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presents him as a human being, wisely subordinating in word what is in our power; but not subjecting the reason to this; and persuading the will to proceed according to nature, in no way rebelling against the principle of nature; according to which all of us, just as we have one nature, can also have one will and one desire toward God and one another, having no division from God and one another, whenever we choose to be in line with the law of grace, through which we renew the law of nature in our will. For it is impossible for those not first united to God in harmony to be able to agree with one another in will.

For since in the beginning the devil who deceived man, having deceived him through the assault of pleasure by a craftily devised deceit through self-love, 15Β_058 he separated us in will from God and from one another, perverting what was upright, and dividing nature in this manner, he cut it up into many opinions and fantasies, and in time established as a law the method 0397 and discovery for each evil, making use of our own faculties for this purpose, and implanting in all a wicked support for the permanence of evil, incompatibility in the will; from which he once persuaded man to be turned from his natural movement, and to move his desire toward what was forbidden instead of what was permitted, and to bring into existence for himself three of the greatest and most ancient evils, which, to put it simply, are generative of all vice: ignorance, I mean, and self-love, and tyranny, which depend upon and are constituted by one another. For from ignorance of God comes self-love. And from this comes tyranny toward one's kin; and no argument will contradict this; since these are brought into existence by the mode of misuse of one's own faculties, that is, of reason, desire, and anger; when it is necessary, on the one hand, for reason, instead of ignorance, to be moved pre-eminently toward God through knowledge in its quest; and, on the other, for desire, pure of the passion of self-love, to be driven by longing toward God alone; and for anger, separated from tyranny, to strive to attain God alone; and to produce from these, and for the sake of which these exist, divine and blessed love, which both unites one to God and reveals the God-loving person as a god. Since these things have happened badly for man according to his own will, but through the deceit of the devil (2), God, who both made nature and wisely heals it when it has grown weak from vice, for the sake of His love for us, emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, unchangeably uniting it to Himself in subsistence, becoming wholly as we are, from us, for us, so much a man that He was considered by unbelievers not to be God; 15Β_060 and yet being so much God as the ineffable and true account of piety proposes to the faithful, in order that He might destroy the works of the devil, and restoring its powers uncorrupted to nature, He might renew the power of love for union with Himself and of men with one another, which is the opponent of self-love; which is and is known to be the first sin, and the first offspring of the devil, and the mother of the passions after it; which one who has made himself worthy of God, having destroyed it through love, has destroyed along with it the whole crowd of vice, which has no other basis or cause for its existence after this. For such a one no longer knows pride, the mark of god-opposing conceit, that complex and strange evil. He is ignorant of vainglory which falls, and which casts down those puffed up by it. He withers envy, which justly withers first those who have it, by making his kin his own through voluntary goodwill; and he has girded up anger and murder and wrath and deceit and hypocrisy and irony and malice and greed, and all things by which the one man has been divided. For with self-love, as the principle and mother of evils, as I have said, having been cut off, all things from it and after it

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ἄνθρωπον ὄντα παρίστησι, τῷ μέν λόγῳ σοφῶς τό ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν ὑποτάσσουσα· τούτῳ δέ τόν λόγον οὐχ ὑποκλίνουσα· καί πείθουσα τήν γνώμην κατά τήν φύσιν πορεύεσθαι, μηδαμῶς πρός τόν λόγον τῆς φύσεως στασιάζουσαν· καθ᾿ ὅν ἅπαντες, ὥσπερ μίαν φύσιν, οὕτω δέ καί μίαν γνώμην καί θέλημα ἕν, Θεῷ καί ἀλλήλοις ἔχειν δυνάμεθα, οὐδεμίαν πρός Θεόν καί ἀλλήλους διάστασιν ἔχοντες, ὅτ᾿ ἄν τῷ νόμῳ τῆς χάριτος, δι᾿ οὗ τόν νόμον τῆς φύσεως γνωμικῶς ἀνακαινίζομεν, στοιχεῖον προαιρούμεθα. Ἀμήχανον γάρ τούς μή πρότερον Θεῷ καθ᾿ ὁμόνοιαν συναφθέντας, ἀλλήλοις συμβαίνειν δύνασθαι κατά τήν γνώμην.

