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they have dared, denying the only master who bought them, the only-begotten child Jesus Christ, the son of the living God, the one who truly is, begotten from the Father without beginning and without time, the one who is always from the Father and is with the Father, but begotten incomprehensibly and purely, being of one substance with the Father and not different from the Father; some, again, having gone mad like rabid dogs, bark at their own master, just as from the beginning the Jews who were ignorant of him are called "dumb dogs," rightly deemed worthy of this name by the prophet on account of their shameless rush concerning the Lord and his advent, as it is true to see. For they say that rabid dogs are called dumb because they become toothless from the mind that leaves them. 4. For such is the nature of dogs, when it should turn to madness; those who once knew their master and his sons, and the household members and all the other legitimate ones of the householder, when madness takes them, faces are changed before their sight and they rise up against the legitimate ones themselves, whom they once honored, fawning with their tails and submitting in their manners. Immediately those who were expecting the advent of Christ, those preparing to receive the bridegroom, those praying to see the prophets, those who promised to obey the divine words, those who had entered into a covenant with Moses, that "you be the one towards the Lord," and "all that the Lord should say to you, we will hear and we will do," when they saw their own master arrive, being ignorant of the form and the types of the truth, which the prophets before he came in the flesh were fashioning, were outlining, were proclaiming, were signifying; first, then, they said to him, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies?" and at another time, not being ashamed, they dared to say that he had a demon, and furthermore they did not blush to call him a Samaritan. In the end, then, as has been shown by me before, like mad dogs they rose up, and fixed their 3.455 hands on him *, as always with madness the dog, having raised * its paws, attacks and is not ashamed to mangle the faces of its own masters. Those men handed over their own Lord to be crucified, and of the prophets of the household of the same master, one they sawed in two, another they stoned, and another they killed with the slaughter of the sword. And after these, likewise now the new Jews, one after another using the same conduct, while the natural Jews according to the flesh denied him, those now denying the perfect genuineness of the Son of God towards the Father, assert unceasingly that he is a creature and a product and foreign to the Father, being altogether mad and thunderstruck. 5. And again from these, others, having abandoned the aforesaid blasphemous teachings and, so to speak, having beheld the supernatural heavenly vision itself and having entered into and meddled with the things above, as if coming from above, report with audacity and strongly assert, casting out the Holy Spirit from the Godhead. And they have not denied the Father nor the genuineness of the Son towards him, but they walk again on another path, so that from every side may be fulfilled, "faith has failed from their mouth." For what else remains but that, with respect to the Holy Spirit, which is not foreign to the Father and the Son, which is from the same Godhead and cannot be foreign to the Godhead, they wish, as if they themselves had authority, to command God rather than to be commanded? For not being ashamed they say the Spirit is foreign and a slave and a creature and recent and made and whatever other shameful thing they devise for themselves to procure in suspicion concerning it. Since, therefore, the world now thus rather * having been struck an incurable blow of unbelief, so that the lawlessness which has men
