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the offspring begotten from him, only from only, and his Holy Spirit, having no equality with other things either of dignity or of nature or of any other hypostasis; he did not deprive himself, either according to state or according to substance, of his incomparable divinity, nor is the offspring from him, as I said, deprived of the Father's dignity and equality, being incomparable, as is also his Holy Spirit, to anything whatsoever, which is a perfect Trinity, perfect the Father, perfect the Son, perfect the Holy Spirit, being no confusion, nor at variance with itself, nor having anything subordinate in itself, lest what is distinguished should destroy what is incomparable, and what is altered should work a privation of being, being spoken of only by state and not in truth, or as named in passing by a mere word and not existing, as your thought is certainly devising, trying to alienate from the word of faith that “he who comes to God must believe that he exists and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him”; which cannot be perfected in the Father alone. “For he who does not have the Son does not have the Father either,” and he who speaks of the Son cannot do so “apart from the Holy Spirit.” For truly the Father is “true God,” as the Son who knows the Father testifies, and the Son is “true light,” who is known by the Father and testified to, and the Spirit is the “Spirit of truth,” who is not other, but proceeds from the Father and receives from the Son. And these things, Aetius, take away all the syllogistic mythology of your words, and it is not possible to persuade us to become disciples of Aristotle, your master, and to abandon the word of the fishermen enlightened by the Spirit of God, “being unlettered according to speech and simple men,” but being preachers of the truth in the power of God, of which they have been deemed worthy. For the kingdom of heaven is not in syllogistic speech and in boastful speech, but in power and in truth. For we have heard enough from the beginning of your discourse about the privation of states and positions, and of a generated substance and an ungenerated substance that acquires and does not acquire, and of enduring the loss of a state after having a state, and about a generated substance being interwoven with an ungenerated state, and an offspring spoken of in passing, but signified only in a state and being indicative of a state, being transformed from 3.390 a certain substance, even if it is called an offspring, as you said. For your thought speaks the same things about the same things, uttering no end to its preoccupation with the same things. 38. 21. If the ungenerated is a state and the generated is a state, the substances of the states are first, but the states of the substances, though second, are nevertheless more honorable. But if the ungenerated is the cause of the generated, the offspring signifying being contributes the cause to its own substance, the offspring is indicative of substance, but not of a state; but since the ungenerated nature introduces nothing to itself, how could the ungenerated nature not be a substance, but a state? Refutation. Aetius tries again to construct for us a discriminating argument about states in God and after God, as you see, friends of the truth. And he posits some things as first, and others as second. But it is not right to speak of receiving first or second things in God. For all things are present in God at once and he does not need addition. Therefore, a pious argument allows that the offspring is not to be conceived of in terms of time. For to God the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, that is, to the existing Trinity *; Therefore, the existing God is called Father who is, and the Son who is, being with him who is, begotten without beginning and without time, as in “with you is the fountain of life” and “in your light we shall see light” and “he who is in the bosom of the Father” and “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” and concerning the Holy Spirit likewise “my Spirit has stood in your midst.” And you see that there is nothing recent in the Trinity. Therefore, neither is substance before state nor state before substance. But we do not speak of state according to the erroneous states,

