Chapter XII.

This reasoning and intelligent creature, man, at once the work and the likeness of the Divine and Imperishable Mind (for so in the Creation it is written of him that “God made man in His image67    Gen. i. 27.”), this creature, I say, did not in the course of his first production have united to the very essence of his nature the liability to passion and to death. Indeed, the truth about the image could never have been maintained if the beauty reflected in that image had been in the slightest degree opposed68    ὑπεναντίως; i.e. even as a sub-contrary. to the Archetypal Beauty. Passion was introduced afterwards, subsequent to man’s first organization; and it was in this way. Being the image and the likeness, as has been said, of the Power which rules all things, man kept also in the matter of a Free-Will this likeness to Him whose Will is over all. He was enslaved to no outward necessity whatever; his feeling towards that which pleased him depended only on his own private judgment; he was free to choose whatever he liked; and so he was a free agent, though circumvented with cunning, when he drew upon himself that disaster which now overwhelms humanity. He became himself the discoverer of evil, but he did not therein discover what God had made; for God did not make death. Man became, in fact, himself the fabricator, to a certain extent, and the craftsman of evil. All who have the faculty of sight may enjoy equally the sunlight; and any one can if he likes put this enjoyment from him by shutting his eyes: in that case it is not that the sun retires and produces that darkness, but the man himself puts a barrier between his eye and the sunshine; the faculty of vision cannot indeed, even in the closing of the eyes, remain inactive69    ἀργεῖν., and so this operative sight necessarily becomes an operative darkness70    σκότους ἐνέργειαν rising up in the man from his own free act in ceasing to see. Again, a man in building a house for himself may omit to make in it any way of entrance for the light; he will necessarily be in darkness, though he cuts himself off from the light voluntarily. So the first man on the earth, or rather he who generated evil in man, had for choice the Good and the Beautiful lying all around him in the very nature of things; yet he wilfully cut out a new way for himself against this nature, and in the act of turning away from virtue, which was his own free act, he created the usage of evil. For, be it observed, there is no such thing in the world as evil irrespective of a will, and discoverable in a substance apart from that. Every creature of God is good, and nothing of His “to be rejected”; all that God made was “very good71    1 Tim. iv. 4; Gen. i. 31..” But the habit of sinning entered as we have described, and with fatal quickness, into the life of man; and from that small beginning spread into this infinitude of evil. Then that godly beauty of the soul which was an imitation of the Archetypal Beauty, like fine steel blackened72    κατεμελάνθη with the vicious rust, preserved no longer the glory of its familiar essence, but was disfigured with the ugliness of sin. This thing so great and precious73    Cf. Prov. xx. 6, μέγα ἄνθρωπος; and Ambrose (de obitu Theodosii), “Magnum et honorabile est homo misericors;” and the same on Ps. cxix. 73, “Grande homo, et preciosum vir misericors, et vere magnus est, qui divini operis interpres est, et imitator Dei.”, as the Scripture calls him, this being man, has fallen from his proud birthright. As those who have slipped and fallen heavily into mud, and have all their features so besmeared with it, that their nearest friends do not recognize them, so this creature has fallen into the mire of sin and lost the blessing of being an image of the imperishable Deity; he has clothed himself instead with a perishable and foul resemblance to something else; and this Reason counsels him to put away again by washing it off in the cleansing water of this calling74    τῆς πολιτείας: used in the same sense in “On Pilgrimages.”. The earthly envelopment once removed, the soul’s beauty will again appear. Now the putting off of a strange accretion is equivalent to the return to that which is familiar and natural; yet such a return cannot be but by again becoming that which in the beginning we were created. In fact this likeness to the divine is not our work at all; it is not the achievement of any faculty of man; it is the great gift of God bestowed upon our nature at the very moment of our birth; human efforts can only go so far as to clear away the filth of sin, and so cause the buried beauty of the soul to shine forth again. This truth is, I think, taught in the Gospel, when our Lord says, to those who can hear what Wisdom speaks beneath a mystery, that “the Kingdom of God is within you75    S. Luke xvii. 21..” That word76    ὁ λόγος, i.e. Scripture. So τὸ λόγιον in Gregory passim, and Clement. Alex. (Stromata). points out the fact that the Divine good is not something apart from our nature, and is not removed far away from those who have the will to seek it; it is in fact within each of us, ignored indeed, and unnoticed while it is stifled beneath the cares and pleasures of life, but found again whenever we can turn our power of conscious thinking towards it. If further confirmation of what we say is required, I think it will be found in what is suggested by our Lord in the searching for the Lost Drachma77    S. Luke xv. 8. The thought, there, is