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Son and Holy Spirit, the Godhead of Father and Son and Holy Spirit being confessed as superior to every cause. 50. 33. If the unbegotten is removed from every cause, and there were many unbegotten things, they would have an unchangeable nature. For it would not be the case that, without inheriting some common and particular nature, one would make and the other would be made. Refutation. The unbegotten is confessedly removed from every cause, because the unbegotten and adorable is one, the adorable 3.405 being distinguished from the worshipers. But the Trinity is adorable, being a monad and a Trinity counted in one name, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, possessing nothing alien to itself within itself, but fittingly a Father who begot a Son and did not create him. For the one is always from the begetter himself, because the Son is an offspring from the one who is, and the Holy Spirit proceeded from him, the Trinity being in one uncreated unity, while all things were created out of nothing by the Trinity itself; whence the one Trinity is one God, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, possessing nothing alien to itself within itself, uncreated, unbegotten, unmade, a Trinity not made, but making, not having the name of a creature within itself, but creating, being one and not many. But all things from it are many, but not numbered with it. Therefore, it has not inherited by another nature * a community of the incomparable substance. For this reason, it is not some created nature in the substance of God, but the creative nature of all things which are not able to share in the consubstantiality with the incomparable and one substance of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, as is clear to the one who has received the knowledge of the truth, revealing that it alone is worshiped and not all things, as also it alone baptizes into its own name, and not all things. 51. 34. If every substance is unbegotten, neither will differ from the other with respect to being without a master. How then could one say that one is changed, and the other changes, not allowing God to bring into existence from a non-pre-existent substance? Refutation. Every one of those who have set themselves against the truth, having impressively collected for himself little arguments, seemed to some to attack subversively and to lead away from the path of life and to do harm, just as this Aetius now, by nature saying nothing in this saying, seems to astound the simple, saying what is said by him superfluously, using the name of the unbegotten, as he is accustomed to bring it forth superfluously, and has used it on the present occasion. For not every