Addenda

[V]

From the Epistle of Mark of Ephesus to Emperor John Palaiologos(a)

Flowers create pleasure for those who look upon them, but they pass away and wither more quickly than an account, so that by considering how unstable and short-lived they are, we may seek the true and permanently constant pleasure, the blessed, everlasting, and indestructible one, which the soul enjoys here, nourished by divine teachings and contemplations and constantly taking delight in the Lord, and filled with joy in the hope of future blessings; however, after this life, having attained the goods it had longed for, it exults in all kinds of gladness for all time. For the voice, it says, of exultation and salvation is in the tents of the righteous.

(a) This epistle, which begins: *This small gift*, is cited as a testimony to the truth that the saints obtain the vision of God immediately after death, together with the text brought forward by Patriarch Gregory in *Eph. confess. cap. XX* (1). Leo Allatius uses it in *De synodo Photiana*, Rome 1662, p. 541.

ADDENDA TO THE WORKS OF PATRIARCH GENNADIUS

NOTICE

Gennadius wrote five books concerning divine providence and predestination, as can be seen in the catalogue of his works which we published above, having received it from Renaudot. The first, which begins: *That from eternity concerning existing things*, appeared in the academic program of the University of Copenhagen in 1825, which R. Thorlacius, professor of eloquence, adorned with this monument of sacred antiquity. The second is that which David Hoeschel in the year 1594, at Augsburg, and Fed. Morellus in the year 1618, at Paris, published, and which we have already [published] above. The third, fourth, and fifth now appear for the first time from the Paris manuscript codices, in Gennadius’s own autograph.

OF GENNADIUS THE PATRIARCH ON DIVINE PROVIDENCE AND PREDESTINATION, DISCOURSE I.

^A For, as they say, from the greatness and beauty of created things, the Creator is observed commensurately; so from the most manifest works of providence, the providence itself that orders these things is known. But that, while it is so manifest, we nevertheless lack the ability to grasp the divine intention regarding the ordering of human life, is of necessity due to its complexity and its all-wise depth. For who, it says, has known the mind of the Lord, or who has become his counselor? Whence it is not even possible to speak safely concerning it, unless so far as one might be illuminated by it, or follow those who have been illuminated. For this reason, having hoped to have it alone as a fellow-worker and guide even here, we say that it defines and prepares our own mind and reason toward the goal of truth.

Taking as the thesis of this discourse the knowledge and ordering of things that are and things that come to pass, which exists from eternity under the Creator of all, we first of all dismiss [the term] "fate." For although it is possible to call divine providence by that name—not as it exists in God alone before the existence of the things provided for, but also as it is sometimes applied to the things themselves, assimilating them to those eternal reasons concerning their existence and order which are in God—yet because the Stoics did not take the term in that sense originally, but used it very basely, we reject it. It is sufficient for us to use the name of "providence" and "predestination," from the holy and most unerring school.

Then, since some believe that this providence does not exist at all, but that all things are and come to pass at random and as it happens, and others conceive of it in various ways, we, believing it a work of long study to distinguish and refute the opinions of the latter—and having no such intention regarding anything at the present time—and being minded to assist the former, who are overtaken by the foulest storm, since it is an indisputable fact that if anything else exists—that such divine providence exists in all things and over all things, we shall set forth ^B the heads of the most true arguments concerning it, it being a subject of many parts, from which those who are not incurably ill might be sufficiently persuaded, at the very least, that it does undeniably exist. For this reason, we choose to speak of a most profound subject in a way that is easily grasped by the many.

We posit, as a foundation for the discourse, that the will to manifest itself—that is, divine providence—was of most kindly philanthropy, toward the greater perfection of human longing, and so that they might not, against their will, be impious regarding the greatest matters, and at the same time, because in manifesting itself, it is in harmony with its being, if anywhere else it agrees.

God is indeed the cause of all things that are and that come to pass; yet not in the same way. For He alone, being Lord, produces the things that are called "beings," both the separate substances, and the heaven, and all the bodies within it, and the so-called elements. But of the things that come to pass, the beings themselves also become causes; for God did not only make the natures of beings to be, but also granted them to become causes of other things, inserting into them a certain trace of divinity, so that by this it might differ from the things that come to pass; and regarding the things in generation and decay, He deemed it most wise not only ^C to rule over and oversee their generation and substance immediately, but also to bring them about through other things serving as ministers, because in them there is much that is faulty, and [because] they must be; for their forms are submerged in matter. For this reason, they are also corruptible, and they do many things in the things below them. For living creatures come from living creatures, and plants from plants, but they produce them in a manner of like-kind; to produce by immediate [cause]—and most of all perhaps they would be causes—is less so than not [to produce] from themselves, but by the power of other things...

^A receiving from God their causal potency toward these ultimate things, so that for each of the things that come to be, there are causes concurrently with a certain order. For the cause of a living thing is the living thing in its own species; of a horse, the horse; of a lion, that which is of like kind; and likewise of a fish, and of a bird, and of a plant; but its causes are the elements; and causes too are the moon and the other stars, and especially the sun, and the heaven above these, for each of which there is a more causal thing—that which is synonymous, or more simply, that which is more common. And that it is of several things, and for the ultimate producer itself, it is the cause of coming to be and of existing and of producing.

The most common and ultimate cause is God. For He is the productive principle of all secondary things, and of all their power and energy, and by His own power they produce all those things—not by being given the power to produce only once, but by that same power being given to them continuously, there being one divine will concerning them from whence they existed, and from thence, extending into the ages, acting. And God willing the same things for them always, and they being ever in the same things. For it was not by nature that He made these things, but by will; for which cause they are superior to old age and decay, and to the weakness that comes from time in producing—whether they are living beings, or bodies only, or moved by separate substances—each provides the service to the universe that is assigned to them from the Maker and Master. And of the things that produce ultimately—I mean those that are in generation—each, being weak in producing, eventually loses the power of producing, and of existing.

To the entire species of these, however, God gives such power enduring through succession, with the higher creatures serving the divine will in the fulfillment of this power. And of those whose generation is not from individuals, but from the matter of the elements, the species of these does not fail, either; according to succession, the power in the matter is arranged by God through the action of the higher productive causes in due season for their production. If, therefore, the things that exist are called productive of the things that come to be by reason of their causal genus, their causality is nonetheless instrumental. For the productive power of each of them, when compared to that of a higher being, is instrumental toward it. And the powers of all things are together much more instrumental toward ^B the power of the First Producer. For each of them does of itself not produce the power of what is lower, but makes use only of that which has been made by God. God, however, creates also the powers of all things, together with their substances. And a craftsman among men might construct the instrument of a certain craft, and then use it, or use one he has taken from elsewhere; but he could never, without an instrument, accomplish any of the things proper to the craft. But God, being able to produce without an instrument, and producing, there are things which He produces even by instruments, due to the abundance of wisdom and goodness, namely, the things that are in the generated. In this way, all things that exist, having become His handiwork, partake of His likeness in some manner; for the work must resemble the craftsman, and they partake of Him according to the nature of the species—some in more, some in fewer [ways], or whether there exist lesser perfections, from the unutterable fountain of perfections. And He is like in some way to that which produces, for He gave to those to which He gave [this power] the ability to be productive of more, or of fewer, according to their order in the universe. But all things together, descending from the higher to the ultimate, are slaves alike, and there is nothing of divinity in them, unless it befit the handiwork and servants of the best Creator and Master.

In this way, He alone is the productive cause, if we wish to speak strictly; the rest serve as instruments. We use the name of "first cause" for Him, and "second causes" [for others], in a loose sense based on order. For the latter befits things that are coordinated and collateral. But He is infinitely and beyond measure removed from all things in energy and power and nature. For this reason, He alone is God and truly what we conceive by this name, and He is the end of all things and the Good, and that which all things desire.

By this same goodness and power, even as He has made them out of nothing, He indeed provides for them according to the natures of each; and He wills for each nature the good, which He Himself once willed to be the good and end for each, being good, and loving what He made. And He is the all-wise One who assigns each to its proper end, as they could not be assigned otherwise; and He fulfills such an order, being able to do all things. For at once He provides for all these generated things, not only ^D for the preservation of them in the species according to succession, until the generation of humans be complete, toward which they are ordained, but also for the temporary preservation of the individuals in each species. For the providence of the unceasing motion of this universe, and of its parts from which they, through this motion, are in some way produced and live, and the providence of their generation and life, is distributed among all things impartially by an excess of knowledge and power, inasmuch as the super-good will runs its own course untiringly from the higher to the ultimate every moment of time, which is that all things are shared in simultaneously according to the strength given to each from It for partaking, along with the harmony of all things in the universe. A more particular

providence ^A regarding the lives of those things which are immediately ordered to It and are able to partake of It directly—such as the individuals of the rational nature—is also exercised. And for this reason, where it is said in the sacred scriptures that not even a sparrow falls into a snare apart from the divine will, it is also said that God takes no care for oxen; both are perfectly true. For just as a sparrow is caught according to the divine will, so too are oxen fed ^B by men and slaughtered. And in the same way that God does not take care for oxen, neither does He take care for sparrows. For He takes care for them in order that they may enjoy being, insofar as is fitting for them, and as it pleased Him to proclaim—both those who preach and those who are silent about the Creator—and for those who, through the abundance of reason and from these things, are able to philosophize and progress to the love and wonder of His all-wise power and goodness, being brought to perfection; and so that the particular providence concerning human life, for the sake of which most things are and come to be, and for the use of which they are ^C appointed to serve and minister, may not be hindered. And furthermore, He takes care for them so that the human sympathy appearing even in other things may be seen, which man must provide for as long as it lives and serves his needs.

Such is the care God has for these things, and nothing beyond that, since for such things there is no end beyond the present life, nor do they desire any goal, but act only by natural impulse; and they are not even aware of what the transitory life brings to them. And it is not only ordered that these should serve man, but even among themselves the weaker serve as food for the stronger. God provides that ^D herbs should grow—for He does so through the things by which He also causes rain to fall—and it grows so that the sheep may be fed, and it becomes a remedy for the hungry wolf, and the wolf likewise for the lion. But the case of humans is not like the other generated and perishable beings; rather, man is composed from the beginning of mortal and immortal; and when he is eventually released from the mortal, he lives by the immortal alone. And if he ever takes up the mortal [again], he has already been altered, so that his life with it is no different regarding that intellectual happiness from the life by the immortal alone, except that he will enjoy it perfectly. For it is composed according to it, but by accident it is dissolved—which ought not to be perpetual. For we deem these things to be from the trustworthiness of the holy scriptures, in which there is also sufficient reasonableness. For this reason, God creates human bodies—just as He also [creates] those of other animals and everything that lives among generated things—from seed and higher formative principles, or to speak the same thing, by the way of nature by which some things are made and others come to be; but He creates each body immediately, just as He previously made the separated substances. For this is what [it means] for Him to fashion it according only to the hearts of men, and what was said more specifically about His working for men even up to the present—not only are all things created anew, but they are fashioned daily from wickedness toward virtue, as many as make themselves ready.

But while He brings those [substances] forth all at once, in each human body He creates a new soul, so that it might not be that, being introduced from without, it contains many absurdities and impossibilities, nor that, being present with the seed and born by succession, it follows as something worse. And as for the fact that the life in such a body of man is now different from the will of God concerning him from the beginning, and [that the soul] treats the life in him as a kind of punishment—that it has been dragged down by base and irrational desire; and that the one who has lived earnestly and has been purified as much as possible, willingly rises up immediately, having departed, to the place prepared for it in the heavens—such matters as these are accepted and need no further elaboration. And [we grant] that the end of man, the participation in the ultimate Good, consists in perceiving God, who is the first Truth and the ultimate Good, obscurely and according to a Form.

But concerning how God provides for him, since he is created in such a way and from such things, we say only this: He provides through him, to speak simply, in a manner surpassing all things that exist and come to be—not that He cares more for his [man's] good than for the good proper to each of the others, but that the good of man is greater than that of other things, and is achievable through much human effort and the greater inclination from God, on account of the difficulties inherent in human life. Hence, if more [people] fail through self-willed wickedness, they are justly not deemed worthy of divine cooperation.

For He does not provide for other generated things in the way that they should always be, but for man [He provides] that he should be, and that he should be better; but for the heaven and other bodies, [He provides] not that they should be better, but only that they should always be, and never cease to be such and to act as they do. For neither of those possesses reason and the power of choice that accompanies man; but they are always moved toward their own best state, being what they are, by the direct divine will or by the contact of the power of certain separated substances, neither knowing nor choosing. And if they are ever moved—not according to nature, but by movements and actions—even this will be, at some time, for the sake of the improvement of human beings. But they are moved only so long as they themselves are not absolutely chosen. Man, however, using his power of choice and living with many occasions in his life, [is occupied] both with always choosing the things that lead to the good, and with being associated with the things that lead him away, because he does not live by mind and intellect alone, but also with imaginations and senses, and such appetites as arise from the composite body. And those things that are for their good—that is the partial [good]—press upon the consent of human reason, unless it is very strong, so as to strangle them rather than be released by them. Such being the case, he [man] would never reach his own proper end without receiving a most particular providence from God, [even if] he were never to overcome all the difficulties, always choosing the goods, living according to the reason and law from God, and looking down upon all the partial and transitory goods (except insofar as it is necessary to use them as vehicles and instruments), but pressing on toward the truly Good, and, being thus purified and released from justice, ^C every day becoming worthy to reach his own end.

^A And the wickedness of men would not reasonably appear to prevail over them, apart from a divine purpose. For if an arrow had a mind, so that it might come of its own accord to the target or be diverted somewhere and miss, and [the archer] were such as to make it what he wished and was able; if he himself, being both its maker and the archer, his good providence would be evident in this: that while having set the target and [having something] akin to the power of the arrow, he might let it go toward the target well and quietly, and provide some push along with it, if he wished, and lead it himself; yet if it were diverted somewhere along the way, and not following the one who is skillfully letting it fly and pushing it along, or even [if he were] paving the way, it did not reach the target, but fell instead somewhere by what is placed there—this would not be ^B a weakness of the providence over it, or a willing of evil.

Thus, indeed, God provides for every man, so that, having become as excellent as possible, and having sought out the Truth with the mind—the end which is kin to it—and the Good with the will, by this twofold path he may be worthily led up to the place of blessedness. And indeed as many as possible are led up, but He forces no one, so that one might not receive, even if he did not wish, the good that lies before him from God. For this would have been impossible for the reasons stated. And reasonably, the twofold place has been prepared for men. For if they had to live eternally after being released from the body, those who had not lived in the same way here, nor desired the same things throughout life, should not have to live there in the same way. Nor was it just for those who had stood at the greatest distance in their choice of life here to be together, but for those who had been purified and had philosophized to reach the place befitting such ones, while those who had been filled with sensory appetites and had ignored the need for life here would not attain to that place. For “no one impure shall enter through that gate,” as the holy word said, but [it is for those] to be contained in a place full of darkness and misery.

^C It is well said, therefore, that the divine takes thought for man more than for all other things, and that the all-wise and manifold heavenly care appears also in human nature, and together with this, it is most benevolent. But having separated them, we must inspect the guardianship over man by way of an outline and in a general sense. Now, God takes very careful thought for the soul of man, as has been said, that it may choose the most appropriate and beneficial life here and, as much as possible, having accomplished and lived according to the reason and law of the fate that has been set for it, and for the sake of which such a thing has come to be. What else is it but an image of God on earth, as the divine oracles declare, and to which the works themselves testify? And He provides not only for the entire nature from the beginning until now, always ordering the human reason with laws and examples of the best life, which He sent down to the human race, but He also provides for each soul more particularly, so that it might be adapted to the goods given to it by nature. But if many depart from the divine teachings, or do not even wish to seek them at the beginning, and for this reason walk blindly here in mind and with distorted wills, thinking and living what we call a bestial life, and when they are released from the body, they are not deemed worthy of the end set by nature, but are dragged down into the place of misery, which is appropriate to their life—at this one should not marvel.

For this is not against the divine purpose—the possibility of such existences; for not to allow this would not have been possible as long as there be men by nature. But the choice is of things in men, the best, and the one peculiar to the reason within them, and by which they are made like unto the divine life. Therefore, it would have been of no benefit to them to be forced toward the good, nor would it have been possible as long as men could use their power of choice; nor if they were not led toward the good, or were led away from it by being forced, but by choosing and having it—it is a marvelous thing that while some have chosen the better, others [have chosen] the worse.

^D Of these two places and modes of life, one is what is prepared for man according to nature, and is given to those who have lived according to nature; the other is the missing of the proper end for those who did not desire it nor take care to attain it. And the one, the goodness of God prepares, with His justice also being taken into account; for it is good, and it, too, is justice; nor does the divine justice contradict goodness, for it, too, wills what is just. And most clearly He provides also for the bodily life of man, not here for the sake of life itself alone, but so that the soul may not be hindered by it in relation to the end, and might be guided.

That He provides, therefore, for all that God has made and does, and differently according to the order of each one’s essence, and that the end of such providence for man is his attaining what is best for him, whether simply or according to nature, although the final end of them simply is what is best, even if not as an object of enjoyment, but because they too in a certain way strive for it, in that they fulfill the divine will within them, even without knowing, and what they would have fulfilled even if they had known...

let this be said by way of a note. For our discourse on man is the primary one, and the rest is ^A subordinate to it in the providences of God regarding him, and thus it is necessarily bound up in the discourse as well, not only so that what pertains to all beings may also be adapted to man, but also because, having been demonstrated by the form of the supreme heavenly providence over him, even if by lesser but still sufficient means, it might become a way to the discovery of the truth regarding the matter most at hand.

From these things that have been said, it is also clear that the end has been ordained for men, and the things that lead to that end; for otherwise such providence regarding them would not even exist. For concerning the separated substances, such a thing would not really be sought; for these are not on the way, but at the end, and if they were never in the end, what would be sought regarding them—let this be left for now to consider. And concerning the parts of this whole, which have continuously been brought into existence, it is clear that the end has been ordained for them, and they move toward it even unwillingly, as if coming to it by nature, whether it be the end of their motion or the end of their activity in the lower things that exist in generation and decay; and they never miss the end in a general sense, nor do they even miss it—if it were not possible for God, who moves them toward the end by His omnipotent will, through which even things that were not once came into existence, to cause them to miss it.

Even the things in generation and decay do sometimes miss the immediate end, in which miscarriages and deformities sometimes occur, because their forms are immersed in matter, and because of the lack of some immediate principle, or the interweaving of higher causes; and these could be called in a certain way miscarriages of the higher causes. But as for ^B why this animal is miscarried or deformed rather than that one, or turns out to be monstrous, there could be no reason for which this would be decreed by the divine. Yet that it is allowed for such things to happen sometimes in the works of nature, this is indeed decreed, for otherwise it would never have been possible for any of them to happen in this way. And it resembles in a way those who sin by choice, as do those things which fare ill because of matter, except that this happens to them involuntarily and to a very small degree.