Ἐπειδή γάρ κατ᾿ ἀρχάς τόν ἄνθρωπον ὁ ἀπατήσας διάβολος, δόλῳ κακούργως μεμηχανημένῳ διά φιλαυτίας, δι᾿ ἡδονῆς 15Β_058 προσβολήν ἀπατήσας, Θεοῦ καί ἀλλήλων ἡμᾶς κατά τήν γνώμην διέστησε, τό τε εὐθές διατρέψας, καί τήν φύσιν κατά τόν τρόπον τοῦτον μερίσας, κατέτεμεν εἰς πολλάς δόξας καί φαντασίας, καί τήν ἐφ᾿ ἑκάστῳ κακῷ μέθοδόν τε 0397 καί εὕρεσιν, τῷ χρόνῳ νόμον κατέστησε, ταῖς ἡμῶν πρός τοῦτο δυνάμεσι συγχρησάμενος, καί πονηρόν πρός διαμονήν τοῦ κακοῦ τοῖς πᾶσιν ἐνθέμενος ἔρεισμα, τό κατά τήν γνώμην ἀσύμβατον· ἀφ᾿ οὗ τόν ἄνθρωπον ἅπαξ τῆς κατά φύσιν κινήσεως τραπῆναι παρέπεισε, καί πρός τό κεκωλυμένον ἀπό τοῦ ἐπιτετραμμένου κινῆσαι τήν ὄρεξιν, καί τρία τά μέγιστα καί ἀρχαῖα κακά, καί πάσης ἁπλῶς εἰπεῖν κακίας γεννητικά ἑαυτῷ ὑποστήσασθαι· ἄγνοιαν, φημί, καί φιλαυτίαν, τυραννίδα, ἀλλήλων ἐξηρτημένας καί δι᾿ ἀλλήλων συνισταμένας. Ἐκ γάρ τῆς περί Θεοῦ ἀγνοίας, ἡ φιλαυτία. Ἐκ δέ ταύτης, ἡ πρός τό συγγενές τυραννίς ἐστι· καί οὐδείς ἀντερεῖ λόγος· τῷ κατά παράχρησιν τρόπῳ τῶν οἰκείων δυνάμεων, λόγου τε καί ἐπιθυμίας καί θυμοῦ, ταύτας ὑποστησαμένων· δέον λόγῳ μέν, ἀντί τῆς ἀγνοίας πρός τόν Θεόν διά γνώσεως κατά ζήτησιν μονώτατον κινεῖσθαι· δι᾿ ἐπιθυμίας δέ, τοῦ τῆς φιλαυτίας πάθους καθαρόν κατά πόθον πρός τόν Θεόν μόνον ἐλαύνεσθαι· καί τῷ θυμῷ τυραννίδος κεχωρισμένῳ, πρός τό Θεοῦ μόνου τυχεῖν ἀγωνίζεσθαι· καί τήν ἐκ τούτων καί δι᾿ ἥν ταῦτα, θείαν καί μακαρίαν ἀγάπην δημιουργῆσαι, τήν Θεῷ συνάπτουσάν τε, καί Θεόν ἀποφαίνουσαν τόν φιλόθεον. Ἐπειδή ταῦτα κατά θέλησιν μέν ἰδίαν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, ἀπάτην δέ τοῦ διαβόλου συμβέβηκε κακῶς περί τόν ἄνθρωπον(2), ὁ τήν φύσιν καί ποιήσας Θεός, καί ἀσθενήσασαν ὑπό κακίας σοφῶς ἐξιώμενος, δι᾿ ἀγάπην τήν πρός ἡμᾶς, ἑαυτόν ἐκένωσε μορφήν δούλου λαβών, ἀτρέπτως ἑαυτῷ καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ταύτην ἑνώσας, ὅλος καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ἐξ ἡμῶν δι᾿ ἡμᾶς τοσοῦτον γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος, ὅσον τοῦ μή Θεός εἶναι 15Β_060 τοῖς ἀπίστοις ἐνομίζετο· καίτοι τοσοῦτον ὑπάρχων Θεός, ὅσον τοῖς πιστοῖς ὁ ἄῤῥητος τῆς εὐσεβείας καί ἀληθής ὑποτίθεται λόγος, ἵνα καταλύσῃ τά ἔργα τοῦ διαβόλου, καί τῇ φύσει ἀχράντους ἀποδούς τάς δυνάμεις, πάλιν τῆς πρός αὐτόν συναφείας, καί ἀλλήλους τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἀνακαινίσῃ τῆς ἀγάπης τήν δύναμιν, τήν τῆς φιλαυτίας ἀντίπαλον· τῆς πρώτης ἁμαρτίας, καί πρώτου γεννήματος τοῦ διαβόλου καί παθῶν τῶν μετ᾿ αὐτήν μητρός καί οὔσης καί γινωσκομένης· ἥν δι᾿ ἀγάπης ἀφανίσας ὁ ἑαυτόν Θεοῦ παρασχόμενος ἄξιον, συνηφάνισεν αὐτῇ καί πάντα τόν τῆς κακίας ὄχλον, βάσιν ἄλλην ἤ αἰτίαν τοῦ εἶναι μετά ταύτην οὐκ ἔχοντα. Οὐκέτι γάρ οἶδεν ὁ τοιοῦτος ὑπερηφανίαν, τό γνώρισμα τῆς ἀντιθέου οἰήσεως, τό σύνθετον κακόν καί ἀλλόκοτον. Ἀγνοεῖ δόξαν τήν πίπτουσαν, καί ἑαυτῇ τούς κατ᾿ αὐτήν φυσωμένους καταβάλλουσαν. Μαραίνει φθόνον, τόν τούς ἔχοντας πρῶτον δικαίως μαραίνοντα, δι' εὐνοίας ἑκουσίου τούς συγγενεῖς οἰκειούμενος· θυμόν τε καί μιαιφονίαν καί ὀργήν καί δόλον καί ὑπόκρισιν καί εἰρωνείαν καί μῆνιν καί πλεονεξίαν, καί πάντα οἷς ὁ εἷς μεμέρισται ἄνθρωπος, συναπερίζωσε. Τῇ γάρ φιλαυτίᾳ ὡς ἀρχῇ, καθώς εἶπον, καί μητρί τῶν κακῶν ἀποτιλείσῃ, πάντα τά ἐξ αὐτῆς τε καί μετ᾿ αὐτήν