that the widowed soul reaps no benefit from the other virtues (called drachmas in the Parable) being all of them found safe, if that one other is not amongst them. The Parable therefore suggests that a candle should first be lit, signifying doubtless our reason which throws light on hidden principles; then that in one’s own house, that is, within oneself, we should search for that lost coin; and by that coin the Parable doubtless hints at the image of our King, not yet hopelessly lost, but hidden beneath the dirt; and by this last we must understand the impurities of the flesh, which, being swept and purged away by carefulness of life, leave clear to the view the object of our search. Then it is meant that the soul herself who finds this rejoices over it, and with her the neighbours, whom she calls in to share with her in this delight. Verily, all those powers which are the housemates of the soul, and which the Parable names her neighbours for this occasion78    νῦν., when so be that the image of the mighty King is revealed in all its brightness at last (that image which the Fashioner of each individual heart of us has stamped upon this our Drachma79    ἐνεσημήνατο ἡ ?ν τῇ δραχμῇ.), will then be converted to that divine delight and festivity, and will gaze upon the ineffable beauty of the recovered one. “Rejoice with me,” she says, “because I have found the Drachma which I had lost.” The neighbours, that is, the soul’s familiar powers, both the reasoning and the appetitive, the affections of grief and of anger, and all the rest that are discerned in her, at that joyful feast which celebrates the finding of the heavenly Drachma are well called her friends also; and it is meet that they should all rejoice in the Lord when they all look towards the Beautiful and the Good, and do everything for the glory of God, no longer instruments of sin80    Rom. vi. 13.. If, then, such is the lesson of this Finding of the lost, viz. that we should restore the divine image from the foulness which the flesh wraps round it to its primitive state, let us become that which the First Man was at the moment when he first breathed. And what was that? Destitute he was then of his covering of dead skins, but he could gaze without shrinking upon God’s countenance. He did not yet judge of what was lovely by taste or sight; he found in the Lord alone all that was sweet; and he used the helpmeet given him only for this delight, as Scripture signifies when it said that “he knew her not81    Gen. iv. 1.” till he was driven forth from the garden, and till she, for the sin which she was decoyed into committing, was sentenced to the pangs of childbirth. We, then, who in our first ancestor were thus ejected, are allowed to return to our earliest state of blessedness by the very same stages by which we lost Paradise. What are they? Pleasure, craftily offered, began the Fall, and there followed after pleasure shame, and fear, even to remain longer in the sight of their Creator, so that they hid themselves in leaves and shade; and after that they covered themselves with the skins of dead animals; and then were sent forth into this pestilential and exacting land where, as the compensation for having to die, marriage was instituted82    Gen. iii. 16.. Now if we are destined “to depart hence, and be with Christ83    Philip. i. 23.,” we must begin at the end of the route of departure (which lies nearest to ourselves); just as those who have travelled far from their friends at home, when they turn to reach again the place from which they started, first leave that district which they reached at the end of their outward journey. Marriage, then, is the last stage of our separation from the life that was led in Paradise; marriage therefore, as our discourse has been suggesting, is the first thing to be left; it is the first station as it were for our departure to Christ. Next, we must retire from all anxious toil upon the land, such as man was bound to after his sin. Next we must divest ourselves of those coverings of our nakedness, the coats of skins, namely the wisdom of the flesh; we must renounce all shameful things done in secret84    2 Cor. iv. 2., and be covered no longer with the fig-leaves of this bitter world; then, when we have torn off the coatings of this life’s perishable leaves, we must stand again in the sight of our Creator; and repelling all the illusion of taste and sight, take for our guide God’s commandment only, instead of the venom-spitting serpent. That commandment was, to touch nothing but what was Good, and to leave what was evil untasted; because impatience to remain any longer in ignorance of evil would be but the beginning of the long train of actual evil. For this reason it was forbidden to our first parents to grasp the knowledge of the opposite to the good, as well as that of the good itself; they were to keep themselves from “the knowledge of good and evil85    Gen. ii. 17.,” and to enjoy the Good in its purity, unmixed with one particle of evil: and to enjoy that, is in my judgment nothing else than to be ever with God, and to feel ceaselessly and continually this delight, unalloyed by aught that could tear us away from it. One might even be bold to say that this might be found the way by which a man could be again caught up into Paradise out of this world which lieth in the Evil, into that Paradise where Paul was when he saw the unspeakable sights which it is not lawful for a man to talk of86    2 Cor. xii. 4..