For those who have lived contrary to nature, there is ordained for all in common, or rather the loss of eternal life, existing indeed eternally even for them, but living in deep darkness and misery, the nature of which the divine oracles relate. These things have been ordained for each of the two groups not by the same will of God, but the supreme end for the good is intended primarily, and this is what it means "to will by willing." And it has been said in the oracles, with God speaking, that He does not will to will the death of the sinner, as He wills to will that he live eternally through repentance. But for the wicked, the loss of the end is ordained subsequently, which is misery; for He also wills the punishment of wickedness, as the divine justice is thus to be fulfilled. And as it follows for those who shun the path leading to the good that they shall not [B (cont)] attain it, and for those who have not wished to travel it, that they do not attain it; whence, because those who are being saved have been ordained unto life according to the primary good will of God, for this reason we say that those who are worthy of that salvation have been specifically ordained and decreed; but those who are to be punished have not been ordained strictly unto eternal punishments, but rather have been rejected from the life offered to men by the good Father. But now let the term "ordained" be used for all.

If, then, among all ^C existing and becoming things, men alone are travelers in this life, appointed to look toward eternal happiness, and if the virtuous wish, moreover, to look into such things precisely, and this is our discourse regarding ourselves, then for all men the end of this life is commonly ordained by nature, for some animals according to nature—not to put it worse—this is the end according to nature; for it is the immediate knowledge of God and of divine things, and the intellectual pleasure therein. For man, when he is released from this attachment, being contemplative of the universals and a recognizer of truth, having his eye open and clear by the effort from thence, this would be what constitutes his happiness and his end, the attainment of universal truth.

In common, then, these two ends have been ordained for all men, and we say that those which are as if from afar and ordained even before the existence of the cosmos have been foreordained for men, and those who come into these ends have also been foreordained for them. And the end having been ordained for men, the things that lead to it must also have been ordained somewhere; and it is clear that such things have been ordained for all men in common. For all things which the natural law teaches, and those in Scripture, and the evangelical law of grace, and the laws of the holy saints of God, and all philosophy concerning morals, are about these things which lead to happiness, and the opposite, and the former are called virtues and the latter vices, having an order just like the parts of the man, in which they are and in which they come to be; for instance, temperance is a virtue of the faculty of desire, and courage of the spirited faculty, and there is one virtue of the intellect, another of the tongue, and another of action. And one begets another, and another arises from this. And one makes a way, another purifies, another perfects and elevates, through which, if a man is properly led, it is not possible not to reach the end of happiness. But for those opposed to these, the path of wickedness leads to misery one who has chosen to go through them. And just as it ^D is impossible for wheat not to come to be by some path by nature, and for the fruit of this tree or of all things that are sought toward these with order to follow, not also for these to follow immediately, because each is ordained toward the other, whence He says, "By their fruits ye shall know them," so it is necessary in human life according to choice for virtue to follow virtue, and vice in turn vice, until through such an entanglement each becomes appropriate, either to…

partake of God or to depart from Him, whichever one might pursue. ^A

But if one must speak the truth, vice is not a thing, but merely a privation of virtue; nor is there anything definite in the path of vice, but rather everything is indefinite and confused. But if anything is defined even in these things, it is from the opposition to the good and for the sake of the good. For because the goods and the dispositions are defined, and follow one another in orderly fashion, their privations also follow one another. Nor truly do those who fashion their own life according to these privations live, but they exist in a phantom of life. Likewise, the misery that follows them is worse than all death—to those for whom, according to the proverb, it would have been more advantageous not even to be born, had it been possible for them to learn before they came into being what sort of things they would choose and what would come to pass. In common, then, the human race has received from God such preparation and guidance toward the good, and continues to receive it. For if fathers and rulers of nations care greatly that their children or subjects live in a manner appropriate to the prosperity hoped for from them, and for this reason define that prosperity for them, and teach them what they ought to do, and how, by regulating their own lives, they might one day become worthy of it, much more did God have to define happiness for His children and the things that lead to it, so that, knowing everything, they might be able to hasten toward it. ^B

The care of God for each individual is much greater and contains more wondrous things than the goods commonly assigned to all. For as befits a father and a kind ruler, He contributes some things and corrects others, nor does He merely show the end, the path, and the resting places, leaving them to use them by themselves, but He gives to some one type of help and to others another, appropriate to their struggles and their nature; and He bears with those who are negligent, and is not angry with those who grumble, so long as He sees them trying to recover themselves from their faint-hearted despondency and, with better hope, to add to the path. But even if they should turn back from the middle of the road, if they then enter back with cries and tears of repentance, and for those beginning to entreat Him, He gently reveals the path again, forgetting their past malice; and for some, through the abundance of bodily and external goods, and for others through their lack, He accomplishes the same disposition toward the good. And for those who are zealous for perseverance in the good, while yet choosing to desire it—which is accustomed to happen to many for many reasons, whether it grants leisure from those things that resist, or it takes up and strengthens their choice to overcome the things that assail them—He works. Many schemes ^C arise for humans—both from men and from evil demons—against the choice of the good and against performing it, which it is difficult to resist without God. But for those who have a resolved will, He permits trials to come, so that by resisting manfully and overcoming with the impulse from Him, they may justly be deemed worthy of the happiness there, and stand as an example of endurance for the future in human life. He delivers them from unexpected dangers, and bestows goods not even hoped for, and those who seek only the divine will in a continuous manner, fasten all their own affairs to divine love.

There are times when, even foreseeing that some are worthy of these things through prayer, He delivers others, being able and willing to do many things even contrary to the order of those who act in particular ways; all of which, being beyond speech and number, we find recorded in the older life of men, and those who pay attention see them being accomplished daily. ^D

Of these things which are managed for each person, one end from God is the fulfillment of divine goodness and justice, in so far as each is evidently either predestined to life or is among those who have been rejected; while we, for the most part, are ignorant in the moment of the order of things being managed toward the final end, but God prepares everything for the fulfillment of His eternal counsel. For there is not one of such things that was not known to God from afar, and before the foundation of the world, as about to turn out in such a way. Nor does He merely know them, nor [does He only know] how they happen or are perfected, or are not perfected, but He ordains them as about to come to pass in this way. Nor does He do only this, but He also completes such an order of them, both directly and with instruments, as has been said. Nor was it reasonable for Him to make any small account of human discourse, for the sake of which almost all other things exist, so that the sensible world is not even equivalent to a single human soul; just as, indeed, neither are all things that exist for its sake, nor is that whose improvement is believed and known to be accomplished by many economies and by one the greatest of all. Nor does any economy fail the improvement of each soul, or the life of the combined whole; nor is it necessary to fear that the Divine grows weary in such philanthropies, whether by reasoning through Himself or by fulfilling them through others; nor was it possible for these things to have been turned over to the movement of the higher bodies, as they were not able to look to the human mind and will and the life according to them, except perhaps by accident.

Most of the discourse concerning providence, however, being put forward and not even capturable by mind and word, we shall conclude in this summary the discourse concerning all things as much as possible—what those who are pious ought to think concerning providence toward humans—partly repeating, and partly adding to it. One might say that the end of human birth and life has been prepared by God for them in a twofold manner, since it was necessary that those who choose should live not by necessity of nature. And it is a necessity for anyone to arrive at one or the other, but one arrives at that which one has prepared for one's own life. Approaching, however, one is nonetheless led; for the choice of each person and the cooperation from God run together toward human life, because both the will in us and the willing and the acting are from God, from whom also is our being. Just as in those who live poorly, both their choice and the grace of God run together. And not only toward...

the ultimate end does someone arrive and is led, but the entire life for each is ordered in this way. ^A For just as certain boundaries of the movement toward the ultimate end are the actions in this life, set in order toward one another toward the ultimate end, so also toward these boundaries a human being is both moved and led, with grace everywhere cooperating or withdrawing—which, when it cooperates with the good, even if it be difficult, attaches itself, but when it withdraws, it deserts to the evil much more easily. But one is not compelled toward the good or the worse by the being present or the being left behind of divine grace; for those things are accomplished invisibly, but the entire impulse of the soul toward the good or the worse comes from itself. And not only by the fact that divine grace does not appear as being present or absent effectively in the choosing itself, but also by the fact that it brings no force to bear on the power of choice, there is no necessity therefrom toward doing what one would not at all wish.

There are times when the Divine seems even to force along, ^B as if inclining softening or hardening hearts wherever It wishes, according to the scripture; yet it is added to the firm judgment of the soul, or it escapes the many, but does not escape the most wise knowledge. And many things, as was said before, It arranges through lower causes, many It oversees through good angels, and many It sees directly into the souls of men, and without force It disposes the lives of each. And It provides many things toward a more general benefit, now appearing more sharply to those who are baser and whose amendment It has despaired of, in order to heal those who are similar through fear; now calling them to the acknowledgment of the good through some production of wonders, in order to show the abundance of wisdom and power; for to some it seems to the many that they are very base, but there is in them a certain merit, hidden from the many, but recognized by the Spirit who searches all things, having been called to the most divine ministries and having succeeded. ^C In these matters are also the arrivals of unexpected afflictions, and countless forms of deaths, and the so-called good fortunes and misfortunes, when—to those who are thought to have deliberated worse—something pleasant or the opposite follows contrary to expectation, as if being helped or harmed by some external causes; in which there is much that is paradoxical on account of the ignorance of the reasons laid up in divine providence, but those who well and piously oversee the things being accomplished would not ignore all the things for the sake of which it happens, as the divine light comforts their pious thirst.

But whether the ends be known or unknown, this one thing is also very certain, that all things are ministered fittingly and according to reason by the Divine toward each goal, and by that providence from afar which disposes about it, and through all things the man—both the things done by him and the things that happen to him in any way whatsoever, from the beginning to the end of this life, toward whatever result he once chose—is himself disposed together ^D by divine providence, which turns all things in its own economies, so that he may obtain the things that progress by the whole choice of life. And for this reason all things according to the present life of men have been foreordained and pre-ordered by God. For He knows the ways of men, and their paths and lines He tracks, according to the scripture, even before they come to be and move. And not only their works, or the inner counsels concerning actions, but also the first composition of the thought, before it is worked out and formed, He sees with eyes that see all things, when those things not yet having come to be are in themselves in Him in the way befitting Him. And He knows much better even that He Himself will cooperate, before one is cooperated with and exists, and [will] abandon before one willingly suffers this, and [will] move him together toward blessedness, or by not moving [him] together because some one does not wish to be moved together, and [will] approve together or disapprove together, and will dispose the whole human conduct and life as it might be profitable to all the accounts of the providence concerning all things, and clearly of each of the men, and those with whom he lives, and of the life of all men, and of this whole [universe], and as the goodness of the One who arranges and the justice might be marvelously fulfilled. For being incomprehensible, with one decree concerning one, He accomplishes so many things concerning all.

All these things, however, having firmly foreknown, He also arranges according to the foreknowledge of them, and fulfills [them]. He does not, however, remove from such foreknowledge or arrangement or the outcome of the things being disposed, the property of the man concerning the actions, which is to be willing and choosing to do whatever he might do, but in all those things she [the choice] remains firm. And that the whole argument may be clear to us from one example: God knew as a possibility for Zacharias's John, either by flattering Herod to be benefited for the moment, but eternally punished for ignoring the law of God being trampled, and for seeing the ones trampling it as useless, or by rebuking him to die for it, but to be crowned eternally, because he chose to die in order that he might satisfy the law of God owed to all. He will choose the latter; and He knew this eternally with the wealth of knowledge pertaining to the infinite Creator. Likewise, He knew from that point that Herod also, since the possibility existed for him, either by revering the divine law and the one rebuking it, John, to abstain from the defilement, and to give thanks to the one who led him away, or by being indignant and gratifying those who are indignant with him, to seek how he might avenge himself on him, in order that he might be able to act lawlessly without being exposed, and at some time avenge himself, he will choose the latter, which will be for him the many-sided cause of eternal punishment. And when the time stood present, and John had come to be and the other things had been brought together as they were foreknown to happen, [it was time] to deliberate which [course] he will run; for not without deliberation are such things chosen by the earnest, where immediately to someone there meets the dying with virtue and glory, and with a better hope, from here...

^A For God did not at that time compel John to choose this or that; He merely cooperated towards the willing of the good by the grace residing in him—which grace also was caused to reside in him, and He Himself was responsible for providing him such [merit]. Likewise, He did not compel Herod to choose this or that concerning John and himself, when the same moment had arrived for him to deliberate which things were to be chosen by him. Therefore, neither did God compel them to choose this specifically, nor were they compelled by God to do so, but it lay within the deliberate choice of each which thing would appear to them more choiceworthy, and it was possible for either to be chosen equally by them, so far as the freedom of the mind and the nature of the matter were concerned.

Because among those things occurring by deliberate choice there exists contingency, John chooses the better, while Herod chooses the worse. And John chose, and wherever it was compared, it was better to have been chosen thus; but what was chosen by Herod, both for himself and for all, turned out to be worse. And thus it was intertwined, so that if Herod had not then chosen and done the worse things, John himself would not have attained the better in this situation; and if John had not done the better, Herod would not have fulfilled the worse. Yet, John was not good because of Herod, unless by his own choice; nor was Herod base because of John, unless by himself. He would have been good even because of him, if he had chosen this instead. And since each held to what pleased him and to his habit, according to him who said, "No longer do I work the evil, but the sin dwelling in me," and just as the grace is in the one possessing the good, while I am responsible for the sin—and similarly he is responsible for the grace, having provided himself worthy to receive it—then truly all things converged and worked together for the one to be crowned worthily for what he chose, and for the other to undergo here and hereafter the just penalties for lust, lawlessness, and murder. ^B

He knew not only the upbringing [of each], but He also disposed it appropriately, first in the divine foreordination, and later in the very deed. He disposed it, for the one by adding grace, and for the other by the grace being removed, because the light of grace cannot dwell with the darkness of involuntary wickedness, nor should those who have chosen rather to be blinded be illuminated against their will. And grace did not cause John not to consider the fearsome thing to be fearsome, or to take pleasure simply in death. But it caused him to fear more the one who is more fearsome than he who only has the power to kill the body but not to touch the soul, as the Scripture advises, and because of this, to choose courageously his end, or even with more intense love for the Divine, to lay down his soul for the beloved doctrines. But although he was assisted by grace so as to judge correctly what was to be chosen, he nevertheless received the better with his whole deliberate choice, and the noble action was entirely of his own mind. Yet nothing the less, the whole was also of grace, where it comes upon it, without which we can do nothing whatsoever. Wherefore it is said that grace goes before because of the incapacity of the creature of itself, and it follows when the deliberate choice leads, because it does not compel, as is the case with light and the one having it or wishing to see by it.

And John still prayed not to be abandoned, but to be guided towards the choice of the better, and God hearkened to John himself and the deed then immediately, but to Himself, from when He foreknew John to be worthy of being heard. And John did not pray in vain. Herod, however, deliberated and acted on things for which he had to be abandoned. Therefore, his own wickedness suffered its own fate, and that too did not occur in vain.

From all these things thus divided by a template and by a single example out of many that is well applied, ^C it is clear that human volitions and choices, and the things said to be in our power, and as many as are done by us contingently, are all subordinate to the divine providence, which is the foreknowledge of the beneficial, in an immutable order of things resulting from this, but these things having been foreknown as they will be, by the cause of all, and having been foreordained. For things known are foreknown, and those known are surely also foreordained; and being foreordained thus, they come to pass thus, since they were to be thus and were so foreordained. For it was not possible for God to be ignorant of the future, or to wait to see how something might turn out in order that He might know; nor, the sequence of each of the things occurring being known, was it necessary for the divine knowledge to be mistaken, otherwise than as it was foreknown, in such a sequence of some things coming to pass.

For the things that were contingent were likewise possibly the opposites before one of them chose one of the two, for both were equally in their power; but since each did one or the other, what had happened was necessary, not by its own nature, but by having already been accomplished, and it being impossible that it not be accomplished, as it was possible before it happened not to happen. For them, therefore, things were thus, and are judged by us as thus, but to the divine knowledge these were presented as having happened, even before they happened. And He knew that they would choose these things contingently, which they would choose, and not by any necessity the things that were in their power. But that each would choose this and not that, He knew definitely, and as He foreknew the future to be in so many years, so He knew the contingently future thing necessarily. ^D For divine knowledge encompasses the whole of human choice and action, as it exists in itself regarding anything. But at the same time it is borne towards the ultimate end, which is in both contingent things and necessary things alike; or rather, to Him all things are present in such a way that it is infinite and most universal. But they are not foreordained in themselves, for they do not always exist, but in God alone are they foreordained; and men do not have to know the divine foreordination concerning any of the things that are in their power, so that they may follow Him even against their will. Although the wise are not ignorant that all things must needs be determined, neither from there [is it]

^A that they take [the notion of] necessity, although they do not contemplate with complete precision the meaning of the word; yet they think very accurately, that the divine predestination does not force the power of self-determination, so that it would no longer exist. Thus, they too harmonize with the multitude of other divinely-inspired men and with the canon of truth.

When all these [points] are thus established, it is clear that nothing of what is acknowledged is abolished; for that which exists of necessity remains, and that which is contingent remains in the causes and in what comes to pass from them, and the accidental remains in the [actual] events. For all things are contained in the order of divine providence, as has been said, and this order comprehends all things well, while at the same time preserving for each thing its own [nature]. But further, the usefulness of prayers is not cast out in this way, not only because they themselves are under that order, as was shown in the example of John; but because God is accustomed to doing many things beyond the order of the lower causes, while managing human life, which neither alters nor transcends the entire disposition of His providence and the order that embraces all things. Nothing, therefore, prevents Him from doing such things and granting them to the petitions of the pious, for He is said to do the will of them that fear Him, and to listen to their prayer, and He is continually exhorting us to ask. For He is acknowledged to be set free from every necessity which He Himself has placed upon His works, and for this reason, He changes every necessity determined by Him for partial causes into a will ^B toward the salvation of those who flee [to Him] piously and who are persistently waiting, or [those] for whom they pray, the salvation of all of whom is the end of the providence concerning them, which is served also through the other creatures. For it makes no difference to stop the sun as it runs [due] to the prayers of the righteous, or to cause it to be eclipsed at the full moon—the more paradoxical thing—and that with no one even praying for this, so that some good might be accomplished from either side. For in either of the miracles He held the determined necessity by means of the [divine power] set free, and having roused the man who would have been murdered in his sleep by robbers, and having hidden him somewhere, He delivered him from the impending calamity, so that something better concerning him, or concerning others, might be managed by the extension of his life. But also by prayer He delivered another from a like evil, who saw the inevitable danger approaching and fled to Him who is able to save. There are times when, besides saving them, He also changes those who had set their mind to kill; and those who would have been murdered by tyrants, those who were defending the faith unto death, He preserved, and they did not even need to ask: [some] being drowned were not suffocated, and being burned were not consumed, and with wild beasts set upon them they were not harmed in the least, and they were honored as the wild beasts would have honored [such people], and being poisoned they did not die. But [those] who had asked, having displayed boldness and many contests, He led out of life in peace, and without any natural cause of those things that bring about such ends in men. ^{C D}

^A For in all these cases, the determined effect which is in the creatures, being also created, is transformed by a greater, eternal necessity. For the necessity in created things exists because God so willed it, and willed that each thing should be the best for its own nature, and for others, as much as they require for their existence. But that which is absolutely best, being situated in the will of God, is itself fixed there always and at each moment—both by the fact that God would never will anything contrary to the determined order in creation, which would not be strictly the best, under which the good in them is arranged; and by the fact that He, having foreknown [the outcome] determinately, [acts] because He will do so. But regarding the necessity established in the creatures and the servants [of God], this is indeterminate and is released; nor is it intertwined with the sequence of existing things, but depends on the simplest and freest will of God, for which there is no law, nor necessity, except itself. For it can never act unless it be for the best, either determinately or in a released manner. And just as He made the things that are in the world when they did not previously exist, not at all by introducing the necessity determined by Him in the creatures—for it did not yet exist—so also He transforms things that are, whenever He wills, by a most comprehensive and best arrangement of providence, and one which achieves a greater or more common good without destroying the other things.

These things harmonize well with those stated from the beginning, among which is the fact that God has not made the things that are because it was their nature, but because He willed it. ^B If, then, the active power of prayers is not abolished regarding the principal matters of human life, much more so is it in dispositions, and materials, and ways, and places, and whatever else simply accompanies human actions or passions. For neither do fixed things follow for men from these, nor are all things intertwined with all others in a single way. But it is possible for things contrary to be moved by the same [actions of] human choices, and not only of more men, but even of the same men at different times; and just as it is possible to be led from opposites or different things to choose the same things. And they are included in the divine arrangement; yet not all things are always fulfilled by a most particular fulfillment of divine grace, just as the ends of them are, but they are present before the eyes of God only as things preceding or following them, and as each man’s own life is being prepared through them. But concerning the order of particular causes, they are for the most part left to human will.

In these things, therefore, and most especially, God, by hearing prayers, often transforms the arrangement of such particular things for the benefit [of those who pray], by way of accompanying human weaknesses, while at times He also brings to Himself the wills of men that are moved from within. And we supplicate concerning both of these, [as] men; nor was it possible for the All-Good One, for those asking for what is advantageous for the present life (which they appear to be striving for as a priority) not to remove the external obstacles, and [not to improve] the souls ^C of those who are seeking [it], having displayed this as an indication of the good providence towards us—that they might obtain, with the promise of living blamelessly and god-pleasingly, having prayed for it, that which He desires to give to them once they have been bettered, whether this be an addition of life, or a release from slavery, or anything whatever. For there is no one to whom God does not provide opportunities for purification, to one man another, knowing who will not seize them, but bestowing that which is fitting to His goodness upon every creature. The same [is true] regarding the rest, for His justice cares both for those who are being bettered and for those who remain unrepentant. The sacred histories are full of such things; and even the polytheists relate many such things, although they are led astray concerning their causes and the ways of them, by blaming both a certain divinity and providence and necessity for such things, and by distributing the divinity not piously to the works of the only God, being deceived regarding their causal nature, and by saying that providence is either not of all things or not correctly, and by establishing necessity where it ought not be, with no necessity of arguments, and—which is greater—neither being consistent with themselves, nor acknowledging it to one another.

In all these things that are recounted regarding divine philanthropy, with the fact that these things are true, and that we, having used a most correct reasoning, ought to pray for what is necessary to the Creator, the predestined and immutable [order] of divine providence is also preserved. ^D For neither because the sun once or twice stood still by the authority of the Maker has the arrangement of universal providence regarding it been changed, nor was this outside of those things predestined concerning the sun. And as for Hezekiah, he was receiving an addition of life from the repentance concerning his life and pious refuge to the Cause of life, God having so arranged it, and having [so] defined it—at that time, it was acknowledged, his life [was to end], and He threatened, if he did not repent. But the divine predestination regarding each man’s life and death was not altered from that source, in which is contained also the [power of] being able to dispose these things for the benefit [of the person] by the Lord of death and life. Nor was this outside of the things predestined concerning Hezekiah, and this was the [very thing that was] prayed for, to receive this addition with the bettering of one’s life; and whatever the limit of the universal divine providence regarding Hezekiah was, this was impossible to be transformed. So even if twice…

if such a period were added to him again, that would be for him the final limit of life, and it would indeed have been added; but it would not have been added. And if Hezekiah, in his choosing, were to repent, it was possible for him also not to wish to repent. But God knew definitely that he would repent and would not die immediately at that time; and if he had died immediately while not repenting, it would not have come about as thus predestined, but it would have been that it was destined to happen thus in God’s knowledge which encompasses all things, and that which occurs to human judgment and is predestined in divine knowledge would come about. The same argument applies to similar cases. Since, therefore, nothing is taken away from what is acknowledged by the fact that all those things are posited as most true, we give thanks to God, who has granted both to know and to speak thus, to whom glory is due from all unto the ages. Amen.

Gennadius Patriarch, Epistle to Joseph the Exarch, or, The Second Book of the Whole Work (See above, col. 539.)

On Divine Predestination, Third Book. De Divina Providentia, Liber Tertius (From the Royal Parisian Codex 1289, fol. 180v, now first edited.)

To the same, most honorable Exarch, Gennadius the Monk, Scholarius. ^B

I owe you great thanks, most holy Father and brother, that although you are sufficiently persuaded by the constitution of the passages of the great Father Basil, or rather by the common opinion of the teachers concerning the limits of life about which you were inquiring—or, to say the same thing, concerning the divine predestination—you have sent to us also the things that seem to support this opinion of ours, and having urged us on, which we having seen, we now send to you a third booklet in accordance with the time and the need; even if the former book sent to you concerning divine providence and predestination excels these second ones in virtue and power, if not in size; for in that one we set forth this whole subject, but in these, we have determined to set forth for you, most dear one, the solution to some things that seem to present difficulties. Now the most holy Archbishop of Ephesus—for it is necessary to begin from the later things as being better, and because of our respectful good-will toward him—is in agreement with the discernment of the great teachers, which we well proposed to demonstrate to you in the second ^C treatise, and which we have dutifully attested, having glorified their views as was necessary; for he says in those things which you sent to us, word for word, that if not for all men, yet for the best and most intimate ones, God predestines not only their death, but all things throughout their life; and this was established by us throughout the whole of the second treatise as the common opinion of the teachers who accurately define these things both by wisdom and grace, not only of the greatest Father Basil, that for those who are predestined to eternal life, all the things that happen throughout life and the end of life are ordered by God in accordance with such a predestination—this only would have seemed to some to have been said by the blessed man at the time, that while prudently confirming the pronouncement of the great Basil, he nevertheless says that the great one said it incidentally. But to me it is rather known that he, while dogmatically confirming the truth and agreeing with the great Basil word for word, incidentally, or rather, it were better to say, economically, deflects...

the desire of those who were then seeking for an answer to this. For after I had written this reply while I was still ranked among the Hieromonks, I read it to the great Father and to us ourselves, ^A in the presence of the Emperor John at the temple of our Lord Jesus Christ, which they called the Manifest, located very close to the monastery of the Mangana. I read it in my own presence; for having been notified from the aforementioned monastery, being notified and at the same time hearing that the Father was carrying the composition to the Emperor, even if he had not previously given it to the one who asked, I nevertheless—since the wise Emperor prayerfully joined in the approval of what he heard from us—was better satisfied. And for us, the conclusion of the answer was sufficient in both of them, agreeing with the great Basil; and there was an excuse that provided cause for fearing absolutely to dismiss the indefiniteness of those individuals, which they assert concerning human life and death, as being unable to know anything further. But that it was impossible for the great Basil to speak in such a way, as he has so clearly and in many places been shown to have spoken in such matters—even if ten thousand leaders of the Ephesians were to say otherwise—this was sufficiently shown first, and we, not out of sparing that most excellent Father, nor out of a suspicion that others had spoken such a thing ^B about the great Basil, passed over the one who spoke in silence, but we refuted the argument only. Do you not then have this holy man also, who confirms the divine predestination and agrees with the great Basil? Neither did the great light of the Church examine the argument concerning these things further in those discourses, nor did this holy prelate of Ephesus have any necessity, while answering one question, to weave together the entire argument concerning the divine predestination, as we have done first, and then twice on account of the defense of the great Basil, as far as was possible. Let it be enough for us and for you, my dearest, that he says that God predestines for the good among all children not only their end, but also the entire life. The great Basil had already said this too: “Deaths,” he says, “are brought about when the limits of life are completed, which the just judgment of God, foreseeing from afar what is beneficial for us, set around each person.” And again, elsewhere: “Do not speak of any chance occurrence of things that happen to men, as if no one were directing the world, [lest] you admit wicked dogmas to yourself, and fall from the limits of piety; for the God who fashioned and animated us gave to each soul its own conduct of life, and set different limits of departure for different ones,” and other things that he brings forward to establish the dogma, as it is set forth in the second of the compositions in these very words. Generally, however, concerning divine predestination and those who are predestined to eternal life, and those who are rejected, and the different arrangement of God concerning them, according to their own choice, both living and dying, those who are well versed in his many and great treatises know how much he philosophizes ^C having set them down, which he scatters everywhere in his argument concerning these matters. Now, one must not be concerned with this Diodorus, whoever this may be. Hence, as I have said before, the choir of all theologians has already defined these matters unanimously, accurately, and incidentally. And if we do not deem the blessed Gregory of Nyssa worthy of being weighed only against the choir of all teachers in two questions, nor even to follow those who happen to hold a private opinion, but rather honor him, being in agreement with all, we write him down in his own place; although he is so great, what kind of argument will Diodorus have for us, even if he were winged, a man who has no argument for the Church and for those who have struggled on her behalf, nor even a name—if indeed any of the monks has attended only to him and to the indefiniteness of human affairs and government, writing somewhere, or having perhaps not pored over the theologians, or not even being able to understand these things? Observe also what Diodorus says: “I will fulfill the number of your days,” he says; this means, “I will lead you to a ripe and full old age.” Therefore, God is, according to him, the one who defines the life of good men, and again just as God threatens untimely deaths to those who transgress, so He promises long life to those who obey, and He extends the life for the pious, and cuts it short for those who disobey; not adding, and what is true in reverse, that He sometimes shortens the life for the pious and extends it for the impious, as we have discussed in the previous composition on behalf of them, following the divine Scripture. Thus, it is not for those who are predestined to life and those who are rejected that God is the one who sets the limits of this life, even if the end after this life is different for them in accordance with their own choice; then he says that such things do not show that each of the men has a limit of life. What could be more obtuse than this? Are the length and the narrowness of the intervals not distinguished and known by the limits, and will the one who extends or shortens the path and the interval of life be left in need of another who sets the limits with such authority? And who is the one who sets them, and how will the life be extended or shortened by God if the limits of life are not presupposed? So the opposite is true, as such things, if nothing else, show that there are limits of life from God. Then he says: “If the time of life were determined, these things would not be, that is to say, the shortening and extension of life”; just as if he were saying, “If it had any end, it would not be finite.” Then he says: “If the end of the life of each were determined, neither just nor unjust could shake it.” Clearly by virtue and wickedness. And if it were not determined, why does God increase it for some due to their excellence? And how does He take it away from others due to their unworthiness? For something is added to what is determined, and something is also taken away from what is determined, and by something being determined, the addition or the subtraction is known, if it be true; and it itself

^A is the limit and boundary of the life here, and the beginning of the one to come, whether it be unfortunate or fortunate. And this limit is death. But he does not consider the infants who die in the womb, nor those who follow from the mother’s womb, those predestined from the mother’s belly, those sanctified from the womb, those born from promises—even if there were something concerning the infants regarding the argument and the matter at hand. But let us pass over these things. Then he introduces a robber and one giving poison, not distinguishing who are the victims of the robbery and who are the victims of the poisoning, and for what reason. And God is to be blamed ^B for neither, but rather for the reward due to those who choose these things for the sake of piety and virtue, or who suffer in any other way by endurance and the zeal of such pious people, and for excessive glorification, or for those who die for Him, for whose sake He promises the rewards of perseverance—not wishing for them to philosophize thus and die for Him, or rather for themselves. And how He released them as long as He willed from manifest deaths, so that those applying them were at a loss and were added to the faith, along with their desire to stand up for the truth of the faith; and opportunely He permits them to be crowned with death after the noble demonstration of the contests. But there is no need for broader theories now regarding robbers and poisons, except that such things are vainly connected. But I pass over the other things of this man. But foreknowledge, he says, is not a limit; for God foreknew the transgression of Adam and the turning of the devil, and the attempts of the murderers and the error of the ungodly, and He Himself decreed that they should consequently be such. But this, he says, is impious to think. One might indeed have said to him, as if provoked in return: "And if He did not decree it, O man, did He not prevent it, being able to prevent it?" But one who is able to prevent it and does not prevent it, he himself seems to be doing it. A truer thing, however, one might have said to him and very appropriately: "If He decreed it, do you say He commanded it, O noble interpreter of divine things, or did He compel it; and who is he who thinks or says this?" But if you say it directed toward the limit and the end, that He set it by His own provision, even this no one will say concerning Adam and the others; for toward the limit and the end for which he was brought forth, he did not wish to ^C be limited, nor did he need the cooperation and guidance of the one able to limit, but he went astray immediately upon being created; whence the arguments concerning those predestined did not even apply to the first men.

But for it to be defined otherwise in the divine knowledge according to that—and it is very true—for it was by no means decreed by God that Adam and Eve should be evil, neither as commanded—where He does not even force human free choice toward the good—nor as ordained for those that which is ^A initiated for doing good alone. Truly, they became wicked of their own accord, and the punishment they underwent was also well known in the knowledge of the Creator. And if it were not so, it would not have been predicted that on whatever day they should eat of the tree, they would die the death, nor would it have turned out so. But having been predicted thus, and having come to pass, and in the divine knowledge it was determined. And this physical death indeed, the separation of the joined, as is clear, and the deprivation of the life here which is embryonic, they immediately underwent only as a matter of penalty, since life and old age and diseases were to follow upon them and their descendants inevitably at some time, instead of the painless and immortal life which they had thrown away, and which He had known better; but the psychic death, separated from the true ^B life—alas!—and the falling away from the set end, the death much worse than the former, they immediately underwent in fact, and they passed it on, incurably, to those born from them, up until the medicine of the divine economy, which is at once most philanthropic and most wise. And indeed, there is no one who says that foreknowledge is of all things, unless he also wishes to call the end of the movement the movement itself. The limit is, in some way, the cause of the foreknowledge; for this being presupposed, it can be foreknown by Him who has such power, how this or that will attain the limit being carried toward it, or will not attain it not being carried, and how or when it will attain it. These things, then, have been spoken rather out of indulgence; for they are alien ^C to the hypothesis regarding the limits of life and the divine predestination which Diodorus had questioned earlier, and which our discourse now undertook for the sake of [clearing up]. It was enough to say that in ignorance of the limit and of predestination and of defining and of providence, or rather in ignorance of much of human and divine wisdom, both this Diodorus and some others have not been able to delve into the depth of the subject and the purpose of the teachers; for this man seems to think of the limit as necessity and the command quite vulgarly, or to wish to think of the limit of human life as a certain boundary of life ordained for each of the humans naturally [and] inevitably; and because of this he says: "If there were a limit to life, how would the life of men be lengthened by God? And how would it be shortened? And how could anyone alter the limit by becoming worse or better?" But it is simpler also to think thus: for there is no limit by nature to human life, or rather it is of many causes; therefore it is also said: "Watch, for you do not know at what watch of the night the thief comes." But if the limit of the life here were determined in nature, it would be the same for all. But if it were possible for it to be by nature and different, it would have been known by men, at least by the wise, who have ^D also examined the other works of nature very well. It is only possible to take the limit of human life on a larger scale, and this possibly and rarely, as few attain it, as David says, in great strength, and with difficulty up to the eightieth.

^A And many, not having reached it due to native weakness, or because of virtue, or some other dispensation of the One who is better, (a life) is cut short by them as if by worthy instruments. Life is extended for some even to those who are wicked, for the sake of other dispensations that are indisputable, about which it would be necessary to observe differently. But, that we may pass over the rest, it is time for each one for his end, when he is about to depart with good hopes, either being conscious in himself of having lived according to reason and law, or having well healed the neglect of his life with the medicine of repentance at the last. ^B And there is, besides, one who has been purified from God by the endurance of temptations permitted from there with discernment. And the all-wise Physician defines such an opportunity for those bringing forward a certain disposition in the time that they need to be healed. But to those who are ungodly for long and are exceedingly hardened, as those who suffer from the diseases of the desperate, Solomon warns against such an opportunity for those who have been deprived; they will not be grieved because they did not live for a long time in the sojourn, but because they have from this no hope of a fortunate life in the fatherland, and they will be deprived so that they might not also lay waste to the earth, like the example of the unfruitful fig tree. But if by saying these things he means the time defined by the divine providence, surely Solomon also understood such a boundary and time, which is itself within the time defined according to nature, at the furthest limit, yet being indefinite, as has been said. ^C It is also possible for it both to increase and to decrease, God ordering it in ways which He knows by economy. And such a time is said to increase, because it would have been diminished if God had willed; it is said to decrease, because it had increased, if God had willed this, by the causes of God willing or not willing, in such as are of the value of those whose part He wills, and part He does not will; and although for the worse to them, or for the better, simply all things are for the better, whichever has happened, whether an increase of life or a decrease, this was the final purpose and limit of God regarding each; final indeed in the work, as the human will is prior, so that the property of free choice might be kept, while the vote of God follows, but is prior in divine knowledge, as knowing the things that are to come, knowing not as they are in themselves (for they are not themselves, knowing), but as they are in Him, some as knowing and doing, ^D others as knowing only, and allowing, even if He does not do, which is the same as how to create as much as regards the thing happening, even if not as much as regards the One allowing. And what remains of those statements is not even worthy of examination; this alone must be noted. And yet Diodorus said: If there was a boundary, and even if life was lengthened or shortened for some by God. But this one says the opposite, that if there were a boundary, life would have been cut short by God for some wicked people. And they want to conclude the same thing; but from contrary hypotheses they are so far from knowing about what they propose to speak; and about the greatest things they propose to speak. Know then, my dearest and most holy, that some of the educated are not

able to properly investigate the things of the teachers, or even if they do investigate, they lack the ability to comprehend through being too simple, or else, out of ambition beyond their own capacity, they miss the truth. As is likely, they have suffered almost the same as those who once thought to contradict the faith, through whom they attempted to bring the Holy Scriptures into contradiction. For as for the passages that instruct and confirm the divine predestination—of which the Holy Scripture is full—they tried by force to drag them into the annulment of the passages that cooperate with the free will of man and the rewards or punishments that follow upon it, and thus, by annulling the Scripture, they also destroyed the faith at the same time.

And these men, then, if they do not suffer the same thing from the same reasoning: for if the affairs of men, he says, were foreordained by divine predestination, it is not possible to fall away, as they would thus have happened of necessity, and choice would not exist in men; and consequently, it would not be reasonable to reward or punish those who were thus compelled toward good or the opposite. But since these things are impossible, it remains that divine predestination does not exist at all in human affairs; and of those who seem to resist predestination, the one who says this seems to partake most of what is reasonable. But the order of the apostolic oracles convicts those who suffer these things either through unbelief or through ignorance, so that we may not here weave in the rest of the Holy Scripture, which has been well gathered in other writings. ^C God knows, indeed, all things that exist and their operations; and He knows not only the works of men, but also their thoughts. And He knows these within Himself as the one and first cause of all things, and as holding all things through the infinity of His nature, knowledge, and power. And He knows in His own way; for the object of knowledge exists in the knower according to the knower’s mode. Whence He knows future things as present, and contingent things as necessary; for thus they are in Him. Yet these are not any the less future and contingent in their own nature. He does not merely know, but also provides for them all, as without the heavenly providence they would not even be able to be or be saved. He provides for each one fittingly and appropriately to the nature given to him by Him, and to the order of the whole, and to its properties.

He provides for human nature, therefore, in a more specific, higher, and more varied manner, befitting its superiority over the other natures. ^D Whence the definition concerning human providence has been named more specifically—a leading and guidance to the proposed end. For the other things are led to an end consonant with their nature; but the end of man is supernatural, toward which he must be moved by his own choice, and not be negligent from within. Yet he is not able to attain or be well defined toward it without the cooperations granted from God, concerning which we have discussed in detail in the former writings, but now only touch upon.

The definitive knowledge of human affairs and their end is, on the part of the knowing and defining God, knowledge and definition, as though they were present and existent; but in view of the things that come to be and are defined, it is called foreknowledge and predestination. And predestination, taken in a general sense in this way, is divided into predestination in the proper sense, and reprobation. And predestination is of those who attain the end, while reprobation is of those who fail of it. For both those predestined to eternal life, and those rejected from it, however differently, have both fallen under the ordinance of divine providence.

But in the order, foreknowledge is prior, and this specific and proper predestination is second. And predestination presupposes foreknowledge as its starting point and order that precedes it. ^B And consistently, foreknowledge is also prior to the things that follow after divine predestination. And Paul, the great preacher of the truth, becomes to us the guide of this theology after our Lord, who gave it to us scattered in the Gospels: "For whom He foreknew," he says, "He also predestined, and whom He predestined, He also called; and whom He called, He also justified; and whom He justified, He also glorified." For God, also foreknowing the things that are to be, in the way it has been said—He foreknew those who would genuinely love Him, as far as it depended on themselves, and who purposed to neglect nothing. Being accustomed, then, because of His surpassing goodness, to work all things together for good to those who love Him, for this reason He is called to those who are such according to His own purpose—to those, that is, who voluntarily take care to attain the calling as far as it depends on them—and because they are called for this reason (that is, worthy of being called), He adds to them the cooperation from Himself, as they would not be able to attain it without it ^C because of the many and great difficulties that accompany the matter. Wherefore He says: "Without Me you can do nothing." For this reason, having foreknown them through the abundance of His wisdom, He consequently predestined them through the abundance of His goodness; and having predestined, He called, and the rest in order, so that those who are glorified or are to be glorified have been glorified through these things; and those who are to be justified have been justified; and because they were to be called, they were beforehand called, and the rest likewise. Therefore, divine predestination is not the preceding cause of the glory of those who are saved; for it has foreknowledge as its antecedent, without which predestination would not be. But neither is foreknowledge the preceding cause; but since it was to happen that through their own motives those who would choose the good would attain to it, and the end would follow for those who are such—for this reason, He who knows all things before their birth foreknew them. And to those foreknown as being such of themselves, He foreknew that He Himself would also cooperate, and would define those who would of themselves will to be defined toward the end, but would need the most from God—just as, conversely, those whom He foreknew would of themselves become alienated from the end, and for this reason would not attain it even though He would not cooperate with them (for how could He cooperate with those who do not will)?

^A And rightly have I rejected those who did not concern themselves with attaining the end, nor did He consign them to this fate, but rather He assigned to them the disgrace that was appropriate for them, which they had voluntarily chosen; for just as they did not approve of having God in their knowledge, God delivered them over to a reprobate mind to do things which are not proper. And as for those who would be the first to estrange themselves by their own work, rightly were they estranged from the divine knowledge from the womb, in the likeness of those preordained from their mother's womb, which is the same as being deemed to have belonged to or been estranged from the [divine] knowledge from the beginning. But even from afar, such as these were foreseen as what they would become, and were thus either preordained or rejected. These are the fruit of the great Paul, and of the Spirit who moved him.

Even if, therefore, it is impossible that what God has foreseen as going to happen should not happen, it is not simply a necessity that it should happen in such a way; for they could have not occurred. In this way, human volition has the primary principle of coming into being, yet as for what would happen in this way—I mean by the men themselves—this was foreseen by the abundance of divine knowledge. Therefore, just as God by foreknowing does not compel, so too by preordaining or rejecting, He merely cooperates towards the good for those who have first chosen this, just as, conversely, He does not cooperate toward the opposite, but by abandoning those who have turned themselves away from the end, He leaves them to be carried along. And as for those who have become faithful servants in a few things, He establishes them in many by the supply that comes from Himself—insofar as they have the power unto their own end—things which they could not have attained by themselves. And to the wicked, who are slothful toward the good, He neither grants grace ^B nor does He take back that which has been given. Hence, as soon as one has seen the cause of the just preordaining concerning Paul—how he voluntarily buffeted his body and brought it into bondage—for the sake of divine love He marked him out, or rather preordained him, from his mother's womb and cooperated with him in every way toward the good until his last breath.

To such a preordaining, therefore, consistent with the end, the entire life of those who are preordained is determined toward the end and governed by providence, having the good and primary zeal of him who is preordained as if it were a provision; and following this, their life attains its own end, being of such a nature and consonant with the final end. For this is the end of life here and the beginning of the life hereafter; and that is the transition from here. It is managed by God in time, manner, and place, appropriately for those who love Him and who, for this reason, are rightly assisted through all things toward the attainment of the end, which is the eternal and blessed life with God and the divine realms. This life here is connected to this end through many things in between, as those who are fortified by firm hopes and by their own zeal and divine assistance are orderly led. And the pious departure, together with virtue, immediately connects one thereafter—with the work of hope being fulfilled, even if there is some delay—to the more perfect attainment of the same in the common retribution of nature.

Thus, for those who determine themselves toward that end from within, God does not cooperate in the way they themselves determine, for had He cooperated in the same way as with the others, it would have been a matter of necessity and force. But their wretchedness having been foreseen, He uses it as He is accustomed to use the wretched. Consequently, He accounts their life and death as deserving of no providence like the former, and in which the fruit is the attainment of the intended end, except insofar as He gave them, as a common gift of nature, the things for their being and life. Indeed, to some extent, He imposes burdens on the wickedness of those who are both living and dying, in ways of management that are both just and looking toward the common good.

But these matters have been thoroughly set forth in earlier writings; now, it suffices to assure your love that what you have sent is not contrary to, nor can it be opposed to, those earlier writings of ours. For what could ever be contrary to an obvious truth and to so many things that confirm it? And even if it were contrary, it would be false and impossible. For know, most holy and dearest soul, that in ecclesiastical doctrines, there is nothing deeper than this; for it has much and varied breadth, and it requires precise knowledge and a higher intellect, and it is, so to speak, an exercise of philosophy and theology. For this reason, some of those who are less prepared wisely excuse themselves, needing to refrain from this, while others, groping at whatever they chance upon, speak in their own writings. But those who are our guides in the Church and in the faith, since they are ^C well-armed with wisdom and divine grace, handle the nature of the question nobly and at the same time in harmony with one another, signing for us who come later to the rule of the divine Scriptures and adapted to the oracles of the Spirit: this Dionysius the Great, the holy Athanasius, the three luminaries of the world, Augustine in addition to these, Theodoret, Maximus, and over all, the divine Damascene. And as for Diodorus and Anastasius, we ourselves are their followers. And where they agree with those great men, and are their servants, know well that the varied and all-wise providence of the Creator concerning men, being at once lordly and paternal, and all things relating to this—or to say the same thing, to divine preordination—is interwoven, specifically belonging to the second article of the faith, whilst generally running through the whole of the Christian faith and all the doctrines concerning it.

Hence, there could be no opinion more pleasing to God for Christians than to hang all human matters upon heavenly and divine knowledge and judgment, in looking toward their end, provided that their volition toward these things takes precedence in the time of their works; even if divine knowledge, from afar, oversees them as things that have happened, or presupposes the human volition, and preordains in its knowledge those who in the time of their works are to be determined by themselves and by Him, and pre-rejects those who are to be rejected... ^D and no opinion could be more difficult [to grasp]...

to separate or order in any way the human life and death, and collectively and individually the human souls and lives, and especially those of the more virtuous living, from the more specific, truly paternal, most wise, and unceasing providence and ordering of the Creator, or even the judicial ordering of those of the wicked whom the paternal providence has utterly abandoned, which have been conveniently and in part set forth by us in the second of the treatises; hence also ^A furthermore, as you said, being strengthened from there, now for the oppositions of those who appear to stand in the way and for the more willing [responses], and may you pray for divine mercy for us. And we also give you the greatest thanks for all things, and that, joined as you have been for the common good in your old age to those who are predestined for eternal life, we pray to God that you have been and will be in time, hoping most firmly. Amen. Repentance.

CONCERNING DIVINE PROVIDENCE

BOOK FOURTH.

To the great steward, the lord Theodore Agallianos. ^B

You, acting well, dearest one, either permit us to delineate, or if the discourse you sent seems displeasing, you deign to confirm it; for it is not necessary in such matters to rely only on ourselves, but to seek the vote of those who have the knowledge to judge, and not to be satisfied with the praises of the ignorant; for someone lying or sophistical out of ignorance might influence [others]; but we, having well applied ourselves to the writing through your own long-standing knowledge and experience of such things, judged it to be appropriate and directly elder-worthy. For its purpose is indeed very true, as it is the common judgment of all the teachers of the Church and the inviolable dogma of Holy Scripture; and it is demonstrated as well as possible, and so that it might be easily understood by many. We send this ready vote to you concerning the writing; you will have as a participant in it everyone wise among us. But if there are no such men now in this climate, woe to the terrible deformity of our race! But let the circle of the most wise teachers suffice for you, whom we follow and through whose diligent research we have perceived these things. You, following them, ^C reasonably agree with us—I mean Dionysius, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom in mind and tongue, Cyril, Theodoret, Maximus the most wise Confessor, Justin the philosopher and martyr, the most sacred Athanasius, and others among these, and after these many, and Anastasius from Sinai—we would not deny that he is holy and also the fathers who were ascetics with him at that time, whose place as teacher he reasonably filled, but we could never name him a theologian, nor as one able to genuinely follow the theologians; likewise also, if any of the later [writers] agrees with Anastasius, being of a similar disposition; wherefore, while he certainly seeks well, he does not resolve everything appropriately, ^D standing in many of the teachings of [his own] opinion and not the common canons of the faith, not out of contentiousness or jealousy—wherefore one should not harmonize Anastasius, or anyone else of the simpler and later ones who might depart from the canon of sacred theology out of ignorance, with the teachers, but one must merely pass them over out of reverence and because they are separated by not paying close attention; for theology is the science of sciences, and the first wisdom by its height, but for this reason, the last and final in its attainment after all human wisdom. But one must attach oneself only to the teachers and theologians, those who are most full of other wisdom, and who are faithfully and surely occupied with all of Holy Scripture. This is not our own opinion, but the great Basil claims this in his dialogues; for he says that it behooves those of the hearers who are educated in the divine Scriptures to test the things spoken by those who teach, and to accept what is in agreement with the Scriptures, but to cast away what is foreign, and to turn away more vehemently from those who persist in such teachings. And regarding this, so much [is said]; but it is a wonder and, alas, [worthy] of many tears...

^A that some daily praise God as shepherd, refuge, guide, and protector, and as one who is with us always, and not only with us, but also round about us—which is something greater, for the sake of safeguarding and providence—and as a consoler in afflictions, a support in war, and a guardian, not only of those of full age, but of their infants too, and as an avenger against those who do us wrong, and a defender of our life, and as one having our own lots in His hands, and rescuing from death, and nourishing in famine, and in old age multiplying with fatness, and in turn causing others to vanish according to the wickedness of men, and delivering [them] into the hands of enemies, and as a teacher of hands for the battle and of fingers for war, and as a physician for those crushed in heart, and as one lifting up and exalting, but casting down the proud to the ground, and as one delivering the soul from death, the eyes from tears, and the feet from stumbling; and [doing this] not only for men, but also providing food for the beasts and for the nestlings of the cranes, and filling some with length of days, while not allowing others even to halve their days, and utterly destroying those who are altogether vile. Thus, then, do they daily sing hymns to God with the divine David, who was inspired from heaven with these things; then they hold the opposite of these things, and teach others likewise. And, they say, "The Lord kills and gives life," and they claim to believe those who say so, yet they pass sentence of uncertainty upon life and death, and they suppose the whole matter of men to be something random and automatic; for the whole matter of men is life here, and the end of this life transferring [one] to another existence. And they hear daily that God makes peace and creates evils for cities and nations alike, according to the preparation and free choice of each—so they say, that is; but in deed they disbelieve these things. And our Creator Himself says that our hairs are numbered by the heavenly providence over us, as a demonstration that He is much more concerned for those other things among us that are necessary; and that not only man comes to the slaughter, but not even a sparrow falls into a trap without divine will—and if not a sparrow, [then] certainly not a man, even if the divine purpose regarding each of these two differs ^D appropriately according to the distinction of their natures. And our Creator does not merely say these things; He has also shown and continues to show them by His deeds. But they, as if not heeding His deeds, nor the struggles of His disciples, nor the martyrs who succeeded the apostles, think and say whatever they happen to hit upon. And to David they join themselves each day: "Behold, as the eyes of servants are to the hands of their masters, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hands of her mistress, so are our eyes toward the Lord our God, until He have mercy upon us." And in the Gospels they hear the Canaanite woman likening herself to the little dogs eating of the crumbs falling from the table of their masters; by the reward of [her] faith, she immediately obtained healing. But they themselves wish men to be worse in their attitude toward the Master than not only servants, or pupils, or children approaching [their parents] with maternal hopes, but even [worse] than the little dogs which linger at the tables of their masters, fawning with things spread out and passing under the feet of their lords with that innate and powerful hope and reverence, as though they knew by nature the sympathy and providence of their masters toward them. Reasonably, therefore, are we taught that we should not attribute even to a human master, nor to a lady mistress, nor to a father or mother, as much favor toward us as we do to God, who for our sake made this whole world, who adorned our nature with so many gifts, who endured to suffer so many things for us, who came to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance, who treated us not only as servants or children, but even as friends and brothers, and for this reason laid down His soul even for His friends, than which He says there is nothing greater in the account of friendship. And He has not ceased after having done these things once, but works [them] continuously, and continuously gives the beginning of all those good things, extending through all time by His infinite and all-pervading power. And He commands continuously: "Seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all other things shall be added unto you; for He will give much better and more abundantly than you intend to seek; for you perhaps, being led astray, seek a serpent instead of bread. But He will give bread, not a serpent; and all things, He says, shall be added by Him." Therefore, take care of your final end for which you were born—namely, the eternal life—doing some things yourselves, and praying for others; for while the wicked enjoy the heavenly care through the extreme philanthropy of the Creator, the good, who also take care of the true life as their main task, reap this with an addition; for if He feeds [them] advantageously, He will also feed [them] advantageously, and to one He will add life advantageously, and to another He will cut it short for the better, lest malice change his understanding, or deceit deceive his soul—if indeed He cuts short for those living evilly in order that they might neither be harmed while alive nor gain by the force of wickedness, so that He does not add to the worsening of others who are worthy to suffer well by Him. But now our discourse is about the attentive and good children, to whom, as they seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all other things are added from thence. If, therefore, He truly gives all things, and is Lord of all; if He is Lord of all, and of our life as well as our end—for these are the chief points of things given to us by Him here—if He is the giver of these, He is also their Lord and Determiner, as setting, ordering, and defining the time and manner for the things given; for He has known both what He will give and when and how as He knows each one of these.

^A For it is impossible for there to be knowledge of indeterminate things. Now the Determiner, while giving self-sufficiency to some, and while permitting to others even an abundance, to use it well or badly is henceforth left to them. The generic name, therefore, for the oversight of God that extends to all things is "administration" (dioikēsis) and "government" (kybernēsis); and as much of this as concerns existing things is called, by the name of the genus, administration and government. But as much as concerns things that have come to be, it is called, specifically, "providence" (pronoia) and "foresight" (promētheia). ^B And since things that have come to be are also divided generally into the human rational nature and the irrational nature, as much as pertains to divine providence regarding the others among things that have come to be is called, specifically, by the name of the genus, providence; but as much as pertains to human nature is called, specifically, "predestination" (proorismos). For the end of the others is temporary and is accorded to them; I mean, as much as has been allotted to each of them for themselves; but the end of man is eternal; this is the blessed life consisting in the knowledge of the truth and in the direct and intellectual contemplation of God, given supernaturally as far as is possible to those who have striven to attain this end with the help from God. ^C For this temporary life fulfills the need for a gymnasium for the demonstration of virtue; but its immediate boundary is the separation of the soul from the body, and the ultimate one is the eternal life following it, rendered appropriately to the life here, happy and blessed for the diligent, but miserable for those who are otherwise inclined. Since, then, the life in men is twofold, and the end of this is likewise twofold, as is the end after the departure from here, the arrangement of God concerning the entire better portion is called, specifically, "determination" (horismos) of God, and by the name of the genus, and because it is from eternity in the divine knowledge even before the existence of things, it is called "predestination," and those who are of this portion are called both designated and predestined; but the arrangement concerning the entire worse portion is called "rejection" (apodokimasia), and those who are subject to this are justly called rejected; ^D for the former are assisted toward the good and are defined, but also are led from within with every diligence; while the latter are indeed assisted but, being heavy, they fall away. And the former live piously according to God, using the divine gifts, while the latter live according to empty desire and have misused the gifts for these ends; and wherefore the former go out with a good end of the present life and are full of hope, while the latter end appropriately to the total misery of their life. And the former are led to their own end, the life in the heavens, paternally; while the latter are dragged down into the punishments in Hades by the judicial rod of the Master. The wisest teachers of the Church, therefore, understanding the divine predestination in a broad sense, insofar as it signifies the entire providence and arrangement concerning all men, appropriately to the eternal knowledge of God regarding future events, say that all men are cared for and predestined by God; for they cannot exclude the things concerning the unbelievers or the wicked from the divine arrangement which are around their life and death, nor is it true; for not of the good things

alone is God the ruler—or of the believers—but also of those who are otherwise disposed, and He provides for all; and He arranges the things of each in a manner proper to them. But if He provides and defines, He predestines all things of the good unto their own better state, while for those who are otherwise managed, He disposes some things unto a better state and others unto a worse state—or rather, everything unto a worse state for them whenever they shall pay the penalties of this temporary and most gentle care, not having willed to be improved by it at all. Simply, however, God disposes the things of both unto the better; for the fulfillment of divine justice regarding those worthy of divine aversion and the penalty meeting them therefrom is simply good, even if God does not desire this by a preceding will, but by a paternal and beneficent one. But the wickedness of the children makes this part idle in them, while they have grasped the judicial rod as a battle-array, instead of [being] sons.

And not only are the things concerning their life ordered, as indeed the divine providence runs through all things in an orderly manner on account of the excess of goodness, but also the things concerning their end; for if it is not possible to come to the final boundary, or having been rejected to fail of it without the divine discernment according to the worthiness of each, then neither could the time of the departure from here come to pass without the divine arrangement, since the immediate boundary of the departure from here must be in harmony with the final boundary and contributing in a way proper to it. For it is necessary that this immediate course be assimilated to life, being perfected with virtue or wickedness—even if it does not appear so to the many, or is not manifest to all—and that the final boundary follow this boundary in a way proper to it, being either an attainment of the end or a falling short. ^A For these reasons, then, the teachers say that the things of life and of the end and those after it are fixed and defined from afar for both the good and the bad, understanding these things extensively.

They were accustomed, however, to distinguish the divine arrangement concerning the good and the bad with more specific names: the arrangement concerning the good they call God's predestination, and it has been called rejection [in regard to the others]; and the one concerning the bad and those directed—some unto eternal life foreordained, others rejected from it—they call [that which accords] with the Holy Scripture and is very congruent. For the inspired Paul chose us regarding the better lot: “For He in Himself before the foundation of the world,” he says in the [Epistle] to the Ephesians, “having predestined us unto adoption,” and the things in that to the Romans: “Whom He foreknew and predestined as conformed,” and the rest, “these He also glorified.” Regarding the worse lot, because of its having willed to become worse, he says thus in the [Epistle] to the Romans: “But if God, willing to show His wrath and to make known His power, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted for destruction,” and the rest. But these same individuals, in the [Epistle] to the Ephesians, he calls alienated from the life of God and hardened in heart; and golden vessels and silver vessels he calls the ones elected, useful and prepared for every good work, to all of whom the having been fashioned was from God, but the utility or uselessness came to be from themselves.

But our Lord distinguishes these by other names, but also by the difference between the sheep and the goats and by the standing on the right and the left. Although He might have willed all to be of the better calling and order, and for this reason made them and adjusted the whole preparation of their nature unto the good, yet He left them to live by reason and choice, in no way forcing them. And not only to the Holy Scripture, but also to reason, do these things accord, which the teachers say and think. ^B For if the providence of God and foreknowledge and predestination are true for both lots—not being understood as extended, but as contracted and special—it is more proper to choose the definition for the better lot; for the end and boundary of man, truly and properly, is eternal life, for the sake of which he was created, not the punishment in Hades, which being an end itself is proper to the choice of such, but properly it is more of a falling short of the true and genuine end; and for this reason God properly defines and predestines those speeding toward the true and genuine boundary. But to define unto misery is not said of those worthy of this, but rather they themselves are led toward the contrary order of wretchedness. And being such, it is entirely necessary that they be rejected from the end lying there by nature.

Those who do not discern this accuracy of the teachers cast the wicked and the faithless out of the divine providence and arrangement, as though God has no care for their life nor for their end. But the more vulgar, and regarding all men likewise, think thus—that the things of human life and death are fickle and casual; [these] are far worse than the former, since to be deaf to all the Holy Scripture is this, and to depart from the boundaries of piety, as the great Basil says. For the inspired Paul, the mouth of Christ, says, “God is the savior of all men, especially of believers,” not speaking concerning the future salvation and eternal life, ^C but concerning the providence in this life, and consequently also with the end of life; for it is the same to provide for life and its end, with the wisdom and power that leads all things defining what is necessary or advantageous for each, either paternally or judicially. Therefore, Paul does not exclude the unbelievers from the divine management concerning human life, nor even more so the wicked, even if he posits Him as savior of the believers more. Although even unto future happiness, insofar as it is for Him, God saves [all], even the unbelievers, yielding nothing of the preparation for this to them; but He saves rather by work those who receive the preparation and use it very well. Thus it is said that all...

these things are manifest, and justification from God is for him who works what is good, most of all for the Jew who shows piety toward the one God, and then for the Hellene who has gone astray concerning divine matters. For on the one hand, he will receive the unhappy fruit of his unbelief there, but for his other good works he will not be left without reward here. ^A Rather, He is said to love the good, looking toward their true and future life, as if acting as a co-worker for it alone—having acted as a co-worker for the first ones because they were loving, and He would have done so for all if they had wished it, or rather, He had been co-working in an appropriate way until they showed that they had no need to be co-worked with. The other pronouncements of the Holy Scripture concerning the limits of life, both for the good and for the base, and for those predestined to eternal life and those rejected from it, and how each lives and dies by God’s command, have been gathered together in the previous discourses. But here, the divine Paul is sufficient for us. And as for divine predestination, so much is enough for the present, saying to you all that is contained in the rest and that pertains to the examination of this matter; but I add something else for the sake of your goodwill, which shall also be the end of the discourse. ^B God has made this visible world above the earth under a certain law, multifaceted and full of much wisdom, so that the diverse and varied movement and separation and concurrence of the parts within it, serving the divine will, might become the cause for the existence and succession of these generated and corruptible things—which all exist for our sake, the sake of humans—and of diverse results; the parts of the world themselves not knowing what they do, but involuntarily and naturally serving the aptitudes for doing such things implanted in them from God. Whence, having observed their diverse yet orderly movements, certain people, then observing their diverse results in these generated things below, constructed a craft therefrom most intelligently, seeking and considering such things, but foolishly assigned godhead to these parts of the world, having glorified their mechanical service as a creative and divine supervision. Likewise, these generated things near the earth serve in an imperceptible way the natural laws implanted in them by God, and the life of humans is likewise led by such specific laws. Those who are learned in these matters, therefore, call such laws—laws in all the creations of God—"natural laws," as being implanted by God into the nature of things. From the laws in the higher spheres come rains and droughts, cold and heat, from which in turn healthy or sickly conditions happen to humans and other animals, and abundance or scarcity of crops, and these diverse ^C conditions according to the difference of places. And from the laws among these generated things, which happen for the sake of humans, the diverse needs of humans for living are fulfilled; likewise, the life of humans is governed by the natural laws among them; nor does it only consist, but is also destroyed. For the sake of an example, it is a natural law that a governor who knows well how to govern, and a captain who is prudent, will save the ship, unless the swell becomes stronger than all skill and prudence. But if the governor or the captain is unskilled, and the crew is unwilling to heed the governor or does not know how he governs as he is expert, it is the law that the ship be destroyed, whether a great swell has arisen or even without a swell, from other causes, of course. From this law it happens that the greater part of those sailing who know how to do things well are saved, while those who are foolish and unskilled perish. It is a absolute necessity that those laws of divine order which encompass all of nature preserve the part of nature. And God generally lets these laws be preserved without changing them; for He would not be likely to oppose Himself and His own commands. But He does not serve the laws set by Him in the same way as the created things, which are moved with the created things; but at specific times and in specific circumstances He changes these for the better or for the worse, worthily, for those who will be benefited or harmed thereby; and when the need to change them temporarily has immediately ceased, they are preserved again as they were originally set. ^D History, both new and old, is full of such portents and such wonders; and the sacred history, as well as those outside, now shows them fewer in number and order than the former ones, but for those same reasonable causes which we have shown in a scholarly discourse worked out separately. But they occur, and those who see divine things with God see them well. Indeed, He saves the ship, which would have been sunk by the folly of the captain and governor, because of the virtue of those sailing, but He permits at times, together with the most wicked of the passengers and rulers of the ship, some good people to be sunk for the benefit of their own souls, and others He delivers miraculously, leading them out of the deep by angels when they are about to drown, or deters those who would have sailed on the ship about to be wrecked or sunk, by sudden and unexpected obstacles at the very moment they are about to embark. And they are immediately grieved at being shut out from the voyage, but, having recognized the divine mercy well, along with life being added to them, they are further improved in their soul by the miracle. Thus also, a city that acts lawlessly is entrusted to base rulers, and conversely, one that is inhabited by good citizens is entrusted to good ones; "For I shall give," He says, "rulers to you according to your hearts." And a king enjoys the wickedness of the people, with the same blow from God heard by him and his subjects, because, being able to prevent the wickedness, he did not prevent it, seeking favor; and the people also enjoy the royal wickedness, being disciplined together, as if, instead of being corrected...

further by increasing his own wickedness—for, he says, "The sin of a king is upon the head of the people," and conversely. And a city is either taken by enemies contrary to expectation, or is delivered from them contrary to expectation, as the laws that prevail in such matters yield to the divine will; and some are delivered to the enemies for destruction because of their incurable wickedness, while others suffer this for their improvement. For, says God through Jeremiah to the Jews, "Take courage; you were sold to the nations not for destruction." And He also pursues with judgment those who treated those who were enslaved by divine decree more harshly, as He says through Isaiah: "I gave them into your hand, but you did not show them mercy. Now suddenly destruction shall come upon you, and you shall not know it." But even among those in the midst of them, among the wicked, and for this reason destined to be abandoned, those who are living diligently are snatched away from the coming evils, while those who remain are proved better by experiencing the common calamities. And a lethal plague upon a nation or a city, both future and predicted by those who observe these things from the worldly, as has been said, disposition, He does not permit to happen, and once begun, He brings to a halt for those who are living piously and with the proper repentance for their sins, fleeing to the divine compassion. ^B Indeed, should it not have come from natural causes, He Himself brings on the nature of certain people, punishing or disciplining them. And for some parents who are prospering according to the external life, but whose children are living wickedly, the parents themselves are punished by being deprived of the manifold comfort of their descendants, while the children are delivered from the wickedness of those who gave them birth—a wickedness in which it is entirely necessary that they either share or, very reasonably, even become worse. But also, for those parents who are coming to their senses, the advantageous good fortune of their children is established as, for those who are improving their minds and beginning to live more temperately, just as, on the other hand, for those who remain insensible, another addition of punishment occurs after the blow, just as God reproached the Jews through Jeremiah: "In vain have I struck your children; you have not accepted instruction," and so on. Even if the homeland is suffering and the children are delivered from such a life by the good providence of God, and the parents, even if they mourn and beat their breasts for the moment, are going to live the grief regarding their children miserably, being ignorant or overcome by the passion. The departure of the younger ones from our midst, who are thus terribly and manifoldly enslaved and in danger regarding the greatest of goods, by means of death with piety, is not among the greatest of God's benefits, at least to those who have them. But as for those who have reached the measure of age, another discussion would be needed, and it is likely that the disposition of God regarding such people is different and varied, measured out according to the different ^C choice of these persons; since the occasion for these questions here was the plague, we shall add a little concerning this, leaving the rest for you to contemplate. The plague is a corruption of the air, either brought on by vegetative causes or if God should wish to stop the law that is in nature—either in its being or in other accounts of providence—they overcome the law that is in nature, or by divine order it occurs contrary to such a law; for as Master of nature, He is able both to stop it when it is in motion and to move it when it would not have been moved. Whatever this corruption of the air may be, it has as its end and purpose, immediately, the defeat of those who are more tender-bodied or more susceptible, and further, the utility of those who are dying from all quarters, and the improvement of those who are losing them, or the addition of greater, unchangeable calamities. Yet not all who become sick die, nor do all such people become sick, because the divine will must rule over all: those who have remained healthy, those who have been defeated by the disease, and those who have been delivered after it, willing one thing for some and not bringing the same verdict for all—or rather, not even bringing it only at the time of the events, but having brought it from afar in the foreknowledge regarding all His works, and, as has been said, especially regarding the rational beings, for whom He cares incomparably more. Even if some are saved by moving away, not even this is without divine providence, which moves their judgment to move, even if they do not perceive it. Those who remain would have been delivered even if others were dying, and even if they have moved, they die as if they had moved without the divine will. Those who remain would not have been delivered, and some move for a little while, and then die while returning, and the plague having ceased, to the greater manifestation of this truth. ^D Others move and are saved, but they become worse in their choice, defining salvation by flight alone, and not by the divine will, unworthy of such a precipice, and for this reason allowed to fall into it, which would be better for those who have suffered it than a myriad of deaths. If one were to intend to inquire regarding those of different beliefs, since the sacred word also places these under divine providence, even if not in the same way overall, it would be possible to observe even regarding these things at least as much as concerns the plague; but let things that are proper to be passed over in silence be passed over, from which the grasp—even if it is not in all the things said—is from the sea, the divine providence regarding men is manifest, not only illuminating those who have understanding and are pious very well, but also witnessed by the holy Scriptures as a work not only of improvement regarding the good, nor of pity regarding the meaner sort, as soon as they correct themselves by repentance, but also as a verdict of divine justice regarding those who have it unequally, and to say it in general, the arrangement of divine providence regarding humans operates regarding each one, not separating the multitude or the common law of the order regarding these things, but either co-benefiting or co-punishing; and the other, separating, operates paradoxically regarding whomsoever it might wish, and either saves without or pursues judicially. But some, being blind to all these things, do not avoid the sins that are the causes of divine wrath, but move to other places, carrying on their shoulders

or of the horses upon which the instruments of wrath are carried, and then sing daily: "Whither shall I depart from thy Spirit, O Lord, and whither shall I flee from thy face?" ^A For it was necessary that those who were first hidden from the causes of wrath and were making themselves secure, and then [were turning] to Him who is able to save—and, alas! those who have believed and hoped—should then truly and wisely sing that hymn. But God, because of His extreme forbearance, endures those who remain uncorrected, and then those who flee, and then those who are false and who sing [hymns], enduring as many as He alone knows, knowing the purpose and end of such forbearance. But you, give thanks to God who has enlightened you, and be assured that you must rely on Him alone, who is the Savior and Provider of all men and their Guardian, and especially of the faithful; He who puts to death and makes alive, as we must live for Him and no one dies to himself, according to the divine apostle. Be persuaded by the great Basil who says sincerely: "Do not say that any chance occurrence of things that happen to men ^B happens without any ruler governing the world, nor suggest to yourself evil doctrines, nor fall away from the boundaries of godliness." And elsewhere he says again: "The end of life is preordained for each in all things, and hence the limits of life become unequal and unlike for men over the different times and in ways incomprehensible to us in the divine economy, unequal in time, clearly, but unlike in manner." And be persuaded by what is said by all the other teachers. But the seal of all is the great Maximus the Confessor and the crown of theologians, saying thus in the 28th chapter of the Second Century: "God, who has determined the life of each before the ages, leads each one in the way He wishes, toward the end proper to his life, whether it be righteous or unrighteous." To all these, be persuaded; or rather, you do best to be persuaded by them, and to reject profane and old-wives' fables, according to the counsel of Paul.

CONCERNING DIVINE PROVIDENTIA QUINTUS

How divine providence and divine predestination do not do away with the usefulness of prayers.

The discourse concerning divine providence has much strength of proof from the things that happen in an orderly way in this universe, but it is confirmed most of all by the cares of the Divine for our rational nature, by which many of the philosophers from outside, and afterwards those who have been illuminated by divine wisdom and through it have contemplated these things more highly, have carefully considered and confirmed the pious opinion that God provides for all things that exist, and have refuted the conviction of those who think otherwise in their own writings on this subject. ^C And we, too, have treated of divine providence and divine predestination in four books, friends worthy of zeal having moved us to this. Therefore, since divine providence concerning existing things is agreed upon by all those who have a mind [turned] toward the subject of our inquiry, we shall turn our attention now only to this, and we shall show how, while it is firmly posited, the need for prayers is also well preserved. For some know that praying is practiced by all men generally, so that they do not think this happens in vain, yet they think it would be in vain to seek it, ^D being carried away from thence to the same [conclusion] as the godless, who are ignorant of the fact that for God not to provide for His own works is the same as His not having brought them into being at all; rather, [believing] that they subsist of themselves and are led of themselves wherever each might chance to be, and assigning nothing to divine providence that leads all things and predestines them even before they come to be and exist. We must, however, fix our minds first and distinguish the providence through a few words, as much as suffices for the present need, and thus go to the object of our inquiry. If, therefore, there is a God, He is also the Maker of all things that exist. For if He is God, He is self-originate and without cause and has existence from no one; and if He is God alone, being one, and is alone self-originate and without cause; and since He alone being such, existing things must have been made by Him, for there is a necessity that they have their existence from elsewhere, not from themselves, for there is only one who is self-originate, and they have it from God, who is one and is the only God. If, therefore, He is the Maker of all things that exist, He is then also their Provider and Forethinker; for to provide is to order toward the good and to...

ensure that all things having come from that source are ordered toward their proper end. And if by chance things that exist have not been so created or do not exist, they must of necessity be brought to their proper end, and consequently to the end common and final to all, which is the most common and final good. But concerning the final end we need not deliberate now. Rather, that all things ought to be ordered toward their proper good, as this is for them the end of their becoming and existing—and since they do not come into being from themselves, nor could they be brought toward their proper end by themselves—they are, therefore, ordered by God, who has made them. And they are ordered not only by the fact of having been made such and having had instilled within them the power to be brought toward their proper end, according to both their own nature and the order of all this universe, but also by the fact that their operations are guided toward the better and easier attainment of the end; and this, rightly, could be called being administered and governed.

Therefore, God is not only the Creator of all things that exist, but also their Provider, Administrator, and Governor. And Divine Providence runs through all things that exist—both in deed and in the outcome being present in them and observed by those capable of observation—and in the account of such an order of things occurring upon them (or perhaps *by* them), it is present in God as a certain rationale of the order directed toward the end. ^B And this order is a prerequisite for the final good and the commonest end of all, which is God Himself, the one and only beginning of all things, and consequently also for the ends of the activities proper to each, through which each would be brought directly to its proper end, and through these, likewise, to the end that is most common and final for all. These things could become clear to those not altogether incapable of being led by reason from the works of God, if they are willing to pay attention, and most certainly in the case of men—or, to say the same thing, in themselves—for they are creators and makers according to the divine image within them, differing one from another in rank and in the proper ends of each, and they are creators not only of subordinate works, but also of those things proper to the nature for which they are parents. Of all these, then, they are not only creators, but also providers, that they may exist and exist well, as it is fitting for each to exist well, and as they themselves might be able to provide for this and know. And this is primarily the work of virtue and goodness, in that they care for themselves and for others, and most especially for what is commonly beneficial to as many as this befits, such as kings and those who rule in general; and consequently it is also the work of human wisdom, to the extent that it is possible for them, and then of the powers proper to their nature.

In these three causes of benevolent providence, there is no small degree of excellence and deficiency among men. ^C And according to the differences in these, there is a correspondingly different zeal, wisdom, and strength concerning the works, so that through the difference in these causes, there comes to be a different order in the works toward the good proper to each. If, therefore, they are adorned by God with these advantages, by which it remains for them to be creators and makers and providers and even governors, and since ^D all their good things come from Him, how much more shall God be the Provider, Administrator, and Governor of all His works, as well as of the advantages that lead to these—namely, His goodness, wisdom, and power—which belong to Him no more to one than to others, but equally to all, and infinitely pertaining to the infinity of His essence? But how He employs the very works themselves as instruments of government and the diversity of such service from His servants—a matter worthy of the highest account and wonder—let this be passed over now, and let us attend only to what is sought.

Divine Providence, then, encompasses all the works of God, without which nothing at all would exist or be, for there is nothing in them good of themselves, but all things are from God. But now let us consider only how much of it pertains to men. This divine providence, then, runs through all men, as they are His work and the most beautiful of the visible works, though differently, indeed, according to the rank and worth of each. For one is His providence concerning all men, insofar as it relates to God; for "He desires," he says, "all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." For this reason, He assigned them one rank and worth from the beginning; but according to the different disposition and rank of men, the order of the providence concerning them is also diversified. For of most of the unbelievers He provides only insofar as it concerns their present life, as is the case also with believers, yet sinners; for "He makes His sun to shine," he says, "on the good and the evil, and rains on the just and the unjust." And from these two works of the divine providence concerning the commonality of men—being more fundamental and manifest—it is shown that other works of divine providence likewise extend to all things that reach toward the present life. But to the righteous, and especially if they be also [faithful], the good of providence shines forth, and less so to the unbelievers; for which reason it has been said, "Glory to every one who does good, first to the Jew," that is, to the believer, "then also to the Greek," that is, to the unbeliever. But one must understand "glory" here not as that divine and future one, but as that which appears to them in the present time from the divine goodness, as a reward for the works of justice. And that these things are so, the divine Paul clearly indicates. For he says that God is the Provider of all men, especially of believers; therefore, of all believers, but most especially of those living according to reason and law, and pursuing with all diligence those things that lead to the end.

Accordingly, while all men enjoy divine providence in this life according to the more common understanding of the name of providence, those who are well-formed in faith and life obtain, alone, providence in its most specific sense; for they care primarily for the eternal life, having used the body only as an assistant and fellow-worker, and passing through the life here as a passage. And God provides for them in a manner proper to their purpose, working with them in all things toward the good and advancing them toward the end with the cooperation of those who are assigned toward the good.

^A And those, indeed, who have been reprobated are few—if we compare them to the predestined who are being saved—even if, simply speaking, they are very numerous, surpassing every count.

That the arrangement of Divine Providence is varied and diverse regarding the predestined themselves—eternally in the Word, in the God who predestines and provides, but temporally in the work itself, in those who are being defined in time—is because, in accordance with the diverse ways of their zealous and God-loving life, the aid of Providence meets them differently here, and follows and assists them, and defends them in every way; and there, a different beauty of blessedness awaits them, proportioned to the different degrees of their labors. These things and others like them, having been examined in our many writings concerning predestination, we pass over now, coming instead to the present need, for which those things already said are sufficient.

These predestined ones, therefore—even if they do not pray to be saved—would be saved and would be delivered from temptations, even without praying to be delivered; for even when Moses is silent, as it says, God hearkens, ^B paying attention with goodness to the worthiness of being heard, not to the speech through the tongue, for to speak with the heart while silent with the tongue is truly to speak. Sometimes they even sense the temptations and are delivered from them, so that there is not even a moment between their needing to be delivered and the delivery itself; and what is even more paradoxical is that, even when a temptation is near, they have not sensed it, but after the deliverance they have known that it had approached and had weakened. Such is the Providence of the Creator regarding His predestined children; yet He permits temptations to others, and even to those whom He has often delivered from other temptations, for their correction or for a greater testing or for the benefit of others, and for their own eternal gain.

What is advantageous to those living zealously—and not only to attain—is that they not only rejoice when they are tempted from without, but they also ^C voluntarily subject themselves to temptations with pleasure, and by wearing out their body with these, they lift their spirit up to the divine, beautiful love. And generally speaking, through various paths toward the proposed end, and through the diverse dispositions of those who follow such ways—all of them good and beneficial—God prepares and provides a different Providence; and He manages both their present life and the future one through these, even for those who would not have prayed.

He exhorts them with all-wisdom and in a fatherly manner to ask, and to do so persistently: "Ask, and it shall be given to you," and so forth, thereby subtly constructing virtue in them, wishing to save them both by the law of justice and not only by that of superabundant and fatherly care. ^D For if they are about to ask effectively, making the receiving a priority, they are also about to prepare themselves to pray well: "For you ask and do not receive, because you ask improperly." They pray well and effectively, however, those who pray with confidence in God, and they possess such

^A a disposition truly, those who are conscious to themselves of being neither guilty of unrepentant sins nor obstructing the divine philanthropy, and who bear the fruits of love which are ordained, along with humility; for it is necessary for one to run in consort with another—both to have been predestined to eternal life and to neglect none of the things that lead to it, as the blessed Peter says in his first Epistle: "Make every effort to confirm your calling and election by good works," so that for each of the diligent there may be, as it were, a deposit or token of that election which is unknown to him from God, but known to God alone, namely, the zeal ^B in good works. Hence, such people do not even increase the divine predestination over them by their zeal for these things; rather, they see their own life as in harmony with all the zeal that pertains to having been predestined. Being such, they are predestined; and, being predestined, they are zealous in such a way that the divine predestination because of these things not only does not destroy the active power of prayer, but even compels them to pray well, as it is in harmony with the dignity itself. For both the predestined pray well, and those who pray well are the predestined; and it is the same thing to have been predestined to eternal life and to pray well. It is necessary, however, to specify this, too: that those who have a pious and God-loving confidence in God do not ask of Him for any of the things of this life, but for the kingdom that is in Him, so that they may attain it according to the divine command—that God may reign ^C in them here, and they may share as much as possible later in the kingdom in the heavens. For of the sum of good things they ask for themselves, and as they are zealous, it is worked out in concert from God; all other things they neither seek nor add to their prayers. But some, having attained a higher state, do not even seek this in their prayers, but, being satisfied with the zeal they have for virtue and the totality and sincerity of the fulfillment of divine love—which is to ask for the kingdom by one's deeds—they no longer trouble [God] with prayer concerning this. Prayer for them is continuous doxology and thanksgiving with a moderate frame of mind, and the foreseeing of the Lord before them at all times, being at their right hand. In order not to be stripped, such people do not even ^D pray against temptations once and for all, knowing that without afflictions it is impossible to enter the kingdom of God. But if afflictions arise from temptations, they only ask, according to the Lord’s prescription, "not to be brought into temptation." This means: not to be permitted to fall into temptations that are beyond one's strength, nor to be caught for good in the depths of temptations. For those who are small-souled are swallowed up by them, whereas the noble-minded overcome them through endurance and are delivered, and their praying "not to be caught" is a matter of seeking from God endurance; for this is a saving gift, sown in us with knowledge, but perfected and bearing fruit by the grace of God, overcoming the weakness in us by the willingness of the Spirit taking its place. That grace follows upon our confidence through good works, as the divine apostle says: "God is faithful, who will not let you be tempted beyond what you are able." To Him be glory to the ages. Amen.

OF GENNADIUS PATRIARCH ON THE HUMANITY OF OUR LORD CHRIST

Some inquire how our Lord Jesus in His own human [nature] ^A established the penalty for all men, for which cause we believe most especially that the divine Word became man and that both these qualify our Lord Jesus, being true God and true man, evidently. For it was fitting to take up the whole of humanity as if to make a defense for the whole of it and as if the defense thus formulated were about to pass over to the whole of humanity; but this seems impossible. For humanity is either a reality that exists by itself according to the Stoics and is altogether separated from matter, or it is a form [derived] by abstraction and from conception, not being a reality according to Aristotle and the holy truth. If, therefore, it is the first, there is then no true humanity in Christ, but [it is] transformed for the worse; and having been brought down from that which is altogether separated and intelligible to union with matter, and from the universal to the particular; whence there would neither be universal humanity in this way in Christ, nor would the penalty and purification that came to be through Him extend to the whole of humanity. But if the second is true regarding humanity simply, then it would also be true that our Lord was a man according to fantasy and not in truth, as some have babbled. But if the man assumed by the divine Word was from our nature, that is to say, consisting of soul and body, and He assumed a particular man, considering that he is one of the individuals of humanity—Peter, for instance, or Paul—how could the suffering of such a single and particular man, and the virtue [gained] through voluntarily suffering, have been able to achieve the release of sin and the common penalty for it? And how is our Lord Jesus one subsistence and one person, if the divine Word, being a subsistence of Himself in divinity, assumed an individual of humanity and a human subsistence? For there would thus be two subsistences at once ^B towards which many impossibilities follow. Therefore, to those resolving this difficulty, it must first be inquired that not only did the all-good Creator have need of such an economy for the sake of releasing the common penalty, but also for the sake of many other things following upon and preceding this need, which it is not even possible to number nor for those not enlightened from above to know; and even those who are enlightened ^C do not have the power to grasp [them], as it surpasses and transcends human knowledge in a manner befitting God. Next, for the solution of those things being sought, it must be known that it is strictly true that the whole man is in the humanity of Christ, so that the economy that occurred in Him might reasonably follow and also extend to all men. He did not assume a separated form and an idea of humanity; for there is no such form—even if it seemed so to some, very foolishly and falsely—nor [is there] a universal form; for such a form is not a reality by itself, but is only a matter of our own conception, consisting [in our mind] by the abstraction from the particulars, [existing] in the human intellect—I say this [as] the wise [would]—and by the turning back of such a concept, traversing and containing all the individuals. But in reality, it is only in each of the individuals, and it is whole in each, and not more in this one than in that one; for each [individual] possesses the whole of humanity, not as it is contained in the many individuals by discourse and conception, but as it is enclosed whole in each of them in fact and according to its own rationale and the "what it was to be" that is in the [particular] reality. Therefore, we do not declare and say that the divine Word assumed the whole of humanity as if having taken on the idea of humanity or the universal concept, but first, because of the uniqueness of such a union; for each of the individuals is not only whole and is called the whole, having the form in reality, as is the case with Peter, but also by possessing this very thing alone, not as participating as in the case of the others, but as being the whole itself and as being reciprocal; for it is the same thing to say "sun" and "sun-ness" and the form or nature of the sun, since it is the only sun. Since, therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ was, by the union with the divinity, a unique man—for no other man like Him has been, nor shall be—and the man was whole and had the whole of humanity, so that if, upon His being born according to the human [nature], it happened that all [other] men ceased at once and He alone remained, He would not be left behind from the whole of humanity by the deprivation of similar individuals, but as existing alone and being the whole man. The same is also true of the other individuals being saved, not being numbered with them nor [living] in the same manner, but ^D surpassing them in the order of the whole.

^A For it was not necessary that such a beneficence should be given gratuitously in every respect to those living then and to those who would be born after them, as it was to those former ones, but rather that, with some justice preceding from them, the door of eternal life should be opened, and the ancestral impediment be dissolved for those who were found in the time of the laws and who both owed and were able to acknowledge well the Divine providence towards them, if they would; and this was to come to pass for those believing and being baptized into His death on their behalf. But it was necessary, on this basis, for them also to accomplish the path to that life through their own efforts; for it was not possible for those who were negligent or who walked in the opposite direction to enter through the gate, even though it were opened, but rather, ^B instead of the natural impediment being dissolved by the will, they were destined to be justly barred by that same impediment. And there was need for this of a most perfect law, of teaching, of example, and of every kind of guidance, because of the great difficulty of a life according to virtue and because the way leading to the true life is narrow and straight. As, therefore, the first man, being the seed and beginning of the human nature, disseminated to those born from him the rewards of divine subjection along with the other good things deposited in his nature, which indeed was the divine purpose concerning him and all, but also disseminated, instead of these, sin and the penalty for it, fitly to all his descendants; so also, it was needful for the Divine philanthropy, wishing to heal all things in a timely and god-befitting manner—as many true arguments establish—to raise up a man as a seed of justice according to the human [state], and of the happiness following upon this, ^C in accordance with the purpose from the beginning concerning men; a teacher of truth, a lawgiver, a pattern of justice, not leading only by life and word to faith and virtue, but also by supernatural wonders and signs, and thus conforming to himself those who were to be saved; and being able to scatter the mist of unbelief and wickedness from the whole earth, shining forth the light of truth, not by forcing the will, but, on the one hand, with the ancestral impediment being dissolved by faith and baptism, and, on the other, personal sin of act being restrained by the observance of the laws given to them, which indeed was the fruit of the divine preaching. The natural seed of humanity, therefore, sufficed for [Him] to be a mere man, just as He was; but that [seed] of spiritual conversion and conduct, ^D through which the way to happiness was to be traveled by those who chose it, had to have great preeminence and power, fitting for a spiritual seed; for the matter had the greatest and most extensive difficulty, as the whole world was departing from the beginning by degrees, and finally had departed altogether from God; so that either it must henceforth face total abandonment and destruction, or [receive] philanthropy towards it, and an arrangement most great and most divine, and one preparing the healing appropriate to the excess of evils.

^A This humanity, taken up and united personally to the divine Word in Christ, served and acted for the sake of the divine Word, because it is of equal weight to the whole of humanity. It was taken up for this reason, that it might become such, and that being such, it might be able both to resolve such evils, and to become the beginning and seed of such great goods. If, therefore, the first man was of the earth, earthy, according to the divine Apostle, bringing sin and the penalty to those born from him, in accordance with the natural seed, why should one marvel and be at a loss as to how the second man, *from heaven*, the spiritual seed, imparted to the whole nature of men the aids from himself? Did not the Word of God, who establishes all things, first cause the humanity in Christ to subsist and then unite himself to it? Rather, he caused it to subsist and united it to himself at once, so that neither was one prior to the other at that time; for the fact that the divine Word existed eternally and was a personal subsistence peculiar to the Godhead of the Trinity was sufficient, through His omnipotence, to cause the man to subsist at the same time in Himself and to join him [to Himself]. Hence, the humanity is not united to the subsistence of the divine Word by composition, nor are the subsistences divided, but the human nature in Christ, while divided by nature from the divine subsistence, is yet united hypostatically and personally, in that it depends upon Him as its cause; and the divine nature in Christ is strictly a subsistence, whereas the humanity is rather *enhypostaton* to it—it is a nature and not a subsistence, as it subsists in Him and through Him, and hence that which is combined is truly one subsistence. By these points, the resolution to the question is sufficiently given, and we conclude, having added a more speculative discourse concerning this.

The Word and Son of God, therefore, looking toward God and the Father, is and is called a connatural species, and is the image of the first Mind who begets Him, generated by nature; but looking toward the things created through Him, the divine Word, He can also be called the species of beings—transcendent, however, and as the creative cause of all, to whom also the specific cause is consequent; for He creates nothing without a species, but while these are distinguished from others in various ways of discrimination, the cause and species of all beings is itself the transcendent species of all, having its power to create from nowhere else, since it is not being assisted by any source when it wills [to create]. The divine Word, therefore, exists as a simple and one species, and by His regard toward the creatures, for He contains within Himself the diverse *logoi* of beings, by the infinity of His nature and power, under one, the most simple species of His Godhead. ^C When He is looked at as directed toward the Father, He is the manifestation of the first Mind, the God and Father, only in Himself as His image by nature, ^D and external to the creative arts, so that they are rather images of the divine Word according to diverse likeness—some more sublime, some more humble—all of them, however, being [reflections] of the trace of likeness, as according to the likeness of will and nature, from which all things are becoming and existing.

The image in humans is exalted above the others, as being also according to a higher likeness, and is a work of the Trinity in God, a very peculiar and unique representation. This Word of God, then, through whom all things were made, the creative, most simple, infinite, and all-wise species of all beings, having caused a man to subsist, did not [keep him] separated from Himself, as He formed the first man and those from him in succession, but as an instrument of His own Godhead united to Him, for the need of the economy for the salvation of the creature; and He reasonably [made] the man thus joined to Him such that He has created man in general, since He is the unique and personal cause of the humanity and of all living things simply, and is defined by this, not by nature but by a transcendent [mode]. Whence the man joined to the divine Word is not, like other men, only an image and likeness of God, but also an instrument of the Godhead, and of the Word particularly, as being personally united to Him; and in this way, He exists as a species common to beings and creative of them, but peculiarly, preeminently, and transcendently [as] His own.

Let us leave the other glory of the humanity in Christ to our Master, by which He was over-glorified in the struggles for the sake of men and was over-exalted, being higher and truly God-befitting compared to the glory [it had] from the union; for the discourse on these matters is different. Such, therefore, is the man in Christ, and having such breadth of worth and power, by which He transverses and encompasses the nature of all men, having become the same to each and to all at the beginning, as a true man, reasonably [He is] a reconciler to the whole human nature, toward the Son of God personally present, and through Him toward God and Father, the renderer of home-felt sufferings for all, and the mediator for all, and savior, and spiritual seed of the true humanity for his own sake; and the species of humanity is shaped by His laws, and is conformed to His own sufferings, and the firstborn of the dead, and the forerunner into heaven of those who are worthy, and the provider from there of those attending to Him, and the unceasing executor of those blessings of that economy, and to those [receiving] the graces from Him from above, and to the just, when the time of the consummation stands near, and to those who are to be justified, the benefactor and sharer of the heavenly [blessings]; and as a father [is to] genuine children, fellow-feaster and fellow-sitter; to our Master Christ, the God-man, be glory unto the ages. Amen.

ADDENDA TO THE WORKS OF MARK OF EPHESUS

OF THE MOST WISE AND MOST LEARNED MARK EUGENICUS, METROPOLITAN OF EPHESUS: AN EXPOSITION OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICE.

^A It would indeed be necessary, according to the command, to pray unceasingly and to offer worship to God in Spirit and in truth. But the preoccupation of the mind with the affairs of this life, and the swarm of concerns regarding the body, distract the many and remove the kingdom of God which is within us, as the Lord’s word requires; and they are hindered from standing by the spiritual altar, offering to God upon it the spiritual and rational sacrifices, according to the divine Apostle, if indeed we are the temple of the living God and His divine Spirit dwells in us. And it is nothing wonderful if this is accustomed to happen among many who live according to the flesh, when we see even some of those who have renounced the things of this world—because they are rationally fighting against the temptations of the passions, and therefrom raising much dust, which darkens the intellect of the soul—not yet able to attain to true prayer, even if the will is not lacking; for sweet is the continuous and unceasing memory of Jesus in the heart, and the ineffable illumination that comes from it. ^B Therefore, by our holy and divine Fathers, who received from Christ Himself and the apostles, a time and place for prayer have been appointed; since they introduced this as a necessary and preordained liturgy, to be performed to God by those who do not live entirely in a beastly manner; and furthermore, the posture of bodily disposition, and the inclination toward which those who pray ought to look, and before these, the state of the soul of the one who is praying. Now, the divine Apostle describes the place, the habit, and the disposition of the soul...

in which he says: I desire therefore that men pray in every place, lifting up pure hands, without anger and disputation. Consistent with these, regarding the place, is that prophetic word: In every place incense is offered to me, says the Lord, and a pure oblation; where by "incense" is plainly meant prayer, and by "oblation," the rational sacrifice of praise: For offer to God a sacrifice of praise, and pay thy vows to the Most High. As to the habit, it is said in the Psalms: The elevation of my hands, an evening sacrifice. Regarding the disposition of the soul, the Savior declared it, saying: When you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone, that your Father also may forgive you your trespasses. And as to the region, it is clear that one must favor the east, as the ancient tradition desires, and Solomon teaches in the Wisdom of Solomon: That it might be known that we must prevent the sun to give thee thanks, and at the dawning of the light worship thee. Every place, therefore, is fit for prayer, but perhaps it is better to offer prayers in a designated, more solemn, and more honorable part of the house. To this purpose, the evangelical words seem to tend, being interpreted readily: When you pray, enter into your inner room. But it is still better, if possible, to be in holy precincts and temples; for they are also called houses of prayer, and in them are the Holy of Holies, in which the mystical and bloodless sacrifice is accomplished, where angels desire ^B to peek in, and where those marked with the holy chrism and sanctified by the relics of the martyrs contribute much to those who pray. The Psalmist also says: Worship the Lord in his holy court, as if it were not entirely permitted to worship outside the court. ^C But one must also genuflect when and where it is necessary, just as the Apostle says: For this cause I bow my knees to the Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named. And elsewhere, he knelt down with them all and prayed. And furthermore, along with the hands, the eyes are to be lifted to heaven, as the Lord showed when praying for Lazarus, the one clearly signifying the elevation of the mind to God and the repudiation of earthly things, and the other, the humiliation and servile supplication. And these things are thus. The time of the day is divided sevenfold by the divine Fathers, who have taken this from David, who states: Seven times a day I have praised thee for the judgments of thy justice. Here, "day" is understood synecdochically as the day and night together, as also in Genesis: And there was evening, and there was morning, one day. And perhaps the number seven signifies that we ought to pray to God throughout our entire life, as a measure of the time in which we live in this world, and as an end of the ages. ^D

Concerning the Midnight Office

^A is the time of midnight. For [rising] from sleep at that hour, we signify the transition from the darkness of error to the free and luminous life [lived] according to Christ, from which we began to serve God. For "the people," he says, "that sat in darkness have seen a great light" (Isa. ix, 2; Matth. iv, 16). For since, in the midst of the night that was poured upon this life, the Savior made his sojourn into the world, and at the same time [we signify] that future restoration, because the Bridegroom of souls will come at midnight, leading in with himself the wise [virgins] into the undefiled chambers, where there is the clamor of those celebrating the feast and a voice of rejoicing that has no end: "Arise," he says, "thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light" (Ephes. v, 14). But from this [time] we also begin the day of the resurrection, and the more solemn of days—or to speak in one word—every day, illuminating the obscurity of the night with abundant fire. And furthermore, since [the night] is the lesser part of time being divided—namely the night, while the day remains indivisible—we would deservedly make [this] the beginning of our hymns to God, ^B from the point at which we remain vigilant until night, having come upon us again, sends us to our rest. David provides an example, saying: "At midnight I rose to give thanks unto thee" (Ps. cxviii, 62). And in the New Testament, Paul and Silas were praying at midnight and praising God, when indeed the great miracle occurred by which their chains were loosened and the jailer was converted to the faith. And first, falling down, we pray three times, whispering those words of the Publican: "God, be merciful to me a sinner" (Luc. xviii, 13), imitating in the very posture of the prayer the manner of that man; for he would not, says Christ, even lift up his eyes to heaven. Afterward, to rise again having been bowed [down] would signify the constitution of souls in this life—in the manner of the Euripus, which flows back and flows forth again—[showing] that it is not fitting to remain lying in malice, but to rise up, with the Spirit aiding our ^C infirmities in prayer.

We perform every prayer, whether beginning or ending, in this way, indicating that we must approach God in humility and, in the same manner, depart from him when going to our due tasks. And immediately, when we are in church and have a priest praying with us, he begins the prayer by saying to God those things which he has received from the words of the apostles for the giving of thanks; for the leader of the apostles, Peter, in his first catholic epistle, immediately from the beginning, says: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. i, 3). And the most divine Paul has these exact same [words] both in the second [epistle] to the Corinthians and in the one to the Ephesians, and indeed in others as well. ^D — Through the prayers of our holy Fathers. But when we are by ourselves, we no longer begin with a prayer of thanksgiving, but with a supplication, and we take our holy Fathers as intercessors and mediators. It is just that we obtain the mercy which we seek. For the priest, as being...

the mediator between God and men, while preserving the image of Christ and having already a firm assurance concerning his petitions, gives thanks for our creation and for the gifts granted us from the beginning, and for those granted later through the incarnation and manifestation of the Only-begotten, and furthermore for those now being asked for and those to be bestowed. Just as our Savior himself, at the tomb of Lazarus and before raising the one who was lying there, says to the Father, "I thank thee that thou hast heard me." ^A We, however, being many, conscious of our own measures, ask to be shown mercy, like that blind man—not, however, calling Him "Son of David," but calling our Savior "Son of God," as another blind man did after he had received his sight—simultaneously with the physical, also the intellectual eyes. For indeed we have been called out of darkness into the marvelous light of God, ^B but even so, through our holy Fathers, we expect to find the God of all propitious. — "Glory to thee, O God, our hope, O Lord, glory to thee." To this we also join words of small measure regarding the praise of God, imitating the divine voices of the angels, which were the first offered concerning God incarnate on earth, that is: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men."

Heavenly King

Holy God

Most Holy Trinity

^A We appeal three times to obtain mercy. — Glory to the Father. — And again, we seal with a doxology those things which we ask of the Holy Trinity. Having been sufficiently prepared by these, as if we were worthy to invoke God the Father who is in heaven, we add the Lord's Prayer which has been handed down to us in the Gospel according to Matthew: "Our Father who art in heaven." — And since most of the things in this prayer given by God are beyond our own condition and merit, we proceed again to petition for mercy, propitiating [Him] if anything has been asked or promised by us contrary to what is fitting: "Lord, have mercy," twelve times. And this [is done] twelve times, I suppose, after the example of the apostles to whom this divine prayer was first delivered. — Glory to the Father. — Then, immediately with the doxology to the divine persons in the blessed Trinity, we seal again the aforementioned petitions. But these are the ^B common preliminary parts of every office; but the psalms are proper to each, being diverse, to which these are also rightly prefixed, since they are of the New Testament, which surely surpasses the Old. And after them follow the troparia, and the prayers for them. Therefore, in the office of midnight, we first sing the fiftieth psalm, which is expiatory for sins and contains confession. "Come, let us worship." — And before this, which is done also with all the appointed psalms, we prostrate three times, by this very same act urging ourselves with words, and as it were gathering together our own thoughts and the powers of the soul, so that we may be attentive to those things which we are saying, and our mind may not be carried away, wandering hither and thither, which we are especially accustomed to experience in the psalms, because they are for the most part difficult to grasp and hard to understand. "Have mercy on me, O God." — Having been sufficiently ^C purified by this psalm of repentance, we immediately add hereafter the 118th, which also bears written the rising of David at midnight and the confession made by him, leading us into a similar zeal, and is altogether filled with those things for which there is especially need of prayer and confidence, and which befits the second glorious manifestation of our Savior, which will occur at midnight, as the parable of the virgins teaches: this, indeed, so that for those who sit in the night of life, the great sun of righteousness may shine; for the opposite yields to and vanishes before the opposite: but this [also], declaring the unexpected nature of the time. For as a snare, he says, it will come upon those who are for the most part sleeping, and the bridegroom will arrive. Then He will distribute to each according to his ^D merits: "At midnight I was rising with a shining lamp to confess to thee concerning the judgments of thy righteousness, by which in the midst of gods thou judgest gods, rendering to each according to his merits," [and] thou rejectest sinners [who are] condemned by themselves, and the rest of the psalm. Which we also sing for those who have fallen asleep in Christ, declaring what kind of confidence, at least he who is truly a Christian, ought to have for those who have lived: "I have kept," he says, "thy commandments and thy judgments, and I have not turned aside from thy testimonies," and other things of this kind. In which also that [is] in some way pleasing to behold. For there is not one verse of this entire psalm which does not wholly have some

of these things. For it mentions either laws, or words, or commandments, or testimonies, or justifications, or judgments, at one time with the blessed prophet seeking success in these, at another ^A promising that he will keep them, if only he happens upon help and assistance from above. There are times, too, when he is bold enough to say that he has done and kept them, as has been said. Explaining the difference between these terms with more common language, while they signify the same thing, would take longer to do at present.

But after the aforementioned psalms, which themselves are from the Testament, the troparia and prayers composed by the holy Fathers are ordered in sequence. And this is common to all.

I believe in one God.

Holy God.

—

Lord, have mercy, 40 times.

More honorable.

God, be merciful to us.

^A Since, as has been said, the midnight hymn is a type of the second coming of Christ and of the resurrection of the dead which will occur at that time, we necessarily make our prayers on their behalf, so that even now we may have a share in the rest from God, and then have boldness in the brilliant distribution of gifts to the worthy. — I have lifted up my eyes, and, Remember, O Lord. Having begun again, we chant certain psalms—brief and appropriate to the time—and troparia and a prayer over them, in the manner already mentioned: Let us pray. — Then, having added a few small things, we are dismissed by the priest, after having first prayed for the kings, according to the apostolic law, and for certain other things as enjoined. ^B We vary this midnight hymn; on Sunday, we omit it entirely owing to the brilliance of the day, chanting in its stead one of the canons called "of the Trinity." On Saturday, however, because we do not rise from sleep at midnight—since this is a day of rest—we necessarily keep the office. — To Thee is due a hymn, O God. — We weave this together with other psalms and troparia, and indeed with prayers as well. And these psalms vividly depict for us the saving resurrection: Let God arise, and the rest that follows. However, we transfer the aforementioned psalms to the morning office owing to the funeral service, as has been mentioned, and also because of the crucifixion and resurrection of the Savior. We omit the entire hymn altogether when, there being some feast, we perform the all-night hymnody. ^C

Concerning the Morning Office.

After this, we finally begin the morning office, in which, when we are in church and with a priest, we first chant some of the psalms—May the Lord hear thee, and, O Lord, in Thy power—which are for the king and the common order, during which the priest offers incense, signifying the imparted gift of the Holy Spirit to those entering the temple at the time of prayer. For it says, "Give incense for the prayers of the saints," and then we chant the Trisagion hymn as is the custom, and after it some troparia ^D consonant with the psalms — Save, O Lord, Thy people. — For the midnight hymn, as it rouses us from sleep, is, as has been said, a type and image of the life to come. But after it, as we advance into the day and its works, having begun to chant what is appropriate to the present life, we first remember those who provide us the means to lead a calm and tranquil life, and then we approach God regarding our own concerns. However, we omit the aforementioned royal psalms when we are in private, making our beginning from the Trisagion. The hymn called the Hexapsalmos also has a verse for the most holy Trinity, first pronounced by the priest, —

^A — and then the confession of the divine incarnation brought by us through those angelic voices: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men." It consists of six psalms, as the name itself signifies, being full of prayer for all and of compunction, and lamenting fittingly the misery of life, while also having something suitable for the time. "O Lord, why are they multiplied?" — of the first, this: "I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord will sustain me." "O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath;" — of the second, "And the light of mine eyes, it also is not with me." "O God, my God, unto thee" — of the third, "In the morning shall I meditate upon ^B thee, for thou hast been my helper." These being interrupted again by the doxology and the thrice-repeated Alleluia, which signifies "Praise the Lord," which we also do in every reading of the psalms, dividing it at certain stations, the others begin again from another start: "Lord, have mercy," and the doxology after this.

The first part has what is suitable to the time: "O Lord God of my salvation, day and night I have cried before thee," for morning is the boundary of day and night. "Bless the Lord, O my soul." The second indeed has: "Thy youth shall be renewed as the eagle's. O Lord, hear my prayer." The third, finally, and last has: "Cause me to hear thy mercy in the morning, for in thee have I trusted." Sealing these again with the doxology and the Alleluia, while the priest makes the supplications for all as is the custom, we again take from David and sing with melody: "God is the Lord and hath appeared unto us; blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord," to which we have attached some troparion consonant to the memory of the day. ^C And these are manifest symbols of the Lord's presence in life, made manifest in the latter times. For, he says, "The Orient from on high hath visited us, to enlighten them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death," which, as joyful things, we omit on days of fasting, and sing the Alleluia in their place.

After this, we take a portion of the Psalter and read it, interrupting this also with doxologies and troparia which are called cathismata, in which we also read from some other part while seated, for the sake of utility and rest at the same time. The reason for the psalms is none other than their great utility and that they are full of divine pleasure, and the absolute necessity of reading the whole holy Psalter of David entirely once or even twice in the week. "Let us sing unto the Lord." ^D Next in order are the so-called odes, taken also from Scripture, and these are completed to the number of nine, because of the number, I suppose, of the angelic and divine orders. Of which the first in order renews the memory of the miracle at the Red Sea, taken from the book of Exodus: "Hear, O heaven, and I will speak," and the second, also from Deuteronomy, renews the memory of the miracles performed in the desert, and there [are] given the grace of the prophetic law. "My heart is confirmed in the Lord." The third offers an adumbration and image of the Church made fruitful from the Gentiles. "O Lord, I have heard thy hearing." After this

^B follows the fourth, in which the mystery of the divine dispensation, or rather the incarnation, is set forth. For God, he says, will come from Theman, and the Holy One from the overshadowed, woody mountain. "From night my spirit waketh." Isaiah, the most sonorous of the prophets, sings the fifth, which also corresponds very fittingly to the season: "From night," he says, "my spirit waketh for thee, O God," and it contains a prophecy of the brilliant resurrection of our Savior. "I cried in my affliction." This also the blessed prophet Jonah prepares by his deeds and words. "Blessed art thou, O Lord," and "Bless the Lord, all ye works of the Lord." And furthermore, the thrice-blessed children in Babylon provide the seventh and the eighth, which appropriately suggest to us the universal hymnody at the beginning of the day. These, then, are arranged from the Old Testament in the manner described. "My soul doth magnify the Lord." The ninth we dedicate to the honor of the most holy Virgin and Theotokos, placing it last according to the aforesaid statements, having taken her ode from the Gospel according to Luke. "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel." And in addition to this, the canticle of Zacharias, the father of the Forerunner. Selecting above all the final verses of all these, we aptly weave in with them chants composed by the Fathers; we call these canons, which we break off after the third and the sixth [odes] with sitting-hymns, and with those things called kontakia, and oikoi, while the priest prays [saying]: "O Illuminator, O Lord." ^C And indeed, at the end, we interweave certain other troparia. We approve calling these "Illustrious" and "Apostolic," because some acclaim the presence of light and invoke spiritual light, while others celebrate the mission of the disciples to the nations on the day of the resurrection. "Praise the Lord." Afterwards, we begin three certain psalms among the rest; we call these "Praises," because in them there is some laudation and some praise of God by all created things in order. For, it says, "Praise the Lord," doing this and that. To these we append at the end a few verses, joining them on their part with other troparia, which we mostly call "Katabasias." "Glory to God in the highest." Afterwards, we append what we have called the Doxology, as the night ends and the day begins, doing that which it is called to do. But it is instituted in a wonderful manner, with words from both the Old and New Testament, and after it the Trisagion hymn and a troparion according to the season; and thus, after the priest has prayed, we are dismissed. ^D

Concerning the First Hour.

^A properly so called, and they conduct themselves in the common manner. For one says: "In the morning you shall hear my voice; in the morning I will stand before you, and you will look upon me — Lord, a refuge." Another: "In the morning, may it pass away like grass; and the works of our hands direct upon us, and the work of our hands direct." "Mercy and judgment." One who remains: "In the morning I slew all the sinners of the land." "Glory to the Father." We seal these with the customary doxology and Alleluia. "What shall we call you?" We sing a certain troparion, and again a Theotokion. "My steps." And setting these apart with a part taken from the psalms, which is appropriate to the hour, we begin again; we sing the Trisagion and what follows, and another troparion again that is, to be sure, appropriate to the time, and then the prayers, "You who at all times," both the common one and the specific ones of the first hour, during which "Lord, have mercy" is prescribed forty times; and these are shared in the aforementioned manner, and thus we perform the dismissal. The general reason for this hymnody in the first hour is that it behooves us to make a beginning to God with the first movements and works of our life, and to pray for the whole of the day from the very outset. ^B

Of the Third Hour.

At the third hour, we begin the liturgy of the same name; for at this hour the all-holy Spirit descended upon the apostles in the form of fire. The order is indeed common to that of the first hour, but the psalms are peculiar, being three in number here too, as are the troparia and the prayers of this hour, which, as is proper, make mention of the coming of the Holy Spirit and beseech that His grace may dwell in us also. To this end, the psalms selected as the best for prayer are also appropriately suited. "Hear, O Lord," the first is: "I shall be satisfied when your glory appears." "To you, O Lord, I have lifted up," the second is: "He will instruct him in the way that he has chosen." "Have mercy on me, O God," and the third is: "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within my inward parts," and what ^C follows.

Of the Sixth Hour.

What are the matters of the sixth hour? They are likewise arranged in the same manner, and they have as their basis the fixation of our Savior upon the cross at this hour, and indeed also the attacks of the evil one, the plotter against our life, at midday—perhaps because at this time men are for the most part resting, just as indeed the hostile power of the night also is active. Everything, therefore, tends toward such themes, and the psalms bring their own proper meanings. "O God, by your name," the first is: "Strangers have risen up against me, and the strong have sought my life." "Give ear, O God," the second is: "Evening and morning and at noon I will tell and proclaim, and he will hear my voice," and that: "Cast your burden upon the Lord, and he will feed you; for before food," and the one that remains, which is the third: "He that dwells in the help," and: "You shall not fear from the ^D terror."

of the night, from the occurrence and the demon of noonday." ^B And indeed the coryphaeus Peter in Joppa provided such an example of prayer. For it says he went up to the housetop to pray about the sixth hour, when he also saw that wondrous vision.

Concerning the All-Holy

Concerning the ninth hour

it is appropriate—*How lovely are thy tabernacles*,—in the first: *Better is one day in thy courts above thousands*—*Thou hast blessed, O Lord*;—in the second: *Thou hast blessed, O Lord, thy land; thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob. Incline, O Lord, thy ear*;—in the third: *Have mercy on me, O Lord, for unto thee have I cried all the day*, and the troparia, and the prayer following them, making mention of the saving passion and death of the Lord. And thus, being released from this, we depart to the vesper hymnody; for indeed, when fasting and single-meal abstinence are not present, this separates the ninth hour from vespers and joins it to the sixth, being sung before food, in which also [we perform] the service called the Typika. These are parts of the things that are added to the sacred liturgy when it is not celebrated, preserving its place, which we adapt sometimes to this, I mean the ninth, and sometimes to that, namely the sixth.

Concerning the Vesper Hymn.

Concerning the After-Supper Service.

we celebrate to God in the flesh. And this too is longer or shorter according to the days: for on fast days we extend it, but on others we shorten it. And the psalms, three at a time, as has been said, are interspersed here as well, with doxologies and troparia as the case may be, and indeed with prayers and certain other things. ^A *When I called.* It is possible, therefore, to see the first one most appropriate to the time, according to what is said: *In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You, O Lord, have made me dwell in hope alone.* [Ps. IV, 9] *O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger.* [Ps. VI, 1] The second, in which he says: *I will wash my bed every night; with my tears I will drench my couch* [Ps. VI, 6]—*How long, O Lord?* [Ps. VI, 3] The third in, *Illumine my eyes, lest I sleep in death.* [Ps. XII, 3] *To You I have lifted up.* [Ps. XXIV, 1] In the second triad, in, *Teach me, for You are God my Savior, and on You I have waited all the day.* [Ps. XXIV, 4] *In You, O Lord, I have hoped.* [Ps. XXV, 1] And, *Into Your hands I will commend my spirit.* [Ps. XXX, 5] For sleep is a certain image of death. ^B *He who dwells.* [Ps. XC, 1] And again in, *I will not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the thing that walks in darkness* [Ps. XC, 5], and the rest. After this we sing certain parts taken from the prophecy of Isaiah, which avail us against the power of demons, who manifest their power especially by night. For, he says, *God is with us; understand, O nations, and be defeated.* [Is. VIII, 9] *The people sitting in darkness saw a great light, for God is with us,* [Is. IX, 2] and as much as follows. *Illumine my eyes,* while in between we add certain troparia and prayers. *I believe in one God,* and furthermore also the Symbol of the Faith. ^C *Have mercy on me, O God.* Again, beginning the fiftieth, we sing it, which indeed we place at the beginning in the short after-supper services, so that it may never be omitted, as it is a teacher of repentance, which we are obligated to show to God throughout our whole life. *O Lord, hear,* and another one appropriate to this time, in which he says: *I have become like a night-owl in a dwelling; I have watched, and have become as a sparrow alone upon the housetop.* [Ps. CI, 7] *O Lord almighty,* and instead of the third psalm, the account of the prayer of King Manasseh, which is a source of repentance and compunction. *O God, unto my assistance,* and, *O Lord, hear.* But there are also others of the small after-supper psalms, and they too are connected to prayer and are significant of the time. ^D *Glory to God in the highest* — and after them the doxology, and all things after it in the same manner as at the beginning of the day, both the troparia, and the prayers, and the customary dismissal.

Concerning the Priest's Exclamations

To ask from God the things that are necessary is common and belongs to us, for He says, "Ask, and it shall be given to you"; but to state the reasons for our petitions—"For it is not on account of us," He says, "nor on account of our own virtue and zeal, but because You are able. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory. Because You are a good and man-loving God"—and to declare other things that are sung concerning God, and sometimes to give glory over these with a bright voice, is, according to Dionysius, that great man of divine things, the duty of the priest, as the interpreter of divine justice. ^B It is therefore his custom to fulfill the petitions together with others, or alone on behalf of the others who are singing these things, but in the clausulae he alone strikes up in a loud voice, directing himself toward God, to whom the prayer tends as a matter of course, and teaching us the causes through which we are to be heard, bringing to mind both humility and a firm hope. For if, he says, it were necessary for us to be heard on account of our own worthiness, we might perhaps have cause to doubt, whenever we are not acting rightly, being changeable and never remaining the same; but since it is because of the qualities inherent in God—which are eternal and ageless—that it is possible to enjoy the things requested, it would not be just to doubt, just as it would not be right to hesitate. The voice of the priest, therefore, expresses a certain divine answer to those who are asking, and casts assurance into the minds of those who understand, and at the same time he participates in a certain way in our songs with which he speaks aloud; and we in turn [provide him] with the prayers, in which we silently offer our ears to him who is speaking, and we add in response, "Amen."

Concerning troparia.

Concerning the hirmos.

Concerning the canon.

Concerning the katabasia.

Concerning the prokeimena.

Concerning the stichoi.

^A longer and greater verses are read than in the others, which are absent in the daily Vespers.

Concerning the kontakia of Romanus the Deacon of Emesa.

Concerning the oikoi.

Concerning antiphons.

Concerning the fifteen genuflexions in the days of the fast.

Why of the communion hymns, "The cup of salvation I will take" is also sung on the feasts of the Theotokos.

would one err if he were also to interpret the divine grace of the Spirit as a cup, as being productive of joy and ecstasy, according to that which was said by David: "Thy cup which inebriates me is as excellent as possible," of which the Theotokos, having been filled—or rather, being already full—uttered such a prayer. Perhaps she exhorts us also to this, that when we receive the saving cup—just as she received the hypostasis of the Word of God—we should call upon the name of the Lord, and together with her magnify the Lord, and give thanks worthily for such great grace.

OF MARCUS, THE MOST HOLY METROPOLITAN OF EPHESUS, THE EUGENICUS: AN EPISTLE TO ISIDORE THE HIEROMONK CONCERNING HIM WHO INQUIRED ABOUT THE LIMITS OF LIFE.

^A You yourself, blessed master, were not at a loss to discover and provide the solution to the matter sought (for in a way you showed this through the abridged and admirable division which you sent to us), and by seeking it from another, you have directed your gaze toward another, to whom the pure abundance of thoughts on life, and the habit and power of speech, provide readiness of expression and elegance of style. For you are aware that I have none of these; and not even the facility for readily yielding to those who command such things. But perhaps, wishing to stir up our sluggishness, which has fallen away due to despondency and illness, you have set this before us as a kind of trial, to see if, by recovering for a short while, we might be able to say something worthy of the subject proposed. Encumbered therefore in the middle, between the danger of disobedience (for you did not inquire simply or as a secondary matter) and the risk of a presumptuous assumption—if I attempt to rake over what has been previously spoken and well-defined by the saints—I shall choose the latter rather than the former, for it is something that all are subject to. For the former admits of correction and is ready for an apology; but for the latter there is no ^B remedy if one, when long commanded, is reluctant and wavering.

The question, then, is whether the life of men is fixed by God, or if death is brought about by nature itself and external accidents. The divine father, Anastasius, called the Sinaite, having set this very thing for examination, being as he was well-versed in such matters, showed by natural and scriptural testimonies that one ought not to think that a certain limit is fixed by God for human life, just as it is not for other actions or sufferings of life; but rather, that of this, as of those, the Divine is blameless—being indeed the Provider of all and able to change all things as He wills, yet nevertheless permitting each thing to nature and to free will. Thus far he. And if anyone should wish to go through what has been written by him, he will marvel greatly and will be in no doubt regarding the decision. But the matter of our great father Basil, which seems to conflict with what was said, he neither solved sufficiently nor did he work it out with precision, proceeding as he was in haste to urgent matters. He says...

that death is brought upon men when the boundaries of life are fulfilled, which the just judgment of God fixed for each person, having foreseen the benefit for each from afar. From this, I believe the inquiry is not so much solved as it is intensified; it seems that each side holds the stronger position, inasmuch as eminent and great fathers were standing on either side of the contradiction, and each was confirming his own position. What then are we to do? We do not set aside one or both of these, since they do not accord with one another, nor shall we malign those who spoke; may that not happen. Rather, we shall reconcile those things and shall delineate the truth as it stands more perfectly, if a word should be granted to us in the opening of our mouth ^A by the help of your holy prayers.

First, having set up both arguments as in a court of law, let us observe where each holds the stronger position.

Those, then, who introduce the boundary into the providence of God seem to plead for it, and they say that there is nothing unreasonable in God being responsible for most of the things that happen in the life of men, whether they be governed by nature, or use choice, or are subject to fortune. And yet, even those things, if they are not from God, are nonetheless not without God, who permits and allows them. For "without him," he says, "not even a sparrow shall fall upon the earth" (2). With regard to death, which is the closure and end of all, who would say that the reins are not held by God alone, unless he wishes to appear to be saying things that are entirely absurd? For even a servant, when sent for service, calculates for himself the manner in which he will serve, and will provide an account of what has been done, but he will certainly observe the time of service that the master assigns to him. Furthermore, if the maximum boundary of human life is seventy or eighty years, as David says (3), how is he not entirely treated unjustly who has not reached this measure, but has been snatched away in the interim; unless we give to divine providence the task of setting a limit on and bringing about death for the benefit of each? For this greatest and most precious living thing, which has come into being according to the image of God (4), is not destroyed at random, as if it were some irrational creature. For things that pass away remain for nothing of the future; but for the soul, the most sovereign and noble part, once it has departed from here, ^B it moves to its own proper place, having lived here for a time as if one had feasted or spent time in a theater for one day, or perhaps two, and then departed to one's own home. Therefore, providence is so great throughout the course of life, that even the hairs of the head are numbered (5). How, therefore, is it possible for one to have departed from here, but that it happens according to the just decree and predetermination of God, who both knows what is past in life and foresees what is future; and thus death comes for one's own benefit? And this is taught by the Great Basil, who has such great consensus among all that no one would dare to hold the contrary opinion without seeming ridiculous. Hezekiah, to whom fifteen years were added when the number of his life had come to its set limit, bears witness (6). On the contrary, another king of the Chaldeans (7), having sinned greatly, had his boundaries cut short. And David too, saying to God (8), "Do not take me up in the midst of my days," signifies the boundaries of life, praying that these might not be cut short. Thus, even if another has been snatched from death by some divine miracle and the intercession of saints, it is not demonstrated that there are no boundaries of life, but rather that there are such, since God is able to postpone fixed boundaries when those are changed for the better, and conversely to cut them short when those are moving toward the worse. These things are also beneficial to the living, persuading them to look only to God as the Lord of life and death. "For in his hand," he says, "is the breath of the living," and he removes the grief regarding the dead, as having moved them according to the benefit decided by the Lord of all things.

The arguments of their own glory have been stated for the other side.

Those who go in the opposite direction say: "We, too, do not abolish divine providence, nor do we deny that death is from God; although we do maintain that it is a penalty for sin and brought upon us by ourselves. For God, he says (9), did not make death, nor does he delight in the ruin of the living." We say, however, that death is from God in the same way that someone might say that what is done by a governor is actually done by the emperor, even if it is not at times with the cognizance of the emperor; but since it is he who has appointed the governor, his actions are referred back to him. ^C Here, then, death is brought on by common nature, and the cycle of generation which brings some into life and necessarily leads others out. But it is said to be brought upon each for their benefit by God, not only because nature was established by him, but because divine providence follows along in all things, and is indeed aware of them, not hindering but permitting nature to do its own work. Thus it happens that one dies from neglect, or having used food badly, or having fallen among robbers, or having perished in war, or being caught in an accident, or having drowned during a shipwreck at sea; and indeed, some have even killed themselves. All of these things fall within the scope of divine foreknowledge.

^A Thus we say that God has known these things beforehand, and has permitted them according to reasons which He alone understands; but to say that He predetermines them, or is the cause of them, is something we would not be so mad as to assert. But if someone were to say that He does not predetermine the manner of death, but only the time, even this is refuted by those who speak thus. For what need is there for predetermination if it is undone by prayer, and this not just in one or two, but in many cases? And if it is not undone, why then do we pray at all? Those who speak of predetermination in such fair-sounding words unwittingly affirm a kind of fated and inescapable necessity of death. And let them hear what those who believe in fate are told: that there is no need to call for doctors, nor to take any care for the healing of the sick. And why, then, is a plague transmitted naturally from one person to another, and many who attend to the sick die themselves along with those they are treating? Let him who introduces these "limits" explain this. ^B But all such things are, properly speaking, the work of nature and of the coinciding circumstantial timing; it is said that God permits them, not that He works them, let alone that He predetermines them. For He does not Himself predetermine the death of the Scythian and the Sarmatian; but, just as the union of two, man and woman, brings about birth—and when we hear that a man is joined to a woman by God, we do not think of each individual case, nor do we include unlawful marriages—but rather we understand by the matter itself the general law of nature, so, in like manner, regarding death, it is right to understand the established law of nature concerning life; that is, the time for living which is naturally measured out to each person. God annuls this when He wills, in every way for the benefit of the one who also established nature itself. For this reason, many have often been miraculously saved from fatal diseases and great dangers; while others, in close association with the sick and breathing the same air as them, have been kept unharmed.

These are the opposing arguments. And if anyone accepts us as arbiters, we side with the second, and we grant it the victory, and we declare with full confidence that it is wrong to say that the most indefinite of all things is defined by God. For what is easier than for a man to die? A mere chill passing by has often caused it, as one has said, or an excess of drink, or a horse running away, and countless other such things. It remains for us to reconcile the stated texts and to resolve the problem of those who introduce these "limits." For the great Basil, and following him, Theodore the Studite in his poems, teach that a limit of life is set for each person by God. Now, those who say that this limit is God’s foreknowledge, as it encompasses all things, seem not to have grasped the target ^C of what was said, but only to have touched upon them superficially.

For "limit" and "foreknowledge" are not the same thing; rather, foreknowledge is broader than a limit. For what someone limits, he also certainly foreknows; but what he foreknows, he does not necessarily limit. Just as everything that is human is also a living creature, but not everything that is a living creature is human. We shall truly call a human a living creature, but we shall by no means call a living creature human. And thus, while we shall truly predicate foreknowledge of the limit, we shall not truly predicate the limit of foreknowledge. It seems that the Apostle (1) also knows how to distinguish these, where he says: "Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son." Therefore, the term "limit" is not used by those teachers in place of "foreknowledge." How, then, shall we make sense of the statements? We say that if it had been their intention to discuss this question—which the divine Anastasius did—they would have said whatever he said, and even more and more wonderful things, and things more in accordance with precision. Since, however, they gave what they said based on the occasion, they perhaps declared something that applies to a part as if it were a whole, for the benefit of their hearers. For many things are spoken of in this way among the Fathers and in divine Scripture: things that are particular in existence are spoken of simply and absolutely, and therefore seem to be spoken of as universal. For example, as the Savior (2) says: "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do." And yet, not everyone who believes in Him does works greater than His. And the Apostle (3) again says: ^D "But we have the mind of Christ," yet not all, but he himself and those according to him. And to the Corinthians again (4): "And ye are of him in Christ Jesus." Yet not all were of God; for there were many such, to whom he says elsewhere (5): "For ye are yet carnal, and walk as men." And Solomon (6): "Riches and poverty are of God," but not every form of wealth, nor every kind of poverty. And one might find many other such things. Such, I think, is the passage in the great Basil concerning the limits of life: "For deaths," he says, "are brought upon men when the limits of life have been filled." He does not say upon all men, but upon the faithful and those to whom he was addressing his discourse; and among these, not to all, but to the best and most intimate ones. For of these, God predestines not only their end, but all things concerning their life. And the divine Apostle (7) says: "Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son." And the theologian Gregory (8): "According to the great counsel and foreknowledge of God, who from afar knows how to establish the foundations of great events," and just as

^A in the first creation, among other things, God said, "Let there be light, and let there be a firmament" (1), but as regards man, He also needed counsel to show the honor bestowed upon him. For He says, "Let us make man in our image and likeness" (2), "and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air." In the same way, then, He commits all others to the common course of nature, differing but little from the irrational creatures, or if not, living even worse than they in their irrationality. But concerning those who are His own and his friends, whom He has chosen out of the world (3), He says that He not only foreknows but *also* predestines them; this is a word indicative of honor and of the greatest dignity. For, just as a king provides for all his subjects, but for those who are in office and are most intimate through himself, while for the others through those [officials], so too, surely, God says regarding the multitude of men: "He makes His sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and ^B on the unjust" (4)—and these things are surely common even to the irrational creatures. But regarding His own: "But the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (5), showing the extraordinary providence He exercises over them. And to the many He grants only existence because of His goodness (for this, indeed, is what they require), but to His own He grants both well-being, and, furthermore, eternal well-being. The death of the former is natural, and of some, indeed, it is evil ("For the death of sinners is evil," it says (6)). But how could that which is evil be predestined? But the death of these [saints] is precious, both in itself and because it offers glory to God. "For precious," it says (7), "in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." This, therefore, is also predestined, as was that of the divine Peter: "You will stretch out your hands," He says (8), "and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go." By this He was speaking, signifying by what death he would glorify God. Do you see who it is whose death is predestined? For the divine Maximus, in defining predestinations, says that these are divine and good wills, pre-established before the ages in God. If, therefore, predestination is a good will of God, and He in no way wishes for the death of sinners, being good ("For I do not desire," He says (9), "the death of the sinner, but that he should repent and live"), then the death of sinners is not predestined by God, nor is that which occurs simply according to nature. But if one were to set forward the philanthropy of God toward some of the sinners and the delay of the ^C death of the lawless man, the Lord says, in order that He might turn him from his evil way, and that he might live. And he might even bring forward the fruit of the barren fig tree, which is allowed this year (10), since even those are for the most part already of the portion of the saved and for this reason are predestined; such as was Paul, who, permitted to pursue those persecutions and that madness, became instead of a persecutor a herald of the Gospel, and a chosen vessel, and a teacher of the Gentiles (11), and a leader of the choir of the Apostles. For this reason he says that he was set apart from his mother's womb (12) and describes himself as set apart by God (13). What, then, would he be, differing from the others, if all of *their* things were likewise set apart and predestined? These, then, are [things regarding] particulars and happening to few; but to pronounce generally upon those which are in part is absurd, besides the fact that it is of no use to the argument introducing universal predestinations. For if God wishes to cut them off, but spares them either because He is besought or because He foresees the future, then He does not simply predestine the death of all. Consider this also from here: if particulars and individuals are by nature indefinite, but God does nothing contrary to nature, then God does not define the indefinite, that is, the particulars; therefore, only the universals, and of those which are in part, as many as are first among others and more precious and are the sustainers of the others. "You, indeed, number the ten thousands," the voice of the Theologian says (14), "but God numbers the saved; and you number the measureless dust, but I number the vessels of the election." But one should also consider it thus: all things occurring in the world happen ^D either by the good pleasure of God, or by permission, or by allowance, or by abandonment. Those things, then, which happen by the good pleasure of God, that is, according to His good and acceptable and perfect will, as the divine Apostle says (15), these we say are also predestined by God, whether it be death or any other such thing; but the rest, by no means, as is clear from the names themselves. We shall not, therefore, say that every life is defined, nor that every death is predestined; but only that of the righteous and those who are friends of God, of whom not even a hair of their head perishes without the will of God.

If these things seem to you to be sufficient, most holy master, this would be due to the cooperation of your prayers, in which I, trusting, did mostly undertake the discourse concerning these matters; but if it falls much short of what is required, let a portion be attributed to the brevity and nothingness of my own mind, and another portion to the weakness now especially afflicting me, by which I have been allowed to speak and compose even these things with difficulty.