If, according to the teaching of the adversaries, it were necessary to worship a created god, who by nature has no preference over any other creature, and if this teaching were to have force, then the dogmas of piety would certainly be reduced to a kind of anarchy and a multi-power self-law, because as soon as people believe that not one nature is worshipped, but turn their thoughts to different deities, then no one will stop the movement of thought that has allowed the created divinity; but the recognition of a divinity in any creature will be a reason for an equal opinion about what follows it, and so on; the error will gradually spread to everything, as soon as the first lie reaches its last extremes through its application.

And that my divination is not beyond probability, I will present a reliable witness to the truth of my word - an error that even prevails among the Greeks to this day. For after people, with their inexperienced and weak minds, had become amazingly attached to the beauties of creation, and had not used the miraculousness of phenomena as a guide and guide to the understanding of the transcendental beauty, but had focused their thought only on what was comprehended, and had made each part of creation an object of wonder, then they did not recognize any one of the visible things as Divinity, but considered everything visible in creation to be divine.

Thus, among the Egyptians, who had a particularly strong error about the spiritual world, innumerable kinds of demons were numbered among divine beings. Among the Babylonians, the immutable circumference of the heavens was revered as a god, whom they called Baal, and the next seven circles were also considered by the Hellenic vanity, having made each separately a god, and for some special reason of error subordinated one to another.

For having discovered that all these circles revolve one within the other, they have gone astray about the highest, and have consistently retained the same error to the last extremes. Moreover, they recognized as true that the ether itself, and the air poured out beneath it, and the earth, and the sea, and the subterranean part, and on the earth itself, everything that is useful and necessary for human life, and all the rest, partake of the Divine nature; One thing that had previously struck their eyes into the creature gave occasion for the service of all the subsequent parts of creation, and they bowed down before each of these objects, so that if it had at first seemed inadmissible for them to turn their eyes with reverence to the creature, they would not have fallen into such a deception of polytheism.

How much more should we not suffer from this ailment, who are taught by the Divine Scriptures to look upon the true Divinity and are instructed to consider all created things as alien to the Divine nature, but to serve and honor one uncreated Nature, whose property and attribute is that it has never had a beginning of existence and will not have an end. Thus the great Isaiah, commandingly theologizing about these dogmas, says on behalf of God: "I am the first, and I after these, before Me was not God, neither shall it be after Me" (Isaiah 44:6; 43:10).

This great Prophet, who knew more accurately than anyone else the mystery of the Gospel piety, and who proclaimed this wondrous sign of the Virgin, and who proclaimed the birth of the "Child," and clearly pronounced His very name, — this Prophet, who by the power of the spirit embraced within himself all the truth, so that it might be especially clear to all that quality of the Divine nature, by means of which we distinguish the self-existent from the happened, says on behalf of God: "I am the first, and I am after this, and before Me there was no God, and after Me he bore it."

For God is neither God before God, nor God after God, for what is after God is creation, and before God there was nothing; nothing is God, or, rather, before God He Himself is in unlimited, eternal bliss; Inasmuch as this spiritual word is further spoken by the mouth of the prophets, we learn the dogma that there is a certain one Divine nature, identical in itself and indivisible, not admitting into itself either before or after, although it is preached in the Trinity, and having nothing in itself that could be conceived by the elder or after what happened.

Therefore, since this is a saying of God, whether you attribute it to the Father or to the Son, the dogma of piety is equally affirmed by both. If the Father said this, then it testifies of the Son that He is not after Him, for if the Son is God, and everything that is after the Father is not God, then it is clear that the word of God testifies that the Son has existence in the Father, and not after the Father.

If, however, he ascribes to the Son these words: "Thou wast not before Me," then the teaching will be clear, that together with the eternity of the beginning, the Eternal must also be understood as the Contemplated in the beginning. Thus, from what has been said, it is revealed: if anyone is after God, he is a creature and not God, for that which is "after Me," says the Lord, is not God. 2. Now, after a preliminary exposition of speculation about what exists in us, it is time to examine the proposed saying.

Итак, Петром сказано иудеям, что «Господа и Христа Его Бог сотворил есть, сего Иисуса Егоже выраспясте» (Деян. 2,36). Мы говорим, что слова сотворил есть бла­гочестие требует относить не к Божеству Единородного, но к «зраку раба», воспринятому по домостроительству во время пришествия во плоти; на­сильственно извращающие это изречение, напротив, говорят, что словом «сотворил» Апостол означает предвечное рождение Сына.

Итак, предло­жив открыто наше учение и тщательно рассмотрев оба мнения, предоста­вим слушателю обсуждение истины. Достаточным защитником разумения противного нашему будет сам Евномий, не робко подвизавшийся в этом деле, так что проследив буквально его слова, мы вполне изложим мысль наших противников. На защиту же нашего учения, сколько будем в силах, станем мы сами, идя сколько возможно по следам того, что прежде было изложено великим Василием. Читающие же, рассудив, где истина (

как го­ворит некто из пророков, «праведный суд судите» - Втор. 1, 16; Ин. 7, 24), воздадут победные награды не предположениям спорщиков, но дознанной через исследование истине. Теперь первый пусть предстанет наш обвини­тель, как бы на суде читая написанное им. «Сверх же сказанного он, от­казываясь слово «сотворил» понимать о сущности Сына и вместе стыдясь креста, навязывает апостолам то, чего не навязывал никто, даже из усили­вавшихся грубо хулить их; он явно своими догматами и словами вводит двух Христов и два Господа, ибо говорит, что не Слово, которое было в начале, Бог сотворил Господом и Христом, но истощившего себя до зрака раба и распятого от немощи». (

В точности же Василий Великий пишет так: смысл изречения апостольского не представляет нам ничего о предвечном ипостасном бытии Единородного, о котором теперь мы рассуждаем. Ибо очевидно, что Апостол говорит здесь не о самой сущности Слова Божия, которое в начале было у Бога (Ин. 1,1), но об истощившем себя в «зрак раба» и соделавшемся сообразным нашему уничиженному телу (Флп. 2, 7; 3, 2) и распятом от немощи (2 Кор. 13, 4).

Всякий, даже и немного вникавший в смысл сих слов Апостола, может разуметь, что здесь он не преподает нам богословие, а показывает образ домостроительства спасения, ибо говоря: « Госпо да и Христа Его Бог сотворил есть, сего Иисуса, Егоже вы распясте», име ет в виду единственно его человечество и то, что в нем видимо, как это ясно открывается всем из указательного речения: «сего Иисуса»). «Говоря он (