Great Catechetical Oration, Divided into Forty Chapters

^A necessity removes the dogma of the multitude of gods, since the identity which exists through all things, so to speak, leads faith to one dogma.

CHAPTER I

But since the system of piety knows how to discern a certain distinction of hypostases, or subsistence and persons, within the unity of nature, in order that while we contend against the Greeks, our discourse may not be brought down to Judaism, it is again fitting to correct the error regarding this matter with some skillful distinction. For not even those who are alien to our dogma have imagined that the Divine is without reason; and this fact, admitted by them, will sufficiently clarify and demonstrate our position. For he who confesses that God is not without reason will certainly agree that one who is not without reason possesses reason. Yet human reason is spoken of equivocally. If, therefore, one says he understands "reason" and "Word" (Logos) according to the likeness of those things which are in us, he will thus be led to a higher conception. For it is absolutely necessary to believe that reason ^B is appropriate to the nature, just as all other things are. For a certain power, and life, and wisdom are observed in human beings; but no one, because of the homonymy, would imagine such life, or power, or wisdom to exist in God, but rather that the emphasis of such names is humbled in accordance with the standard of our own nature. For since our nature is corruptible and weak, therefore life is short, power is unsubstantial, and the word is unstable. But in the supreme nature, whatever is said concerning it is elevated along with the greatness of the subject under consideration. Therefore, even if it is called the Word of God, it shall not be thought to have its hypostasis in the impulse of the speaker, passing over into non-existence in accordance with the likeness of our own. But just as our nature, being subject to decay, also possesses a word that decays, so the incorrupt and ever-standing nature possesses a Word that is eternal and subsistent. If, then, this be confessed as the logical consequence—that the Word of God subsists eternally—it is absolutely necessary to confess that the hypostasis is in the life of the Word. For it is not pious to think that the Word subsists without life, like stones. But if it subsists, as a certain intelligent and incorporeal being, it lives of necessity. But if it were separated from life, it would not subsist at all. But it has been demonstrated that it is impious for the Word of God to be unsubstantial. Thus, it has been demonstrated as a consequence that this Word is considered to be in life. And since the nature of the Word is believed to be simple, and ^C exhibiting in itself no duality or composition, one could no longer consider the Word to be in life by participation in life. For such a conception—to say that one thing is in another—would not be free from composition; but it is absolutely necessary, since its simplicity is confessed, to believe that the Word is life itself, and not a participation in life. If, therefore, the Word lives, being Life, it also possesses by necessity the power of choice. For nothing that lives is devoid of the power of choice. And it is pious to believe that this power of choice is also possible, according to the logical consequence. For if one does not confess that it is possible, he will certainly establish that it is impossible. But it is far from the conception of the divine ^D

^A that there should be considered anything unbecoming in the divine nature; it is entirely necessary to acknowledge that the power of the Word is as great as His purpose, so that no mixture or coming together of opposites—of weakness and power considered in the same purpose—might be perceived about the Simple, if indeed He were able on the one hand, but unable on the other. But the choice of the Word is all-powerful and has no inclination toward any evils; for an impulse toward wickedness is alien to the divine nature, but whatever is good, this He also wills. And being willing, He is altogether able as well. And being able, He is not such as to be inactive, but leads every good purpose into action. The world is good, and all things in it are perceived wisely and skillfully. Therefore, all things are works of the Word who is living and subsisting, because He is the Word of God, and who chooses because He lives, and is able to do whatever He might desire, and chooses what is good and wise in every respect, and whatever else is of higher significance. Since, therefore, the world is acknowledged to be something good, and it has been proved through what has been said that the world is the work of the Word—of one who both chooses the good and is able—this Word is something other than He whose Word He is. For in a certain way this also belongs to the things said of something relative. Since it is necessary in every respect to understand the Father of the Word along with the Word. For there would not be a Word, if He were the Word of no one. If, therefore, the mind of the hearers distinguishes by the relative significance both the Word Himself and Him from whom He is, the mystery will no longer be in danger of clashing with the Hellenic assumptions nor of aligning with those who uphold the Jewish views; but it will equally escape the absurdity of both, by acknowledging the Word of God as living, and active, and creative—which ^C the Jew does not accept—and by not destroying [*] according to nature both the Word Himself and Him from whom He is. For just as we say in our own case that the word comes from the mind, neither being the same as the mind in its entirety, nor altogether something else—for on the one hand, to be from Him is something other, and is not He Himself; but on the other hand, for Him to bring the mind into the manifest, one would no longer suspect Him to be something other than that, but as being one in nature, He is other in subject—so also the Word of God, while He is separated from Him from whom He has His subsistence by the fact of subsisting by Himself, yet by showing these things within Himself which are observed concerning God, He is the same as He who is found through the same characteristics according to nature. For whether it be goodness, or power, or wisdom, or eternal being, or that which is insusceptible to wickedness and death and corruption, or that which is perfect in all things, or any such sign whatsoever that might serve as a token of the comprehension of the Father, through the same signs you will find also the Word who subsists from Him.

CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER III.

by believing in the Spirit—the error of the Greeks, which is the polytheistic delusion, as the unity according to nature circumscribes and confines the phantasy of plurality. Conversely, if the oneness of nature is to remain from the Jewish conception, and the distinction according to hypostases from the Greek, the impious supposition is appropriately healed from both sides. For the number of the Trinity is, as it were, a certain medicine for those who err regarding the One, while the principle of unity is a medicine for those who are scattered into a multitude.

CAPUT IV.

CAPUT V.

^A, they will surely admit that they preside over what exists. But it has been demonstrated in what went before that this Word of God is not mere speech, nor something born of some art or wisdom, but a power subsisting by its own essence, one that chooses every good and possesses whatever it chooses in its power. Now, since the world is good, they must admit that the power which desires and works the good is its cause. If the foundation of the whole world depends upon the power of the Word, as the logical consequence has shown, it is absolutely necessary that we think of no other cause for the creation of the parts of the world than that same Word, through whom all things had their emergence into being.

Whether one wishes to call this Word, or Wisdom, or Power, or God, or any other of the high and precious titles, we will not contend. For whatever word or name is found to be indicative of the subject, it is one thing that is signified by these utterances: the eternal power of God, the maker of things that exist, the discoverer of things that were not, the sustainer of things that have come to be, and the foreseer of things to come. This God, then—the Word, the Wisdom, the Power—has been shown by the logical consequence to be the maker of human nature, not brought to create man by any necessity, but having architected the origin of such a creature out of an abundance of love. For it was fitting that neither the light should be unperceived, nor glory lack witnesses, nor His goodness return to Him so that no one might enjoy it; nor was it fitting that all the other things that are contemplated in the divine nature should lie idle, with no one to be a partaker of them and enjoy them.

If, ^B therefore, man is brought into existence for this purpose, that he might become a partaker of the divine goods, he is necessarily constructed in such a way as to be apt for the participation of those goods. For just as the eye becomes a partaker of the light through the brilliance naturally implanted in it, drawing to itself that which is akin to it by the power implanted within, so it was necessary that something akin to the divine should be mingled with human nature, so that it might have an appetite for its own proper end through what is suited to it. For even in the nature of animals, as many as have received a life in the water or in the air, each was constructed fittingly for the kind of life it was to lead, so that it might be akin and connatural to either, by the specific formation of its body—for the one, the air; for the other, the water. Thus, therefore, it was necessary for man, who was brought into existence for the enjoyment of divine goods, to have something in his nature akin to that of which he was to be a partaker. ^C For this reason, he was adorned with life, and reason, and wisdom, and all the goods that become God, so that by each of these he might have a desire for that which is his own and joined to him. Since, therefore, eternity is one of the goods that belong to the divine nature, it was absolutely necessary that the construction of our nature should not be destitute of this either, but should have in itself the immortal, so that by this innate power it might recognize the Transcendent, and be in desire of the divine eternity. The account of the creation of the world indicated these things in summary when it said that man was made in the image of God. For in the likeness that is according to the image, it is altogether ^D

^A required that the construction of our nature should not be lacking in this, but should have immortality within itself, so that by an innate power it might recognize that which is supreme and be held by a desire for divine eternity. The book on the origin of the world manifests these many things in one expression, saying that man was made in the image of God. For in this assimilation to the image, those things are fully enumerated which express the character of divinity, and whatever Moses traverses in his historical narrative regarding these things—provided, however, that we treat them as doctrine—redolents of the same teaching. For that paradise and the specific nature of its fruits, the eating of which gives not satiety to the belly but knowledge and eternal life to those who taste, all these things harmonize with what was previously considered regarding man: namely, that in the beginning our nature was good and was in good things.

But perhaps one who looks to present circumstances will object to what has been said, and will think he can prove that these things are not true, because man is seen now not in those [previous] states, but in almost all respects the opposite. For where is the likeness of the divine form in the soul? Where is the lack of sickness in the body? Where is the eternity of the soul? Is not man short-lived, passible, frail, and subject to every kind of affection, both in soul and in body? He who says these things and things like them, and attacks our nature, will think he can overturn the argument that has been given regarding man. But lest the discourse be turned away from that which is consequent and agreeable, we shall also treat these matters briefly. The fact that human life is now amidst things that are alien and by no means appropriate is not a sufficient argument ^B that man was never in good things. For since man is the work of God, who brought this creature into existence because of His goodness, no one would rightly suspect Him, whose goodness was the cause of his being created, to be the cause of that defection. But there is another cause why these things are now with us, and why we have been deserted by those things which are more excellent.

The beginning, however, of what must now be said, is not removed from the agreement of those who contradict. For He who made man so that he might be a partaker of His own goods, and who implanted in his nature the supports and occasions for all good things, so that the appetite might be borne toward its like through each thing, would not have deprived man of that which is the most beautiful and excellent of goods—I mean, of the grace which consists in this, that he should not be subject to anything that holds dominion over him, and that he should be of his own right and free will. For if necessity had presided over human life, the image would have been false in that respect, as being something alien to the archetype through its dissimilarity. For how could a nature constrained by I know not what laws of necessity be called the image of the nature that is mistress of all things? That which was therefore assimilated to God in all things ^C had to have in its nature that which rules itself and is free from masterhood, so that the participation in goods might be the prize of virtue.

How does it come about, then, you will say, that he who was honored in all things with the most beautiful and excellent things exchanged the good for the worse? The argument concerning this is also clear. No generation of evil had its beginning from the divine will; for then evil would have been beyond blame, inscribing God as its maker and Father. But evil is somehow engendered from within, coming into being at that moment by the power of choice, when there occurs a withdrawal of the soul from that which is good. For just as sight is an activity of nature, but blindness is a privation of that natural activity, so also virtue stands against vice. For there is no other way for the generation of vice to ^D

occur than the absence of virtue. Just as darkness follows when light is removed, but does not exist when light is present, so as long as the good is in nature, vice does not exist by itself; rather, the recession of that which is better becomes the generation of its contrary. Since, therefore, this is the property of free will, that one may choose by one's own authority that which is pleasing, God is not the cause of present evils for you, having constructed for you a nature that is not subservient but free and unrestrained, but rather ^A the wayward counsel that chooses the worse instead of the better.

CHAPTER VI

You ask, perhaps, also for the cause of the sin that is committed willfully; for the sequence of our discourse leads to this. Thus, again, some principle will be found by us, as is reasonable, which will also clarify this question. We have received a certain teaching from the Fathers, and the argument is not a mythical story, but one that derives its credibility from our very nature. There is a twofold understanding in existing things, divided in contemplation into the intelligible and the sensible. And nothing could be apprehended in the nature of beings that falls outside this division. These are separated from one another by a great interval, so that neither is the sensible found among the intelligible characteristics, nor that among the sensible, but each is marked by its own contraries. For the intelligible nature is something incorporeal, intangible, and formless. But the sensible, as the name itself implies, is within the grasp of the understanding through the senses. ^B But just as in the sensible world itself, where there is much opposition among the elements, a certain harmony has been devised by the wisdom that presides over the universe, joined together through opposites; and in this way there comes to be a concord of the whole of creation with itself, the sequence of coherence being in no way dissolved by the natural opposition; in the same way, a certain mixture and tempering occurs between the sensible and the intelligible through divine wisdom, so that all things might share equally in the good, and none of existing things should be devoid of the better nature. For this reason, the place fitting to the intelligible nature is the subtle, rational, and agile substance, which, in its supramundane domain, possesses a great affinity with the intelligible due to the property of its nature. But by a better providence, a certain blending of the intelligible with the sensible nature occurs, so that ^C nothing in creation might be cast aside, as the Apostle says, nor be devoid of the divine communion. For this reason, the mixture according to man is displayed by the divine nature as being from both the intelligible and the sensible, as the discourse on the creation of the world teaches. For, he says, God taking dust from the earth, the

^A human being formed; and by His own inspiration He breathed life into the creature, so that the earthly part might be raised up together with the divine, and that one grace, according to an equal honor, might extend through all creation, the lower nature being tempered together with the supramundane. Since, then, the intelligible creation pre-existed, and to each of the angelic powers, in accordance with the constitution of the universe, a certain operation had been assigned by the Authority presiding over all things, there was a power appointed to contain and hold together the earthly region, having been strengthened for this very thing by that Power which orders the whole; then the earthly creature was fashioned as an image of the power above—and this living being is man—and there was in him the godlike beauty of the intelligible nature, tempered by an ineffable power. He who had been allotted the administration of the earthly region took it as a terrible and intolerable thing ^B if, from the nature subject to him, any essence should be shown forth that was made like unto that dignity which surpasses him. Now, as to how it came to pass that he fell into the passion of envy—he who was created by Him who established all things in goodness without any evil—to examine this with precision is not the task of the present treatise; but the reason may be presented in a few words to those who are somewhat more incredulous.

