XLII.  Do you fear to speak of Generation lest you should attribute aught of passion to the impassible God?  I on the other hand fear to speak of Creation, lest I should destroy God by the insult and the untrue division, either cutting the Son away from the Father, or from the Son the Substance of the Spirit.  For this paradox is involved, that not only is a created Life foisted into the Godhead by those who measure Godhead badly; but even this created life is divided against itself.  For as these low earthly minds make the Son subject to the Father, so again is the rank of the Spirit made inferior to that of the Son, until both God and created life are insulted by the new Theology.  No, my friends, there is nothing servile in the Trinity, nothing created, nothing accidental, as I have heard one of the wise180    S. Gregory Thaumaturgus. say.  If I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ, says the Apostle;181    Galat. i. 10. and if I yet worshipped a creature, or were baptized into a creature, I should not be made divine, nor have changed my first birth.  What shall I say to those who worship Astarte or Chemosh, the abomination of the Sidonians, or the likeness of a star,182    Amos v. 26. a god a little above them to these idolaters, but yet a creature and a piece of workmanship, when I myself either do not worship Two of Those into Whose united Name I am baptized, or else worship my fellow-servants, for they are fellow-servants, even if a little higher in the scale; for differences must exist among fellow-servants.

ΜΒʹ. Φοβῇ σὺ γέννησιν, ἵνα μή τι πάθῃ Θεὸς, ὁ μὴ πάσχων; Ἐγὼ φοβοῦμαι τὴν κτίσιν, ἵνα μὴ Θεὸν ἀπολέσω διὰ τῆς ὕβρεως, καὶ τῆς ἀδίκου κατατομῆς, ἢ τὸν Υἱὸν τέμνων ἀπὸ τοῦ Πατρὸς, ἢ ἀπὸ τοῦ Υἱοῦ τὴν οὐσίαν τοῦ Πνεύματος. Τὸ γὰρ παράδοξον, ὅτι μὴ κτίσις ἐπάγεται μόνον Θεῷ παρὰ τοῖς κακῶς θεότητα ταλαντεύουσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὴ πάλιν ἡ κτίσις εἰς ἑαυτὴν τέμνεται. Ὥσπερ τοῦ Πατρὸς ὑποστέλλεται ὁ Υἱὸς τοῖς ταπεινοῖς καὶ κάτω κειμένοις, οὕτως ὑποστελλομένης πάλιν καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ Υἱοῦ τῆς ἀξίας τοῦ Πνεύματος: ὡς ἂν καὶ Θεὸς, καὶ κτίσις ὑβρίζηται τῇ καινῇ ταύτῃ θεολογίᾳ. Οὐδὲν τῆς Τριάδος, ὦ οὗτοι, δοῦλον, οὐδὲ κτιστὸν, οὐδὲ ἐπείσακτον, ἤκουσα τῶν σοφῶν τινος λέγοντος. Εἰ ἔτι ἀνθρώποις ἤρεσκον, Χριστοῦ δοῦλος οὐκ ἂν ἤμην, φησὶν ὁ θεῖος ἀπόστολος. Εἰ ἔτι κτίσματι προσεκύνουν, ἢ εἰς κτίσμα ἐβαπτιζόμην, οὐκ ἂν ἐθεούμην, οὐδὲ τὴν πρώτην μετεποιούμην γέννησιν. Τί φήσω πρὸς τοὺς τὴν Ἀστάρτην προσκυνοῦντας, ἢ τὸ Χαμὼς βδέλυγμα Σιδωνίων, ἢ τοῦ ἄστρου τὸν τύπον, τοῦ μικρὸν ὑπὲρ ταῦτα Θεοῦ τοῖς εἰδωλολάτραις, πλὴν κτίσματος καὶ ποιήματος: αὐτὸς, ἢ μὴ προσκυνῶν τὰ δύο, εἰς ἃ συμβεβάπτισμαι, ἢ προσκυνῶν τὰ ὁμόδουλα; Ὁμόδουλα γὰρ, καὶ εἰ μικρὸν τιμιώτερα: ἐπεὶ καὶ ἐν ὁμοδούλοις ἐστί τις διαφορὰ καὶ προτίμησις.