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investigating opinions from reasonings and from your logic-loving mind, that to the one who made all things from nothing and was able to work all things perfectly under one [command], having no need of additive increase, but bound these things by ordinance, you proclaim the Word to be a substance that grows, needing an additive divinity, and you do not even make him equal to the things created by him. For having made them perfectly from the beginning, not needing addition, he ordained by a law of wisdom the things that still sprout from them, which are these things in which are the things that came to be and are coming to be in succession, such as, to say, heaven, earth, water, air, sun, moon, stars, and the things born from the waters, even up to man himself. He did not make an incomplete heaven, nor a most incomplete earth, but the earth perfect, and the heaven perfect, but at that time "invisible and unformed", on account of the ordering which he was about to make; and at the same time water and the first-created light, having made all things through the true light, the uncreated and life-giving; and then the things that grew from the earth; and before this the firmament was not made something half-complete, but all things in perfection; "Let the earth," he says, "bring forth the grass of the field, seeding seed according to its likeness upon the earth, and the fruit-bearing tree, whose seed is in itself according to its likeness upon the earth." And you see how the things that came to be immediately needed no additive increase, but are found immediately mature, so to speak, and perfect through the command. But to man were given the things under him and with him seminally for dominion, they were not handed over perfect, so that man might always know the one who does good and provides being to all, being over all and providing the increases of each creation for the constitution of the things useful to him. He handed over the earth to him seminally, setting it forth as a foundation, so to speak, and having handed it over to him as a womb, so that from the projection of the things made perfect by God, the things cast seminally by himself with understanding upon the earth, such as wood and other produce, he himself, having meticulously collected this as a small piece from the perfect things and depositing it in the earth, might receive the things of increase from the perfect God for growth, so that the things sown by him might be increased from without, so that, not ignorant of the provider of the increase, he might not consider himself the creator and fall away from the truth. For even if Noah planted a vine, it is not written that he was a planter, but "he became a husbandman." For one is he who provides the original things to those that will be, and another is man, who has received his being from him and has been entrusted with his husbandry, so that the one might cultivate the things needing increase for perfection, while the other might provide the perfection through his own increase of the things created by him and through the increase growing into perfection. So also in the case of the animals and the birds, so also in the case of the cattle and creeping things and sea creatures, all things became perfect in the beginning through the one who commanded, but by the will of wisdom now need increase, for the benefit, according to understanding, of man who rules upon the earth, so that he might acknowledge God who is above all, who is God and Lord, the provider of seminal principles and of the increase of growths. Therefore, the things in heaven, being not sown by the hands of man, and not begetting nor being begotten, God left in perfection; for they did not strike the mind of man unto scheming and the pride of vainglory, as one might say concerning the sun and moon and stars. For its nature is not altered by the moon's being born or waning or waxing, but it is for the constitution and provision of seasons, which God ordained for the luminaries. How then did God, wishing to, immediately work to perfection the corporeal things, and the perishing and perishable things, but him whom he begot from himself, one from one, who is always generatively with the one who is, of increase