For the distinction between virtue and vice, which are opposed to each other, ^C is not contemplated as if they were two things appearing according to subsistence; but just as that which is not is distinguished from that which is—and one cannot say that that which is not is distinguished from that which is by way of subsistence and consistency, but we say non-being is distinguished from being—in the same way also does vice stand opposed to the account of virtue, not existing in itself, but being understood by the absence of the better; and just as we say that blindness is distinguished from sight, although blindness does not exist of itself in the nature of things, but is a privation of the state that had previously existed, so also we say that vice is considered in the privation of the good, like a certain shadow occurring from the obstruction of a ray. ^D Since, therefore, the uncreated nature is incapable of movement that occurs by conversion, change, and alteration, and everything that has come to be through creation is joined by a certain kinship with alteration—because the very consistency of the creature began from alteration, having been translated by divine power from non-being into being—the aforementioned power was also created, choosing by the movement of its own free will what seemed best. After it closed its eyes to that which is good and abundant and removed from envy—just as one who, when facing the sun, shuts his eyelids and sees darkness, so did he also, by the very fact of not wishing to perceive the good, perceive that which is contrary to the good; and this is envy. It is agreed that the beginning of every thing is the cause of those things that follow from it in consequence: for example, with health, it is well-being, the ability to work, and living with pleasure; but with disease, it is weakness, being inactive, and having life in misery; thus

also all other things follow from their own ^A respective principles. How, then, that freedom from passion is the principle and foundation of a life lived according to virtue, so that propensity toward vice which is produced through envy became the path for all the evils that appeared afterward.

For since he who had generated envy within himself by turning away from goodness once possessed the inclination toward evil, just as a stone broken off from a mountain peak is driven down the slope by its own weight, so too he, having been torn away from the natural affinity to goodness, and having become heavy and inclined toward vice, was automatically pushed and carried off by a kind of weight ^B toward the ultimate limit of wickedness. And the intellectual power which he had received from the Creator for the cooperation of participating in the higher good, having made this an accomplice for the discovery of things devised through vice, he artfully bypasses man through deceit, persuading him to become his own murderer and slayer.

For because man, having been strengthened through the divine blessing, was high in status—for he was appointed to rule over the earth and all that is upon it—and fair in form—for he had been made an image of the archetypal beauty—and free from passion in his nature—for he was an imitator of the Passionless One—and full of boldness, enjoying the very face-to-face vision of God; these things were fuel ^C for the Adversary's passion of envy. By some force and might of power, however, he was not able to accomplish what he intended, for the power of the blessing of God was stronger than his force. For this reason, he schemes to remove man from the power that was strengthening him, so that he might become vulnerable to his plotting.

And just as, when the fire of a lamp has gripped the wick, if someone is unable to extinguish the flame by blowing, he mixes water into the oil, and by this artifice causes the flame to dim; so the Adversary, having mixed vice into the will of man ^D through deceit, produced a certain quenching and dimming of the blessing. When this fails, the contrary necessarily enters in. Death is contrary to life; weakness to strength; a curse to blessing; shame to boldness; and to all good things, the things understood as their opposites. Therefore, the human condition is now in these present evils, since that first beginning provided the incentives for such an end.

CHAPTER VII.

Nemo vero interroget, an Deus, cum providisset calamitatem quæ erat ad hominem ventura ex malo consilio, ad creandum hominem accesserit, cui erat forte conducibilius ortum non esse, quam esse in malis. Qui enim ad Manichæorum dogmata fraude sunt attracti, hæc afferunt ad suum errorem confirmandum, et per hoc ostendunt esse malum creatorem humanæ naturæ. Nam si Deus quidem ex iis

^A which are, He is ignorant of nothing: but man is in evils: the reason of God's goodness will certainly not be saved if He brought man to life who was to be in evils. For if the operation which is from the Good is entirely of a good nature, this miserable and fleeting life, subject to evils and destruction, is certainly not to be ascribed to the workmanship of Him who is good, but it must be thought that there is another author of this life, whose nature is inclined to evil. For all these things, and those of such a kind, seem to those who have imbibed heretical fraud in the depths like some deceptive color to have a certain force superficially through a certain apparent probability: but to those who are more discerning of the truth, they are seen to be openly weak, and their errors are easy to expose. To me, however, it seems right if we bring in the Apostle in defense of those things which are said against them. For in those things which he writes to the Corinthians, he distinguishes carnal and spiritual constitutions of souls, by those things which are said, showing, I think, that the good or the evil is not to be judged by sense; but with the mind withdrawn from those things which appear outside the body, the nature of the good and its contrary is to be discerned by itself. "For the spiritual man," he says, "judges all things." But that those who bring these things forward have concocted these fabulous dogmas, I believe the cause was this: that by defining the good by the sweetness of bodily pleasure, because the nature of the body is necessarily subject to affections and diseases, as one that is composite and flows toward dissolution: and such affections are followed by ^C a certain sense bringing pain, they think human nature is the work of evil. For if their thought looked more sublimely, and with the mind placed far from that affection which is involved in pleasures, they considered the nature of things that are, free from perturbation of mind, they would not think evil to be anything other than vice and wickedness. But all vice and wickedness has its form and character in the privation of the good, since it is not of itself, nor is it considered in that which subsists. For no evil is situated of itself outside the free choice of the will; but it is so named from the fact that it is not good. But that which is not, does not subsist. And the maker of that which does not subsist is not He who is the maker of those things which do subsist. Therefore, God is not the cause of evils, who is the creator and effector of those things which are, not of those which are not: who fashioned sight, but not blindness; who indicated virtue, not its privation; with the reward of good choice added as the end of goods to those who lead a life from virtue, not subjecting human nature to some violent necessity, as it might seem to itself, drawing it like some animated vessel unwillingly to the good. But if, in the time of a sky shining purely and serenely, someone voluntarily closes his eyelids to vision, the sun is by no means the cause of him who does not see.

CHAPTER VIII.

Concerning those who are indignant that man dies, whereas this occurs rather for the benefit of man, and why death exists.

^A Certainly, he who looks upon the dissolution of the body is indignant, and thinks it a grievous thing that our life should be dissolved by death. Let him, therefore, consider, through this very gloom, the excellence of the divine bounty. For perhaps, by this means, he might rather be led to admire the grace of the providence which God exercises toward man. Life is desirable to those who partake of it, because they enjoy things that are pleasant and delightful. For if any one were to pass his life in pains and anguish, it is judged to be far more preferable for such a one not to be than to exist in pain. Let us therefore examine whether the Giver of life looks to anything else than that we should live in that which is best and most beautiful. For since by the movement of our free will we drew to ourselves the fellowship of evil, having mixed evil into our nature by means of a certain pleasure, like some poison tempered with honey, and because of this having fallen from that blessedness which is understood as existing in impassibility, we were transformed into vice; for this reason, like some earthen vessel, ^B man is again dissolved into earth, in order that the filthiness now inherent in him being purged away, he might be refashioned into the shape he had from the beginning through the resurrection. This doctrine is indeed set before you by Moses in a more historical manner, and through enigmas. Yet the enigmas themselves contain clear and manifest instruction. For after, he says, the first men had engaged in the things that were forbidden, and had been stripped of that blessedness, the Lord clothes the first-created with coats of skins. It does not seem to me that, when the discourse refers the intellect to such skins, it means literally skins; for what slaughtering and flaying of animals is imagined for their covering? But since every skin, once separated from the animal, is dead, I think that the power towards becoming dead—which was peculiar to the irrational nature by providence—was subsequently ^C cast upon men by Him who heals our vice, not that it should remain forever. For the tunic is one of the things added to us from the outside, providing for the use of the body for a season, not joined to the nature. Therefore, from the nature of irrational creatures, death was economically put upon the nature created for immortality, covering it from the outside, not from within, and encompassing the sensible part of man, but not touching the divine image itself. But what is sensible is dissolved, it is not annihilated. For annihilation is the passing into that which is not; but dissolution is the loosening into the elements of the world again, from which it had its composition. And that which has occurred among these things has not perished, even if it escapes the comprehension of our perception. And the cause of the dissolution is manifest through the example spoken to us. For since perception has a connection and ^D

^A a natural affinity with that which is coarse and earthly, but the judgement of those things which are concerned with the good and the noble—which is of a better and higher nature—has gone astray in the testing of the senses, and since the error regarding the good has brought about the existence of the contrary condition, that part of us which has become useless is dissolved by the reception of the contrary. The account of the example is as follows: Let it be granted that someone has fashioned a vessel out of clay, and that this vessel has been filled through some deceit with molten lead. The lead, having been poured in, has solidified and remains in such a way that it cannot be poured out. But the master of the vessel claims it for himself; and since he possesses the skill of the potter, he breaks the earthen vessel along with the lead, and then fashions the vessel anew into its former shape for his own use, having emptied out the material that had become mixed in. So, then, the Fashioner of our vessel also, since vice has been mixed into the sensible part—I mean that which is in the body—having dissolved the material that had received the evil, and having fashioned the vessel anew through the resurrection, free from the admixture of the contrary, will re-element it to its beauty from the beginning. ^B Since, however, there is a certain fellowship and communion of the affections which arise from sin, both with the soul and with the body, and there is a certain analogy and proportion of bodily death to the death of the soul—for just as in the flesh we name as death the separation from sensible life, so also in the case of the soul we name as death the separation from the true life—since, therefore, there is one communion and fellowship of evil, as has been said before, seen in both soul and body (for through both the soul proceeds to action), for this reason the death of dissolution, because of the putting off of the garments of mortal skins, does not touch the soul. For how could that which is not composite be dissolved?

^C But since there is a need for those stains which, being grown into it from sins, have settled upon it, to be removed through some medicine, for this reason in the present life the medicine of virtue has been applied for the healing of such wounds. But if it cannot be cured, the healing is reserved for the life to come. But just as in the body there are certain differences of affections, some of which admit of a cure more easily, and others with more difficulty, and for these incisions and cauteries and bitter medicinal treatments are applied to remove the affection that has settled upon the body; just so, the judgement that is to come hereafter also proclaims ^D as a healing for the sicknesses of the soul—which to the more slothful is a threat and an uprising of grim things, so that by the fear of the repayment of painful things we might be disciplined and trained to flee from vice; but to those who are more intelligent, it is believed to be a medicine and healing from God, who leads His own creature back to the grace that was from the beginning. For just as those who scrape away with incision or cautery the calluses and warts that have grown upon the body against nature, do not apply the medicine to the one being benefited without pain, yet they do not apply the cutting to the harm of the one who suffers it; so also whatsoever [evils] upon our souls, which through the communion of the affections have become fleshly…

^A and have had the superfluous growths of the flesh congealed upon them, are at the time of judgment cut away and scraped off by that ineffable wisdom and power, according to what the Gospel says concerning Him who heals those who are ill: "For the strong," He says, "have no need of a physician, but those who are ill." But because there has come to be a profound connaturality in the soul toward evil—much like the cutting of a wart, which irritates the surface (for that which is contrary to nature, once it has become ingrained in nature, adheres to the subject through a certain sympathy, and a sort of irrational commingling of the foreign element with our own takes place, so that the sense, being separated from what is contrary to nature, is grieved and bitten)—so also, when the soul is thinned out and wasted away in the rebukes for sin, as the prophecy somewhere says, because of that deep-seated intimacy with evil ^B, there necessarily follow certain unspeakable and inexpressible pangs, the description of which possesses an ineffability equal to the nature of the good things that are hoped for. For neither the one nor the other can be reduced to the power of words or to the surmise of the mind.

Therefore, one who looks to the end of the wisdom of Him who administers all things could no longer reasonably, out of pettiness of soul, name the Creator of men the author of evils, either by saying that He was ignorant of what was to come, or that, knowing it and having done it, He was not exempt from the impulse toward what is evil. For He did know what was to come, and He did not prevent the impulse toward what was being done. For He who encompasses all things with His prescient power, and who sees what follows after what has passed with equal clarity, did not ignore that the human element would turn away from the good. ^C But just as He beheld the turning away, so too He contemplated its recall again to the good. What, then, was better? To bring our nature into existence not at all, since He foresaw that it would miss the good, or to bring it [into existence], and, once it had fallen ill, to recall it again to the grace it had from the beginning?

But to call God the maker of evils because of bodily pains, which necessarily happen to a fluid nature, or not even to consider Him the creator of man at all, so that He might not be suspected of being the cause of those things that bring us pain, this is the mark of the utmost pettiness of soul of those who judge the good and the evil by their senses, and who do not know that only that is good by nature which the sense does not reach, and only that is evil which is an alienation from the good. ^D To judge the good and the evil by pains and pleasures is characteristic of the irrational nature, in which there is no room for the understanding of the truly good, because it does not share in intellect and reason. But that man is a work of God, created beautiful and for the most beautiful ends, is clear not only from what has been said, but also from countless other things, the multitude of which we shall pass over because of their excess.

^A When we named God as creator and maker, we were not unmindful of those points we examined in the preface against the Greeks, in which it was demonstrated that the Word of God, being essential and subsistent, is himself both God and Word, and the Reason that encompasses every efficient power—or rather is itself Power and Virtue, which by its own inclination and appetite is borne toward every good, and simultaneously accomplishes whatever it wills, since it has power concurrent with its will, whose will and work is the life of all things. By Him, too, man was brought into life, adorned in a godlike manner with all things most noble and beautiful.

