§36. A passing repetition of the teaching of the Church.

But if a man keeps steadfast to the sound doctrine, and believes that the Son is of the nature which is divine without admixture, he will find everything in harmony with the other truths of his religion, viz., that Our Lord is the maker of all things, that He is King of the universe, set above it not by an arbitrary act of capricious power, but ruling by virtue of a superior nature; and besides this, he will find that the one First Cause132    One First Cause, μοναρχίας. In a notable passage on the Greeks who came up to the Feast (John xii. 20), Cyril (Catena, p. 307), uses the same word. “Such, seeing that some of the Jews’ customs did not greatly differ from their own, as far as related to the manner of sacrifice, and the belief in a One first Cause…came up with them to worship,” &c. Philo had already used the word so (De Charit.). Athanasius opposes it to πολυθεία (Quæst. ad Antioch. I.)., as taught by us, is not divided by any unlikeness of substance into separate first causes, but one Godhead, one Cause, one Power over all things is believed in, that Godhead being discoverable by the harmony existing between these like beings, and leading on the mind through one like to another like, so that the Cause of all things, which is Our Lord, shines in our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit; (for it is impossible, as the Apostle says, that the Lord Jesus can be truly known, “except by the Holy Spirit133    1 Cor. xii. 3.”); and then all the Cause beyond, which is God over all, is found through Our Lord, Who is the Cause of all things; nor, indeed, is it possible to gain an exact knowledge of the Archetypal Good, except as it appears in the (visible) image of that invisible. But then, after passing that summit of theology, I mean the God over all, we turn as it were back again in the racecourse of the mind, and speed through conjoint and kindred ideas from the Father, through the Son, to the Holy Ghost. For once having taken our stand on the comprehension of the Ungenerate Light, we perceive134    ἐνοήσαμεν: aorist of instantaneous action. that moment from that vantage ground the Light that streams from Him, like the ray co-existent with the sun, whose cause indeed is in the sun, but whose existence is synchronous with the sun, not being a later addition, but appearing at the first sight of the sun itself: or rather (for there is no necessity to be slaves to this similitude, and so give a handle to the critics to use against our teaching by reason of the inadequacy of our image), it will not be a ray of the sun that we shall perceive, but another sun blazing forth, as an offspring, out of the Ungenerate sun, and simultaneously with our conception of the First, and in every way like him, in beauty, in power, in lustre, in size, in brilliance, in all things at once that we observe in the sun. Then again, we see yet another such Light after the same fashion sundered by no interval of time from that offspring Light, and while shining forth by means of It yet tracing the source of its being to the Primal Light; itself, nevertheless, a Light shining in like manner as the one first conceived of, and itself a source of light and doing all that light does. There is, indeed, no difference between one light and another light, qua light, when the one shows no lack or diminution of illuminating grace, but by its complete perfection forms part of the highest light of all, and is beheld along with the Father and the Son, though counted after them, and by its own power gives access to the light that is perceived in the Father and Son to all who are able to partake of it. So far upon this.

