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the vain talk of the thoughts, with the mind no longer being stable, but fulfilling what was said, "the servants of God were made foolish, and every man was made foolish, away from knowledge." For no one "lives for himself, nor dies for himself," nor will anyone know anything apart from God, who revealed to us his true faith and says, "This is my beloved Son, and listen to him," and of the one begotten from him, who revealed his Father to us and says, "I came forth from the Father and am come." And God did not possess the incomparable from a human designation, nor, on account of the incomparable, will the worth of the true, hypostatic God the Word, begotten of the Father without beginning and con3.379substantially, be diverted, nor because either of the names is indebted to human concepts. For the divine receives nothing of worth or addition, but the divine itself provides to all from its own fullness, always remaining in sameness and not being diminished, but always bearing in its own substance the worth of the name and power and substance. 30. 13. If "unbegotten" is ascribed to God from without, those who ascribed it are better than the one to whom it was ascribed, having provided for him a name better than his nature. Refutation. No one is better than God. My discourse is against Aetius, who has conceived of things in this way, as the truth holds. For how could anyone be better than God, when all things have received their being from God? And since God is the cause of the things created by him, both rational and irrational, visible and invisible, he himself is better than all, whether rational beings should come to have a right mind for piety to honor the better in part, nor at all, even if all things were gathered together for the same purpose and ten thousand more conceived of beyond them, reaching out to hymn God, could they contain within themselves the perfection of his glory, since the better nature always surpasses the conception of its inferiors, even if they reach out in hymnody to the better one according to their power and beyond their power; for he is not better in word, but in power and name and reason. But the doxology of the better one from his inferiors will not distinguish the incomparable from the incomparable. For he knows in the Father the better through the unbegotten and the better begotten from him. Therefore the right conception graciously given to men from God confesses the consubstantial, lest, by conceiving of the dissimilarity of the Son to the Father, it should make a division of the better and pure perfection through whom he knows the one truly begotten by the one who begot incomparably, who surpasses all conceptions on account of being better. 31. 14. If the unbegotten nature does not yield to generation, this is what is said; but if it does yield to generation, the passions of generation would be better than the hypostasis of God. Refutation. To speak of passions at all in God is most impious; for the divine is not at all contained within passions, but is far above such things 3.380 which in us fall into divisive conceptions, but in every way the argument of Aetius will be refuted. For all things that happen to us with passion, subsist in God without passion. For in us, in some part, to will is a passion—I do not mean to will to be pious, but to will to do something which is beyond nature, because of not being able to accomplish the object of the will, such as, to speak of a man, to fly, to be borne into the air, to perceive the veins of the deep, to know the foundations of the earth, and things similar to these. But however much is constrained by passion in me, so much exists without passion in God. For this reason he is able to do all that he wills, his nature not working against his will, whereas our nature in us works against our wills, as many as in us reach out toward the impossible. And not even because we said God does what he wills, would someone surely say that he therefore does things that are not fitting. No