[12] Κεφάλαιον ιβʹὍτι ὁ ἑαυτὸν ἐκκαθάρας ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὸ θεῖον κάλλος κατόψεται: ἐν ᾧ καὶ περὶ τῆς τοῦ κακοῦ αἰτίας. Ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν ἴσως οὐδεὶς ἀγνοεῖ: ἐπιζητεῖν δὲ εἰκός τινας, εἰ δυνατόν ἐστιν οἷόν τινα μέθοδον καὶ ἀγωγὴν τὴν πρὸς τοῦτο χειραγωγοῦσαν ἡμᾶς ἐξευρεῖν. Μεσταὶ μὲν οὖν αἱ θεῖαι βίβλοι τῆς τοιαύτης εἰσὶν ὑφηγήσεως, πολλοὶ δὲ τῶν ἁγίων καθάπερ τινὰ λύχνον τὸν ἑαυτῶν βίον τοῖς κατὰ θεὸν πορευομένοις προφαίνουσιν. Ἀλλὰ τὰς μὲν ἐκ τῆς θεοπνεύστου γραφῆς εἰς τὸν προκείμενον σκοπὸν ὑποθήκας ἔξεστιν ἑκάστῳ πλουσίως ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων τῶν διαθηκῶν ἀναλέξασθαι: πολλὰ μὲν γὰρ ἐν προφήταις καὶ νόμῳ, πολλὰ δὲ ἐν εὐαγγελικαῖς τε καὶ ἀποστολικαῖς παραδόσεσι πάρεστιν ἀφθόνως λαβεῖν. Ὅσα δ' ἂν καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐπινοήσαιμεν ταῖς θείαις ἀκολουθοῦντες φωναῖς, ταῦτά ἐστι.