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δόξας ἐρευνῶντι ἐκ συλλογισμῶν καὶ σοῦ φιλολογιστικῆς ἐννοίας, ὅτι τῷ ποιήσαντι τὰ πάντα ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων καὶ δυνηθέντι τελείως τὰ πάντα ὑπὸ ἓν ἐργάσασθαι, μηδὲν χρείαν ἔχοντι προσληπτικῆς ἐπιδόσεως, θεσμῷ δὲ ταῦτα πεδήσαντι, ἁδρυντικὴν οὐσίαν προσληπτικῆς τε θεότητος ἐπιδεόμενον ἐπιφημίζεις Λόγον καὶ οὐδὲ ἐξισοῖς αὐτὸν τοῖς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ κεκτισμένοις. ἀπ' ἀρχῆς γὰρ τελείως αὐτὰ ποιήσας προσλήψεως οὐκ ἐπιδεόμενα τὰ ἐξ αὐτῶν ἔτι βλαστάνοντα ὥρισε νόμῳ σοφίας, ἅτινά ἐστι ταῦτα ἐν οἷς ἐστι τὰ καθεξῆς γενόμενά τε καὶ γινόμενα, ὡς οἷον εἰπεῖν, οὐρανόν, γῆν, ὕδωρ, ἀέρα, ἥλιον, σελήνην, ἄστρα, καὶ τὰ ἐκ τῶν ὑδάτων γεγενημένα, ἕως καὶ αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου. οὐκ οὐρανὸν ἀτελῆ ἐποίησεν, οὐ γῆν ἀτελεστάτην, ἀλλὰ τελείαν μὲν τὴν γῆν, τέλειον δὲ τὸν οὐρανόν, «ἀόρατον δὲ καὶ ἀκατα3.374 σκεύαστον» τότε, δι' ἣν ἔμελλε ποιεῖν διακόσμησιν· ὕδωρ δὲ ἅμα καὶ φῶς τὸ πρωτόκτιστον, διὰ τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ φωτὸς τὰ πάντα ποιήσας, τοῦ ἀκτίστου καὶ ζωοποιοῦ· ἔπειτα δὲ τὰ ἐκ τῆς γῆς φυέντα· καὶ πρὸ τούτου τὸ στερέωμα οὐχ ἡμιτελές τι ἐγίνετο, ἀλλὰ πάντα ἐν τελειότητι· «ἐξαγαγέτω γάρ φησιν ἡ γῆ βοτάνην χόρτου, σπεῖρον σπέρμα καθ' ὁμοιότητα ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, καὶ ξύλον κάρπιμον, οὗ τὸ σπέρμα αὐτοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ καθ' ὁμοιότητα ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς». καὶ ὁρᾷς ὡς οὐδεμιᾶς εὐθὺς τὰ γεγονότα ἐπεδέετο προσληπτικῆς ἐπιδόσεως, ἀλλ' ἀνδρεῖα ὡς εἰπεῖν καὶ τέλεια διὰ τοῦ προστάγματος εὐθὺς εὑρίσκεται. τῷ δὲ ἀνθρώπῳ ἐπιδοθέντα τὰ ὑπ' αὐτὸν ὄντα καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ σπερματικῶς εἰς δεσποτείαν, οὐ τέλεια παρεδόθη, διὰ τὸ εἰδέναι τὸν ἄνθρωπον πάντοτε τὸν εὐεργετοῦντα καὶ τὸ εἶναι πᾶσι παρέχοντα, ἐπὶ πάντων δὲ ὄντα καὶ τὰς ἐπιδόσεις ἑκάστης ποιήσεως πρὸς σύστασιν τῶν αὐτῷ χρησιμευόντων παρέχοντα. Παρέδωκεν αὐτῷ σπερματικῶς τὴν γῆν, ὑποβάθραν ὡς εἰπεῖν προστησάμενος καὶ ὡς μήτραν αὐτῷ παραδεδωκώς, ἵνα ἀπὸ τῆς προβολῆς τῶν κατὰ τὸ τέλειον ὑπὸ θεοῦ γεγονότων τὰ σπερματικῶς δι' ἑαυτοῦ μετὰ συνέσεως ἐπὶ γῆν καταβαλλόμενα, ὡς οἷόν τε ξύλον καὶ ἄλλων γεννημάτων, αὐτὸς μὲν λεπτομερῶς ὡς ψηφῖδα παρὰ τῶν τελείων ἐρανισάμενος ταύτην τε εἰς γῆν ἐνθεματίζων τὰ τῆς ἐπιδόσεως ἀπὸ τοῦ τελείου θεοῦ πρὸς αὔξησιν προσδέχηται, ἵνα αὐξηθείη ἔξωθεν τὰ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ ἐνσπερματιζόμενα, ἵνα μὴ ἀγνοήσας τὸν ἐπιχορηγὸν τῆς ἐπιδόσεως αὑτὸν νομίσῃ δημιουργὸν καὶ ἐκπέσῃ τῆς ἀληθείας. εἰ γὰρ καὶ ἐφύτευσε Νῶε ἄμπελον, οὐ γέγραπται ὅτι ἦν φυτουργός, ἀλλ' «ἐγένετο ἀνὴρ γεωργός». ἕτερος γάρ ἐστιν ὁ τὰ αὐθεντικὰ παρέχων τοῖς ἐσομένοις, ἕτερος δέ ἐστιν ὁ τὸ εἶναι παρ' αὐτοῦ εἰληφὼς ἄνθρωπος καὶ τὴν ἐκείνου γεωργίαν πεπιστευμένος, ἵνα ὁ μὲν γεωργῇ τὰ ἐπιδόσεως εἰς τελείωσιν ἐπιδεόμενα, ὁ δὲ τὴν τελειότητα παρέχοι διὰ τῆς αὐτοῦ ἐπιδόσεως τῶν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ ἐκτισμένων καὶ διὰ τῆς ἐπιδόσεως εἰς τελειότητα αὐξανομένων. οὕτω καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ζῴων καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν πετεινῶν, οὕτω καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν κτηνῶν καὶ ἑρπετῶν καὶ ἐναλίων πάντα ἐν ἀρχῇ τέλεια γέγονε διὰ τοῦ προστάξαντος, βουλήσει δὲ σοφίας νῦν ἐπιδόσεως δεῖται, διὰ τὴν τοῦ ἐπὶ γῆς δεσπόζοντος ἀνθρώπου κατ' ἔννοιαν ὠφέλειαν, εἰς τὸ ἐπιγινώσκειν αὐτὸν τὸν ἐπάνω πάντων θεόν, τὸν χορηγὸν τῶν σπερματικῶν καὶ τῆς ἐπιδόσεως τῶν αὐξήσεων ὄντα θεὸν καὶ κύριον. διόπερ τὰ μὲν κατ' οὐρανὸν καὶ οὐ διὰ χειρῶν ἀνθρώπου σπειρόμενα ὄντα, καὶ οὐ γεννῶντα οὐδὲ γεννώμενα, εἴασεν ὁ θεὸς ἐν τελειό3.375 τητι· οὐ γὰρ ἐνέσκηπτον τῇ διανοίᾳ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου εἰς ἐπιβουλὴν καὶ τῦφον κενοδοξίας, ὡς οἷον ἐπὶ ἡλίου εἰπεῖν καὶ σελήνης καὶ ἄστρων. οὔτε γὰρ διὰ τὸ γεννᾶσθαι τὴν σελήνην ἢ φθίνειν ἢ αὔξειν ἀλλοιοῦται τὸν τρόπον, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ καιρῶν εἶναι σύστασιν καὶ ἐπιχορηγίαν, ὧν θεὸς τοῖς φωστῆρσι διετάξατο. πῶς οὖν τὰ σωματικὰ θεὸς καὶ τὰ φθίνοντα καὶ τὰ φθινόμενα θελήσας εὐθὺς τέλεια εἰργάσατο, ὃν δὲ ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἐγέννησεν, ἕνα ἐξ ἑνός, τὸν ὄντα ἀεὶ γεννητικῶς παρὰ τῷ ὄντι, ἐπιδόσεως