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ἡ ματαιολογία τῶν νοημάτων, τῆς διανοίας μηκέτι εὐσταθούσης, ἀλλὰ πληρούσης τὸ εἰρημένον «ἐμωράνθησαν οἱ δοῦλοι τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ ἐμωράνθη πᾶς ἄνθρωπος ἀπὸ γνώσεως». οὐ γάρ τις «ἑαυτῷ ζῇ, οὐδὲ ἑαυτῷ ἀποθνήσκει», οὐδέ τις γνώσεται οὐδὲν πάρεξ τοῦ θεοῦ, τοῦ ἀποκαλύψαντος ἡμῖν τὴν ἀληθινὴν πίστιν αὐτοῦ καὶ λέγοντος «οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός, καὶ αὐτοῦ ἀκούετε», καὶ τοῦ ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεγεννημένου, ἀποκαλύψαντος ἡμῖν τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ καὶ λέγοντος «ἐγὼ ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐξῆλθον καὶ ἥκω». καὶ οὔτε ἀπὸ ὀνομασίας ἀνθρώπων τὸ ἀσύγκριτον ἔσχε θεὸς οὔτε διὰ τὸ ἀσύγκριτον ἡ ἀξία τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ ἐνυποστάτου θεοῦ λόγου καὶ ἐκ πατρὸς ἀνάρχως ὁμοου3.379 σίως τε γεγεννημένου παρεκτραπήσεται, οὔτε ὁποτέρου τῶν ὀνομάτων χάριν ἔχοντος ἐπινοίαις ἀνθρώπων. οὐδὲν γὰρ προσλαμβάνεται τὸ θεῖον ἀξιώματος ἢ προσθήκης, αὐτὸ δὲ τὸ θεῖον πᾶσι παρέχει ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ πληρώματος, ἀεὶ ἐν ταυτότητι μένοντος καὶ μὴ ἐλαττουμένου, ἀλλ' ἐν τῇ ἰδίᾳ φέροντος ἀεὶ οὐσίᾳ τοῦ ὀνόματος καὶ δυνάμεως καὶ οὐσίας τὸ ἀξίωμα. 30. ˉιˉγ. Εἰ ἔξωθεν ἐπιθεωρεῖται τῷ θεῷ τὸ ἀγέννητον, οἱ ἐπιθεωρήσαντες τοῦ ἐπιθεωρηθέντος εἰσὶν ἀμείνους, κρεῖττον ὄνομα τῆς φύσεως αὐτῷ πορισάμενοι. Ἀνατροπή. Ἀμείνων οὐδεὶς θεοῦ πρὸς Ἀέτιόν μοι ἡ λέξις, τὸν οὕτως ἐπινενοηκότα, ὡς ἔχει ἡ ἀλήθεια. πῶς γὰρ ἀμείνων θεοῦ εἴη τις, τῶν πάντων ἐκ θεοῦ τὸ εἶναι εἰληφότων; αἰτίου δὲ ὄντος τοῦ θεοῦ τῶν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ κεκτισμένων λογικῶν τε καὶ ἀλόγων, ὁρατῶν τε καὶ ἀοράτων, ἀμείνων αὐτός ἐστι παρὰ πάντας, κἄν τε οἱ λογικοὶ διανοίας γένοιντο ὀρθῆς εἰς εὐσέβειαν τοῦ γεραίρειν τὸ ἄμεινον ἀπὸ μέρους, μηδὲ ὅλως, τῶν πάντων ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ συναχθέντων καὶ μυρίων ἐπέκεινα διανενοημένων πρὸς ὕμνον θεοῦ ἐπεκτείνεσθαι, δυναμένων τὸ τέλειον τῆς αὐτοῦ δόξης ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἐμπεριέχειν, ὑπερβαινούσης ἀεὶ τῆς ἀμείνονος φύσεως τῶν ὑποβεβηκότων τὴν ἔννοιαν, κἄν τε κατὰ δύναμιν καὶ ὑπὲρ δύναμιν πρὸς ὑμνολογίαν ἐπεκτείνωνται τῷ ἀμείνονι· ἔστι γὰρ οὐ λόγῳ ἀμείνων, ἀλλὰ δυνάμει καὶ ὀνόματι καὶ λόγῳ. ἀλλ' οὐ διοίσει τὸ ἀσύγκριτον ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀσυγκρίτου ἡ τοῦ ἀμείνονος παρὰ τῶν ὑποβεβηκότων δοξολογία. οἶδε γὰρ ἐν πατρὶ τὸ ἄμεινον διὰ τοῦ ἀγεννήτου καὶ τὸ ἄμεινον ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεγεννημένον. διόπερ τὸ ὁμοούσιον ὁμολογεῖ ἡ ἐκ θεοῦ ἀνθρώποις ὀρθὴ κεχαρισμένη ἔννοια, ἵνα μὴ τὸ ἀνομοιούσιον ἐπινοήσασα υἱοῦ πρὸς πατέρα διαίρεσιν ποιήσηται τῆς ἀμείνονος καὶ ἀκραιφνοῦς τελειότητος δι' οὗ οἶδε γεγεννημένου ἐν ἀληθείᾳ ὑπὸ τοῦ γεγεννηκότος ἀσυγκρίτως, πάσας ἐννοίας ὑπερβαίνοντος διὰ τὸ ἄμεινον. 31. ˉιˉδ. Εἰ μὴ εἴκει ἡ ἀγέννητος φύσις γενέσει, τοῦτ' ἔστιν ὃ λέγεται· εἰ δὲ εἴκει γενέσει, τὰ τῆς γενέσεως πάθη τῆς ὑποστάσεως τοῦ θεοῦ εἴη ἀμείνω. Ἀνατροπή. Πάθη ὅλως ἐν θεῷ διηγεῖσθαι ἀσεβέστατον· εἴσω γὰρ παθῶν οὐδ' ὅλως περιέχεται τὸ θεῖον, ἀνωτάτω δὲ ὂν τῶν τοιούτων 3.380 τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν εἰς μεριστικὰς ἐννοίας ὑποπιπτόντων, κατὰ πάντα δὲ τρόπον ὁ Ἀετίου λόγος ἀνατραπήσεται. πάντα γὰρ τὰ ἐν ἡμῖν παθητικῶς συμβαίνοντα ἐν θεῷ ἀπαθῶς συνέστηκεν. ἐν ἡμῖν γὰρ κατά τι μέρος τὸ θέλειν ἐστὶ πάθος, οὐ τὸ θέλειν εὐσεβεῖν λέγω, ἀλλὰ τὸ θέλειν τι πράττειν ὅπερ ἐστὶν ὑπὲρ φύσιν, διὰ τὸ μὴ δύνασθαι ἐπιτελεῖν τὸ καθῆκον τοῦ θελήματος, οἷον ὡς ἐπὶ ἀνθρώπῳ λέγειν τὸ πτῆναι, τὸ εἰς ἀέρα φέρεσθαι, τὸ τὰς φλέβας τοῦ βυθοῦ κατανοῆσαι, τὸ εἰδέναι πυθμένας γῆς, καὶ τὰ τούτοις ὅμοια. ὅσον δέ ἐστιν ἐν ἐμοὶ παθητικῶς συνεχόμενον, τοσοῦτον ἐν τῷ θεῷ ἀπαθῶς ἐστιν ὑπάρχον. διὰ τοῦτο πάντα ὅσα βούλεται δύναται πράττειν, τῆς φύσεως αὐτῷ μὴ ἀντιπραττούσης πρὸς τὸ βούλημα, τῆς δὲ ἡμετέρας ἐν ἡμῖν ἀντιπραττούσης πρὸς τὰ βουλήματα, ὅσα πρὸς τὸ ἀδύνατον ἐπεκτείνεσθαι ἔστιν ἐν ἡμῖν. καὶ οὐδ' ὅτι εἴπομεν τὸν θεὸν πράττειν ὃ βούλεται, πάντως λέξειέ τις ὅτι πράττει οὖν τὰ μὴ πρέποντα. οὐ