Τὸ λογικὸν τοῦτο καὶ διανοητικὸν ζῷον ὁ ἄνθρωπος, τῆς θείας τε καὶ ἀκηράτου φύσεως ἔργον καὶ μίμημα γεγονώς_οὕτω γὰρ ἐν τῇ κοσμογενείᾳ περὶ αὐτοῦ ἀναγέγραπται, ὅτι «Κατ' εἰκόνα θεοῦ ἐποίησεν αὐτόν»_, τοῦτο οὖν τὸ ζῷον, ὁ ἄνθρωπος, οὐ κατὰ φύσιν οὐδὲ συνουσιωμένον ἔσχεν ἐν ἑαυτῷ παρὰ τὴν πρώτην γένεσιν τὸ παθητικόν τε καὶ ἐπίκηρον_οὐδὲ γὰρ ἦν δυνατὸν τὸν τῆς εἰκόνος διασωθῆναι λόγον, εἰ ὑπεναντίως εἶχε τὸ ἀπεικονισμένον κάλλος πρὸς τὸ ἀρχέτυπον_, ἀλλ' ὕστερον ἐπεισήχθη τὸ πάθος αὐτῷ μετὰ τὴν πρώτην κατασκευήν. Ἐπεισήχθη δὲ οὕτως: εἰκὼν ἦν καὶ ὁμοίωμα, καθὼς εἴρηται, τῆς πάντων τῶν ὄντων βασιλευούσης δυνάμεως καὶ διὰ τοῦτο καὶ ἐν τῷ αὐτεξουσίῳ τῆς προαιρέσεως πρὸς τὸν ἐξουσιάζοντα πάντων εἶχε τὴν ὁμοιότητα, οὐδεμιᾷ τινι τῶν ἔξωθεν ἀνάγκῃ δεδουλωμένος, ἀλλὰ τῇ γνώμῃ τῇ ἰδίᾳ πρὸς τὸ δοκοῦν διοικούμενος καὶ τὸ ἀρέσκον αὐτῷ κατ' ἐξουσίαν αἱρούμενος. Τὴν δὲ συμφορὰν ταύτην, ᾗ νῦν κεκράτηται τὸ ἀνθρώπινον, αὐτὸς ἐθελοντὴς ἀπάτῃ παρενεχθεὶς ἐπεσπάσατο, αὐτὸς τῆς κακίας εὑρετὴς γενόμενος, οὐχὶ παρὰ θεοῦ γενομένην εὑρών: «θεὸς γὰρ θάνατον οὐκ ἐποίησεν», ἀλλὰ τρόπον τινὰ κτίστης καὶ δημιουργὸς τοῦ κακοῦ κατέστη ὁ ἄνθρωπος. Καθάπερ γὰρ τοῦ ἡλιακοῦ φωτὸς κοινὴ μὲν πρόκειται πᾶσιν ἡ μετουσία οἷς ἡ τοῦ ὁρᾶν δύναμις πάρεστι, δύναται δέ τις, εἰ βουληθείη, μύσας τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν ἔξω γενέσθαι τῆς τοῦ φωτὸς ἀντιλήψεως, οὐ τοῦ ἡλίου ἀποχωροῦντος ἑτέρωθι καὶ οὕτως ἐκείνῳ τὸ σκότος ἐπάγοντος, ἀλλὰ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου διὰ τῆς ἐπιμύσεως τῶν βλεφάρων τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν τῆς ἀκτῖνος διατειχίσαντος _τῆς γὰρ ὁρατικῆς δυνάμεως ἐν τῇ ἐπιμύσει τῶν ὀμμάτων ἐνεργεῖν ἀδυνατούσης, ἀνάγκη πᾶσα τὴν ἀργίαν τῆς ὁράσεως σκότους ἐνέργειαν γίνεσθαι ἑκουσίως ἐν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ διὰ τῆς ἀορασίας συνισταμένην_: ἢ ὥσπερ εἴ τις οἰκίαν ἑαυτῷ κατασκευάζων μηδεμίαν ἐντέμοι τῷ φωτὶ τὴν ἐπὶ τὰ ἔσω πάροδον, ἀναγκαίως ἐν σκότῳ βιώσεται ἑκὼν ἀποκλείσας ταῖς ἀκτῖσι τὴν εἴσοδον: οὕτω καὶ «ὁ πρῶτος ἐκ γῆς ἄνθρωπος», μᾶλλον δὲ ὁ τὴν κακίαν ἐν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ γεννήσας, ἐν μὲν τῇ φύσει τὸ καλὸν καὶ ἀγαθὸν κατ' ἐξουσίαν ἔσχεν ἁπανταχόθεν προκείμενον, ἐθελοντὴς δὲ καθ' ἑαυτοῦ τὰ παρὰ φύσιν ἐκαινοτόμησε, τὴν τοῦ κακοῦ πεῖραν ἐν τῇ ἀποστροφῇ τῆς ἀρετῆς τῇ ἰδίᾳ προαιρέσει δημιουργήσας. Κακὸν γὰρ ἔξω προαιρέσεως κείμενον καὶ κατ' ἰδίαν ὑπόστασιν θεωρούμενον ἐν τῇ φύσει τῶν ὄντων ἐστὶν οὐδέν. «Πᾶν γὰρ κτίσμα θεοῦ καλὸν καὶ οὐδὲν ἀπόβλητον», καὶ «πάντα ὅσα ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς καλὰ λίαν». Ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ κατὰ τὸν ῥηθέντα τρόπον εἰσεφθάρη τῇ ζωῇ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἡ τοῦ ἁμαρτάνειν ἀκολουθία, καὶ ἐκ μικρᾶς ἀφορμῆς εἰς ἄπειρον τῆς κακίας ἐν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ χυθείσης καὶ τὸ θεοειδὲς ἐκεῖνο τῆς ψυχῆς κάλλος τὸ κατὰ μίμησιν τοῦ πρωτοτύπου γενόμενον οἷόν τις σίδηρος κατεμελάνθη τῷ τῆς κακίας ἰῷ, οὐκέτι τηνικαῦτα τῆς οἰκείας αὐτῷ καὶ κατὰ φύσιν εἰκόνος τὴν χάριν διέσωζεν, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὸ αἶσχος τῆς ἁμαρτίας μετεμορφώθη. Ὅθεν «τὸ μέγα καὶ τίμιον τοῦτο» ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ὡς ὑπὸ τῆς γραφῆς ὠνομάσθη, ἐκπεσὼν τῆς οἰκείας ἀξίας, οἷον πάσχουσιν οἱ ἐξ ὀλισθήματος ἐγκατενεχθέντες βορβόρῳ καὶ τῷ πηλῷ τὴν μορφὴν ἑαυτῶν ἐξαλείψαντες ἀνεπίγνωστοι καὶ τοῖς συνήθεσι γίνονται, οὕτω κἀκεῖνος ἐμπεσὼν τῷ βορβόρῳ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἀπώλεσε μὲν τὸ εἰκὼν εἶναι τοῦ ἀφθάρτου θεοῦ, τὴν δὲ φθαρτὴν καὶ πηλίνην εἰκόνα διὰ τῆς ἁμαρτίας μετημφιάσατο, ἣν ἀποθέσθαι συμβουλεύει ὁ λόγος, οἷόν τινι ὕδατι τῷ καθαρῷ τῆς πολιτείας ἀποκλυσάμενον, ὡς ἂν περιαιρεθέντος τοῦ γηΐνου καλύμματος πάλιν τῆς ψυχῆς φανερωθῇ τὸ κάλλος. Ἀπόθεσις δὲ τοῦ ἀλλοτρίου ἐστὶν ἡ εἰς τὸ οἰκεῖον ἑαυτῷ κατὰ φύσιν ἐπάνοδος, οὗ τυχεῖν ἄλλως οὐκ ἔστι, μὴ οἷος ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐκτίσθη, τοιοῦτον πάλιν γενόμενον: οὐ γὰρ ἡμέτερον ἔργον οὐδὲ δυνάμεως ἀνθρωπίνης ἐστὶ κατόρθωμα ἡ πρὸς τὸ θεῖον ὁμοίωσις, ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ μεγαλοδωρεᾶς ἐστιν, εὐθὺς ἅμα τῇ πρώτῃ γενέσει χαρισαμένου τῇ φύσει τὴν πρὸς αὐτὸν ὁμοιότητα.