Since, however, only that which does not have its origin through creation is by nature unchangeable, while all things that from the uncreated nature came into being from non-existence immediately began to exist in a state of flux and always proceed by way of alteration; and if they act according to nature, the alteration in them is always toward the better; but if they should swerve from the straight path, the movement that follows is toward the opposite. Since man was among these, to whom the mutability of nature had slipped toward the opposite; and since departure from good things, by consequence, introduces every kind of evil—so that by the aversion from life, death succeeded in its place; by the privation of light, darkness came into being; by the absence of virtue, vice was introduced, and thus the catalog of all that is contrary was counted against all that is good—to whom, then, did it befit that he who had fallen into these and such things through lack of judgment (for it was not possible for him who had turned away from prudence to be in prudence, nor for him who had retreated from wisdom to devise anything wise) should be recalled again to the grace he formerly possessed? To whom did the raising up of him who had fallen, the recalling of him who had perished, or the guiding back of him who had wandered befit? To whom else, I say, than to the Lord of nature? For He alone who from the beginning had given life was able, and at the same time it was fitting for Him, to recall even him who was perishing. This, indeed, we hear from the mystery of the truth, that we may learn that God both made man from the beginning and saved him when he had perished.

CHAPTER IX

^D But up to this point, perhaps, one might agree with the argument, looking to what is consistent, because none of the things said seems foreign to the conception of God that is fitting; yet regarding what follows next, it will not be the same, through which the mystery of the truth is most especially strengthened. These things are human birth, and growth from infancy to perfection, food and drink, and labor and sleep, sickness and tears, false accusation and trial, and the cross, and death, and the placing in a tomb. For these things, when taken together with the mystery, in a certain way dull the faith of those who are small-minded and faint of heart, so that they do not even admit what is said next because of what was said before. For the resurrection from the dead, which befits God, is not accepted on account of the state of death which is considered unbecoming. But I think that first we must slightly turn aside from the grossness of the flesh

admitted on account of the death which is not becoming. But I think it is necessary, with a mind withdrawn a little from carnal dullness, to consider what is good in itself, and what is not of this kind, namely by which signs and marks each is grasped. For I think that no one who is wise and has a little more sense will contradict that, of all things, only that ^A affection which arises from vice is base by nature; but that which is removed from vice is alien to all baseness. And that in which nothing of the contrary has been mixed, this is entirely grasped in the category of the good. But that which is truly good and honest is in no way mixed with the contrary. Now it is fitting for God that whatever is considered be in the category of the good and honest. Let them, therefore, either show that vice is the origin, the upbringing, the growth, the progress of nature toward completion, the experience of death, the return from the dead: or, if they grant that the things which have been said are free from vice, they must necessarily confess that nothing which is free from vice is base. And if it is shown that it is entirely good and honest, how is the folly of those who teach that that which is good and honest does not in the least befit God not to be pitied? ^B

CHAPTER X

But the matter is, he says, small and that which can be circumscribed, human nature; but the Godhead is infinite. And how could that which is immense be grasped by an atom? But who says this, that the infinity of the Godhead is grasped by the circumscription of the flesh as if by some vessel? For not even in our life is the intelligent nature enclosed within the bounds of the flesh. But the bulk of the body is indeed circumscribed by its own parts; but the soul, by the movements of thought and intelligence, extends itself freely over the entire creation, ascending even to the heavens, and entering the abysses, and pervading the breadth of the whole earth, and curiously penetrating the subterranean regions; ^C and it often even mentally ponders and revolves around heavenly miracles, in no way weighed down by the burden of the body which presses it down. But if the soul of man, which by the necessity of nature is admixed and attuned to the body, moves everywhere freely; what is the necessity to say that the Divinity is coerced within the nature of the flesh, and not rather to take some fitting conjecture about the divine dispensation through examples which can be grasped by us? For just as fire is seen on a lamp, having gripped the subject matter; and reason indeed distinguishes the fire which is in the matter, and the matter which kindles the fire, but in reality [it is not possible], these having been separated from each other, for the flame itself to be extended by itself, disjointed from the matter; but both at the same time become one; (let no one, however, take as an example in fire that into which ^D destruction falls, but having taken only that which is becoming for the similarity, let him reject that which is not proper and fitting), so therefore, as we see the flame which depends on the subject and is not enclosed in the matter: what prevents us from understanding a certain union and approach of the divine nature to man, whereby that which is from God...

^A believes the divine to be outside of all circumscription, even if it were in man?

CHAPTER XI.

If, however, you ask how the Godhead is tempered to the human, it is time for you to ask before this, what is the natural connection of the soul with the flesh. If the mode of your own soul, by which it is united to the body, is unknown, then do not think it ought to fall within your grasp to understand that other matter either. But just as we believe here that the soul is something different from the body—since, when forsaken by the soul, the flesh becomes dead and inactive—and yet we do not recognize the mode of the union, so likewise there we acknowledge that the divine nature is more majestic and greater than the mortal and perishable nature, ^B yet we admit that we cannot perceive the mode of the tempering of the divine with the human. But that God was born in the nature of man, through the miracles that are recounted, we do not at all doubt. As to the "how," we decline to investigate it, as it is something greater than the capacity of our reasoning. For not even when we believe that all corporeal and intelligible creation subsists from the incorporeal and uncreated nature do we examine along with our faith from where it is or how it is. But admitting that it has been brought into being, we leave the mode of the constitution of the all ^C as unexamined, as it is something altogether ineffable and inexplicable.

CHAPTER XII.

Whoever seeks to have it demonstrated to him that God has appeared to us in the flesh should look to the operations. For there can be no other proof adduced that God exists than the testimony of operations. For as in looking at the universe and considering the administration of the world ^D and the benefits by which our life is providentially affected, we conclude that there is some creative power of the things that come into being, and one that preserves those things that are, so also we consider the miracles performed in the operations to be sufficient proof of the manifestation of the Godhead in regard to God appearing to us in the flesh, having carefully observed in the recounted works all those things by which the divine nature is characterized. It is God’s work to give life to men. It is God’s work to preserve things that are through providence. It is God’s work to grant food and drink to those who have been allotted life in the flesh. It is God’s work to benefit him who is in need. It is God’s work to restore to itself through health the nature that has been perverted by infirmity. It is God’s work similarly and in the same way to possess dominion over all creation—earth, sea, air, and things above the air. It is God’s work to have power sufficient for all things, and before all things, to be stronger than death and destruction. If, therefore, anything of these were lacking in the history narrated about Him, rightly would those who are alien to our faith have set against our

testimonies regarding Him, what is it that hinders faith?

CHAPTER XIII.

CHAPTER XIV.

^A.

CHAPTER XV

We are not at a loss for an answer to this that is worthy of God ^B. You seek the reason why God was born among men? If you were to take away from life the benefits received from God, you would not be able to say by what things you might recognize the Divine. For it is from the things we receive that we recognize the benefactor. By looking at what is done, we estimate the nature of Him who acts. If, therefore, benevolence toward men is the proper mark and sign of the divine nature, you have the reason you were seeking; you have the cause why God came among men. For our nature, laboring under sickness, ^C had need of a physician. The man who had fallen had need of one to raise him up. The one who had fallen away from life had need of one to give life. The one who had flowed away from participation in the good had need of one to lead him back to the good. The one who was hemmed in by darkness stood in need of the presence of light. The captive sought a redeemer, the prisoner an assistant, and he who was held under the yoke of slavery a liberator. Are these things small and unworthy to move God to descend to visit human nature, when humanity was so unhappily and miserably affected? "But," he says, "it was possible for man to be benefited, and for God to remain in His impassibility." For He who created the universe by His will, and caused what did not exist to consist by the mere nod and impulse of His will, why did He not, by some divine authority and command, snatch man away from the contrary power and lead him back to the state in which he was from the beginning, if this were pleasing to Him? Instead, He undergoes long circuits, entering into the nature of a body, coming into life through generation, subsequently passing through every age, and then dying, and thus through the resurrection of His own body ^D accomplishing His goal; as if it were not permitted Him, remaining at the height of divine glory, to save man by a command, and to bid such circuits as these to be gone. Therefore, it is necessary to oppose our truth to such objections as these, so that nothing may hinder the faith of those who, by examining, seek the rationale of the mystery. First, therefore, let us consider—as has already been discussed in a moderate way above—what is it that stands as the contrary to virtue. Certainly, just as darkness is to light, and death to life, so also is vice to virtue, and there is nothing else that is contrary. For just as, although there are many things considered in creation, nothing else is distinguished in opposition to light or life—neither stone, nor wood, nor water, nor man, nor any other of the things that exist, except those which are properly understood from the contrary, such as darkness and death—so also in the case of virtue, no one would say that any creature is understood to be contrary to it, except that which is conceived in the mind as vice. If, therefore, our discourse asserted that God was born in vice, he who contradicts would have occasion to attack our faith, as if we were holding opinions that are

^A in no way consonant or compatible with ^A the divine nature. For it would not be lawful to say that Wisdom itself, and Goodness, and Incorruption, and whatever is a lofty conception or name, has been changed into its opposite. If, therefore, God is true virtue, and no nature is placed in opposition to virtue except vice, and God is not born in vice, but in the nature of man; and only that affection which arises from vice is unbecoming and shameful, in which God has neither been born nor has a nature capable of being born—why are they ashamed to confess that God touched human nature, when no opposition to the notion of virtue is to be observed in the construction of man? For neither the rational faculty, nor the intellect, nor the capacity for knowledge, nor anything else of this kind, which is peculiar to the human essence, is opposed to the notion of virtue.

CHAPTER XVI

But, they say, the very change of our body is an ^B affection. And he who is in this state is subject to affection. But the Divine nature is impassible. Therefore, the supposition regarding God is foreign, if they determine that He who is impassible by nature comes to a communion of affection. But to these points also we shall again use the same reasoning, namely, that an affection is called so in one sense properly, and in another sense by abuse of the term. That which touches the free choice of the soul, and turns it away from virtue to vice, is truly an affection; but that which is considered in nature as it proceeds in its own proper sequence, this would be more correctly called an operation rather than an affection—for instance, birth, growth, the continuance of the subject through the incoming and outgoing of nourishment, the converging of the elements ^C around the body, and again the dissolution of the composite, and its passage to its kindred elements.

What, then, does our mystery say that God has touched? The affection which is so called properly, which is vice, or the motion which is according to nature? For if our discourse asserted that the Divine had been born in things that are forbidden, the absurdity of the dogma would have to be avoided, as it would speak nothing sound concerning the Divine nature. But if it says that He has touched our nature, whose first creation and subsistence had its beginning from Him, where does the preaching stray from the conception of the mind that is becoming to God, since no passible affection ^D enters into our beliefs regarding God through faith? For we do not say that the physician is affected when he heals one who is in a state of affection. And even if he touches the sickness, he who heals remains free from the affection. If, then, birth itself is not in itself an affection, neither would one call life an affection. But that affection which exists because of pleasure precedes human generation, and the impulse of living beings toward vice is the sickness of nature. Yet the mystery says that He is pure from both of these. If, therefore, generation is foreign to pleasure, and life is foreign to vice, what affection remains of which the mystery of godliness says that God has been a participant?

^A If anyone should call the disjunction of the body and the soul an affection, it would be far more just to call the coming together of both an affection. For if the separation of things joined is an affection, then the connection of things that were separate would also be an affection. For there is a certain movement understood both in the conjunction of things that were separate and in the separation of things that were joined. Therefore, what is called the final movement should also be so called the preceding one; and if the first movement, which we call generation, is termed an affection, then by sequence that through which the coming together of body and soul is separated should also be called an affection. We say, however, that God was present in both movements of our nature, by which the soul runs together with the body and the body is separated from the soul. Having been mixed with each of these—I mean both with the sensible and the intellectual—in the human composition through that ineffable and inexplicable tempering, God provided for and administered that the union of those things once joined, I mean soul and body, should remain forever. For since our nature had moved, according to its own sequence, into that state of separation of soul and body, He joined again those things that had been separated, like a kind of glue, by divine power, I mean, fitting what had been broken ^B to an unbreakable union. And this is the resurrection: the return of those things joined, after dissolution, to an indissoluble union, as they grow together again, so that the first grace concerning the human being might be recalled, and we might return again to the eternal life—the vice that was mixed into our nature having been poured out through our dissolution; just as happens in the case of a liquid, when the vessel is shattered, the liquid is scattered and disappears, there being nothing to contain it. But just as the beginning of death, having occurred in one, extended to the whole of human nature, in the same way the beginning of the resurrection extends through One to all humanity. For He who again united to His own body the soul He had assumed by His own power, which had been mixed with each of these at the first formation, He in a more general way mixed the intellectual essence with the sensible, the beginning following its course to ^C the end. For in the human composition assumed by Him, ^D again after the dissolution the soul having returned to the body, as if from a certain beginning to the whole of human nature, the union of the separated part extends by that power in equal measure. And this is the mystery of God’s dispensation concerning man and the resurrection from the dead: that the soul should be separated from the body by death, and not hinder the necessary sequence of nature; and that He should bring them back into one another again through the resurrection, so that he might become a boundary between both death and life, having established in Himself the nature divided by death, while He Himself became the beginning of the union of those things that had been divided.

CHAPTER XVII.

CHAPTER XVIII.

^A but in their stead, throughout the whole world, holy houses, temples, and altars have been raised in the name of Christ, as well as the venerable and unbloody priesthood, the high philosophy that is achieved by deeds more than by words, the contempt for the bodily life, and the disdain for death. This the martyrs demonstrated when they were forced by tyrants to turn from the faith, regarding the tortures of the body and the sentence of death as nothing; for they would surely not have endured these things had they not possessed a clear and indubitable proof of the divine advent.

This same fact one may also call a sufficient sign to the Jews that He whom they do not believe is present. For up until the theophany of Christ, the royal seat at Jerusalem was illustrious among them, as was that renowned temple, the annual sacrifices appointed by the law, and everything which the law, through enigmas, had set apart for those who were able to hear mystically; up to that time, these things were unhindered, according to the worship of piety originally appointed for them. ^B But after they saw the One who was expected—He whom they had been taught beforehand through the prophets and the law—and yet preferred that false superstition they had wrongly retained to faith in the One who had appeared, while they preserved the words of the law, serving custom rather than understanding; and since they did not receive the grace that had appeared, those things which were illustrious and venerable in their religion were left behind in mere bare narratives. The temple cannot even be recognized by its ruins, and that great and magnificent city has been left in rubble and wreckage; nothing of those things which were formerly lawful for the Jews remains, but even that place in Jerusalem which was venerable to them has been made inaccessible by the order of those in power.

CHAPTER XIX

But since these things do not seem to those who follow the disciplines of the Greeks, nor to those who lead the Jewish doctrines, to be sufficient proofs of the divine advent, it would be well to discuss separately the objections raised, namely, for what reason the divine nature unites itself with ours, saving humanity through itself, and not working through a command that which is in its purpose. What beginning, then, shall we make to lead the discourse consistently toward the proposed aim? ^D What else, than to recount summarily the things which are piously believed concerning God?

CHAPTER XX

It is agreed, then, by all that we must believe the Divine not only to be powerful, but also just, and good, and wise, and whatever else the mind conceives as pertaining to the better. It follows, therefore, in the present dispensation, that it is not fitting for some of the qualities becoming to God to appear in what has been done, while others are absent. For, to speak once and for all, none of these sublime names is a virtue on its own, separated from the others. Nor is the good truly good if it is not ordered together with justice, wisdom, and power. For whatever is unjust, or unwise, or

^A powerless is not good. Nor is power, when separated from justice and wisdom, considered a virtue; for such a kind of power is bestial and tyrannical. Similarly, in regard to the rest, if wisdom were taken to be away from justice, or if justice were considered not together with power and goodness, such things ought more properly to be termed vices. For how could one count among the good that which lacks what is better? If, therefore, it is necessary that all these things concur in our concepts concerning God, let us consider whether the dispensation of God regarding man lacks any of those conceptions worthy of God. We certainly look for the marks of goodness in God. And what testimony to his goodness could be clearer than that he took to himself and cared for him who had defected to the contrary, and that his firm, stable, and immutable ^B nature was not somehow affected by the mutable free choice of man? For he would not have come to save us, as David says, if goodness had not provided such a purpose. But the goodness of the intention would have profited nothing if wisdom had not made that philanthropy efficacious. For among those who are ill, there are perhaps many who wish that he who is lying sick were not in such a bad state; but only those with a certain expert power and ability to heal the sick bring their good will toward the suffering to its successful end. Therefore, wisdom must by all means be yoked to goodness. How, then, is wisdom seen together with goodness in what has been done? It is because the good according to purpose is not seen naked. For how would the purpose appear if it were not made manifest through the things that are done? But the facts themselves, proceeding in a certain sequence and order ^C through that which follows, demonstrate the wisdom and skill of God's dispensation; since, as we have said before, wisdom joined with justice becomes virtue. But if it were put aside by itself, goodness would not remain by itself. It is right, therefore, in the account of the dispensation regarding man, to consider both together—wisdom, I say, and justice.

CHAPTER XXI

What, then, is justice? We remember, as follows from what was said in the first part of this work, that man was created in imitation of the divine nature, preserving the likeness of God through the other good qualities and through his free autonomy of choice. But being of a mutable nature by necessity—for it was not possible that one who had his beginning from alteration should not be wholly mutable. ^D For the transition from nothingness to being is a kind of alteration, as that which is not existence is changed by divine power into substance. And indeed, since change is necessarily contemplated in man because man was an imitation of the divine nature—for that which imitates, unless it were in some state of otherness, would be in every way identical to that which it was made to resemble. Therefore, in this otherness of that which was done

there is indeed an immutability in what regards the nature, while the other does not so possess it, but has come to be through alteration, according to the principle already explained. For that which is undergoing alteration is, in the very fact of being a copy, necessarily altered; and alteration is a certain motion, always proceeding from that in which it is to another state. He speaks of two kinds of such motion: one that is always toward the good, in which progress has no halting, because no limit to that which is being traversed is ever grasped; and the other toward the contrary, the substance of which consists in not having existence. For the opposition to the good, as was said before, has in the distribution a certain sense, just as we say that that which is is distinct from that which is not as an adversary, and substance from non-substance. Since, therefore, regarding this mutable and alterable impulse and motion, it is not possible that nature should remain of itself unmoved, it must of necessity proceed towards something, directed by the free choice of the will, with the desire for the good naturally drawing it to motion. But there is a good which is truly good according to nature, and another which is not of this kind, but has merely the appearance and semblance of a good. The judge of these is the intelligence seated within us. In this we undergo the risk either of attaining that which is truly good, or, having been turned aside from it, of slipping toward the opposite through a certain deception of what appears, such as happened in the case of the fable from without, ^A which tells of a dog that, seeing in the water the shadow of what it carried in its mouth—namely, the real food—let go the true food, and by snapping at the image of the food, fell into hunger. ^B

CHAPTER XXII.

Since, therefore, the mind was defrauded of its desire for that which is truly good and was carried off to that which is not, through the deceit of the counselor and inventor of vice, having been persuaded that what is contrary to the good was a good—for the deception would not have been effective had not the species of the good been spread over the hook of vice like bait—when man had voluntarily fallen into this calamity, having subjected himself of his own will to the enemy of life, seek out for me all those things which harmonize with what is thought concerning God: goodness, wisdom, justice, power, incorruption, and if there is any other attribute of higher significance. As good, therefore, He is moved with compassion for him who had fallen; and as wise, He is not ignorant of the mode of restoration. Wisdom also ^C pertains to the judgment of what is just. For no one would attribute true justice to folly. What, then, is the justice in these things? It is that He should not use any tyrannical authority against him who held us, nor by superior force snatch us away from him who held the dominion, and thereby leave to the one who had enslaved man through pleasure any opportunity for a just defense. For just as those who have sold their own freedom for money become slaves of the purchasers, as those who have sold themselves, and it is permitted neither to them nor to anyone else to reclaim their freedom, even if those who have voluntarily come to this calamity were free-born and of noble birth; so if anyone, being concerned for the one sold... ^D

^A by the person who had bought him, were to use force against the buyer, he would appear unjust to the law, as he is snatching away one who was legally acquired; yet if someone wishes to redeem him, there is no law that forbids it.

Chapter XXIII.

In the same way, since we had sold ourselves voluntarily, it was necessary that a way of recall should be devised by the One who, because of His goodness, was to restore us to freedom again—not a tyrannical way, but a just one. And this is for the one who has authority to take whatever ransom he might wish in exchange for the one he holds. What, then, is it reasonable that the one exercising dominion would prefer to accept? We are able, by consequence, to form some conjecture of his greed, if we have before us clear proofs of the things that are being sought. He, therefore, who, according to the argument previously set forth at the beginning of this book, closed his eyes to the good out of envy conceived against the one who was prosperous, and who generated within himself the darkness of vice, and who, suffering from the disease of love of power—which is as it were the beginning and foundation of a propensity to worse things, and as it were the mother of the rest of vice—for what price would he have exchanged the one he held, if not for a higher and greater price, so that ^B he might better nourish the passion of pride within himself by trading greater things for lesser ones? And yet, in the events narrated or committed to writing from ages past, he had seen nothing such as he now beheld in the One who appeared: namely, a conception without any union with a man, and a birth without corruption, and a mother nursing from virginity, and voices from above testifying to the superhuman excellence of His dignity; and the correction and cure of the diseases of nature, which were performed by Him without any effort, by a mere word and movement and impulse of the will; and the restoration to life of those who had departed from this life; and the terror of the demons, and the power over the affections of the air; and the journey through the sea, with the deep not parting on either side, nor the bed being laid bare for those passing through according to the miracle of Moses, but rather the surface of the water itself hardening beneath His feet and, by a secure antitype, supporting His footsteps; and the abundance of food for as much as He wished, and the lavish banquets in the wilderness for those who were being entertained by the thousands—for whom neither did heaven rain down manna, nor did the earth, according to its own nature, produce food to satisfy their need; but out of the ineffable storehouses of divine power, His generosity was coming forth, bread ready-made, as if cultivated by the hands of those serving, and becoming more abundant through the fullness of those eating, and the relish of fish, when the sea did not contribute ^C anything to them for their need, but He who had even sown the race of fish in the sea did so. And how could one recount each of the evangelical miracles? The enemy, therefore, beholding this power in Him, saw in the exchange more of an advantage than in the one he held; for this reason, he chooses Him to become a ransom for those who were confined in the prison of death. But surely it was impossible to look upon the naked appearance of God, unless some portion of flesh [was] in Him

which he had already enslaved through sin.

For this reason, the Godhead is covered with flesh, so that by looking toward what is fellow-grown and kindred to himself, he might not be struck with terror at the approach of the surpassing power; and by contemplating the power shining forth more and more gradually through miracles, he might deem what appeared to be desirable rather than fearful.

You see how goodness is yoked with justice, and how the wisdom of these is not separated. For the fact that He devised through the covering of the body that the divine power might be grasped—so that the dispensation for our sake might not be hindered by fear of the lofty manifestation—altogether holds in the same place the proof of the Good, the Wise, and the Just. For the will to save is a testimony of goodness; to make possible the ransom of the captive by way of exchange shows the justice; and to make the ungraspable graspable to the enemy by means of a device holds the proof of the highest wisdom. ^C

CHAPTER XXIV

But it is reasonable for one who attends to the sequence of what has been said to inquire where the power of the Godhead, where the incorruptibility of the divine power, is seen in what has been related. In order, then, that these things also may be made clear, let us examine the matters that follow in the mystery, in which the power mingled with loving-kindness is most clearly shown.

First, then, that the omnipotent nature was able ^C to descend to the humility of humanity shows power more than [do] the great and supernatural miracles. For that some great and lofty thing should be wrought by the divine power is somehow according to nature and consistent. Nor would it bring any strangeness to the ears to say that all creation in the world, and everything whatsoever that is comprehended outside of what is seen, has subsisted by the power of God, with His very will substantiating it toward that which He purposed. But the descent to what is humble is a certain abundance of power, in no way hindered in those things that are beyond nature. For just as the upward motion is proper to the essence of fire, and no one would consider that which is naturally energized in the flame worthy of wonder; but if one were to see the flame flowing downward after the likeness of heavy bodies, such a thing is held in wonder—how the fire remains fire, and in the manner of [its] motion transgresses nature by being borne downward—so also, neither the magnitudes of the heavens, nor the brightness of the luminaries, nor the adornment of the universe, nor the perpetual administration of natural things, shows the divine and super-eminent power so much as does the condescension to the weakness of our nature: how that which is sublime is beheld in that which is lowly, and the height does not descend; how the Godhead [is] woven together with human nature, and this becomes both [that] and [this]. Since, indeed, as has been said before, the opposing power had no nature to mix with the pure presence of God, and to endure His appearance nakedly, so that the ransom might become graspable to the one who was seeking, for our sake, the exchange

^A, the Divinity was hidden beneath the veil of our nature, so that, like greedy fish, the hook of the Divinity might be snatched along with the bait of the flesh; and in this way, life having been introduced into death, and light having appeared in darkness, that which is understood to be the contrary ^B to light and life might be made to disappear. For it is not in the nature of darkness to remain in the presence of light, nor of death to exist when life is at work. Therefore, taking up the sequence of the mystery in summary, we shall make a complete defense against those who accuse the divine dispensation, for which reason the Divinity does not through Himself effect human salvation. For, in all things, the divine must be held in the appropriate conceptions; one must not think of Him in one respect as lofty and in another divest Him of dignity befitting God; rather, every lofty and pious thought must be believed to be in God, and the one must be linked to the other by consequence. It has thus been demonstrated that goodness, wisdom, justice, power, and freedom from corruption are all clearly shown in the rationale of the dispensation concerning us. Goodness is grasped in the choice to save those who have perished. Wisdom and justice were demonstrated in the manner of our salvation. Power ^C was shown in His having come into the likeness and form of a human being in accordance with the lowliness of our nature, and in the expectation that it was possible for Him, in the likeness of men, to be seized by death; yet, having come to be, He performed that which was proper to Himself according to nature. Now, for light, the dissipation of darkness is proper, and for life, the destruction of death. Since, therefore, we were led astray from the straight path at the beginning of life, and were brought down to death, what do we learn from the mystery that is outside of probability and not consistent with reason, if purity touches those who are defiled by sin, and life touches those who are dead, and direction touches those who have wandered, so that the defilement might be cleansed, the straying healed, and that which is dead might return to life?

CHAPTER XXV

That the Divinity came to be in our nature, to those who do not consider existing things with too feeble a mind, would bring no cause for estrangement ^D from what is reasonable. For who is so childish in soul as to look upon the whole and not believe that the Divine is in everything, and is both clothing it, and containing it, and dwelling within it? For everything is suspended from the One who exists, and it is impossible for anything to be, without having its existence in the One who exists; if, therefore, all things are in Him, and He is in all things, why are they ashamed that the mystery of the dispensation teaches that God has come to be in human beings, He who is still believed even now to be not outside of human beings? For even if the mode of God’s presence in us is not the same as this, yet the fact of His being in us is confessed to be the same both now and then. For now, He who sustains nature in being is infused within us, but then He was mixed with our own, that by this mixing with the Divine, it might become divine, having been removed from death and outside the tyranny of the adversary.

^A For the return of that One from death became the beginning of the return for the mortal race to immortal life.

