Book Against the Manichaeans

therefore let Holy Scripture say nothing further about the Trinity, except that God the Father is the Savior, and the Son is generated by the Father—this alone we must believe, which is written. And having shown that the Holy Spirit is uncreated, we must consequently understand that, since His substance is not created, He is rightly joined to the Father and the Son.

^B The present words are sufficient, regarding the poverty of our eloquence, as an indication of my fear that I have dared to speak about the Holy Spirit. For whoever blasphemes against Him shall not be forgiven, not only in this age, but also in the coming one; nor shall any mercy and pardon be reserved for him who has trampled upon the Son of God, and has done injury [or contumely] to the Spirit of His grace, in which he was sanctified. This must indeed be understood of God the Father as well. For he who blasphemes against Him, and acts impiously, shall be tormented without pardon, with no one to pray to the Lord for him, as it is written: "But if a man sin against the Lord God, who shall pray for him?" And likewise, he who denies the Son before men, will be denied by Him before His Father and His angels. Therefore, because no pardon is granted to those who blaspheme against the Trinity, ^C we must take care with all diligence and caution, so that we do not err even in a brief and small discourse when debating about it. Rather, if anyone should wish to read this volume, we ask that he cleanse himself from every evil work and from most wretched thoughts, so that, with an enlightened heart, he may be able to understand what is said, and, full of holiness and wisdom, forgive us if our execution has not fulfilled our intention, and consider only with what mind each thing was said, and not in what words it was expressed. For just as we boldly claim for ourselves the sense of piety according to our conscience, so, in regard to all that pertains to speaking about it, we candidly confess that rhetorical grace and eloquence, along with the coherence and text of the discourse, are far from us. Indeed, it has been our endeavor, while discussing the Holy Scriptures, to understand piously what is written and not to be unaware of the inexperience and limitations of our speech.

DIDYMUS, BOOK AGAINST THE MANICHAEANS

Chapter I. No opposition of contraries is absolute.

receives reasons. Therefore these also have ^A commonalities, so that they exist and are substances, and if anything else occurs about them and in them which is common. Yet it is the fact that one is good and the other is evil, and again that one is light and the other is darkness, that makes them contraries. Therefore it is understood that these are substances before they are good and evil. That they are contraries, then, is not on account of what is common, but on account of their property. But it is posited that these are ingenerate; yet there is nothing that precedes the ingenerate. But before these there is something, namely that which I said exists in them commonly. Therefore the principles are not ingenerate. For these are the ingenerate contraries; but that which exists in them commonly is prior to them. Therefore the principles are not ingenerate, for the very reason that nothing is prior to the ingenerate.

CAP. II. The evil principle is not ingenerate, because it is corruptible.

But if they should say that it is not by the reason that they are ingenerate ^B that they are contraries, this too will be found to be common to them. But again, because evil is ingenerately evil and good is ingenerately good, the ingenerate evil will be found to be common to both, and the ingenerate good common to both as well. If, however, it is impossible for the good to be found without the ingenerate, and the ingenerate is common, then that which necessarily accompanies the ingenerate will also be common; and this is the good.

But if they say that the ingenerate is not common to them, insofar as it exists in one but does not exist in the other, then the ingenerate will be either the good or the evil, but not both the good and the evil. Wherefore, if the good is found to be ingenerate, the evil will be generated.

Moreover, every evil is to be punished; but nothing that is to be punished is incorruptible: therefore no evil is incorruptible, lest it be corruptible in an incorruptible way. Nothing that is corruptible is ingenerate; but evil is corruptible; therefore evil is not ingenerate.

Nothing ^C is evil according to substance, because evil is a quality; but no quality is a substance; therefore evil is not a substance.

All contraries destroy one another; but things that are ingenerate are not subject to any destruction; therefore they are not contraries, for those things which are contraries are not immune to corruption.

Nothing ingenerate is subject to change; but the good is changed when it is overcome by evil; therefore the good is not ingenerate.

There is in the ingenerate no innate appetite for any corruption, nor any power of corrupting and destroying; but such an appetite is in evil; therefore evil is not ingenerate.

Divine Scripture says that not only humans who are evil are to be delivered to punishment, but the devil himself. ^D Now everything that is delivered to punishment is subject to change; but nothing that is subject to change is ingenerate; therefore nothing among those things which are evil is ingenerate.

Of things which are entirely contrary, there is nothing in common. Therefore, there is every necessity that what resides in the one should not reside in the other. It is of the nature of the Good to be unbegotten; therefore, neither of these resides in the Evil. ^A Thus, Evil is as nothing.

Whoever rightly desires anything, while he desires it in such a way, nothing prevents him from obtaining what is desired. But God desires to bring wickedness to destruction: therefore, wickedness is of the number of those things which are subject to destruction. And being of those things which can be destroyed, it will be destroyed; ^B and being destroyed, it is not unbegotten.

If evil were unbegotten, it would be evil according to its nature. But no one sins while performing and working that which is according to his nature. Therefore, Evil does not sin; and that which does not sin is not blameworthy. But Satan is blameworthy and guilty; therefore, he is not unbegotten.

Cap. III. Humans, children of wrath.

For Holy Scripture calls men children and offspring of the actions and pursuits to which they devote themselves. Therefore, it calls those who are irascible, and those who are enslaved to any other vice (since for that reason they are subject to the penalty of wrath), children of wrath, ^C just as Paul says: *And we were by nature children of wrath, even as others.* There is nothing to prevent such persons from being changed, so that they are no longer children of wrath by nature. Finally, Paul, speaking of himself and of those who became holy in a similar manner, says that "we were by nature children of wrath, even as other men who are still at this point in sin"—wherein the word "by nature" signifies not that which is from nature, but that which is in truth. For he says this, "We were by nature children of wrath," in order to declare that those who sin are in truth subject to wrath; and just as one becomes a child of wrath by nature by having wickedness attached to him, ^D so, by changing, he becomes a child of truth and virtue.

Thus it has been said by the Savior concerning certain ones: *Wisdom is justified by her children;* calling those who are wise children of wisdom. For since those who are children of someone have their existence from their parent, and those who are "of a certain sort" have their existence from the quality that has accrued to them, they are deservedly called children and sons of that quality. Just as it has been said by the Savior, "These wise ones are children of wisdom," so also He called others children of peace, saying to the disciples: *If you enter into a city or into a house, and if a child of peace be there, your peace (that which is given to the city or to the house) shall rest upon him who is in it, the child of peace.*

Cap. IV. The prudence of the children of this world.

Again, the same Savior says: *The children of this world are wiser than the children of light in their generation;* calling those children of light who are illuminated by the knowledge of the truth and by works of virtue. To these, who had already become light, since they were children of light, He says: *You are the light of the world.*

But those who love the present life, and refer everything they do to it, He named children of this aeon. Although He did call them ^A more prudent than the children of light, He did not call them more prudent in an absolute sense, but "in their generation"—that is, in the affairs pertaining to this aeon, they are more prudent than the children of light. For they are wise to do evil, but they have not understood how to do good. And it is also written concerning Judas that he was the son of destruction. For the Lord said of him, *None of them perished, except the son of destruction.* He called him the son of destruction because he did those things which are of destruction, and which sink one into ruin. For he was not such a person when he was one of the apostles and was ministering to the Savior along with them, but became so when he turned traitor to the Son of God and Teacher, having loved the silver of destruction. And that he was not evil by nature, he heard, along with all the disciples: *Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.* If He calls those who sin wolves, and those who apply themselves to virtue sheep—if Judas were naturally evil, he would not have been a sheep of Christ, since one who is evil by nature cannot practice virtue. But not even the devil himself is evil by nature, but became so by the change of his own free will.

Cap. V. How the body of sin is formed.

^B Just as, therefore, not only of evil actions and pursuits, but also of honorable ones, those who practice them in the aforementioned manner are called sons and children—by which logic they were called the offspring of qualities because they receive from them the being which they have from that quality and its function—so too, with good reason, is flesh of sin and the body of sin not said of anyone in an absolute sense, but because it serves sin. For a man, by abusing his body and flesh for lust and other similar energies, makes his body a body of sin and his flesh flesh of sin; just as a zealous person, through temperance and the virtue that follows it, sanctifies his own body and soul. The virgin, therefore, is made holy in body and spirit (that is, in soul), just as Paul writes, saying that a virgin must not be distracted by earthly things and cares, *that she may be holy in body and spirit.* But he also writes in the Epistle to the Corinthians: *Glorify God in your body.* If God is glorified in the body of men, and God is not glorified in what is evil, then the body is not evil by nature, even though the sinner makes it so by using it for the purposes of sin. And again, ^C after a few words, he addresses his own: *Know you not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have of God? If any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy: for the temple of God is holy, which you are.*

Cap. VI. If the body is evil by nature, it does not receive sanctification. The body can be sanctified.

But also in the Epistle to the Thessalonians, the same ^D

The Apostle writes: "May the God of peace sanctify you wholly, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the arrival of our Lord Jesus Christ." ^A For how can anyone be wholly sanctified, and have his whole body preserved, if the body is not naturally capable of being sanctified, being evil? If it is evil by nature, it is not receptive of sanctification; but if it receives the good, it is evident that it is not evil by nature, being capable of the good. For what is evil by nature is not receptive of the good, just as what is good by nature is not receptive of evil.

The same Apostle writes in another Epistle to some: "Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." By this very word and form of speech, he shows that the flesh is also so constituted that it may be cleansed from the defilements of sin that attach to it, and likewise the spirit and the soul. If the flesh were evil by substance and the spirit good by substance, the spirit would have no defilement, nor indeed would the flesh be cleansed from defilement. Yet he commands both to be cleansed from defilement, stating also the method of this cleansing: "perfecting holiness in the fear of God." He does well also to say, "in the fear of God," showing that they possess obedience from themselves, and not from necessity. If, by perfecting holiness in the fear of God, we cleanse our own flesh and spirit from defilement, it is clear that this occurs when holiness arises within us. For just as the soul is cleansed of ignorance and injustice by the presence of knowledge and justice (for the flight of vice makes a path for virtue, which is its contrary), so by the arrival of sanctification, the flesh and spirit are cleansed of defilement. By "spirit" in these contexts, he signifies the soul, just as in the Acts of the Apostles, the Apostle Stephen, while being stoned and about to die, said in prayer: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." For by those words he did not mean anything else as his spirit than his soul. ^C Since, therefore, the flesh and the spirit are in many places spoken of sometimes as of sin, and sometimes of sanctification, and are mentioned as being intended to glorify God, neither of them is evil or good by nature; but they are of such a kind that they can receive either by free will, or receive one or the other according to the use made of them by the one who possesses them. Sometimes they are spoken of as being of sin, sometimes of sanctification. If they, ignoring the passage from which they bring forward that the flesh is of sin, think this to be the case, we, however, setting it forth in its entirety, shall make the meaning manifest. It is as follows: ^D "God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh through sin." What he says is of this sort.

CAP. VII. Why did Christ come from a Virgin? A passage of the Apostle vexed by the Manichæans. The likeness of sinful flesh, arising from sexual union.

"God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh, through sin." What he says is of this sort. The flesh of all men

the existence of human beings ^A arises from the union of man and woman, with the exception of the first parent and that which Christ assumed. For no other reason did the body of man come into being unless male and female were joined. Therefore, because the Savior assumed a body from the Virgin alone, which took its origin without intercourse, for that reason he called the flesh of the Lord a "likeness" of that flesh which is from intercourse. For he did not say simply that he possesses a likeness of flesh, but a "likeness of the flesh of sin." Now the likeness of the flesh of sin is flesh, lacking the others only in this one respect, that it obtained existence without a man. For it was fitting that he who was coming for the salvation of men should not receive a body from the union of a man. Nor again, [should he be] outside the succession of men, like the first man, lest his body be thought to be of a different kind. For if he himself had been formed from the earth, as was the prince of the human race, those who introduce a phantom appearance through the figment of their minds would have had an occasion to suspect that he did not perhaps truly possess a human body. ^B

Cap. VIII. Are marriages evil? The flesh of sin, propagated by carnal copulation, whose origin is from sin. The marriages of the faithful in Christ.

Furthermore, if he had taken a body from the union of a man, since it would differ in nothing, he himself would also certainly have been held liable to that sin which all his descendants contract from Adam by succession. But if they say: "If the flesh born from the conjunction of a man and woman is the flesh of sin, then marriage is evil," let them hear this: Before the coming of the Savior, who took away the sin of the world, all men, just as they acted with sin in other things, so also held marriage with sin. Whence, similarly, it is to be understood regarding bodies born from wedlock: and because the union of Adam and Eve took place after the sin, for that reason it is called the flesh of sin. For he who was immortal before the transgression had become mortal through the transgression; and thus the succession has mortality. Therefore Christ possessed the likeness of this flesh, even though his flesh did not see corruption. ^C But through his coming, just as sin was taken away from other things, so also it was taken away from marriage. And so now, those who live according to the Gospel can have honorable marriage and the bed undefiled, as Paul writes to the faithful: *Honorable is marriage, and the bed undefiled: but fornicators and adulterers God will judge*. By distinguishing honorable marriage, and those who use it, from fornicators and adulterers, he denies that these are fornication or adultery. Wherefore marriage is not a sin. ^D

Cap. IX. An encomium of virginity. Evil by comparison; what is good in itself. Virginity, the companion of virtue and faith; and persecution. The struggle for the Christian is heavier in proportion to his strength.

It may also be said more naturally: Virginity is a certain divine thing, and is splendid in the estimation of virtues. If anyone, therefore, comparing marriage with virginity, should say that marriage itself is a sin, it is not absolute sin. For evil does not [exist] in the comparison of good.

is evil, but it is such in itself. If at any time something is called evil in relation to some good, that thing itself would also be good, though inferior to the good preferred to it. ^A Those, therefore, who come to the Gospel come to it first of all so that they may practice piety and become wise according to God. To this there follows the being opposed by some; for it is necessary for them to take up Christianity firmly. And the firmness comes from the exercise in temptations. Hence it is necessary for them to endure struggles. And just as those who set up the games, if they are concerned for what is reasonable, do not pair this athlete with that one by chance, but with great precision, looking to the proportion of each one's strength; so too our arbiter of the games, Christ, does not pair everyone with the same adversaries, but according to the age and strength ^B of each, he assigns the opponent with whom the struggle is to be joined. Thus, to the Corinthians, who were still infants, Paul writes that they were held by the passions of the flesh: "No temptation has overtaken you, unless it is human" (1 Cor. x, 13). For the temptations and struggles of these people refer to human matters. But regarding himself and those similar to him, of equal balance and equal strength, he writes, saying: "We do not have a struggle against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, and against the powers, and against the world-rulers of this darkness of this age"; as if he were saying this: "For us who have ascended to a higher rank, the struggle is no longer against blood and flesh—that is, against human things—but against the ranks of the opponents who have also ascended." These are species of rational beings who have become evil ^C by the exercise of their will.

Let no one assume that, by saying "species of evil rational beings," we are speaking of an evil essence. For there are species and genera also of those things that exist by free will. We say, for instance, that there are species of the honorable: the just, the temperate, the prudent. Since virtue is a genus divided into species—into justice, temperance, and the rest—it is necessary for him who participates in the genus, being a virtuous person, to be, as it were, a genus of those who participate in the species of virtue; likewise, also, since knowledge is a genus, and grammar, music, and the others [are its species], we say that the one who is named after the genus—the "knowledgeable"—is a genus of those who are named after the species of knowledge. ^D Even if, therefore, we speak of species of evil rational beings, we mean that all who fall under these species are such by their own will. Certainly, then, the names that have been mentioned, "evil," are indicative not of essences but of choices.

Cap. XI. Diabolus, the name of a will and its depravity. Judas, diabolus. Judas, a good elect, became evil and a diabolus by his own will. Diabolus, an accuser and slanderer. Satanas, an adversary.

For the name "diabolus" (devil) signifies not an essence, but a will. Straightway, then, even Judas, a man,

when he was a man, the Lord called him a devil, not ^A on account of his substance, but on account of his will, when he said to the disciples all at once, including Judas among them: "Did I not choose you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" The Evangelist subjoins: "He said this concerning Judas, who was about to betray him." For if he was called a devil on account of his future betrayal, he was not yet a devil at the time when he obtained election with the others. For he became elect along with all the others because of the virtue found in him at that time; but he was named a devil when he performed the deeds of betrayal. If, therefore, in the case of Judas the name "devil" indicates a deliberate action, the word would signify something pertaining to free will when used of anyone else. Nor is the usage of this word in common parlance unknown. We call those devils who slander others to their neighbor, or vice versa, and disparage and calumniate them. Since, therefore, the devil also slanders God to men, and men to God, and men to one another, he obtained this name. If the name "Satan" is also spoken of the devil, let them know that this also is indicative of something pertaining to deliberate choice. For the word, being Hebrew, signifies nothing else in Greek than "the opponent"; and "opponent," when applied to a person, is equivalent to "enemy" or "harmful." Just as the enemy is such by deliberate choice, so too is the opponent; just as are their opposites: for "friend," "well-wisher," "harmonious," and "like-minded" are names indicative of deliberate choices. For this same person is called friend and well-wisher, just as he is called devil, and Satan, and evil. As the Savior in the Gospel teaches the disciples in prayer, among other things, to say: "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." For the name of the "evil one" is also indicative of deliberate choice. If, therefore, through all these things signified, the originator of evil and the first deserter of virtue is such by deliberate choice, he cannot be evil by necessity of essence. If, however, they were to say that he is evil by essence and that those things by which he is thus named were added to it, let them know that what pertains to free will is not included among things that are essential. For no one says "by free choice" that one is an animal or a stone; for these are essential things. Hence there is nothing of deliberate choice here; for things of deliberate choice are found in those things in which free will itself exists. ^C But perhaps they will say: "Why did the good God bring into the nature of things one who was going to be harmful and a pestilence and a ruin?" Let those who say this know that they are not only opposing us, but all who believe in providence. For many others also, while believing in providence, say that all rational living creatures are from God, in whom evil also grows. If, therefore, concerning the devil these...

they say, and are forced to say this concerning all rational beings. But we, not following them, say: He who created that which is capable of falling into evil by its own inclination is not the cause of evil. For He fashioned a rational animal, which He willed to be good by its own power of choice, possessing the sovereignty to incline in either direction. For He willed it to be good, ^A choosing the good voluntarily. For no created being is able to be good against its will; but all who are good are such of their own free will. It was necessary, therefore, for the one who would be good by his own choice to have the power and the aptitude to lay hold of the good. It followed that it must be capable of both good and evil; having been thus fashioned, the rational being, possessing the power for virtue and for vice, was given a commandment so that it might possess virtue in act, but vice in aptitude alone. For the law of the Creator exhorts, encourages, and cooperates toward virtue, ^B turning nature away from vice. If, therefore, an aptitude for vice exists in the rational being, it is not on account of this aptitude that it is evil. For the powers and choices of both—I mean of virtue and of vice—are ours. For we choose to have the power of virtue, that we may be able also to take possession of it in act; we choose also to have the power of vice. For we possess it [vice] when we have virtue in act. And this opinion is not ours alone, but also that of all who have philosophized correctly concerning rational beings.

Cap. XIII. God is not the author of sin. All minds were created good and for the good. The abuse of art and of laws, while they themselves are unwilling and innocent.

If, therefore, God created the substance which is called the devil, He did not create it as the devil, but as ^C capable of virtue, that it might possess it, and capable of vice, that it might abstain from it. For since virtue cannot coexist with vice, and virtue is a friend to God, He instilled the powers of both into the rational being for this reason: that we might take the one into act, but that we might abstain from the end of the other power, which is the act [of vice]. Thus every rational being was made for the purpose of being virtuous, and not evil. If, therefore, any of the rational beings have run in the opposite direction to their Creator and Provider, the cause is not the Creator and Lawgiver, but those who have set themselves against the laws that were given and the laws by which they are provided for. We see, indeed, ^D even in ourselves, that these things often happen, which we teach our children, wishing to elevate them toward knowledge, so that they might also put it into effect; yet they do not always put it into effect exactly as they were taught; but it happens sometimes that many sons, educated by their fathers in the medical art, do not use the medical art as they ought, applying to those who are sick things that are morbific instead of healthful; and surely the medical art, or he who taught it

exist; and neither then is the medicine to be blamed, nor he who taught it to be accused of a crime. For he did not teach them in such a way that he should act so; for he acts, not as one taught to do. Again, we teach some people laws, that they may defend justice and repel injustice; yet some, by the depravity of their own minds, approach these laws and act contrary to what they have learned. We do not, however, on that account blame the law or the lawgiver. For if they themselves were the cause of the injustice, they would not punish the unjust. For this too belongs to their own judgment and decision: that the unjust man must be punished with just chastisement. Likewise, God punishes Satan and those who transgress the divinely instituted laws. For to certain wicked ones He says: "Depart into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels." ^B

CAP. XIV. The inconsistent ravings of the Manichaeans. The sin of the devil is not an innate malice, but assumed voluntarily long after his creation.

Let those, therefore, who contradict these words know that they speak things contradictory to themselves. For if the devil were evil by nature and foreign to the good God, and one who could contend with Him with equal strength, He could neither have prepared punishment for him nor have been able to cast him into that punishment. Yet He says that fire is prepared for the devil. And this must also be said: if the good God is immutable, as He indeed is, and always relies on the same powers, not being able to do one thing at one time and another at another; and since he was destined, after much harm and many losses accepted from him, to deliver him to eternal fire, why did He not do this from the beginning, when he exalted himself against Him and occupied a part of His realm? For it would have been more just for Him to have decreed punishment against him then, as one who had committed a greater offense. For now he harms men; but then, by their own admission and as they believe, he inflicted harm upon the Divinity itself. The severity and indignation of the law is, however, more just if anyone acts with insolent injury against a king than if against some of the subjects. For if these things must be thought of in this way, they will either attribute to God ignorance as to how He would exact vengeance and hinder the evil, or powerlessness. But neither of these is to be attributed to the good God. Therefore, he did not exalt himself against God as His enemy from no origin; but having been made to be good, he kept the faculty for attaining virtue incomplete and stunted, and he brought to action what was prone to vice and suitable for it. Therefore he is worthy of punishment, and deservedly is he long afterward subjected to it. ^C

CAP. XV. The repentance of those whose evil comes from the will.

But if they should object to that which was said by John the Baptist to those who were coming to baptism with hypocrisy, in these words: "Ye brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance; and do not think to say within yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. And now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." ^D Let them hear that they cannot object to things which they do not receive. For they do not receive John the Baptist, who is one from the Old Testament.

For they do not accept John the Baptist, since he happens to be one from the Old Scripture. Yet, even so, one must speak to them as follows: throughout ^A the entire context, he destroys the notion that some are naturally good and others naturally evil. For he says to them: "Produce therefore fruit worthy of repentance." Now, repentance and its fruit do not apply either to one who is evil by essence or to one who is naturally good. For how could he who is always good be in need of repentance? Or how could he who is naturally evil make use of the good of repentance? For he who is evil by essence cannot turn away from sin; nor, on the other hand, is repentance of any benefit to the good. Furthermore, from the stones which he pointed to, he says that children would be raised up to Abraham, calling the foolish and those still remaining in wickedness "stones." For if these were to repent and believe in God, they would be children of Abraham, who for this reason was called the man of God, because he believed in God, in such a way that his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness.

Chapter XVI. Those who are descendants of Abraham have become a brood of vipers.