Τῆς δὲ ἀνθρωπίνης σπουδῆς τοσοῦτον ἂν εἴη, ὅσον ἐκκαθᾶραι μόνον τὸν ἐπιγινόμενον ἀπὸ κακίας ῥύπον αὐτῷ καὶ τὸ κεκαλυμμένον ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ κάλλος διαφωτίσαι. Τὸ δὲ τοιοῦτον δόγμα καὶ ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ διδάσκειν οἶμαι τὸν κύριον λέγοντα πρὸς τοὺς ἀκούειν δυναμένους τῆς ἐν μυστηρίῳ λαλουμένης σοφίας, ὅτι «Ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ ἐντὸς ὑμῶν ἐστιν.» Ἐνδείκνυται γάρ, οἶμαι, ὁ λόγος αὐτῷ, ὅτι τὸ τοῦ θεοῦ ἀγαθὸν οὐ διώρισται τῆς φύσεως ἡμῶν οὐδὲ πόρρωθέν που τῶν ζητεῖν αὐτὸν προαιρουμένων ἀπῴκισται, ἀλλ' ἀεὶ ἐν ἑκάστῳ ἐστίν, ἀγνοούμενον μὲν καὶ λανθάνον, ὅταν «ὑπὸ τῶν μεριμνῶν τε καὶ ἡδονῶν τοῦ βίου συμπνίγηται», εὑρισκόμενον δὲ πάλιν, ὅταν εἰς ἐκεῖνο τὴν διάνοιαν ἡμῶν ἐπιστρέψωμεν. Εἰ δὲ χρὴ καὶ δι' ἑτέρων τὸν λόγον πιστώσασθαι, τοῦτο καὶ ἐν τῇ ἀναζητήσει τῆς ἀπολομένης δραχμῆς οἶμαι τὸν κύριον ἡμῖν ὑποτίθεσθαι, ὡς οὐδὲν ὄφελος ὂν ἐκ τῶν λοιπῶν ἀρετῶν, ἃς δραχμὰς ὁ λόγος ὠνόμασε, κἂν πᾶσαι παροῦσαι τύχωσι, τῆς μιᾶς ἐκείνης ἀπούσης τῇ χηρευούσῃ ψυχῇ. Διὰ τοῦτο πρῶτον μὲν ἅπτειν λύχνον κελεύει, τὸν λόγον τάχα σημαίνων τὸν τὰ κεκρυμμένα διαφωτίζοντα: εἶτα ἐν τῇ ἰδίᾳ οἰκίᾳ, τουτέστιν ἐν ἑαυτῷ, ζητεῖν τὴν ἀπολομένην δραχμήν. Διὰ δὲ τῆς ζητουμένης δραχμῆς τὴν εἰκόνα πάντως τοῦ βασιλέως αἰνίσσεται, τὴν οὐχὶ παντελῶς ἀπολομένην, ἀλλ' ὑποκεκρυμμένην τῇ κόπρῳ. Κόπρον δὲ χρὴ νοεῖν, ὡς οἶμαι, τὴν τῆς σαρκὸς ῥυπαρίαν, ἧς ἀποσαρωθείσης καὶ ἀποκαθαρθείσης διὰ τῆς ἐπιμελείας τοῦ βίου ἔκδηλον τὸ ζητούμενον γίνεσθαι, ἐφ' ᾧ εἰκότως αὐτήν τε τὴν εὑροῦσαν χαίρειν ψυχὴν καὶ εἰς κοινωνίαν τῆς εὐφροσύνης συμπαραλαμβάνειν τὰς γείτονας. Τῷ ὄντι γὰρ πᾶσαι αἱ σύνοικοι τῆς ψυχῆς δυνάμεις, ἃς γείτονας νῦν προσηγόρευσεν, ἐπειδὰν συνανακαλυφθῇ καὶ ἐκλάμψῃ αὕτη ἡ μεγάλη τοῦ βασιλέως εἰκών, ἣν ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐνεσημήνατο ἡμῶν τῇ δραχμῇ «ὁ πλάσας κατὰ μόνας τὰς καρδίας» ἡμῶν, τότε ἐπὶ τὴν θείαν ἐκείνην χαράν τε καὶ εὐφροσύνην ἐπιστραφήσονται, τῷ ἀφράστῳ κάλλει τοῦ εὑρεθέντος ἐνατενίζουσαι. «Συγχάρητε γάρ μοι», φησίν, «ὅτι εὗρον τὴν δραχμήν, ἣν ἀπώλεσα.» Αἱ δὲ γείτονες ἤτοι σύνοικοι τῆς ψυχῆς δυνάμεις αἱ ἐπὶ τῇ εὑρέσει τῆς θείας δραχμῆς εὐφραινόμεναι, ἡ λογιστική τε καὶ ἐπιθυμητικὴ καὶ ἡ κατὰ λύπην τε καὶ ὀργὴν ἐγγινομένη διάθεσις, καὶ εἴ τινες ἄλλαι δυνάμεις εἰσὶ περὶ τὴν ψυχὴν θεωρούμεναι, εἰκότως ἂν καὶ φίλαι εἶναι νομίζοιντο, ἃς πάσας τότε «χαίρειν ἐν κυρίῳ» εἰκός, ὅταν αἱ πᾶσαι πρὸς τὸ καλόν τε καὶ ἀγαθὸν βλέπωσι καὶ πάντα εἰς δόξαν θεοῦ ἐνεργῶσι, μηκέτι τῆς ἁμαρτίας ὅπλα γινόμεναι.
