If such is the doctrine concerning Him when followed out16    ἐφεξῆς., let the same inquiry be made concerning the Son and the Father as well. Do you not confess17    Reading ὁμολογεῖς a perfection of glory in the case of the one as in the case of the other? I think that all who reflect will allow it. If, then, the honour of the Father is perfect, and the honour of the Son is perfect, and they have confessed as well the perfection of honour for the Holy Spirit, wherefore do these new theorists dictate to us that we are not to allow in His case an equality of honour with the Father and the Son? As for ourselves, we follow out the above considerations and find ourselves unable to think, as well as to say, that that which requires no addition for its perfection is, as compared with something else, less dignified; for when we have something wherein, owing to its faultless perfection, reason can discover no possibility of increase, I do not see either wherein it can discover any possibility of diminution. But these men, in denying the equality of honour, really lay down the comparative absence of it; and so also when they follow out further this same line of thought, by a diminution arising from comparison they divert all the conceptions that devotion has formed of the Holy Spirit; they do not own His perfection either in goodness, or omnipotence, or in any such attribute. But if they shrink from such open profanity and allow His perfection in every attribute of good, then these clever people must tell us how one perfect thing can be more perfect or less perfect than another perfect thing; for so long as the definition of perfection applies to it, that thing can not admit of a greater and a less in the matter of perfection.

Εἰ δὴ τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν, ἐφεξῆς ὁ λόγος καὶ περὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ τὸ ἴσον διασκεψάσθω καὶ περὶ τοῦ πατρὸς ὡσαύτως. ἆρ' οὐχὶ τὸ τέλειον ὁμολογεῖ τῆς τιμῆς καὶ ἐπὶ τούτου καὶ ἐπ' ἐκείνου; πάντας οἶμαι τοὺς νοῦν ἔχοντας τοῖς εἰρημένοις συνθήσεσθαι. εἰ οὖν τελεία τοῦ πατρὸς ἡ τιμή, τελεία δὲ καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ, προσεμαρτυρήθη δὲ καὶ τῷ ἁγίῳ πνεύματι τῆς τιμῆς τὸ τέλειον, διὰ τί νομοθετοῦσιν ἡμῖν οἱ καινοὶ δογματισταὶ μὴ δεῖν ὁμολογεῖν ἐπ' αὐτοῦ πρὸς πατέρα καὶ υἱὸν τὸ ὁμότιμον; ἡμεῖς μὲν γὰρ τοῖς ἐξητασμένοις ἑπόμενοι τὸ μηδεμιᾶς προσθήκης εἰς τελείωσιν προσδεόμενον ἀτιμότερον ἑτέρου τινὸς οὔτε λέγειν οὔτε νοεῖν δυνάμεθα. οὗ γὰρ τὸ πλεονάζον οὐκ ἐξευρίσκει ὁ λόγος διὰ τὸ ἀνελλιπές τε καὶ τέλειον, ἐν τίνι καταλήψεται αὐτοῦ τὴν ἐλάττωσιν, οὐχ ὁρῶ. οἱ δὲ ἀπαγορεύοντες τὸ ὁμότιμον δογματίζουσι πάντως τὸ ἀτιμότερον. καὶ πάσας καὶ ὡσαύτως κατὰ τὴν αὐτὴν ἀκολουθίαν διὰ τῆς κατὰ τὴν σύγκρισιν ἐλαττώσεως ἐπὶ τὸ ἐναντίον τὰς εὐσεβεῖς ὑπολήψεις περὶ τοῦ πνεύματος παρατρέψουσι μὴ ἐν ἀγαθότητι μηδὲ ἐν δυνάμει μηδὲ ἐν ἄλλῳ τινὶ τῶν εὐσεβῶς περὶ αὐτοῦ λεγομένων συμμαρτυροῦντες τὸ τέλειον. εἰ δὲ τὸ πρόδηλον τῆς ἀσεβείας ἐκκλίνοντες τὸ ἐν παντὶ τῷ κατὰ τὸ ἀγαθὸν λεγομένῳ νοήματι τέλειον ὁμολογοῦσιν, εἰπάτωσαν οἱ σοφοί, πῶς τελείου τέλειον ἢ τελειότερόν ἐστιν ἢ ἀτελέστερον: ἕως γὰρ ἂν ὁ τῆς τελειότητος ἐφαρμόζηται λόγος, οὔτε τὸ πλέον οὔτε τὸ ἔλαττον ἐν τῇ τοῦ τελείου ἐννοίᾳ ὁ λογισμὸς οὗτος παραδέχεται.