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τετολμήκασι, τὸν μόνον ἀγοράσαντα αὐτοὺς δεσπότην ἀρνούμενοι, τὸν μονογενῆ παῖδα Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν, τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος, τὸν ὄντως ὄντα, ἐκ πατρὸς γεγεννημένον ἀνάρχως καὶ ἀχρόνως, τὸν ἀεὶ ὄντα ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ σὺν πατρὶ ὄντα, γεγεννημένον δὲ ἀκαταλήπτως καὶ ἀχράντως, ὁμοούσιον τῷ πατρὶ ὄντα καὶ οὐκ ἀλλοῖον παρὰ τὸν πατέρα· οἱ μὲν αὖθις μανέντες δίκην λυσσητήρων κυνῶν ἐπὶ τὸν ἴδιον αὐτῶν δεσπότην ὑλακτοῦσι, καθάπερ ἐξ ὑπαρχῆς Ἰουδαῖοι οἱ τοῦτον ἀγνοήσαντες κέκληνται «κύνες ἐνεοί», εἰκότως παρὰ τοῦ προφήτου ταυτησὶ τῆς ἐπωνυμίας κατηξιωμένοι τοὔνομα ἕνεκεν τῆς αὐτῶν περὶ τὸν κύριον καὶ τὴν αὐτοῦ παρουσίαν ἀναισχύντου ὀρμῆς, ὡς ἔστιν ἀληθὲς ἰδεῖν. φασὶ γὰρ τοὺς λυσσῶντας κύνας ἐνεοὺς καλεῖσθαι διὰ τὸ νωδοὺς ἀποτελεῖσθαι ἐκ τῆς καταλιμπανούσης αὐτοὺς διανοίας. 4. Οὕτω γὰρ τῶν κυνῶν ἡ φύσις, ἐπὰν εἰς λύσσαν ἐκτραπείη· οἵ ποτε δεσπότην γινώσκοντες καὶ τοὺς αὐτοῦ υἱεῖς, οἰκείους τε καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους πάντας τοῦ οἰκοδεσπότου γνησίους, ὅταν λάβῃ αὐτοὺς ἡ μανία, ἀλλοιοῦνται τὰ πρόσωπα ἐνώπιον τῆς αὐτῶν ὁράσεως καὶ ἐπ' αὐτοὺς ἐγείρονται τοὺς γνησίους, οὕς ποτε τιμῶντες τῇ μὲν κέρκῳ ἔσαινον, τοῖς δὲ τρόποις ὑπετάσσοντο. αὐτίκα οἱ προσδοκῶντες Χριστοῦ τὴν παρουσίαν, οἱ ἑτοιμαζόμενοι δέξασθαι τὸν νυμφίον, οἱ προφήτας εὐχόμενοι κατιδεῖν, οἱ πείθεσθαι θείοις λόγοις ὑποσχόμενοι, οἱ τῷ Μωυσῇ ἐν συνθήκῃ εἰσεληλυθότες, ὅτι «γενοῦ σὺ τὰ πρὸς κύριον», καὶ «πάντα ὅσα ἐὰν εἴποι σοι ὁ κύριος ἀκουσόμεθα καὶ ποιήσομεν», ὅτε εἶδον τὸν αὐτῶν δεσπότην παραγενόμενον, ἀγνοήσαντες τὴν μορφὴν καὶ τοὺς τύπους τῆς ἀληθείας, οὓς οἱ προφῆται πρὸ αὐτοῦ ἐν σαρκὶ γενομένου διετύπουν, διεχάραττον, κατήγγελλον, ἐσήμαινον· πρῶτον μὲν οὖν αὐτῷ ἔλεγον «τίς οὗτος ὃς λαλεῖ βλασφημίας;» ἄλλοτε δὲ δαιμόνιον αὐτὸν ἔχειν οὐκ αἰσχυνόμενοι τετολμήκασιν εἰπεῖν, ἔτι δὲ καὶ Σαμαρείτην αὐτὸν ἀποκαλεῖν οὐκ ἠρυθρίων. πέρας οὖν, καθάπερ μοι προδεδήλωται, ὡς μεμηνότες κύνες ἐπανέστησαν, καὶ τὰς μὲν 3.455 χεῖρας προσέπηξαν *, ὡς ἀεὶ μετὰ τῆς μανίας ὁ κύων ἀνακρεμάσας * αὐτοῦ τὰς χεῖρας ἐπέρχεται καὶ τὰ πρόσωπα τῶν ἰδίων αὐτοῦ δεσποτῶν καταγλύφειν οὐκ αἰσχύνεται. παρέδωκαν ἐκεῖνοι τὸν αὐτῶν κύριον εἰς τὸ σταυρωθῆναι, προφήτας τε τοὺς οἰκειακοὺς τοῦ αὐτοῦ δεσπότου τὸν μὲν ἔπρισαν, τὸν δὲ λίθοις κατέλευσαν, ἄλλον δὲ φόνῳ μαχαίρας διεχρήσαντο. μετὰ τούτους δὲ ὡσαύτως νῦν οἱ νέοι Ἰουδαῖοι ἀλλεπαλλήλως τῇ αὐτῇ κεχρημένοι ἀγωγῇ, οἱ μὲν φυσικοὶ Ἰουδαῖοι κατὰ σάρκα μὲν ἠρνήσαντο, οἱ δὲ νῦν ἀρνούμενοι τὴν τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ τελείαν πρὸς πατέρα γνησιότητα κτίσμα αὐτὸν καὶ ποίημα καὶ ἀλλότριον πατρός, παντάπασι μεμηνότες καὶ ἐμβεβροντημένοι, ἀδιαλείπτως διισχυρίζονται. 5. Ἐκ τούτων δὲ πάλιν ἄλλοι ἀφέντες τὰς προειρημένας βλασφήμους διδασκαλίας καὶ ὡς εἰπεῖν αὐτὴν τὴν ὑπὲρ φύσιν θεασάμενοι ἐπουράνιον θεωρίαν καὶ τὰ ἄνω ἐμβατεύσαντες καὶ πολυπραγμονήσαντες, ὡς ἄνωθεν ἥκοντες αὐθαδείᾳ ἀπαγγέλλουσι καὶ ἰσχυρῶς διισχυρίζονται, ἐκβάλλοντες ἐκ τῆς θεότητος τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα. καὶ τὸν μὲν πατέρα οὐκ ἤρνηνται οὔτε τὴν τοῦ υἱοῦ πρὸς αὐτὸν γνησιότητα, ἐφ' ἑτέραν δὲ πάλιν ὁδὸν βαδίζουσιν, ἵνα πάντοθεν πληρωθῇ τὸ «ἐξέλιπεν ἡ πίστις ἐκ στόματος αὐτῶν». τί γὰρ ἀλλ' ἢ εἰς τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον λοιπόν, τὸ οὐκ ἀλλότριον πατρὸς καὶ υἱοῦ, τὸ ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς θεότητος ὂν καὶ μὴ ἐνδεχόμενον εἶναι ἀλλότριον τῆς θεότητος, βούλονται, ὡς αὐτοὶ ἐξουσίαν ἔχοντες, κελεύειν μᾶλλον θεῷ ἤπερ κελεύεσθαι; οὐκ αἰσχυνόμενοι γὰρ ἀλλότριον τὸ πνεῦμα λέγουσι καὶ δοῦλον καὶ κτίσμα καὶ πρόσφατον καὶ ποιητὸν καὶ εἴ τι ἕτερον αἰσχρὸν πρὸς ὑπόνοιαν περὶ αὐτοῦ ἑαυτοῖς μᾶλλον ἐπινοοῦσι προσπορίσασθαι. ἐπεὶ οὖν ὁ κόσμος νυνὶ οὕτως μᾶλλον * πληγεὶς πληγὴν ἀνίατον ἀπιστίας, ἵνα μηδέν τι παραλείψῃ ἡ ἀνομία ἡ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους