XVII.  As for the arguments with which you would overthrow the Union which we support, I know not whether we should say you are jesting or in earnest.  For what is this argument?  “Things of one essence, you say, are counted together,” and by this “counted together,” you mean that they are collected into one number. συναριθμεῖται, as when you say Three Gods, or Three Men, and the like, as you do when you reckon up things of the same sort.  On the other hand, you must use the plural number in reckoning up things which differ in kind.  But things which are not of one essence are not thus counted…so that you cannot avoid speaking of three gods, according to this account, while we do not run any risk at all of it, inasmuch as we assert that they are not consubstantial.  And so by a single word you have freed yourselves from trouble, and have gained a pernicious victory, for in fact you have done something like what men do when they hang themselves for fear of death.  For to save yourselves trouble in your championship of the Monarchia you have denied the Godhead, and abandoned the question to your opponents.  But for my part, even if labor should be necessary, I will not abandon the Object of my adoration.  And yet on this point I cannot see where the difficulty is.