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of the body from the immaculate Virgin, and not after the conception, the teacher specifies.

109. TO THOSE WHO SAY THAT SOULS PRE-EXIST BODIES

To those who say that souls pre-exist bodies. For some say, as I have already stated beforehand, that souls pre-exist bodies, and others the opposite, that bodies pre-exist souls. But we, traveling the middle road as the royal way according to our fathers, say neither pre-existence nor post-existence of soul or body, but rather co-existence, avoiding the inclinations on either side, and turning neither to the left nor to the right, as Holy Scripture says, in any way, fearing a fear 1328 than which there is nothing more fearful to fear, lest by saying that souls pre-exist bodies, and that bodies were devised for the sake of punishing souls, on account of the pre-existing wickedness of the bodiless beings, we should reasonably suppose that wickedness is the sole cause of the magnificent creation of visible things, through which God is known, proclaimed in silence, bringing upon God a necessity, contrary to His purpose, to create a substance He had not willed, of which perhaps from the beginning He did not even have the hidden principle before the ages along with the others. For to say that God has the principles of subsistence for things that come into being contrary to His purpose, does not seem to me to be of a sound mind, and in any way 14Ε_030 well aware of the majesty of God, the impassible and only true One, who has nothing at all new according to the pre-existing principles of beings within Him, and especially nothing contrary to His purpose. For all things that in any way exist or will exist according to substance have been pre-willed and pre-conceived and foreknown by Him; and each of the beings He brings into substance and existence at the fitting and appropriate time.

For let us not think that when we see God fashioning something, He then also began to have the will, concept, and knowledge concerning it. By no means. For this is truly full of much absurdity, if that which God from the beginning before the ages neither conceived nor knew nor willed to be, He now, having conceived and willed and known it—or to speak more properly, having changed his mind—brought it to completion as something good; not to mention that He does not even know the making of those things whose principles He does not possess beforehand. But we believe that all things are always comprehended in the will of God with foreknowledge according to His infinite power, with nothing being newly devised by Him in any way whatsoever, and receiving its being according to substance. For I do not suppose that those who think piously should imagine that God learns each of the things foreknown and pre-comprehended in Himself with infinite power according to their own principles through their production into being. But to us the ages and the times show each thing wisely created according to the pre-ordained and fitting season of each, and they are brought forth into being, just as the divine Apostle also says concerning Levi, expounding thus: For he was still in the loins of his father, before he came into being. Who, existing in potentiality in the patriarch Abraham, but at the appointed time 14Ε_032 having received his coming-to-be into being through conception in actuality, has led us to understand and believe that all things, in sequence and order according to the ineffable wisdom of God, receive their coming-to-be into being at the foreknown time.

1329 Therefore, of all things that exist and will exist substantially in actuality, or that have come to be, or will come to be, or that appear, or will appear, the principles pre-exist, being firmly established in God, according to which all things both exist and have come into being and always endure according to their own principles of purpose, approaching through natural motion

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τοῦ σώματος τοῦ ἐκ τῆς ἀχράντου Παρθένου, καί οὐ μετά τήν σύλληψιν, ὁ διδάσκαλος διορίζεται.

ΡΘ (109). ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟΥΣ ΛΕΓΟΝΤΑΣ ΠΡΟΫΠΑΡΧΕΙΝ ΤΩΝ ΣΩΜΑΤΩΝ ΤΑΣ ΨΥΧΑΣ

Πρός τούς λέγοντας προϋπάρχειν τῶν σωμάτων τάς ψυχάς. Τινές μέν γάρ φασιν, ὡς ἤδη προλαβών ἔφην, προϋπάρχειν τῶν σωμάτων