Τὰ μὲν οὖν παρ' ἐκείνων τοιαῦτα. εἰ δέ τις τῇ ὑγιαινούσῃ διδασκαλίᾳ προσέχων ἐκ τῆς θείας τε καὶ ἀκηράτου φύσεως τὸν υἱὸν εἶναι πιστεύοι, πάντα συνῳδὰ τῷ τῆς εὐσεβείας ἀναφανήσεται δόγματι, τὸ ποιητὴν εἶναι τῶν πάντων τὸν κύριον, τὸ βασιλεύειν τῶν ὄντων, οὐ κατὰ ἀποκλήρωσιν ἢ κατὰ τυραννικήν τινα δυναστείαν τῶν ὁμοφύλων προτεταγμένον, ἀλλὰ τῇ τῆς φύσεως ὑπεροχῇ τὸ κατὰ πάντων ἔχοντα κράτος, καὶ ἔτι πρὸς τούτοις τὸ μὴ εἰς διαφόρους ἀρχὰς τῇ ἑτερότητι τῆς φύσεως διῃρημένας τὸ τῆς μοναρχίας δόγμα καταμερίζεσθαι, ἀλλὰ μίαν θεότητα, μίαν ἀρχήν, μίαν τῶν πάντων ἐξουσίαν εἶναι πιστεύειν, ἐν τῇ τῶν ὁμοίων συμφωνίᾳ τῆς θεότητος θεωρουμένης καὶ διὰ τοῦ ὁμοίου πρὸς τὸ ὅμοιον τὴν διάνοιαν ἀγούσης, ὡς τῆς πάντων μὲν ἀρχῆς, ἥτις ἐστὶν ὁ κύριος, διὰ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἐλλαμπούσης (ἀμήχανον γὰρ ἄλλως θεωρηθῆναι τὸν κύριον Ἰησοῦν, εἰ μὴ ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ, καθώς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος), διὰ δὲ τοῦ κυρίου, ὅς ἐστιν ἡ πάντων ἀρχή, τῆς ἐπέκεινα πάσης ἀρχῆς ἡμῖν εὑρισκομένης, ἥτις ἐστὶν ὁ ἐπὶ πάντων θεός: οὐδὲ γὰρ δυνατόν ἐστιν ἄλλως τὸ ἀρχέτυπον ἀγαθὸν ἐπιγνωσθῆναι, μὴ ἐν τῇ εἰκόνι τοῦ ἀοράτου φαινόμενον. ὥσπερ δέ τινα δίαυλον ἀνακάμπτοντες μετὰ τὸ κεφάλαιον τῆς θεογνωσίας, αὐτὸν λέγω τὸν ἐπὶ πάντων θεόν, διὰ τῶν προσεχῶν τε καὶ οἰκείων τῇ διανοίᾳ τρέχοντες ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς διὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ πρὸς τὸ πνεῦμα ἀναχωροῦμεν. ἐν περινοίᾳ γὰρ τοῦ ἀγεννήτου φωτὸς καταστάντες ἐκεῖθεν πάλιν τὸ ἐξ αὐτοῦ φῶς κατὰ τὸ προσεχὲς ἐνοήσαμεν οἷον ἀκτῖνά τινα τῷ ἡλίῳ συνυφισταμένην, ἧς ἡ μὲν αἰτία τοῦ εἶναι ἐκ τοῦ ἡλίου, ἡ δὲ ὕπαρξις ὁμοῦ τῷ ἡλίῳ, οὐ χρόνοις ὕστερον προσγινομένη, ἀλλ' ὁμοῦ τῷ ὀφθῆναι τὸν ἥλιον ἐξ αὐτοῦ συναναφαινομένη: μᾶλλον δὲ (οὐ γὰρ ἀνάγκη πᾶσα τῇ εἰκόνι δουλεύοντας δοῦναι τοῖς συκοφάνταις κατὰ τοῦ λόγου λαβὴν ἐν τῇ τοῦ ὑποδείγματος ἀτονίᾳ) οὐχὶ ἀκτῖνα ἐξ ἡλίου νοήσομεν, ἀλλ' ἐξ ἀγεννήτου ἡλίου ἄλλον ἥλιον ὁμοῦ τῇ τοῦ πρώτου ἐπινοίᾳ γεννητῶς αὐτῷ συνεκλάμποντα καὶ κατὰ πάντα ὡσαύτως ἔχοντα κάλλει δυνάμει λαμπηδόνι μεγέθει φαιδρότητι καὶ πᾶσιν ἅπαξ τοῖς περὶ τὸν ἥλιον θεωρουμένοις. καὶ πάλιν ἕτερον τοιοῦτον φῶς κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον, οὐ χρονικῷ τινι διαστήματι τοῦ γεννητοῦ φωτὸς ἀποτεμνόμενον, ἀλλὰ δι' αὐτοῦ μὲν ἐκλάμπον, τὴν δὲ τῆς ὑποστάσεως αἰτίαν ἔχον ἐκ τοῦ πρωτοτύπου φωτός, φῶς μέντοι καὶ αὐτὸ καθ' ὁμοιότητα τοῦ προεπινοηθέντος λάμπον καὶ φωτίζον καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πάντα τὰ τοῦ φωτὸς ἐργαζόμενον. οὐδὲ γὰρ ἔστι φωτὶ πρὸς ἕτερον φῶς κατ' αὐτὸ τοῦτο παραλλαγή, ὅταν κατ' οὐδὲν τῆς φωτιστικῆς χάριτος ἐνδέον ἢ ὑστερούμενον φαίνηται, ἀλλὰ πάσῃ τελειότητι πρὸς τὸ ἀκρότατον ἐπηρμένον μετὰ πατρὸς καὶ υἱοῦ θεωρεῖται, μετὰ πατέρα καὶ υἱὸν ἀριθμεῖται, καὶ δι' ἑαυτοῦ τὴν προσαγωγὴν πρὸς τὸ ἐπινοούμενον φῶς τὸ ἐν πατρὶ καὶ υἱῷ πᾶσι τοῖς μετασχεῖν δυναμένοις χαρίζεται.
Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν εἰς τοσοῦτον.