Εἰ οὖν αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ ἐπίνοια τῆς τοῦ ζητουμένου εὑρέσεως, ἡ τῆς θείας εἰκόνος εἰς τὸ ἀρχαῖον ἀποκατάστασις τῆς νῦν ἐν τῷ τῆς σαρκὸς ῥύπῳ κεκαλυμμένης, ἐκεῖνο γενώμεθα, ὃ ἦν παρὰ τὴν πρώτην ζωὴν ὁ πρωτόπλαστος. Τί οὖν ἐκεῖνος ἦν; Γυμνὸς μὲν τῆς τῶν νεκρῶν δερμάτων ἐπιβολῆς, ἐν παρρησίᾳ δὲ τὸ τοῦ θεοῦ πρόσωπον βλέπων, οὔπω δὲ διὰ γεύσεως καὶ ὁράσεως τὸ καλὸν κρίνων, ἀλλὰ μόνον «τοῦ κυρίου κατατρυφῶν» καὶ τῇ δοθείσῃ βοηθῷ πρὸς τοῦτο συγχρώμενος, καθὼς ἐπισημαίνεται ἡ θεία γραφή, ὅτι οὐ πρότερον αὐτὴν ἔγνω, πρὶν ἐξορισθῆναι τοῦ παραδείσου καὶ πρὶν ἐκείνην ἀντὶ τῆς ἁμαρτίας, ἣν ἀπατηθεῖσα ἐξήμαρτε, τῇ τῶν ὠδίνων τιμωρίᾳ κατακριθῆναι. Δι' ἧς τοίνυν ἀκολουθίας ἔξω τοῦ παραδείσου γεγόναμεν τῷ προπάτορι συνεκβληθέντες, καὶ νῦν διὰ τῆς αὐτῆς ἔξεστιν ἡμῖν παλινδρομήσασιν ἐπανελθεῖν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀρχαίαν μακαριότητα. Τίς οὖν ἡ ἀκολουθία; Ἡδονὴ τότε δι' ἀπάτης ἐγγενομένη τῆς ἐκπτώσεως ἤρξατο. Εἶτα αἰσχύνη καὶ φόβος τῷ τῆς ἡδονῆς πάθει ἐπηκολούθησε καὶ τὸ μηκέτι λοιπὸν ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς εἶναι τολμᾶν τοῦ κτίσαντος ἀλλὰ φύλλοις καὶ σκιαῖς ὑποκρύπτεσθαι. Δέρμασι νεκροῖς μετὰ ταῦτα περικαλύπτονται καὶ οὕτως εἰς τὸ νοσῶδες τοῦτο καὶ ἐπίπονον χωρίον ἄποικοι πέμπονται, ἐν ᾧ ὁ γάμος παραμυθία τοῦ ἀποθνῄσκειν ἐπενοήθη.