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τὸ γέννημα τὸ ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεγεννημένον, μόνον ἐκ μόνου, καὶ τὸ ἅγιον αὐτοῦ πνεῦμα, μὴ ἔχοντα πρὸς τὰ ἄλλα ἰσότητα ἢ ἀξιώματος ἢ φύσεως ἢ ἑτέρας τινὸς ὑποθέσεως· οὐχ ἑαυτὸν ἐστέρησεν, οὔτε κατὰ ἕξιν οὔτε κατὰ οὐσίαν τῆς ἀσυγκρίτου αὐτοῦ θεότητος, οὔτε τὸ ἐξ αὐτοῦ, ὡς ἔφην, γέννημα ἐστέρηται τῆς τοῦ πατρὸς ἀξίας καὶ ἰσότητος, ἀσύγκριτον ὂν ὡς καὶ τὸ ἅγιον αὐτοῦ πνεῦμα πρὸς πᾶν ὁτιοῦν, ὅπερ ἐστὶ τριὰς τελεία, τέλειος ὁ πατήρ, τέλειος ὁ υἱός, τέλειον τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα, οὐ συναλοιφή τις οὖσα οὐδὲ πρὸς ἑαυτὴν διαφερομένη οὐδέ τι ἐν ἑαυτῇ ἔχουσα ὑποβεβηκός, ἵνα μὴ τὸ διακρινόμενον ἀφανίζῃ τὸ ἀσύγκριτον καὶ τὸ ἠλλοιωμένον στέρησιν τοῦ εἶναι ἐργάσηται, ἕξει μόνον λεγόμενον καὶ οὐκ ἀληθείᾳ, ἢ ὡς ψιλῷ λόγῳ ὀνομαζόμενον ἐν παρόδῳ καὶ μὴ ὄν, ὡς ἡ σὴ πάντως περινοεῖται διάνοια, ἀποξενῶσαι πειρωμένη τοῦ τῆς πίστεως λόγου ὅτι «πιστεύειν δεῖ τὸν προσερχόμενον θεῷ ὅτι ἔστι καὶ τοῖς ἐκζητοῦσιν αὐτὸν μισθαποδότης γίνεται»· ὅπερ ἐν πατρὶ μόνῳ οὐ δύναται τελειωθῆναι. «ὁ γὰρ μὴ ἔχων τὸν υἱὸν οὐδὲ τὸν πατέρα ἔχει», καὶ ὁ τὸν υἱὸν λέγων οὐ δύναται «ἐκτὸς πνεύματος ἁγίου.» Ἔστι γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς ὁ πατὴρ «ἀληθινὸς θεός», ὡς μαρτυρεῖ ὁ υἱὸς ὁ εἰδὼς τὸν πατέρα, καὶ «ἀληθινὸν φῶς» ὁ υἱός, ὁ γινωσκόμενος ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ μαρτυρούμενος, καὶ «πνεῦμα ἀληθείας» τὸ πνεῦμα, τὸ οὐκ ἀλλότριον ὄν, ἀλλ' ἀπὸ πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ λαμβάνον. ταῦτα δὲ ἀφαιρεῖται πᾶσάν σου τῶν λόγων, Ἀέτιε, συλλογιστικὴν μυθολογίαν, καὶ οὐκ ἐνδέχεται ἡμᾶς προτρέψασθαι μαθητὰς γενέσθαι Ἀριστοτέλους, τοῦ σοῦ ἐπιστάτου, καὶ ἐᾶσαι τὸν τῶν ἐν πνεύματι θεοῦ πεφωτισμένων ἁλιέων «ἀγραμμάτων ὄντων κατὰ τὸν λόγον καὶ ἰδιωτῶν», κηρύκων δὲ ὄντων τῆς ἀληθείας λόγον ἐν δυνάμει θεοῦ, ἧς κατηξίωνται. οὐ γὰρ ἐν λόγῳ συλλογιστικῷ ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν καὶ ἐν λόγῳ κομπαστικῷ, ἀλλ' ἐν δυνάμει καὶ ἀληθείᾳ. καὶ γὰρ ἀρκετῶς ἠκούσαμεν ἐξ ἀρχῆς τοῦ λόγου σου τοῦ περὶ στερήσεως ἕξεων καὶ θέσεων, καὶ γεννητὴν οὐσίαν καὶ ἀγέννητον οὐσίαν προσλαμβάνουσαν καὶ μὴ προσλαμβάνουσαν, καὶ μεθ' ἕξεως ἕξεως ὑπομένουσαν ἀποβολήν, καὶ περὶ οὐσίας καταπλεκομένης γεννητῆς, ἕξεως δὲ ἀγεννήτου, καὶ γέννημα λεγόμενον ἐν παρόδῳ, σημαινόμενον δὲ ἐν ἕξει μόνῃ καὶ ἕξεως δηλωτικὸν ὄν, μεταπλαζόμενον ἐξ 3.390 οὐσίας τινός, κἄν τε λεγόμενον γέννημα, ὡς ἔφης. τὰ αὐτὰ γὰρ περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν τὸ διανόημά σου λαλεῖ, μηδὲν πέρας τοῦ κατὰ τῶν αὐτῶν φέρεσθαι φθεγγόμενον. 38. ˉκˉα. Εἰ τὸ ἀγέννητον ἕξις καὶ τὸ γεννητὸν ἕξις, αἱ μὲν οὐσίαι τῶν ἕξεων πρῶται, αἱ δὲ ἕξεις τῶν οὐσιῶν, εἰ καὶ δεύτεραι, ἀλλ' οὖν γε προτιμότεραι. εἰ δὲ τὸ ἀγέννητον τοῦ γεννητοῦ αἴτιόν ἐστι, τὸ εἶναι σημαῖνον τὸ γέννημα συνεισφέρον τῇ ἑαυτοῦ οὐσίᾳ τὸν αἴτιον, οὐσίας ἐστὶ δηλωτικὸν τὸ γέννημα, ἀλλ' οὐχ ἕξεως· τῆς δ' ἀγεννήτου φύσεως οὐδὲν ἑαυτῇ συνεισαγούσης, πῶς οὐκ ἂν εἴη οὐσία, ἀλλ' ἕξις ἡ ἀγέννητος φύσις; Ἀνατροπή. Ἕξεων διαληπτικὸν λόγον ἐπὶ θεοῦ τε καὶ μετὰ θεὸν κατασκευάζειν πάλιν ἡμῖν πειρᾶται Ἀέτιος, ὡς ὁρᾶτε, φίλοι τῆς ἀληθείας. καὶ τὰ μὲν πρῶτα τίθησι, τὰ δὲ δεύτερα. ἐπὶ θεῷ δὲ λαμβάνειν πρῶτα ἢ δεύτερα οὔτε θέμις λέγειν. ἅμα γὰρ ἐν θεῷ τὰ πάντα πρόσεστι καὶ προσθήκης οὐ δέεται. διὸ καὶ τὸ γέννημα οὐκ ἀπὸ χρόνου νοεῖσθαι εὐσεβὴς χωρεῖ λόγος. θεῷ γὰρ πατρὶ καὶ υἱῷ καὶ ἁγίῳ πνεύματι, τουτέστι τῇ τριάδι τῇ οὔσῃ *· διόπερ ὁ ὢν θεὸς καλεῖται πατὴρ ὁ ὢν καὶ υἱὸς ὁ ὢν πρὸς τὸν ὄντα ὤν, γεγεννημένος ἀνάρχως καὶ ἀχρόνως, ὡς τὸ «παρὰ σοὶ πηγὴ ζωῆς» καὶ τὸ «ἐν τῷ φωτί σου ὀψόμεθα φῶς» καὶ τὸ «ὁ ὢν εἰς τὸν κόλπον τοῦ πατρός» καὶ τὸ «ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεὸν καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος», καὶ περὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος ὡσαύτως «τὸ πνεῦμά μου ἐφέστηκεν ἐν μέσῳ ὑμῶν». καὶ ὁρᾷς ὅτι οὐδὲν πρόσφατον ἐν τῇ τριάδι. διὸ οὔτε οὐσία πρὸ ἕξεως οὔτε ἕξις πρὸ οὐσίας. ἕξιν δὲ οὐ κατὰ τὰς σφαλερὰς λέγομεν ἕξεις,