CHAPTER XXVI

But in examining perhaps the justice and wisdom which are considered in this dispensation, someone might be led to think that this path and method was devised by God for our sake through some sort of deception. For that God, not in His naked Divinity, but covered by human nature, was hidden from the Enemy and entered into the one who held dominion, is in a certain sense a kind of guile and circumvention; since it is the characteristic of those who deceive to turn the hopes of those against whom snares are laid toward one thing, and to bring about something other than what was expected. But he who looks toward the truth will agree that this, above all else, pertains most to justice and wisdom. For it is characteristic of the just to render to each according to their deserts; but it is characteristic of the wise neither to pervert justice nor to separate the good aim of benevolence from the judgment which is made out of justice, but to join both together skillfully—assigning to justice what is given according to merit, while ^B not departing from the aim of benevolence regarding goodness. Let us consider, therefore, whether both these things are observed in what has taken place. For to repay like for like according to merit, by which the deceiver is in turn deceived, manifests justice; but the aim of what is taking place becomes a testimony to the goodness of Him who acts. For it is the property of justice to distribute to each those things for which one had previously cast the beginnings and causes; just as the earth, according to the kinds of seeds sown into it, also yields its fruits. But it is the property of wisdom, in the manner of rendering similar things, not to fall short of what is better. For just as both the one who lies in wait and the one who heals him who has been ensnared mix the medicine into the food in a similar way—yet the one provides a deadly poison, while the other provides a remedy for the poison—the mode of the cure does not at all corrupt the aim of conferring the benefit. For even if in both cases the mixing of a drug into food occurs, yet looking toward the aim, we praise the one, while we hate and detest the other; so here too, by the reasoning of justice, the deceiver receives those things whose seeds he had sown by his own free choice. ^C For he, too, is deceived by the appearance of the man, he who had first deceived man with the bait of pleasure. But the aim of what is taking place has a change toward what is better. For the one used deception for the destruction of nature, but the Other, being at once just and good and wise, employed the devised deception for the salvation of him who had perished, through these things bestowing a benefit not only upon him who had perished, but also upon him who had brought death upon us. For from the drawing near of death to Life, and of darkness to Light, and of corruption to incorruption, the former—the inferior—is destroyed and passes into non-existence, while ^D benefit is provided to the one who is being purified from these things. For his from death return, became for the mortal race the beginning of the return to immortal life.

^A For just as when base matter has been mixed with gold, the refiners, by consumption through fire, destroy what is foreign and refuse in the gold, and bring the more precious material back to its natural brilliance—yet the separation is not without labor, since the fire, in its consuming power, takes time to make the counterfeit disappear, though it is a kind of healing for the gold that that which lay upon it to the detriment of the good should be melted out—in the same way also, death and corruption and darkness, and whatever else is an offspring of wickedness, being grown into the inventor of evil, the approach of the divine power, like fire, accomplishes the destruction of what is contrary to nature, and bestows upon nature the benefit of incorruption, even if the separation be painful. Consequently, not even the adversary himself could doubt that what has been done is just and salutary, if he were to come to a sense of the benefit. ^B For now, just as those who are being cut and burned for their healing are angry at those who are healing them, because the incision is felt to be sharp and harsh; but if it happens that they are made healthy by this, and the pain of the incision passes, they will be grateful to those who wrought the healing upon them: in the same way, when through long periods of time the evil that is now mixed and grown together with them has been removed from nature, and when the restoration to their ancient state of those who now lie in wickedness takes place, there will be a unanimous thanksgiving from the whole of creation, both from those who have been chastised in the purification, and from those who did not need purification at all from the beginning. These and such things as these are what the great mystery of the divine incarnation hands down. For in that He was mixed with humanity, having become so through all the properties of nature—generation and upbringing and growth, and having gone through even the experience of death—He has accomplished all that was previously mentioned, both freeing man from wickedness and healing the very inventor of wickedness himself. For the cure of an illness is the purging of the disease, even if it be painful.

Chapter XXVII.

^C It followed, moreover, of necessity, that He who was being mixed with our nature should receive through all its properties the commingling with us that was taking place. For just as those who wash the filth from garments do not leave some of the stains while casting off others, but from beginning to end purge the entire fabric of its spots, so that the garment may be of equal value throughout, made bright and brilliant through the washing, ^D so, when human life had been polluted by sin, at the beginning, at the end, and at all the points in between, there was need for the cleansing power to be present in all things, and it was not proper to heal one part with the cleansing while leaving another part unhealed. For this reason, since our life is bounded at both ends by two limits, I mean the beginning and the end, in each limit the power of nature to correct itself is found, having touched the beginning, and having stretched itself out as far as the end, and having taken hold of all the points in between. But since for all men there is one entrance into life

from whence was it fitting that He who enters to us should be settled in life? From heaven, perhaps, one may say, who despises the form of human birth as base and abject. But the human element was not in heaven; nor did the disease of wickedness dwell in the supermundane life. But He who mixed Himself with man had as His goal and purpose in that tempering to benefit man. Where therefore evil was not, nor was human life lived, how does one desire that man should be conjoined to God from thence? Or rather, not man, but some phantom and likeness of a man? ^A

What, then, would have been the correction of our nature, if, while the terrestrial animal had fallen ill, some other being from the heavens had received the divine visitation? For it is not possible that the one suffering should be cured, unless the part that is suffering receives the cure in a special way. If, therefore, that which was suffering was on earth, but the divine power did not touch that which was suffering, looking [only] to what was fitting for itself, the work of the divine power would have been entirely useless to man, being occupied with things which have no communion with us. For in the Divinity it would have been equally indecorous—if indeed it is lawful at all to think of anything else besides vice as indecorous—for one who judges the divine majesty and greatness with a small and abject mind in this matter, [to say] that it does not receive any communion with the properties of our nature. The turpitude and disgrace does not seem any more tolerable, that God should assume the form of a celestial body than a terrestrial one. For from Him who is the Most High, and to whose height there is no access, every creature stands at an equal distance, and all things are equally subject to Him. For that which is of such a kind that there is no access to it at all, does not afford access to any, and nothing can approach unto it; but it surpasses and super-eminently transcends all things that exist equally. Neither, therefore, is the earth more remote from that supreme dignity, nor is heaven closer; nor do those who live in either element differ at all from each other in this respect, so that some should attain to the nature to which there is no access, while others are separated from it. For in that case we would suppose that the power and force which contains all things does not pervade all things equally; but that in some it is more abundant, while in others it is more deficient; and from the difference of greater and lesser, God would appear composite in consequence, as one not consistent with Himself, if indeed He were thought to be far from us by reason of nature, but approaching some other, so that by being near, He could be easily apprehended. But the true reason, in that lofty and sublime authority, neither looks down nor up by way of comparison. For all things are equally subject to that power which presides over all. ^D Wherefore, if they shall deem terrestrial nature unworthy to be connected with God, neither will any other be found worthy. But if all things are equally unworthy, one thing remains, which is fitting for God.

namely, to do good to him who stands in need. Where, then, there is disease, we confess that the healing power must come ^A there. What, therefore, do we believe to be foreign to that which ought to be thought of as fitting for God?

Chapter XXVIII

They make a mockery of our nature and drag our mode of birth into public ridicule, thinking that by these means they make our mystery an object of laughter, as if it were unseemly for God to touch the communion of human life through such an entrance. But it has already been said in previous discourses concerning this, that only vice is by its own nature shameful, and whatever has any connection or affinity with vice. But the consequence of nature, ordered by Divine will and law, is far from being akin to the accusation of vice. And in this way, the accusation against nature would return to the Creator, if anything belonging to it were slandered as shameful and unseemly. If, therefore, the Divine is separated only from vice, and nature is not vice, and the mystery ^B says that God was in man and not in vice—if, furthermore, there is one entrance for man into life, through which that which is born becomes a participant in life—what other mode of entrance into life, I ask, do they prescribe for God, when they judge it reasonable that nature, which had fallen sick in vice, should be visited by the Divine power, but are displeased with the mode of the visitation? They are unaware that whatever concerns the construction of the body is alike in its own nature, and nothing in it that contributes to the constitution of life is slandered as shameful, abject, or evil. For the entire arrangement of the organic members is directed toward one goal. And this goal is that man should remain in life. ^C Now, the rest of the organs sustain the present life for man, divided for different operations, by which the faculty of sensing and acting is managed; but the generative organs take care of the future, by which nature introduces succession into the mortal race by itself. If, therefore, you look to what is useful, to whom would those things supposed to be precious be secondary? And to whom, on the other hand, would they not, as is reasonable, be considered more excellent? For it is not by the eye, the ear, the tongue, or any other of the sensory instruments that our race is carried on into perpetuity. For these, as has been said, are for present use; but in those, immortality is preserved for humanity, inasmuch as they make death in a certain way ^D ineffective and vain against us, since nature persistently introduces itself through that which is born to supplement that which is deficient. What, then, is unseemly in our mystery, if God is mingled with human life through those things by which nature fights against death?

Chapter XXIX

But passing on from this, they try again to criticize our doctrine by other arguments. For they say: "If what was done was good and fitting for God, why did He delay the benefit? And why, when vice was present from the beginning, did He not cut off its further progress?" To this, the answer from us is brief, that wisdom

^A And the delay of the benefit bestowed upon us has come about through the providence which is advantageous to nature. For in bodily diseases, when some corrupt and depraved humor creeps into the passages, before everything unnatural that is hidden within has been revealed on the surface, those who profess the art of healing do not apply medicines that constrict the body; but they wait for everything lurking within to come out, and thus apply the remedy to the exposed malady. Since, then, the disease of wickedness had once attacked the nature of humanity, the Healer of the universe waited so that no form of evil might be left hidden in the nature. For this reason, He did not apply the remedy to man immediately after the envy and fratricide of Cain; for the wickedness of those who perished in the time of Noah had not yet shone forth, nor had the severe disease of Sodomite lawlessness been uncovered; nor the battle of the Egyptians against God, nor the pride of the Assyrians, nor the bloody cruelty of the Jews against the saints of God, nor the nefarious slaughter of the infants committed by Herod, nor all the other things that are recorded, and as many as were performed in succeeding generations outside of history, the root of evil germinating in many ways and in many forms within the choices of men. Since, therefore, wickedness reached its highest measure, and there was no form of evil that men did not venture to commit, in order that the remedy might reach through the entire sickness, for this reason He cures the disease not when it is beginning, but when it is already perfected. ^B

CHAPTER XXX

If anyone, however, thinks he can refute what we say, because even after the medicine has been applied the human life does not cease from sinning, let him be led to the truth by some known and familiar example. For just as if a serpent receives a deadly wound in the head, the tract that follows is not immediately put to death along with the head, but the head indeed is dead, yet the tail is still moved by its own impulse and is not deprived of vital power: so it is possible to see wickedness also, struck in its vital part, yet still causing trouble in life with its remnants. But when they cease to blame the doctrine of the mystery concerning these things, they again complain that faith does not penetrate through all men. Why, then, they say, does grace not come to all, but when some have approached the word of God, a not small part is of those who are absent, since either God did not wish to impart the benefit abundantly to all, or else He could not? And neither of these is without reproach; for it does not befit God either to have been unwilling for the good, or to have been unable. If, therefore, faith is some good, why, they say, does grace not come to all? And if indeed these things were constructed in what we say—that faith was distributed to men by the divine will, so that some were called while the others remained bereft of the calling—there would be occasion for such a charge to be brought against the mystery. ^C But if ^D the calling is equal for all, and neither worth, nor age, nor the things according to

and distinguishes the differences of the nations. For this reason, at the very beginning of the proclamation, those who ministered the Word by divine inspiration suddenly became of the same language as all the nations, so that no one might be deprived of the goods. How then could they reasonably still blame God because the Word did not prevail over all? For He who possessed authority over all, out of the greatness of the honor He bestowed upon man, left something also to be under our own authority, of which each one is the sole master. This is the power of choice, an unenslaved reality, self-governing, and placed within the freedom of the mind and thought. Therefore, such a blame might more justly be transferred to those who were not brought to the faith, not to Him who invited them to agreement. For not even when Peter at first preached the word in a crowded assembly of the Jews, and three thousand at once accepted the faith, did those who did not believe—though they were more numerous than those who had believed—blame the Apostle for the things concerning which they were persuaded; for it was not reasonable that, when the grace was offered in common, one who had voluntarily turned away should attribute his own evil lot not to himself, but to another.

CHAPTER XXXI.

But they are not at a loss even for such contentious objections. For they say that God could, if He wished, pull even those who resist, by necessary compulsion, to the acceptance of the proclamation. Where then, in these cases, is free will? Where is virtue? Where is the praise of those who conduct themselves rightly? For it belongs only to things inanimate or devoid of reason to be led by another's will to what seems good to him. But a nature partaking of reason and intelligence, if it casts away its power of choice, loses at the same time the grace of its intelligence. For to what end will it use its mind and thought, if the power of choosing what it determines by its own judgment is placed in another? But if the free disposition of the soul and the power of choice remain ineffective and of no use, virtue is necessarily abolished, hindered by the immobility of the free will. And if virtue does not exist, life is dishonored, and the course of things proceeds according to fate, the praise of those who act rightly is taken away, it is permitted to any one to sin with impunity, and no distinction for organizing life remains. For who, as is consonant with reason, would still reproach the intemperate or praise the temperate, when any one has this response at hand, that nothing of those things which we determine by our own judgment is in our power, but that human intentions and purposes are drawn by a greater power to what pleases Him who holds the mastery? Therefore, the blame is not to be attributed to the goodness of God because faith has not been in all, but to the disposition of those who hear the preaching of the Word.

CHAPTER XXXII.

