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for He who legislated joined death to the transgression, and having transgressed he came under that punishment, He manages the punishment so that it becomes salvation. For death dissolves this living being, and it stops the energy of wickedness, and it releases from toils, and it frees from sweat, it drives away griefs and cares, it gives an end to the passions of the body. With such loving-kindness the judge tempered the punishment! 7. A narration of the ingratitude of men, and of the care of God. But from this the ungrateful race of 75.1425 men profited nothing; but with greater ingratitude it repaid the benefactor. For immediately fratricide is dared, and envy, and falsehood, and intemperance and licentiousness, injustices, and mutual slaughter, and seizures of others' property, and the other evils that sin has produced. But not even thus did the Creator forbid the nature which He had fashioned; but wisely and variously He accomplished it, healing, rebuking, accusing, introducing what is right, advising, threatening, bringing on the threat, punishing the wicked, crowning the good, and proclaiming one, translating another, saving another by wood with his family, and preserving a spark for nature, flooding the earth, destroying with water the workers of wickedness, again increasing the human race, making common healings with partial punishments, burning with heavenly fire cities living in impiety, the one living with them, but not partaking of the impiety, freeing from the punishment, bestowing abundance, granting rain in its season, ineffably increasing the seeds sown by men, commanding the trees to gush with an abundance of fruits, disciplining with famine those who benefited nothing from the prosperity, bringing on diseases, and again driving them away, slinging the resources of life, hiding the sun with clouds of locusts and destroying the fruits; again nodding, and changing the grievous things, not forsaking those who loved piety, and appearing to them, and speaking amicably, and through them foretelling the things to come. 8. That the incarnation of God is full of loving-kindness. But since these things, and the other myriad and indescribable forms of the divine economy benefited few, and the rest of men were incurably disposed, then indeed, then the great and ineffable mystery of the economy comes to be; for the Word of God Himself, the creator of all creation, the uncontainable, the uncircumscribable, the unchangeable, the source of life, the light from light, the living image of the Father, the radiance of glory, the character of His substance, takes up human nature, and renews His own image corrupted by sin, and restores the statue made old by the son of wickedness, and shows it to be more graceful than the first, not creating it from earth as of old, but Himself accepting it; not changing the divine nature into human, but joining the human to the divine; for remaining what He was, He took what He was not; and this the blessed Paul teaches us, crying out: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant." From which it is evident, that the form of God, remaining what it was, took the form of a servant; and He calls "form" not only the appearance of man, but all of human 75.1428 nature; for just as the form of God signifies the substance of God, for the divine is without form and without shape, and no one, unless he were mad, would say that the incorporeal and uncompounded has form and a division of members,

