοι ἅπαξ τοῦτο λέγειν καὶ μὴ ὑπερβαίνειν ὅρον τὸν τεταγμένον τῆς ἀκολουθίας. σαφὴς γὰρ ἡ περὶ σοῦ παρὰ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ἀποφαντικὴ ἀπόδειξις ὅτι «ἀπὸ τῶν καρπῶν αὐτῶν γνώσεσθε αὐτούς», τῷ εἶναι μέν σε περιβεβλημένον προβάτου κώδιον, ἔσωθεν δὲ εἶναι ἅρπαγα καὶ λύκῳ παραβεβλημένον. εἰ γὰρ ἦς ἐξ ἁγίου πνεύματος γεγεννημένος καὶ προφήταις καὶ ἀποστόλοις μεμαθητευμένος, ἔδει σε διελθόντα ἀπ' ἀρχῆς γενέσεως κόσμου ἄχρι τῶν τῆς Ἐσθὴρ χρόνων, ἐν εἴκοσι καὶ ἑπτὰ βίβλοις παλαιᾶς διαθήκης εἴκοσι δύο ἀριθμουμέναις, τέτρασι δὲ ἁγίοις εὐαγγελίοις καὶ ἐν τεσσαρεσκαίδεκα ἐπιστολαῖς τοῦ ἁγίου ἀποστόλου Παύλου καὶ ἐν ταῖς πρὸ τούτων καὶ σὺν ταῖς ἐν τοῖς αὐτῶν χρόνοις Πράξεσι τῶν ἀποστόλων καθολικαῖς ἐπιστολαῖς Ἰακώβου καὶ Πέτρου καὶ Ἰωάννου καὶ Ἰούδα,καὶ ἐν τῇ τοῦ Ἰωάννου Ἀποκαλύψει, ἔν τε ταῖς Σοφίαις, Σολομῶντός τέ φημι καὶ υἱοῦ Σειράχ, καὶ πάσαις ἁπλῶς γραφαῖς θείαις ἐρευνᾶν καὶ ἑαυτοῦ καταγνῶναι ὅτι ὄνομα, ὅπερ οὐδαμοῦ ἐντέτακται, ἦλθες ἡμῖν φέρων, οὐκ ἀπρεπὲς μὲν θεῷ, ἀλλ' εὐσεβὲς εἰς θεόν, τὸ τοῦ ἀγεννήτου ὄνομα, μηδαμοῦ δὲ ἐν θείᾳ γραφῇ ῥηθέν· οὐδεὶς γὰρ μὴ μεμηνώς ποτε γεννητὸν ἐνενόει θεόν. ἀλλ' οὔτε χρείαν ἔσχον εἰπεῖν ἀγέννητον 3.370 θεὸν μόνον πατέρα διὰ τὸν ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεγεννημένον, ἵνα μή τις ἐπὶ τῷ πατρὶ μόνῳ νομίσῃ τοῦτο πληροῦσθαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπὶ τῷ υἱῷ καὶ ἐπὶ τῷ ἁγίῳ πνεύματι, τῆς διανοίας