What further is brought forward against this by those who contradict? Primarily, indeed, that it was not fitting for the supreme and supereminent nature to undergo the experience of death at all, but that even without this, by the abundance of its power, it could most easily have accomplished what seemed good. But if even...

πάντεσιν ^A ἀπόρρητον· ἀλλ᾽ οὖν μὴ τῷ ἀτίμῳ τρόπῳ τοῦ θανάτου καθυβρισθῆναι. Τίς γὰρ ἂν γένοιτο, φησί, τοῦ διὰ σταυροῦ θάνατος ἀτιμότερος; Τί οὖν καὶ πρὸς ταῦτά φαμεν; Ὅτι τὸν θάνατον μὲν ἀναγκαῖον ἡ γένεσις κατεργάζεται· τὸν γὰρ ἅπαξ μετασχεῖν ἐγνωκότα τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος, διὰ πάντων ἔδει γενέσθαι τῶν ἰδιωμάτων τῆς φύσεως. Εἰ τοίνυν δύο πέρασι τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ζωῆς διειλημμένης, ἐν τῷ ἑνὶ γενόμενος τοῦ ἐφεξῆς μὴ προσήψατο, ἡμιτελὴς ἂν ἡ πρόθεσις ἔμεινε, τοῦ ἑτέρου τῆς φύσεως ἡμῶν ἰδιώματος οὐχ ἁψαμένου· τάχα δ᾽ ἄν τις δι᾽ ἀκριβείας καταμαθὼν τὸ μυστήριον, εὐλογώτερον εἴποι, μὴ διὰ τὴν γένεσιν συμβεβηκέναι τὸν θάνατον, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἔμπαλιν τοῦ θανάτου χάριν παραληφθῆναι τὴν γένεσιν· οὐ γὰρ τοῦ ζῆσαι δεόμενος ὁ ἀεὶ ζῶν τὴν σωματικὴν ὑποδύεται γέννησιν, ἀλλ᾽ ἡμᾶς ἐπὶ τὴν ζωὴν ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου ἀνακαλούμενος. Ἐπεὶ οὖν ἔδει γενέσθαι ὅλης τῆς φύσεως ἡμῶν ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου πάλιν ἐπάνοδον, οἱονεὶ χεῖρα τῷ κειμένῳ ὀρέγων, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο πρὸς τὸ ἡμέτερον ἐπικύψας πτῶμα, τοσοῦτον τῷ θανάτῳ προσήγγισεν, ὅσον τῆς νεκρότητος ἅψασθαι, καὶ ἀρχὴν δοῦναι τὴν φύσιν τῆς ἀναστάσεως τῷ ἰδίῳ σώματι, ὅλον συναναστήσας τὸν ἄνθρωπον τῇ δυνάμει. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ οὐκ ἄλλοθεν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐκ τοῦ ἡμετέρου φυράματος ἡ θεοδόχος σάρξ ἦν, ἡ διὰ τῆς ἀναστάσεως συνεπαρθεῖσα τῇ θεότητι, ὥσπερ ἐπὶ τοῦ καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς σώματος ἡ τοῦ ἑνὸς τῶν αἰσθητηρίων ἐνέργεια πρὸς ἅπαν τὴν συναίσθησιν ἄγει τὸ ἡνωμένον τῷ μέρει· οὕτως καθάπερ τινὸς ὄντος ζώου πάσης τῆς φύσεως, ἡ τοῦ μέρους ἀνάστασις ἐπὶ τὸ πᾶν διεξέρχεται, κατὰ τὸ συνεχές τε καὶ ἡνωμένον τῆς φύσεως, ἐκ τοῦ μέρους ἐπὶ τὸ ὅλον συνδιδομένη. Τί οὖν ἔξω τοῦ εἰκότος ἐν τῷ μυστηρίῳ μανθάνομεν, εἰ κύπτει πρὸς τὸν πεπτωκότα ὁ ἑστώς, ἢ ἐπὶ τὸ ἀναστῆσαι τὸν κείμενον; ὁ δὲ σταυρὸς εἰ μή τινα καὶ ἕτερον περιέχει λόγον βαθύτερον, εἰδοῖεν ἂν οἱ τῶν κρυπτομένων ἐπίστορες. ^B Ὁ δ᾽ οὖν εἰς ἡμᾶς ἐκ παραδόσεως ἥκει, τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν· Ἐπειδὴ πάντα κατὰ τὸν ὑψηλότερόν τε καὶ θειότερον βίον ἐν τῷ Εὐαγγελίῳ εἴρηται καὶ γεγένηται· καὶ οὐδὲν τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν, ἐν ᾧ οὐχὶ πάντως μίξις τις ἐμφαίνεται τοῦ θείου πρὸς τὸ ἀνθρώπινον, τῆς μὲν φωνῆς ἢ τῆς πράξεως ἀνθρωπικῶς διεξαγομένης, τοῦ δὲ κατὰ τὸ κρυπτὸν νοουμένου τὸ θεῖον ἐμφαίνοντος· ἀκόλουθον ἂν εἴη καὶ ἐν τῷ μέρει τούτῳ, μὴ τὸ μὲν βλέπειν, παρορᾶν δὲ τὸ ἕτερον· ἀλλ᾽ ἐν μὲν τῷ ἀθανάτῳ καθορᾶν τὸ ἀνθρώπινον, ἐν δὲ τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ πολυπραγμονεῖν τὸ θειότερον. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἴδιόν ἐστι τῆς θειότητος τὸ διὰ πάντων ἥκειν, καὶ τῇ φύσει τῶν ὄντων κατὰ πᾶν μέρος συμπαρεκτείνεσθαι· οὐ γὰρ ἄν τι διαμένοι ἐν τῷ εἶναι, μὴ ἐν τῷ ὄντι μένον. Τὸ δὲ κυρίως καὶ πρώτως ὂν, ἡ θεία φύσις ἐστὶν, ἣν ἐξ ἀνάγκης πιστεύειν ἐν πᾶσιν εἶναι τοῖς οὖσιν, ἡ διαμονὴ τῶν ὄντων καταναγκάζει· τοῦτο διὰ τοῦ σταυροῦ διδασκόμεθα, τετραχῆ τοῦ κατ᾽ αὐτὸν σχήματος διῃρημένου· ὡς ἐκ τοῦ μέσου, καθὸ πρὸς ἑαυτὸν συνάπτεται, τέσσαρας ἀριθμεῖσθαι τὰς προβολάς· ὅτι ὁ ἐπὶ τούτου ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῆς κατὰ τὸν θάνατον οἰκονομίας διατεθεὶς, ὁ τὸ πᾶν πρὸς ἑαυτῷ συνδέων τε καὶ συναρμόζων, τὰς

τὰς ^A diversas naturas rerum ad unam per se cogit conspirationem et harmoniam. In iis enim quæ sunt, vel sursum intelligitur aliquid, vel deorsum, vel ad transversa terminos transit cogitatio.

Si ergo consideres cœlestium, vel υποχθονίων, aut utrorumque universi extremorum constitutionem, ^B πανταχοῦ τῷ λογισμῷ σου προαπαντᾷ ἡ θεότης, μόνη κατὰ πᾶν μέρος τοῖς οὖσιν ἐνθεωρουμένη, καὶ ἐν τῷ εἶναι τὰ πάντα συνέχουσα. Εἴτε δὴ Θεότητα τὴν φύσιν ταύτην ὀνομάζεσθαι χρὴ, εἴτε λόγον, εἴτε δύναμιν, εἴτε σοφίαν, εἴτε ἄλλο τι τῶν ὑψηλῶν τε καὶ μᾶλλον ἐνδείξασθαι δυναμένων τὸν ὑπερκείμενον, οὐδὲν ὁ λόγος ἡμῶν περὶ φωνῆς ἢ ὀνόματος ἢ τύπου ῥημάτων διαφέρεται. Ἐπεὶ οὖν πρὸς αὐτὸν πᾶσα ἡ κτίσις βλέπει, καὶ περὶ αὐτόν ἐστι, καὶ δι' ἐκείνου πρὸς ἑαυτὴν συμφυὴς γίνεται, τῶν ἄνω τοῖς κάτω, καὶ τῶν πλαγίων πρὸς ἄλληλα δι' ἐκείνου συμφυομένων, ἔδει μὴ μόνον δι' ἀκοῆς ἡμᾶς πρὸς τὴν τῆς θεότητος κατανόησιν χειραγωγεῖσθαι· ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν ὄψιν γενέσθαι τῶν ὑψηλοτέρων νοημάτων διδάσκαλον, ὅθεν καὶ ὁ μέγας ὁρμηθεὶς Παῦλος μυσταγωγεῖ τὸν ἐν Ἐφέσῳ λαὸν, δύναμιν αὐτοῖς ἐντιθεὶς διὰ τῆς διδασκαλίας πρὸς τὸ γνῶναι τί ἐστι τὸ βάθος καὶ τὸ ὕψος, τότε πλάτος καὶ τὸ μῆκος. Ἑκάστην γὰρ τοῦ σταυροῦ συμπροβολὴν ἰδίῳ ῥήματι κατονομάζει. Ὕψος μὲν τὸ ὑπερέχον· βάθος δὲ τὸ ὑποκείμενον, πλάτος τε καὶ μῆκος, τὰς πλαγίας ἐκτάσεις λέγων. ^C Καὶ σαφέστερον ἑτέρωθι τὸ τοιοῦτον νόημα πρὸς Φιλιππησίους, οἶμαι, ποιεῖ, οἷς φησιν· ὅτι Ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ πᾶν γόνυ κάμψει, ἐπουρανίων καὶ ἐπιγείων, καὶ καταχθονίων. Ἐνταῦθα τὴν μέσην καὶ γαῖαν μιᾷ προσηγορίᾳ καταλαμβάνει, πᾶν τὸ διὰ μέσου τῶν ἐπουρανίων καὶ ὑποχθονίων ὀνομάσας ἐπίγειον. Τοῦτο μεμαθήκαμεν περὶ τοῦ σταυροῦ τὸ μυστήριον. Τὰ δὲ ἀπὸ τούτου τοιαῦτα κατὰ τὸ ἀκόλουθον περιέχει ὁ λόγος, ὡς ὁμολογεῖσθαι καὶ παρὰ τῶν ἀπίστων, μηδὲν ἀλλότριον εἶναι τῆς θεοπρεποῦς ὑπολήψεως· τὸ γὰρ μὴ ἐμμεῖναι τῷ θανάτῳ, καὶ τὰς διὰ τοῦ σιδήρου κατὰ τοῦ σώματος γενομένας πληγὰς, μηδὲν ἐμπόδιον πρὸς τὸ ἀναστῆναι ποιήσασθαι, κατ' ἐξουσίαν τε φαίνεσθαι τοῖς μαθηταῖς μετὰ τὴν ἀνάστασιν ὅτε βούλοιτο, παρεῖναί τε αὐτοῖς μὴ ὁρώμενον, καὶ ἐν μέσῳ γίγνεσθαι, μηδὲ τῆς εἰσόδου τῆς διὰ τῶν θυρῶν προσδεόμενον, ἐισχύειν τε τοὺς μαθητὰς τῇ προσφυσήσει τοῦ Πνεύματος, ἐπαγγέλλεσθαί τε καὶ τὸ μετ' αὐτῶν εἶναι, καὶ μηδενὶ μέσῳ διατειχίζεσθαι, καὶ τῷ μὲν φαινομένῳ πρὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀνιέναι, τῷ δὲ νοουμένῳ πανταχῆ εἶναι, καὶ ὅσα τοιαῦτα περιέχει ἡ ἱστορία, οὐδὲν τῆς ἐκ τῶν λογισμῶν συμμαχίας προσδέεται πρὸς τὸ θεῖά τε εἶναι, καὶ τῆς ὑψηλῆς καὶ ὑπερεχούσης δυνάμεως· περὶ ὧν οὐδὲν οἶμαι δεῖν καθ' ἕκαστον διεξιέναι, αὐτόθεν τοῦ λόγου τὸ ὑπὲρ τὴν φύσιν ἐκφαίνοντος. ^D Ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ μέρος τι τῶν μυστικῶν διδαγμάτων καὶ ἡ περὶ τὸ λουτρόν ἐστιν οἰ-

οἰκονομία· ὃ εἴτε βάπτισμα, εἴτε φώτισμα, εἴτε παλιγγενεσίαν βούλοιτό τις ὀνομάζειν, οὐδὲν πρὸς τὴν ὀνομασίαν διαφερόμεθα, καλῶς ἂν ἔχοι καὶ περὶ τούτου βραχέα διεξελθεῖν. ^A

ΚΕΦΑΛ. ΛΓ'.