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γὰρ τῇ παραβάσει νομοθετῶν συνέζευξε θάνατον, παραβὰς δὲ ὑπὸ τὴν τιμωρίαν ἐκείνην ἐγένετο, οἰκονομεῖ τὴν τιμωρίαν σωτηρίαν γενέσθαι. ∆ιαλύει γὰρ τοῦτο τὸ ζῶον ὁ θάνατος, καὶ παύει μὲν τὴν τῆς πονηρίας ἐνέργειαν, ἀπαλλάττει δὲ πόνων, καὶ ἱδρώτων ἐλευθεροῖ, λύπας καὶ φροντί δας ἐλαύνει, τέλος τοῖς τοῦ σώματος δίδωσι πάθεσι. Τοσαύτῃ φιλανθρωπίᾳ τὴν τιμωρίαν ἐκέρασεν ὁ κριτής! Ζʹ. ∆ιήγησις τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀχαριστίας, καὶ τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ κηδεμονίας. Ἀλλ' οὐδὲν ἐντεῦθεν τὸ ἀχάριστον γένος τῶν ἀν 75.1425 θρώπων ἀπώνατο· μείζοσι δὲ ἀγνωμοσύναις τὸν εὐ εργέτην ἠμείψατο. Εὐθὺς γὰρ ἀδελφοκτονία τολμᾶ ται, καὶ φθόνος, καὶ ψεῦδος, ἀκολασίαι τε καὶ ἀσέλγειαι, ἀδικίαι, καὶ ἀλληλοφονίαι, καὶ τῶν ἀλλοτρίων ἁρπαγαὶ, καὶ τἄλλα ὅσα ἐβλάστησεν ἡ ἁμαρτία κακά. Ἀλλ' οὐδὲ οὕτως ὁ Ποιητὴς ἣν διέ πλασεν ἀπηγόρευσεν φύσιν· σοφῶς δὲ αὐτὸ καὶ δια φόρως ἐτέλεσεν, ἰατρεύων, ἐπιτιμῶν, ἐγκαλῶν, εἰσ ηγούμενος τὸ δέον, συμβουλεύων, ἀπειλῶν, ἐπάγων τὴν ἀπειλὴν, κολάζων τοὺς πονηροὺς, στεφανῶν τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς, καὶ τὸν μὲν ἀνακηρύττων, τὸν δὲ μετα τιθεὶς, τὸν δὲ ξύλῳ μετὰ τοῦ γένους διασώζων, καὶ σπινθῆρα τῇ φύσει διατηρῶν, ἐπικλύζων τὴν γῆν, διαφθείρων ὕδατι τοὺς ἐργάτας τῆς πονηρίας, αὔξων αὖθις τὸ ἀνθρώπινον γένος, μερικαῖς τιμωρίαις κοι νὰς ἰατρείας ποιούμενος, πόλεις ἀσεβείαις συζώσας πυρὶ καταφλέγων οὐρανίῳ, τὸν σὺν αὐτοῖς μὲν οἰ κοῦντα, τῆς δ' ἀσεβείας οὐ κοινωνοῦντα, τῆς τιμω ρίας ἐλευθερῶν, εὐετηρίαις δωρούμενος, ἐν καιρῷ ὑετὸν χαριζόμενος, αὔξων ἀῤῥήτως τὰ παρὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων καταβαλλόμενα σπέρματα, καρπῶν ἀφθο νίας βρύειν τὰ δένδρα κελεύων, λιμῷ παιδεύων τοὺς οὐδὲν ἐκ τῆς εὐθηνίας ὠφεληθέντας, νόσους ἐπάγων, καὶ πάλιν ταύτας ἐλαύνων, χαλασφενδονῶν τὰς τῆς ζωῆς ἀφορμὰς, νέφεσιν ἀκρίδος τὸν ἥλιον κρύπτων καὶ τοὺς καρποὺς διαφθείρων· νεύων αὖθις, καὶ τὰ λυπηρὰ μεταβάλλων, τοὺς τὴν εὐσέβειαν ἀγαπήσαντας οὐκ ἐῶν, καὶ τούτοις φαινόμενος, καὶ φιλικῶς διαλεγόμενος, καὶ διὰ τούτων προσημαίνων τὰ μέλλοντα. Ηʹ. Ὅτι φιλανθρωπίας γέμει ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐναν θρώπησις. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ ταῦτα, καὶ τἄλλα τὰ μυρία καὶ δυσδιήγητα τῆς θείας οἰκονομίας εἴδη ὀλίγους μὲν εὐηργέτησεν, οἱ δὲ λοιποὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀνηκέστως διέκειντο, τότε δὴ, τότε τὸ μέγα καὶ ἄῤῥητον γίνεται τῆς οἰκονομίας μυστήριον· αὐτὸς γὰρ ὁ Λόγος τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὁ δημιουργὸς ἁπάσης τῆς κτίσεως, ὁ ἀχώρη τος, ὁ ἀπερίγραπτος, ὁ ἀναλλοίωτος, ἡ πηγὴ τῆς ζωῆς, τὸ ἐκ τοῦ φωτὸς φῶς, ἡ ζῶσα τοῦ Πατρὸς εἰκὼν, τὸ ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης, ὁ χαρακτὴρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως, τὴν ἀνθρωπείαν φύσιν ἀναλαμβάνει, καὶ τὴν οἰκείαν εἰκόνα νεοποιεῖ τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ δια φθαρεῖσαν, καὶ τὸν ἀνδριάντα τὸν ὑπὸ τοῦ υἱοῦ τῆς πονηρίας παλαιωθέντα ἀνανεοῖ, καὶ τοῦ πρώτου χα ριέστερον δείκνυσιν, οὐκ ἀπὸ γῆς ὡς πάλαι τοῦτον δημιουργήσας, ἀλλ' αὐτὸς καταδεξάμενος· οὐ τὴν θείαν φύσιν εἰς ἀνθρωπείαν μεταβαλὼν, ἀλλὰ τῇ θείᾳ τὴν ἀνθρωπείαν συνάψας· μένων γὰρ ὃ ἦν, ἔλαβεν ὃ οὐκ ἦν· καὶ τοῦτο ἡμᾶς διδάσκει ὁ μακάριος Παῦλος βοῶν· «Τοῦτο φρονείσθω ἐν ὑμῖν, ὃ καὶ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, ὃς ἐν μορφῇ Θεοῦ ὑπάρχων, οὐχ ἁρπαγμὸν ἡγήσατο τὸ εἶναι ἴσα Θεῷ, ἀλλ' ἑαυτὸν ἐκένωσε, μορφὴν δούλου λαβών.» Ἐξ ὧν εὔδηλον, ὡς ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ μορφὴ, μένουσα ὃ ἦν, ἔλαβε τὴν δούλου μορφήν· μορφὴν δὲ καλεῖ οὐ τὸ φαινόμενον μόνον τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, ἀλλὰ πᾶσαν τὴν ἀνθρώπου 75.1428 φύσιν· ὥσπερ γὰρ ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ μορφὴ, τοῦ Θεοῦ τὴν οὐσίαν σημαίνει, ἀνείδεον γὰρ τὸ θεῖον καὶ ἀσχημά τιστον, καὶ οὐδεὶς ἂν εἴπῃ μὴ παραπαίων, μορφὴν ἔχειν, καὶ μελῶν διαίρεσιν, τὸν ἀσώματον καὶ ἀσύν θετον,