substance is confessed as unbegotten by the intelligent, since every one would be spoken of as God. And since not all substances are spoken of as God, but one above all, which is one Godhead in a Trinity, how will it still be supposed that this nobleman's astounding argument has a place against the sons of truth? And the one will differ from the other because the Trinity creates, 3.406 but all things have been created from it, and the one is without a master, but the things that came to be by it are ruled, and the one is changed, but the other has an unchangeable nature, always changing the things changed by it, and able to bring substances and hypostases into existence from non-beings. For this is fitting for God: to refashion as he wishes those things that have come to be and have been brought into existence by him from non-pre-existent things and from non-beings according to their arrangement. 52. 35. If every substance is unbegotten, every one is unchangeable. And since the substance has unchangeableness, both making and suffering must be attributed to spontaneity. And since there are many unbegotten and unchangeable things, they will differ from one another innumerably. For the things that are distinct either universally or in some respect would not be numerable, since every distinction shows some inheritance of a still designated unbegotten nature. Refutation. Not every substance is unbegotten; for it is foolish even to think this, and this reasoning and saying is of Hellenic ignorance, whether it be declaratively or interrogatively to Aetius

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υἱὸς καὶ ἅγιον πνεῦμα, τῆς θεότητος πατρὸς καὶ υἱοῦ καὶ ἁγίου πνεύματος ὁμολογουμένης κρείττονος πάσης αἰτίας. 50. ˉλˉγ. Εἰ τὸ ἀγέννητον πάσης αἰτίας ἐξῄρηται, εἴη δὲ πολλὰ ἀγέννητα, ἀπαράλλακτον ἕξουσι τὴν φύσιν. οὐ γὰρ ἂν μὴ ἀποκληρώσει φύσεώς τινος κοινοῦ καὶ ἰδίου μετειληφυῖα ἡ μὲν ἐποίει, ἡ δὲ ἐγίνετο. Ἀνατροπή. Πάσης αἰτίας ἐξῄρηται ὁμολογουμένως τὸ ἀγέννητον, διότι ἕν ἐστι τὸ ἀγέννητον καὶ προσκυνητόν, διαιρουμένου τοῦ προσκυνη3.405 τοῦ ἀπὸ τῶν προσκυνούντων. προσκυνητὴ δέ ἐστιν ἡ τριάς, μονὰς οὖσα καὶ ἐν ἑνὶ ὀνόματι ἀριθμουμένη τριάς, πατὴρ καὶ υἱὸς καὶ ἅγιον πνεῦμα, οὐκ ἀλλότριόν τι ἑαυτῆς ἐν ἑαυτῇ κεκτημένη, ἀλλὰ συμπρεπόντως πατὴρ γεννήσας υἱὸν καὶ οὐ κτίσας. τὸ μὲν γάρ ἐστιν ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἀεὶ τοῦ γεννήτορος, διότι γέννημα ἐκ τοῦ ὄντος ἐστὶ ὁ υἱὸς καὶ τὸ ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἐξελθὸν ἅγιον πνεῦμα, οὔσης τῆς τριάδος ἐν μιᾷ ἑνότητι ἀκτίστῳ, τῶν δὲ πάντων ἐξ αὐτῆς τῆς τριάδος ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων κεκτισμένων· ὅθεν ἡ μία τριὰς εἷς ἐστι θεός, πατὴρ καὶ υἱὸς καὶ ἅγιον πνεῦμα, οὐκ ἀλλότριόν τι ἑαυτῆς ἐν ἑαυτῇ κεκτημένη, ἄκτιστος, ἀγέννητος, ἀδημιούργητος, τριὰς οὐ πεποιημένη, ἀλλὰ ποιοῦσα, οὐ κτίσματος ὄνομα ἔχουσα ἐν ἑαυτῇ, ἀλλὰ κτίζουσα, μία οὖσα καὶ οὐ πολλαί. τὰ δὲ πάντα ἐξ αὐτῆς πολλὰ μὲν ὄντα, ἀλλ' οὐ σὺν αὐτῇ ἀριθμούμενα. διὸ οὔτε ἀποκεκλήρωται ἑτέρᾳ φύσει * κοινότητος τῆς οὐσίας τῆς ἀσυγκρίτου. διὰ τοῦτο γὰρ οὐ κτιστή τις οὖσα ἐν τῇ τοῦ θεοῦ οὐσίᾳ φύσις, ἀλλὰ δημιουργικὴ τῶν πάντων τῶν οὐ δυναμένων τῇ ἀσυγκρίτῳ καὶ μιᾷ οὐσίᾳ πατρὸς καὶ υἱοῦ καὶ ἁγίου πνεύματος ὁμοουσιότητι ἐπικοινωνῆσαι, ὡς σαφής ἐστι τῷ τὴν γνῶσιν τῆς ἀληθείας εἰληφότι ἀποκαλύπτουσα τῷ ὅτι αὐτὴ μόνη προσκυνεῖται καὶ οὐ τὰ πάντα, ὡς καὶ αὐτὴ μόνη εἰς ὄνομα ἑαυτῆς βαπτίζει, καὶ οὐ τὰ ὅλα. 51. ˉλˉδ. Εἰ πᾶσα οὐσία ἐστὶν ἀγέννητος, οὐδ' ὁποτέρα διοίσει τῆς ἄλλης κατὰ τὸ ἀδέσποτον. πῶς οὖν ἄν τις φαίη τὴν μὲν μεταβάλλεσθαι, τὴν δὲ μεταβάλλειν, οὐκ ἐπιτρεπόντων τῷ θεῷ ὑφιστᾶν ἐκ μὴ ὑποκειμένης οὐσίας; Ἀνατροπή. Πᾶς τις τῶν ἀντικαταστάντων τῇ ἀληθείᾳ καταπληκτικῶς ἐπισυνάξας ἑαυτῷ λογίδια ἔδοξέ τισιν ἀνατρεπτικῶς ἐπισκήπτειν καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς ζωτικῆς ὁδοῦ μεταφέρειν καὶ λυμαίνεσθαι, ὡς οὗτος ὁ Ἀέτιος νῦν μὲν φύσει ἐν τῷ ῥητῷ τούτῳ μηδὲν λέγων καταπλήττειν δοκεῖ τοὺς ἀκεραίους, ἐκ περιττοῦ τὰ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ λεγόμενα λέγων, ὀνόματι ἀγεννήτου ὡς εἴωθεν ἐκ περιττοῦ προφέρειν καὶ ἐν τῷ παρόντι καιρῷ κεχρημένος. οὐ γὰρ πᾶσα οὐσία ἀγέννητος παρ' αὐτοῖς τοῖς συνετοῖς ὁμολογεῖται, ἐπεὶ πᾶσα ἂν ἐθεολογεῖτο. οὐ πασῶν δὲ θεολογουμένων τῶν οὐσιῶν, ἀλλὰ μιᾶς παρὰ πάσας, ἥτις ἐστὶ θεότης μία ἐν τριάδι, πῶς ἔτι ὑποληφθήσεται τῷ γεννάδᾳ τούτῳ τὸ καταπληκτικὸν αὐτοῦ χωρεῖν ἐπὶ τοὺς υἱοὺς τῆς ἀληθείας; διοίσει δὲ καὶ ὁποτέρα τῆς ὁποτέρας ὅτι ἡ μὲν τριὰς κτίζει, 3.406 τὰ δὲ πάντα ἀπ' αὐτῆς κέκτισται, καὶ ἡ μέν ἐστιν ἀδέσποτος, τὰ δὲ ὑπ' αὐτῆς γενόμενα δεσπόζεται, καὶ ἡ μὲν μεταβάλλεται, ἡ δὲ ἀπαράβατον ἔχει τὴν φύσιν, μεταβάλλουσα ἀεὶ τὰ ὑπ' αὐτῆς μεταβαλλόμενα, καὶ ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων τὰς οὐσίας καὶ τὰς ὑποστάσεις ὑφιστᾶν δυναμένη. τοῦτο γάρ ἐστι συμπρέπον θεῷ τῶν ἐκ μὴ ὑποκειμένων καὶ ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων ὑπ' αὐτοῦ γεγενημένων καὶ ὑποστάντων κατὰ τὴν διακόσμησιν μετασκευάζειν ὡς βούλεται. 52. ˉλˉε. Εἰ πᾶσα οὐσία ἐστὶν ἀγέννητος, πᾶσά ἐστιν ἀπαράλλακτος. τῆς δὲ οὐσίας τὸ ἀπαράλλακτον ἐχούσης τὸ ποιεῖν τε καὶ τὸ πάσχειν αὐτοματισμῷ ἀναθετέον. πολλῶν δὲ ὄντων ἀγεννήτων καὶ ἀπαραλλάκτων, ἀναριθμήτως διοίσουσιν ἀλλήλων. οὐ γὰρ ἂν εἴη ἀριθμητὰ τὰ διεστῶτα ἢ καθόλου ἢ κατά τι, πάσης διαστάσεως ἀποκλήρωσίν τινα ἐμφαινούσης ἔτι ἀποτεταγμένης ἀγεννήτου φύσεως. Ἀνατροπή. Οὐ πᾶσα οὐσία ἀγέννητος· ἠλίθιον γὰρ καὶ τὸ διανοεῖσθαι τοῦτο καὶ Ἑλληνικῆς ἀγνωσίας οὗτος ὁ λογισμὸς καὶ τὸ ἀπόφθεγμα, κἄν τε ἀποφαντικῶς κἄν τε ἐρωτητικῶς τῷ Ἀετίῳ