Ἐπειδὰν γὰρ παρ' ἡμῶν τὸ τοιοῦτον ἀκούσωσιν, ὅτι τοῦ θνητοῦ πρὸς τὴν ζωὴν μεταβαίνοντος, ἀκόλουθον ἦν τῆς πρώτης γενέσεως ἐπὶ τὸν θνητὸν παραγούσης βίον, ἑτέραν γέννησιν ἐξευρεθῆναι, μήτε ἀπὸ φθορᾶς ἀρχομένην, μήτε εἰς φθορὰν καταλήγουσαν· ἀλλ' εἰς ἀθάνατον ζωὴν τὸν γεγεννημένον παράγουσαν. Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐκ θνητῆς γεννήσεως θνητὸν ἐξ ἀνάγκης τὸ γεγεννημένον ὑπέστη· οὕτως ἐκ τῆς ^B μὴ παραδεχομένης φθορὰν γεννήσεως τὸν γεννώμενον, κρεῖττον γένηται τῆς ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου φθορᾶς. Ἐπειδὰν τούτων καὶ τῶν τοιούτων ἀκούσωσι, καὶ προδιδαχθῶσι τὸν τρόπον, ὅτι εὐχὴ πρὸς Θεὸν, καὶ χάριτος οὐρανίας ἐπίκλησις, καὶ ὕδωρ, καὶ πίστις ἐστὶ, δι' ὧν τὸ τῆς ἀναγεννήσεως πληροῦται μυστήριον, δυσπειθῶς ἔχουσι, πρὸς τὸ φαινόμενον βλέποντες, ὡς οὐ συμβαῖνον τῇ ἐπαγγελίᾳ τὸ σωματικῶς ἐνεργούμενον. Πῶς γὰρ, φησίν, εὐχὴ καὶ δυνάμεως θείας ἐπίκλησις ἐπὶ τοῦ ὕδατος γιγνομένη, ζωῆς ἀρχηγὸς τοῖς μυουμένοις γίνεται; Πρὸς οὕς, εἴπερ λίαν ἔχοιεν ἀντιτύπως, ἁπλοῦς ἐξαρκεῖ λόγος, πρὸς τὴν τοῦ δόγματος ἀγαγεῖν συγκατάθεσιν. Ἀντερωτήσω μὲν γὰρ, τοῦ τρόπου τῆς κατὰ σάρκα γεννήσεως πᾶσιν ὄντος προδήλου, πῶς ἄνθρωπος ἐκεῖνο γίνεται τὸ εἰς ἀφορμὴν τῆς συστάσεως τοῦ ζώου καταβαλλόμενον; Ἀλλὰ μὴν οὐδεὶς ἐπ' ἐκείνου λόγος ἐστὶν, ὁ λογισμῷ τινι τὸ πιθανὸν ἐξευρίσκων. Τί γὰρ κοινὸν σπέρματι ἀνθρώπου πρὸς τὴν ἐν ἐκείνῳ θεωρουμένην ποιότητα; Συγκρινόμενος ὁ ἄνθρωπος λογικόν τι χρῆμα καὶ διανοητικόν ἐστι, νοῦ καὶ ἐπιστήμης δεκτικόν· ἐκεῖνο δὲ ὑγρᾷ τινι ἐνθεωρεῖται ποιότητι, καὶ πλεῖον οὐδὲν τοῦ κατ' αἴσθησιν ὁρωμένου καταλαμβάνει ἔννοια. Ἐν τοίνυν εἰκός ἐστιν ἀπόκρισιν γενέσθαι ἡμῖν παρὰ τῶν ἐρωτηθέντων, ὅτι Πῶς ἔστι πιστὸν ἐξ ἐκείνου συστῆναι ἄνθρωπον; ^C τοῦτο καὶ περὶ τῆς διὰ τοῦ ὕδατος γινομένης ἀναγεννήσεως ἐρωτηθέντες ἀποκρινούμεθα. Ἐκεῖ τε γὰρ πρότερόν ἐστιν ἑκάστῳ τῶν ἠρωτημένων εἰπεῖν, ὅτι θείᾳ δυνάμει ἐκεῖνος ἄνθρωπος γίγνεται, ἧς μὴ παρούσης, ἀκίνητόν ἐστι καὶ ἀνενέργητον. Εἰ οὖν ἐκεῖ οὐ τὸ ὑποκείμενον ποιεῖ τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλ' ἡ θεία δύναμις εἰς ἀνθρώπου φύσιν μεταποιεῖ τὸ φαινόμενον, τῆς ἐσχάτης ἂν εἴη ἀγνωμοσύνης, ἐκεῖ τοσαύτην τῷ Θεῷ προσμαρτυροῦντας δύναμιν, ἀτονεῖν ἐν τῷ μέρει τούτῳ τὸ θεῖον οἴεσθαι πρὸς τὴν ἐκπλήρωσιν τοῦ θελήματος. Τί κοινὸν, φασὶν, ὕδατι καὶ ζωῇ; Τί δὲ κοινὸν, πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐροῦμεν, ὑγρότητι καὶ εἰκόνι Θεοῦ; Ἀλλ' οὐδὲν ἐκεῖ τὸ παράδοξον, εἰ Θεοῦ βουλομένου πρὸς τὸ τιμιώτατον ζῶον τὸ ὑγρὸν μεταβαίνει. ^D Τὸ ἴσον καὶ ἐπὶ τούτου φαμὲν, μηδὲν εἶναι θαυμαστὸν, εἰ θείας δυνάμεως παρουσία πρὸς ἀφθαρσίαν μετασκευάζει τὸ ἐν τῇ φθαρτῇ φύσει γενόμενον.

the most precious creature, the liquid transfers. We say the same also in this case, that there is nothing to wonder at if the presence of divine power transforms into incorruption that which was born in the nature to which destruction falls.

CHAPTER XXXIV

But they ask that it be demonstrated to them that God is present when invoked in the sanctifications that take place. Whoever seeks this, let him recall to mind the things that were examined before. For the confirmation that the power which appeared to us through the flesh is truly divine, supports what we say in this present matter. For since it has been shown that it is God who displayed his own nature by the wonders performed through those things which take place, it has been simultaneously shown that he is present at those things that take place at the time of invocation. For just as in each of the things that exist there is a certain property that makes its nature known, so truth is proper to the divine nature. ^A Moreover, he has promised that he will always be present to those who invoke him, and that he will be in the midst of the believers, and will remain in all, and will have fellowship with each one; and we would have no need of another proof that God is present at those things that take place, since we have believed that he is God through the miracles themselves, and we do not doubt that what was promised is present, given the certain promises that are far from any falsehood. That the invocation which happens through prayer precedes the divine dispensation, is proven enough and more than enough by the fact that what takes place is accomplished by God. ^B For if in the other kind of human procreation, the impulses of those who beget, even if God is not invoked by them through prayer, fashion the offspring by the power of God, as was said before—from which, if it were separated, their work would be ineffective, useless, and void—how much more in this spiritual mode of generation, since God has promised that he will be present to those things that have been done, and has implanted his own power into the work, as we have believed, and since our own choice of will has the impulse toward the object being sought, if the assistance through prayer is appropriately taken up along with it, will the object being sought not be the more perfected? ^C Just as those who pray to God that the sun may shine upon them do not in any way blunt what is destined to happen (nor would anyone say that the zeal of those praying is useless, if they supplicate God concerning that which is absolutely going to happen), so those who have believed in the promise of him who pledged it, a promise certain and removed from falsehood, that grace is absolutely present to those who are regenerated through this mystical dispensation, are either making some addition to the grace, or at any rate are not turning away that which exists. For that he is absolutely present is established by the fact that it is God who promised. ^D Moreover, the miracles testify to the Divinity. Therefore, there is no occasion for doubting that God is present in all things.

CHAPTER XXXV

The descent into the water, and the fact that the human being is immersed in it three times, contains another mystery. For since the manner of our salvation was not brought to effect and work so much by preceding instruction, as by those things which he himself performed, he who entered into communion with man, in that he has in reality worked out life, in order that...

^A again through the flesh he assumed and deified at the same time, all that is akin to it and of the same nature might be saved together, it was necessary that some way should be devised in which there would be some kinship and likeness in the things done by the follower to the leader. It is necessary, therefore, to see in what manner the Leader of our life was perceived; so that, as the Apostle says, according to the Author of our salvation, the imitation might be rightly accomplished by those who follow. For just as those who are trained in military discipline are led by those skilled in the ordering of a phalanx—by which they observe the rhythmic and armed movement taught to them—and he who does not perform what is demonstrated remains without that experience, in the same way, it is altogether necessary for those whose concern is for the good to follow, through imitation, Him who leads us to salvation, by bringing into action what was first demonstrated by Him. For it is not possible to arrive at the same end if one has not traveled by a similar path. For just as those who are at a loss how to navigate the wanderings of a labyrinth, if they happen upon someone who is experienced, follow behind him and traverse the varied and deceptive turnings of the houses—not being able to traverse them unless they follow in the footsteps of the one leading—so do you likewise conceive for me the labyrinth of this life, which human nature cannot possibly pass through unless someone takes hold of the same path by which He, having been inside it, was made to be on the outside of what held Him. I mean "labyrinth" metaphorically: the inescapable corruption of death, by which the miserable race of man has been surrounded. What, then, did we behold concerning the Author of our salvation? A three-day lifelessness and, again, life. Therefore, it is necessary that some such likeness be devised in us as well. What, then, is the device through which this imitation of what was done by Him is also fulfilled in us? Everything that has been deadened has a certain place of its own, according to its nature, which is the earth into which it is inclined and hidden. Earth and water, moreover, have a great kinship with one another, being the only elements that are heavy, downward-tending, remaining within one another, and held together by one another. Since, therefore, the death of the Leader of our life was subterranean and happened according to our common nature, the imitation of death that is performed by us is modeled in the neighboring element. And as that Man from above, having taken on mortality after His subterranean placement, ran back to life again on the third day, so too does everyone who is joined to Him according to the nature of the body, looking to the same achievement—I mean the end which concerns life—instead of earth, by having water poured over him and by entering into the element, in three periods, imitate the three-day grace of the resurrection.

It has also been said in the preceding that, by a prudent counsel of the dispensation, death was brought upon human nature by divine providence; as, with the dissolution of evil,

^A the body and the soul having been separated, man might be reconstituted again through the resurrection, safe, impassible, incorrupt, and alien to every commixture of vice. But in the case of the leader of our salvation, the dispensation of the death he underwent had its perfection, as it was fully accomplished according to his own purpose. For through death, the united were separated, and again the separated were joined; so that, nature having been purified in the dissolution of those things which had been naturally joined—I speak of soul and body—the return of those things that had been separated might be pure from the alien commixture of vice. But in those who follow the leader, nature does not attain an exact imitation in all things; but having received as much as it is now capable of, it reserves the remainder for the time to come. What then is it that it imitates? It is the bringing about of the destruction of the vice that was mixed in, by means of the image of death which occurs through the water; yet not a complete destruction, but a certain interruption in the continuity of the evil, two things having concurred towards the removal of vice: the repentance of him who has sinned, and the imitation of death. Through these, man is in some way released from his natural fellowship with evil—by repentance moving towards hatred and alienation from evil, and by death working the destruction of the evil. But if it were possible for the imitator to be in a perfect death, the thing happening would not be an imitation, ^B but sameness; and the evil would be altogether destroyed from our nature, so that, as the Apostle says, he might once for all be dead to sin (Rom. vi, 12). But since, as has been said, we imitate that supreme power just as much as the poverty of our nature allows, by pouring the water three times, and again rising out of the water, we signify the saving burial and the resurrection which occurred in the time of three days, having received this in our minds: that just as the water is in our power, both to be in it and to emerge from it again, in the same way it was in the power of him who possesses the sovereignty of all, that just as we are in the water, he should enter into death and again release himself to his own blessedness.

If, therefore, one were to look to what is likely, and judge what occurs according to the power of each, he would find no discrepancy in what takes place, as each has performed what is in accordance with its power, in proportion to the measure of nature. For just as water is to man, for him to touch without danger, if he so wishes, unimaginably more easily ^C is death presented to the divine power, both to exist within it and not to be turned toward an affection which is received from it. For this reason, therefore, it is necessary for us to practice the grace of the resurrection in the water, so that we may know that it is equally easy for us both to be baptized in water and to emerge again from death. But just as in affairs of life there are some things more fundamental than others, without which what is being done could not be accomplished, even if the beginning were to be judged by its end,

For what proportion does a human being bear to that which is cast contributing to the formation of the living creature? Yet, if that other were not, this could not exist. Thus also, what takes place in the great resurrection, though it is greater by nature, has its beginnings and causes from this. For it is not possible for that to come to pass if this has not preceded it. I say, however, that it is impossible for a man to be in the resurrection without the laver of regeneration, not looking toward the refashioning and reformation of our mass. For nature must altogether arrive at this, compelled by its own necessity from the prescription of the dispensation of Him who ordained it, whether it has received the grace of the laver or has remained without such an initiation, but [seeks] the restoration of blessedness, of divinity, and of immunity from all grief. For not all those who through the resurrection receive a return to being, return to the same life. Indeed, there is a great difference between those who are purified and those who are in need of purification. For in those in whom the purification through the laver has preceded in this present life, the return will be to that which is kindred to them. And to that which is pure and clean, the impassible is proper and joined by familiarity. That blessed existence consists in impassibility is not doubted. But for those whose affections have become hardened and calloused, and to whom no purification of filth and stains has been applied—no mystical water, no invocation of divine power, no correction of improper depravity—it is absolutely necessary that they also be brought into that which is appropriate. The furnace is appropriate for gold that is adulterated and alloyed, so that when the vice mixed with it has been melted away, the nature may at long last be preserved pure to God through long ages. Since, therefore, there is a certain power of cleansing and purifying in water and in fire, those who have washed away the filth of vice through the mystical water have no need of the other kind of purification. But those who have not been initiated into this mystery of purification are necessarily purified by fire.

CHAPTER XXXVI

For both common reason and the teaching of the Scriptures show that no one can enter the divine choir who has not ^C washed away all the filth and stains contracted from vice. This is that which, being small in itself, becomes the beginning and foundation of great goods. I call it small because of the ease of doing what is right. For what labor is there in this matter to believe that God is everywhere? And since He is in all things, that He is present even to those who call upon His life-giving power, and being present, that He does what is proper to Himself? The salvation of those in need is proper to the divine operation. And this becomes effective and is brought to its work through the purification that takes place in water. He who is purified becomes a participant in purity. And that which is truly pure is the Godhead. ^D You see how small and how easily accomplished that which is in the beginning is, namely, faith and water: the former situated in the choice of the free

will, the latter acting as the minister of the grace that rebirths our nature. ^A But for what good this arises, or how great and of what sort it is, so that man may have familiarity and union with God himself?

