16.  He received a woodland and rustic church, the pastoral care and oversight of which had not been bestowed from a distance, but it had been cared for by one of his predecessors of admirable and angelic disposition, and a more simple man than our present rulers of the people; but, after he had been speedily taken to God, it had, in consequence of the loss of its leader, for the most part grown careless and run wild; accordingly, he at first strove without harshness to soften the habits of the people, both by words of pastoral knowledge, and by setting himself before them as an example, like a spiritual statue, polished into the beauty of all excellent conduct.  He next, by constant meditation on the divine words, though a late student of such matters, gathered together so much wisdom within a short time that he was in no wise excelled by those who had spent the greatest toil upon them, and received this special grace from God, that he became the father and teacher of orthodoxy—not, like our modern wise men, yielding to the spirit of the age, nor defending our faith by indefinite and sophistical language, as if they had no fixity of faith, or were adulterating the truth; but, he was more pious than those who possessed rhetorical power, more skilled in rhetoric than those who were upright in mind; or rather, while he took the second place as an orator, he surpassed all in piety.  He acknowledged One God worshipped in Trinity, and Three, Who are united in One Godhead; neither Sabellianising40    Sabellianising, etc.  Cf. II. 36, 37 (notes). as to the One, nor Arianising as to the Three; either by contracting and so atheistically annihilating the Godhead, or by tearing It asunder by distinctions of unequal greatness or nature.  For, seeing that Its every quality is incomprehensible and beyond the power of our intellect, how can we either perceive or express by definition on such a subject, that which is beyond our ken?  How can the immeasurable be measured, and the Godhead be reduced to the condition of finite things, and measured by degrees41    Degrees.  The heretics asserted that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost were arranged in this order according to a real difference in rank. of greater or less?

Ι#2ʹ. Παραλαβὼν γὰρ τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν ὑλώδη καὶ ἀπηγροικισμένην, οὐ πόῤῥωθεν μὲν ἐπισκοπῇ ποιμανθεῖσαν, ἀλλ' ὅσον ἑνὶ τῶν πρὸ αὐτοῦ κοσμηθῆναι, καὶ τούτῳ θαυμασίῳ μὲν καὶ ἀγγελικῷ τὸν τρόπον, ἁπλουστέρῳ δὲ ἢ κατὰ τοὺς νῦν τῶν λαῶν προστάτας: τούτου δὲ τάχιστα προσληφθέντος, ἐπιπολὺ πάλιν ῥᾳθυμηθεῖσάν τε καὶ χερσομανήσασαν ἐξ ἀναρχίας: πρῶτον μὲν τὰ ἤθη τῶν ἀνθρώπων οὐ χαλεπῶς ἐξημέρωσε λόγοις τε ποιμαντικῆς ἐπιστήμης, καὶ τῷ προθεῖναι τύπον ἑαυτὸν, ὥσπερ ἀνδριάντα πνευματικὸν, εἰς κάλλος ἀπεξεσμένον πάσης ἀρίστης πράξεως. Ἔπειτα τοῖς θείοις λόγοις συντόνως ἐμμελετήσας, καίπερ ὀψιμαθὴς τῶν τοιούτων τυγχάνων, τοσαύτην ἐντὸς ὀλίγου χρόνου σοφίαν συνελέξατο, ὥστε τά τε ἄλλα μηδενὸς λείπεσθαι τῶν ἐπὶ πλεῖστον πεπονηκότων, καὶ χάριν ἐκ Θεοῦ ταύτην λαβεῖν ἐξαίρετον, ὀρθοδοξίας γενέσθαι πατὴρ καὶ διδάσκαλος: οὐ κατὰ τοὺς νῦν σοφοὺς τοῖς καιροῖς συγκλινόμενος, οὐδὲ μέσως καὶ τεχνικῶς τοῦ καθ' ἡμᾶς λόγου προϊστάμενος, ὡς ἂν οἱ μὴ πῆξιν ἔχοντες πίστεως, ἢ καπηλεύοντες τὴν ἀλήθειαν: ἀλλ' ἦν τῶν μὲν λόγῳ δυνατῶν εὐσεβέστερος, τῶν ὀρθῶν δὲ τὴν διάνοιαν λογικώτερος: μᾶλλον δὲ λόγου τὰ δεύτερα φέρων, εὐσεβείᾳ πάντων ἐκράτει. Ἕνα μὲν Θεὸν εἰδὼς ἐν Τριάδι προσκυνούμενον, τρία δὲ εἰς μίαν θεότητα συναγόμενα: καὶ οὔτε τῷ ἑνὶ Σαβελλίζων, οὔτε τοῖς τρισὶν Ἀρειανίζων, ἢ τῷ συστέλλειν θεότητα καὶ ἀναλύειν ἀθέως, ἢ τῷ κατατέμνειν ἀνίσοις ἀλλοτριότησιν, ἢ μεγέθους, ἢ φύσεως. Οὗ γὰρ ἕκαστον ἀκατάληπτον καὶ ὑπὲρ τὴν ἡμετέραν ἐπίνοιαν, πῶς ἐνταῦθα τὸ ὑπεραῖρον ἢ νοηθήσεται, ἢ δογματισθήσεται; Ποῦ δὲ μετρεῖται τὸ ἄπειρον, ἵν', ὃ τῶν περατουμένων ἐστὶ, τοῦτο πάθῃ θεότης, βαθμοῖς μετρουμένη καὶ ὑποβάσεσιν;