τάς ψυχάς, τινές δέ τό ἐναντίον, τῶν ψυχῶν προϋπάρχειν τά σώματα. Ἡμεῖς δέ τήν μέσην ὁδόν ὡς βασιλικήν κατά τούς πατέρας ἡμῶν ὁδεύοντες οὔτε προΰπαρξιν οὔτε μεθύπαρξιν ψυχῆς ἤ σώματος, συνύπαρξιν δέ μᾶλλον φαμεν, τάς ἐφ᾿ ἑκάτερα φυλαττόμενοι ἐγκλίσεις, καί μήτε ἀριστερά μήτε δεξιά, καθώς φησιν ἡ ἁγία Γραφή, παντάπασιν ῥέποντες, φόβον φοβούμενοι 1328 οὖ πλέον φοβεῖσθαι οὐδέν ἐστι φοβερώτερον, μήπως προϋπάρχειν λέγοντες τῶν σωμάτων τάς ψυχάς, καί τιμωρίας ἕνεκεν τῶν ψυχῶν ἐφευρέσθαι τά σώματα, διά τήν προγεγενημένην τῶν ἀσωμάτων κακίαν, τῆς τῶν ὁρομένων ἐκπρεποῦς μεγαλουργίας, δι᾿ ἧς ὁ Θεός γινώσκεται σιωπῇ κηρυττόμενος, αἰτίαν εἰκότως εἶναι μόνην ὑποτιθέμεθα τήν κακίαν, ἀνάγκην ἐπάγουσαν τῷ Θεῷ παρά πρόθεσιν ἥν οὐκ εὐδόκησεν οὐσίαν δημιουργῆσαι, ἧς τυχόν ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς οὐδέ τόν λόγον ἔχει πρό τῶν αἰώνων μετά τῶν ἄλλων ἀπόκρυφον. Τῶν γάρ παρά πρόθεσιν γινομένων λέγειν τόν Θεόν ἔχειν τούς τῆς οὐσιώσεως λόγους, οὔ μοι δοκεῖ συνετῆς διανοίας εἶναι, καί ὁπωσοῦν 14Ε_030 εὖ συνῃσθημένης Θεοῦ μεγαλειότητος, τοῦ ἀπαθοῦς καί μόνου ἀληθοῦς, καί μηδέν ἔχοντος καθόλου κατά τούς ἐν αὐτῷ προόντας τῶν ὄντων λόγους πρόσφατον, καί μάλιστα παρά πρόθεσιν. Πάντα γάρ αὐτῷ τά ὁπωσοῦν ὄντα ἤ γενησόμενα κατά τήν οὐσίαν προτεθέληταί τε καί προεννενόηται, καί προέγνωσται· ἕκαστον δέ τῶν ὄντων κατά τόν εὔθετον καί ἐπιτήδειον καιρόν οὐσιοῖ καί ὑφίστησι.

Μηδέ γάρ ὅτε τι κατασκευάζοντα τόν Θεόν ὁρῶμεν, τότε καί τῆς περί αὐτό θελήσεως ἦρχθαι ἐννοίας τε καί γνώσεως αὐτόν νομίσωμεν. Ἄπαγε. Πολλῆς γάρ ὄντως ἐστί τοῦτο μεστόν ἀτοπίας, εἰ ὅπερ ὁ Θεός ἐξ ἀρχῆς πρό τῶν αἰώνων μήτε ἐνενόησεν ἤ ἔγνω ἤ ἐθέλησεν εἶναι, νῦν νοήσας τε καί θελήσας καί γνούς, ἤ μεταγνούς εἰπεῖν οἰκειότερον, ὡς καλόν ἐξετέλεσεν· ἵνα μή λέγω ὅτι οὐδέ αὐτήν ὧν τούς λόγους προηγουμένως οὐκ ἔχει, γινώσκει τήν ποιήσιν. Ἀλλά πάντα τῇ βουλήσει τοῦ Θεοῦ προγνωστικῶς κατά τήν ἄπειρον αὐτοῦ δύναμιν ἀεί περιέχεσθαι πιστεύομεν, μηδενός αὐτῷ καθ᾿ οἱανδήποτε τρόπον προσφάτως ἐπινοουμένου, καί τό εἶναι κατά τήν οὐσίαν λαμβάνοντος. Μηδέ γάρ οἴεσθαι δεῖν εὐσεβῶς φρονοῦντας ὑπολαμβάνω τόν Θεόν τά κατά πρόγνωσιν ἀπειροδυνάμως ἐν ἑαυτῷ κατά τούς ἑαυτῶν λόγους προπεριεχόμενα ἕκαστα μανθάνειν διά τῆς εἰς τό εἶναι παραγωγῆς. Ἀλλ᾿ ἡμῖν οἱ αἰῶνές τε καί οἱ χρόνοι κατά τόν προωρισμένον καί τόν εὔθετον ἑκάστου καιρόν σοφῶς ἕκαστα δημιουργούμενα δεικνύουσι, καί εἰς τό εἶναι προβάλλονται, καθά καί περί τοῦ Λευί φησιν ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος οὑτωσί διεξιών, Ἔτι γάρ ἐν τῇ ὀσφύϊ τοῦ πατρός ἦν, πρίν εἰς τό εἶναι παρελθεῖν. Ὅστις δυνάμει μέν ἐν τῷ πατριάρχῃ Ἀβραάμ ὑπάρχων, κατά δέ τόν τετελεσμένον καιρόν 14Ε_032 τήν πρός τό εἶναι διά κυήσεως κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν γένεσιν λαβών, εἱρμῷ καί τάξει κατα τήν ἀπόῤῥητον σοφίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ τά πάντα τήν πρός τό εἶναι γένεσιν δέχεσθαι νοεῖν ἡμᾶς καί πιστεύειν κατα τόν προγνωσθέντα καιρόν ὑπηγάγετο.

1329 Πάντων οὖν τῶν κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ὑπαρκτικῶς ὄντων τε καί ἐσομένων, ἤ γενομένων, ἤ γενησομένων ἤ φαινομένων, ἤ φανησομένων, ἐν τῷ Θεῷ προϋπάρχουσι παγίως ὄντες οἱ λόγοι, καθ᾿ οὕς καί εἰσί τά πάντα καί γεγόνασι καί διαμένουσιν ἀεί τοῖς ἑαυτῶν κατά πρόθεσιν λόγοις, διά κινήσεως φυσικῆς ἐγγίζοντα