CHAPTER XXXVII

But since man is dual, being composed and tempered of soul and body, it is necessary that those who are being saved should reach the One who leads to life through both. ^B Therefore the soul, being tempered with Him through faith, has from this the occasion of salvation; for union with Life possesses the fellowship of life. But the body enters into participation and tempering with the One who gives salvation in another way. For just as those who have taken poison through deceit and ambush extinguish the power that brings destruction with another medicine; and since it is necessary that the antidote, in likeness to the deadly thing, should enter within the inward parts of man, so that through these the power of the helper might be distributed to the entire body; ^C so also, having tasted of that which destroys our nature, it was necessary again that we should have need of that which gathers together what was dissolved. And so, this antidote having come to be within us, it might repel the damage of the poison previously placed in the body through the opposite affection. What then is this? It is nothing other than that body which was shown to be stronger than death and was the beginning of our life. For just as a little leaven, as the Apostle says, [1 Cor. v, 6] assimilates the whole lump to itself, so the body which was put to death by God, having come to be within our own, turns and changes the whole toward itself. For just as when the destructive element is mixed with the healthy, the whole mixture becomes useless, so likewise the immortal body, when it has come to be within the one who received it, ^D transmutates the whole into its own nature. But it cannot be that anything should come to be within the body otherwise than by being mixed with the inward parts through eating and drinking. It is necessary, therefore, in the way that nature is able, to receive the life-giving power of the Spirit. But since only that body which received God has received this grace, and it has been shown that it is impossible for our body to exist in immortality otherwise than by becoming a participant of incorruption through communion with the Immortal, it is necessary to consider how it could be possible that that one body, which is always being distributed to so many thousands of the faithful throughout the whole world, should become whole in each one through the part, and yet itself remain whole in itself. Therefore, so that faith, looking toward what is consequent, may have no doubt concerning the proposed idea, our discourse must linger a little while in the natural consideration of the body. For who is ignorant that our body's nature does not have life of itself in any proper substance of the body, but rather, through a certain power flowing into it, it both contains itself and remains in its being, drawing to itself that which is lacking and pushing away what is redundant by unceasing motion? And just as a flask that is full of some liquid, if...

that which is placed within it should escape through the bottom, would not preserve its form in magnitude unless another substance entered from above to take the place of that which is emptied—so that he who sees the bulky circumference of this vessel knows that it is not proper to the visible object, but that which flows into it is what gives shape to that which contains the bulk—so also the constitution of our body possesses nothing known to us as proper for its own composition, but it remains in existence ^A through the power that is introduced into it. And this power is and is called nourishment. Furthermore, it is not the same for all bodies that are nourished, but a certain [nourishment] appropriate to each has been assigned by Him who governs and administers nature. For some animals are nourished by digging up roots; for others, grass is food; and for some, the nourishment is flesh. But for man, bread is the primary [food], and for the persistence and preservation of fluid, drink [is provided], not water alone, but often seasoned with wine, to bring aid to our internal heat. Whoever, therefore, looks upon these things, looks by such means upon the magnitude of our body. For when those things have come to be in me, they become blood and body ^B, as the nourishment is suitably reduced to the form of the body by the power of alteration.

These things having been distinguished and clarified by us in this way, our thought must be recalled to the proposed subject. For it was inquired how that body of Christ which is in Him vivifies the whole human nature, in those in whom there is faith, being distributed to all, and yet not diminished in itself. Perhaps, therefore, we are not far from a probable reason. For if the subsistence of any body consists of nourishment—that is, of food and drink—and if that food is bread, and the drink is water exhilarated by wine; and the Word of God, as was previously defined, who is God and Word, tempered Himself to human nature; and when He was in our body, He did not innovate any other kind of constitution for human nature, but by the things that are customary and appropriate, He gave permanence to His own body, sustaining His substance with food and drink. And the food was bread. How then in us, as has already been said often, he who sees the bread sees in a way the human body, because when it is in him, it becomes this: so also in that case, the body which received God ^C, when it had received the nourishment of bread, was in a certain way identical with that, as the nourishment, as has been said, passed into the nature of the body. For that which is common to all was also certainly and constantly in that flesh, namely that even that body was sustained by bread. But the body was transmuted to divine dignity by the indwelling of the Word of God. Rightly, therefore, do I believe that even now the bread sanctified by the Word of God is transmuted into the body of the Word of God. For that former body was also potentially bread. But it was sanctified by the indwelling of the Word who tabernacled in the flesh. Therefore, from the point where the bread that was transmuted in that body passed into divine power ^D, through the same [Word]...

the bread becomes a holy body, receiving its substance from the bread, and in a way, it was bread itself. So too here, as the Apostle says, the bread is sanctified by the Word of God and by prayer, not by proceeding through eating and drinking into the body of the Word, but by being immediately transmuted into the body of the Word, as has been said by the Word: "This is my body."

Now, since all flesh is also nourished by liquid—for without union with it, the earthy element in us could not persist in life—just as we support and stabilize the solid part of the body through solid and typical food, in the same way we also provide the addition to the liquid from a nature of the same kind. This, when it has come into us, becomes blood through ^B the transformative power, especially if through wine it receives the capacity to be transmuted into heat. Since, therefore, that God-receiving flesh also accepted this part for its own constitution, and the Word who was manifested for this reason mingled Himself with the perishable nature of men, so that by the communion of divinity, humanity might also at the same time be deified: for this cause, through the dispensation of His grace, He sows Himself into all who have believed, through the flesh, being mixed and tempered into the bodies of believers—whose substance is from bread and wine—so that by union with that which is immortal, man might also become a participant in incorruption. He imparts these things, having transmuted the nature of ^C visible things into that [immortal state] by the power of the blessing.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

I think that for the matters requested concerning the mystery, nothing is lacking in what has been said, except the account regarding faith, which we shall expound in few words even in this present work. But for those who seek a more perfect account, we have already set it forth in other labors, having unfolded the argument with as much precision as we were able. In those works, we have engaged in conflict with adversaries and have considered by ourselves the questions brought against us. In the present work, we have thought it sufficient to say as much about faith as the voice of the Gospel contains—namely, that he who is born by the spiritual regeneration should know by whom he is begotten, and what sort of creature he becomes. For this type of ^D generation alone has it in its power to become whatever it chooses.

CHAPTER XXXIX

For other things that are born exist by the impulse of those who beget them. But the spiritual birth depends on the power of the one who is born. Since, therefore, there is danger in this—in not missing what is advantageous—when the choice is set before everyone with full authority, I say it is proper for one who is being impelled toward his own birth to discern beforehand by reflection what father will be advantageous to him, and from whom it is better for his nature to be constituted. For it has been said that he possesses this by authority.

^A Since, therefore, things that exist are divided into two parts, into the created and the uncreated, and since the uncreated nature possesses in itself stability and immutability, while the created nature is altered toward change, he who with consideration chooses what is advantageous, will choose whose child he would rather become: that of the nature which is observed in change, or that which preserves its nature steady, firm, and always the same in goodness?

Since, therefore, in the Gospel three Persons and names are delivered, through whom generation happens to those who believe, and he who is generated in the Trinity is generated equally by the Father, and by the Son, and by the Holy Spirit—for so the Gospel says concerning the Spirit, that "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John iii, 6), and Paul begets in Christ (1 Cor. iv, 15), and the Father is Father of all (Phil. i, 2)—here let the mind of the hearer be sober, ^B lest it make itself the offspring of an unstable nature, when it is possible for it to make the unchangeable and inalterable [nature] the leader and author of its own life. For according to the disposition of the heart of him who approaches the dispensation, the thing which is brought forth also has its power. Whoever, therefore, confesses the holy Trinity to be uncreated, enters into an unchangeable and inalterable life; but he who looks upon the created nature in the Trinity with a false estimation, and is subsequently baptized in it, is born again into a changeable life that is subject to alteration. For that which is born is necessarily of the same kind as the nature of those who beget. What, then, would be more advantageous: to enter into an unchangeable life, or to fluctuate again in a life that is unstable and subject to alteration?

Since, therefore, it is clear to everyone who possesses any intelligence at all, ^C that that which stands is far more excellent than that which does not stand, and that which is perfect than that which is deficient, and that which does not need than that which needs, and that which is not in a state of progressing toward something else, but always remains in the perfection of the good, than that which rises by progress: it would be necessary for one who is wise to choose one of two things: either to believe the holy Trinity to be the uncreated nature, and thus through spiritual generation to make It the leader and author of his own life; or, if he imagines the Son or the Holy Spirit to be outside the nature of the first and true and good God—I mean of the Father—and does not simultaneously receive the faith in These at the time of generation, he may unwittingly deliver himself ^D to a deficient and defective nature, and one that lacks that which makes it good, and may in a way bring himself back again into what is of the same kind, as one whose faith has fallen short of the supreme and supereminent nature. For he who has yoked himself to any of the created things does not notice that he has no hope of salvation in God. For all creation, from the fact that it proceeds equally from non-being to being, is joined to itself by a natural kinship; and just as in the construction of bodies all the members are mutually joined to one another, even if some happen to be lower and others higher—thus the created nature is joined to itself according to the reason

^A that concerns the definition of a creature; ^B nor does the difference between what is superior and what is lacking in us separate it, so that it might not be joined to itself by a natural conjunction. For in those things in which it is equally thought that they are and exist, even if they differ in other respects, we do not find in this regard any mutation of nature. If, therefore, man considers that he being created, the Spirit is also created, and that the only-begotten God is also created, he will be led by a vain hope, inasmuch as he makes himself alien to that restoration for the better. For the same thing happens in this matter that Nicodemus thought, who, when he had learned from the Lord that it was necessary to be born from above, because he did not yet grasp the reason of the mystery, was drawn back in his thinking to the maternal womb. Hence, if one does not lead himself to the uncreated nature, but to the kindred and fellow-servant creature, the generation is of that which is from below, not of that which is from above. But the Gospel says that the generation of those who are saved is from above.

CHAPTER XL

But it does not seem to me that the catechesis has sufficient instruction up to what has been said. For it is necessary, I think, to consider also what follows after this, which many of those who approach the grace of baptism overlook, deceiving themselves through error, and being born only in appearance, not in reality. For the ^C transformation of our life that occurs through regeneration could not be a transformation if we remain in that in which we were. For as to one who remains in the same things, I do not see how he is to be considered to have been made another, in whom nothing has been changed of those things by which he is known. For it is evident to everyone that the saving generation is perceived for the sake of the renewal and the change of our nature. But humanity itself does not by itself admit of change in baptism, neither the rational, nor the intellectual, nor the capacity for knowledge, nor any other of the things that specifically characterize human nature is transformed; for it would be a change for the worse if anything of those things that are proper to nature were destroyed. If, then, the generation from above is a certain reformation of man, and these things do not admit of change, it must be considered what being changed the grace of regeneration is perfected. Clearly, by the evil characteristics being erased from our nature, the transition to that which is better occurs. If, therefore, as the prophet says, ^D having been washed in this mystical bath, we become pure in our intentions, having washed away the wickedness of our souls, we have become better, and we have been transformed into that which is better. But if the bath is indeed applied to the body, but the soul does not cast off its stained passions; but the life after the initiation happens to be the same as the life before the initiation, if it is bold to say so, I will say it, and I will not refrain: that in these cases the water is water, with the gift of the Holy Spirit nowhere appearing in the one being baptized, when not only does the filth according to the impulse [of passion] insult the divine

^A form, and the unseemly mind, and pride, and envy, and arrogance—but the gains made from injustice also remain with him, and the woman acquired by him through adultery also serves his pleasures afterward. If these things and such like are likewise before and after in the life of the one who was washed by baptism, there is nothing to be seen to have changed; the one who was wronged, who was slandered, who was stripped of his own possessions, seeing the same man he saw before, observes no change in him who is supposedly reborn. They have not heard from him the voice of Zacchaeus: "If I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold." What they said before baptism, they say the same about him now, and they call him by the same names: greedy, covetous of others' goods, preparing for himself luxuries from the calamities of men. ^B Therefore, he who remains in the same things, and then boasts to the public of his change for the better through baptism, let him hear the voice of Paul: "If anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself." For you are not what you have not become. "As many as received Him," says the Gospel concerning the reborn, "He gave them authority to become children of God." But the child born of someone is entirely of the same nature as the one who begat him. If, therefore, you have received God, and have become a child of God, show by your own deliberate intention and choice the God who is in you. Show in yourself the one who begat you. From those things by which we know God, it is fitting for the connection and kinship with God of him who has become a child of God to be shown. He opens His hand and fills every living thing with good will; He passes over iniquities, He repents of the evil. "The Lord is gracious to all, not bringing wrath ^C upon them day by day; upright is the Lord God, and there is no iniquity in Him," and all such things we are taught here and there by holy Scripture. If you are in these things, you have truly become a child of God. But if you remain in the marks of wickedness, in vain do you boast to yourself of the birth from above. The prophecy will say to you, "You are a son of man, not a son of the Highest. You love vanity, you seek a lie." Do you not know that a man does not become a son of God unless he becomes holy?

It would be necessary to add also the remainder to these things: that the good things which are proposed in the promises to those who have lived rightly are not of such a kind that they can be described in words. For how could they, when "eye has not seen, nor ear heard, ^D nor have they entered into the heart of man"? Nor is the miserable and dolor-filled life of those who have sinned similar to any of those things which torment the senses here. But even if any of the torments that are there should be named by names that are known here, it is nevertheless not without a small difference. For when you hear "fire," you have been taught to understand something else besides this, from the fact that something is proposed for that fire