Since we have also heard that thing said by them against those who were born from Abraham and other holy men—as if, forsooth, by saying, "Serpents, offspring of vipers," he were signifying Abraham and his descendants—let them learn that they are speaking things contradictory to the consistency of the chapter. For he reproves and rebukes them, because they were not children of Abraham, but offspring of vipers, while they ^C falsely and in vain boasted of being of Abraham. For the Saviour says to them in another chapter: "This Abraham did not do," whom you falsely say is your father. "If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham. But you are from your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he has not stood in the truth." And it is well said, "he has not stood," showing that he had previously stood in the truth. He calls the devil their father because of the likeness of his change and quality. Wherefore, he did not call Abraham and the saints with him vipers. For they had this—their being sons of vipers—from a change, because they used evil teachers, as has been said, according to their own choice. ^D Therefore John says to them: "Since by a change from virtue, you desired to become serpents (for they were not such by essence), cease being offspring of vipers, whose quality you desired to have. For you strove to be evil from the evil, and unjust from the unjust. But since, because you are coming to baptism, you say that you bring a sign of repentance, yet you do this dissemblingly, I say to you: Who warned you to flee from the anger to come?" For he who repents does so for this reason: that by no longer sinning, he may flee from the anger which is to come against the sinners. But he asks, "Who warned you?" in order to say...

who teaches2 to withdraw truly from evil, not to perform the act through pretense; but you do it with simulation, when you approach for baptism. You shall not, therefore, be cleansed. For he who wishes to be cleansed in truth withdraws from sins, and brings forth fruit of repentance of this kind, doing works contrary to the habit of sin. ^B But you have not done this, having condemned yourselves while saying that you have Abraham as your father. For it will not profit you that you are deemed sons of Abraham, but rather that you are his sons in that manner, in which you emulate his faith and his flight from idols. Wherefore, although you were once sons of Abraham, this will not make you safe. For God can make even those who are not now his sons to be his sons. Therefore, he obtains salvation who is a son of Abraham by the reasons of virtue, not he who has existed as his son according to the flesh only. But if he has so existed, let him not boast or be pleased with himself: for it is a thing of such a kind that it may slip away from one to another and be easily changed. Finally, those to whom even this has not happened will be able to attain it. For even Paul says to those whom he had not begotten in the flesh: *In Christ through the Gospel I have begotten you* (1 Cor. IV, 15).

CAP. XVII: The sinner, in the very act by which he sins, has a present punishment

CAP. XVIII: Promise and punishment are both good.

is brought about, being either productive of good, or a hindrance to evil. ^A God, therefore, since He wishes to hinder evil, establishes punishment. But He would not attempt to hinder evil, if that evil could not be hindered: yet that which is hindered cannot be by nature unbegotten. Ignorant men have fallen into error in this matter as well, imagining that punishment is contrary to the promise; for each is a recompense—the one bringing a reward to the good, the other a punishment upon those who have voluntarily transgressed the divine laws.

FRAGMENTS FROM THE LOST BOOKS OF DIDYMUS

^B "Constantly exercise yourself in your own mind with arguments concerning Providence and judgment," says that great teacher and instructor in spiritual knowledge, Didymus, "and endeavor to keep the subject matter of these arguments in your memory. For almost all blunder in these matters. And the arguments concerning judgment you will find in the difference of bodies and in the parts of the world; but the arguments concerning Providence you will detect in those ways by which we are led from vice and ignorance towards virtue and knowledge."

^C From long study and discipline, the violence and ferocity of the passions are weakened.

From the book of Didymus, *On the Incorporeal*. The instructions and exhortations of a teacher contribute to the benefit of the hearers, not when the teacher instructs by word alone, but when he does so also by action consistent with his words, and by adhering to the things he has promised. Again, it is necessary for a true teacher to lead a life consistent with the things he himself has legislated, so that his action may be properly harmonized with his word.

Another fragment was provided by Mingarelli in his notes, p. 277.

IV. A treatise to Rufinus on why infants die, although they have taken on bodies because of their own sins. See the *Works of Jerome*, ed. Migne, vol. II, p. 478 D.