For we shall not venture to speak of "an overflow of goodness," as one of the Greek Philosophers dared to say, as if it were a bowl overflowing, and this in plain words in his Discourse on the First and Second Causes. Let us not ever look on this Generation as involuntary, like some natural overflow, hard to be retained, and by no means befitting our conception of Deity. Therefore let us confine ourselves within our limits, and speak of the Unbegotten and the Begotten and That which proceeds from the Father, as somewhere God the Word Himself saith.

οὐ γὰρ δὴ ὑπέρχυσιν ἀγαθότητος εἰπεῖν θαρρήσομεν͵ ὃ τῶν παρ΄ Ἕλλησι φιλοσοφησάντων εἰπεῖν τις ἐτόλμησεν͵ οἷον κρατήρ τις ὑπερερρύῃ͵ σαφῶς οὑτωσὶ λέγων͵ ἐν οἷς περὶ πρώτου αἰτίου καὶ δευτέρου φιλοσοφεῖ· μή ποτε ἀκούσιον τὴν γέννησιν εἰσαγάγωμεν καὶ οἷον περίττωμά τι φυσικὸν καὶ δυσκάθεκτον͵ ἥκιστα ταῖς περὶ θεότητος ὑπονοίαις πρέπον. διὰ τοῦτο ἐπὶ τῶν ἡμετέρων ὅρων ἱστάμενοι τὸ ἀγέννητον εἰσάγομεν καὶ τὸ γεννητὸν καὶ τὸ ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον͵ ὥς πού φησιν αὐτὸς ὁ Θεὸς καὶ Λόγος.