Thus there is in us the principle of all excellence, all virtue and wisdom, and every higher thing that we conceive: but pre-eminent among all is the fact that we are free from necessity, and not in bondage to any natural power, but have decision in our own power as we please; for virtue is a voluntary thing, subject to no dominion: that which is the result of compulsion and force cannot be virtue.

Now as the image bears in all points the semblance of the archetypal excellence, if it had not a difference in some respect, being absolutely without divergence it would no longer be a likeness, but will in that case manifestly be absolutely identical with the Prototype. What difference then do we discern between the Divine and that which has been made like to the Divine? We find it in the fact that the former is uncreate, while the latter has its being from creation: and this distinction of property brings with it a train of other properties; for it is very certainly acknowledged that the uncreated nature is also immutable, and always remains the same, while the created nature cannot exist without change; for its very passage from nonexistence to existence is a certain motion and change of the non-existent transmuted by the Divine purpose into being.

Οὐκοῦν ἐστιν ἐν ἡμῖν παντὸς μὲν καλοῦ ἰδέα͵ πᾶσα δὲ ἀρετὴ καὶ σοφία καὶ πᾶν ὅτιπέρ ἐστι πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον νοούμενον. Ἓν δὲ τῶν πάντων καὶ τὸ ἐλεύ θερον ἀνάγκης εἶναι καὶ μὴ ὑπεζεῦχθαί τινι φυσικῇ δυναστείᾳ, ἀλλ' αὐτεξούσιον πρὸς τὸ δοκοῦν ἔχειν τὴν γνώμην. Ἀδέσποτον γάρ τι χρῆμα ἡ ἀρετὴ καὶ ἑκούσιον͵ τὸ δὲ κατηναγκασμένον καὶ βεβιασμένον ἀρετὴ εἶναι οὐ δύναται.

Ἐν πᾶσι τοίνυν τῆς εἰκόνος τοῦ πρωτοτύπου κάλλους τὸν χαρακτῆρα φερούσης͵ εἰ μὴ κατά τι τὴν διαφορὰν ἔχῃ͵ οὐκέτι ἂν εἴη πάντως ὁμοίωμα͵ ἀλλὰ ταὐτὸν ἐκεῖνο διὰ πάντων ἀναδειχθήσεται͵ τὸ ἐν παντὶ ἀπαράλλακτον. Τίνα τοίνυν αὐτοῦ τε τοῦ Θείου καὶ τοῦ πρὸς τὸ Θεῖον ὡμοιωμένου τὴν διαφορὰν καθορῶμεν; Ἐν τῷ͵ τὸ μὲν ἀκτίστως εἶναι͵ τὸ δὲ διὰ κτίσεως ὑποστῆναι. Ἡ δὲ τῆς τοιαύτης ἰδιότητος διαφορὰ πάλιν ἑτέρων ἰδιωμάτων ἀκολουθίαν ἐποίησε. Συνομολογεῖται γὰρ πάντη τε καὶ πάντως͵ τὴν μὲν ἄκτιστον φύσιν καὶ ἄτρεπτον εἶναι καὶ ἀεὶ ὡσαύτως ἔχειν͵ τὴν δὲ κτιστὴν ἀδύνατον ἄνευ ἀλλοιώσεως συστῆναι. Αὐτὴ γὰρ ἡ ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἰς τὸ εἶναι πάροδος͵ κίνησίς τίς ἐστι καὶ ἀλλοίωσις, τοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἰς τὸ εἶναι κατὰ τὸ θεῖον βούλημα μεθισταμένου.