Philocalia or Selections from the works of Origen made by Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus (ch. 23, 25-27)

 of those concerning the stars, so that what is said by them may not be an unproven declaration, let them try to bring us more compellingly, by present

 to her a sign, saying: This is the sign which the Lord spoke, saying: Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the fat that is upon it shall be poured out

 of certain observations, or also from the teaching of angels who had transgressed their own order and, for the ruin of our race, taught certain things

 to be mistaken, but it is possible concerning things that are contingent to happen and not to happen to think that they happen and that they do not ha

 these past events are not in our power, it being possible on the basis of the same past events to do other things than what we do. But if anyone seeks

 It is fated for you to have children or not to have children in vain then you have relations with a woman. For just as in this case, since it is impo

 they will reasonably agree that nothing concerning human affairs comes from the stars, but, as we have said before, if anything, they are signified A

 argument, that humans are able to comprehend the heavenly configurations and the signs and what they are signs of, let us now examine if this is true.

 of human nature, not in a human way but in a divine way they are taught the secrets just as Paul, saying: I heard unspeakable words, which it is not

 they read the book of God and thus they do what is incumbent upon them. But as we said before, what we do, or what the opposing energies accomplish i

 they do away with sayings, also using the one: “The sinners were estranged from the womb,” spoken in the psalms. Now to this it is easy to reply, by a

 troubling our argument since Paul says: “But we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called accordin

 the deeds foreknown beforehand but happening later, each from the apostolic preparation and choice. But now to apply this to the saying from the psalm

 Health, of course, and bodily strength are a good. The text reads thus: ‘If you will not hearken to do all the words of this law that are written in t

 it is necessary to raise a further question to those who suppose, whether the prophets, whose sins are not spoken against, have kept the law for exam

 of whom the prophet also finds fault with those who are in such states, saying: 'From the feet to the head, there is neither wound, nor bruise, nor fe

 who was once the morning star, rising in the morning, but later was shattered upon the earth. For not only among the sons of men, if one is perfect, i

 that the sound account concerning this Scripture is also among the hidden things. But those who claim there is another god besides the creator wish hi

 they suppose concerning God, nor to what they dogmatize concerning natures, does the argument from the reading now under examination contribute, as th

 leading him into the open and perhaps exhausting him through the action, so that having brought to completion all the outbursts of his indwelling wick

 chasten me” the one praying these things is asking not to need the reproof that comes through the wrath of God and the chastisement that comes throug

 Good masters, being long-suffering toward their sinning servants, are accustomed to say: I have ruined you and: I have made you wicked showing with

 the heart of Pharaoh” whether they believe that these things are said truly by God through the inspired Moses or falsely. For if falsely, then accord

Health, of course, and bodily strength are a good. The text reads thus: ‘If you will not hearken to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, to fear this glorious and wondrous name, the Lord your God; then the Lord will make your plagues and the plagues of your seed marvelous, great and wondrous plagues, and evil and lasting sicknesses. And he will turn back upon you all the evil plague of Egypt, which you dreaded before them, and it shall cleave to you; and every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, the Lord will bring upon you, until he has destroyed you.’ And again, to those who transgress the commandments it is said: ‘I will send upon you fever and jaundice and gangrene of your eyes and the wasting away of your soul.’ In addition to these, also in Deuteronomy, the word threatens those who fall away from godliness with incurable tetanus. 26.3 But those wishing to proclaim external goods according to the divine word will use these from Leviticus: ‘If you walk in my ordinances, and keep my commandments, and do them, I will give you rain in its season, and the earth shall give its produce, and the trees of the fields shall give their fruit; and the threshing shall overtake the vintage for you, and the vintage shall overtake the sowing, and you shall eat your bread to the full, and you shall dwell in your land with safety’; and what follows. And from Deuteronomy they will use these: ‘And it shall be, when you have crossed the Jordan into the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you keep to do all his commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you above all, and all these blessings shall come upon you and shall find you, if you listen to the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed are you in the city, and blessed are you in the field; blessed is the offspring of your womb and the produce of your land and the herds of your cattle and the flocks of your sheep; blessed are your storehouses and your remnants’; and what follows. As again, from the opposite, it is said to the ungodly: ‘Cursed are you in the city, and cursed are you in the field; cursed are your storehouses and your remnants; cursed are the children of your womb and the produce of your land; cursed are the herds of your cattle and the flocks of your sheep.’ And those who wish for goods and evils to be in bodily and external things will bring forward countless other examples; and they will also touch upon the gospels, saying that the Savior came to take away evils from men—bodily blindness and deafness and paralysis of limbs, and that he healed every disease and every sickness, bestowing goods in place of the evils that had taken hold, namely bodily sight and hearing and the rest of health and strength; and they will press you, saying, unless we too confess that being possessed by a demon and being lunatic is an evil, just as, again from the opposite, being delivered from these things is a good. But the apostles too, performing gifts of healing and workings of powers, by that very working did good things for men and delivered them from evils. And those who say such things will also pass on to the age to come, asserting that it is because pain is an evil that sinners are delivered to eternal fire; but if pain is an evil, pleasure must necessarily be a good. 26.4 Clear then from what has been said are the arguments that can greatly pressure those unable to refute the points brought forward concerning there being three kinds of goods and three of evils according to the logic of the scriptures. This deceit, therefore, has deceived not only those of the faithful who are admittedly simple, but also some of those who profess the wisdom that is according to Christ, supposing that such are the promises of the creator, and that nothing beyond what is stated in the letter is signified by the threats. To all, therefore, who say such things from the scriptures

ἀγαθὸν δὲ δηλονότι τὴν ὑγείαν καὶ τὴν τοῦ σώματος ῥῶσιν. Ἔχει δὲ οὕτως ἡ λέξις· «Ἐὰν μὴ ἀκούσητε ποιεῖν πάντα τὰ ῥήματα τοῦ νόμου τούτου τὰ γεγραμμένα ἐν τῷ βιβλίῳ τούτῳ, φοβεῖσθαι τὸ ὄνομα τὸ ἔντιμον καὶ τὸ θαυμαστὸν τοῦτο, Κύριον τὸν θεόν· καὶ παραδοξάσει κύριος τὰς πληγάς σου καὶ τὰς πληγὰς τοῦ σπέρματός σου, πληγὰς μεγάλας καὶ θαυμαστάς, καὶ νόσους πονηρὰς καὶ πλείστας. Καὶ ἐπιστρέψει ἐπὶ σὲ πᾶσαν τὴν πληγὴν Αἰγύπτου τὴν πονηράν, ἣν διευλαβοῦ ἀπὸ προσώπου αὐτῶν, καὶ κολληθήσεταί σοι· καὶ πᾶσαν μαλακίαν καὶ πᾶσαν πληγὴν τὴν μὴ γεγραμμένην ἐν τῷ βιβλίῳ τοῦ νόμου τούτου ἐπάξει κύριος ἐπὶ σέ, ἕως ἂν ἐξολοθρεύσῃ σε.» Καὶ πάλιν τοῖς παρα βαίνουσι τὰς ἐντολὰς λέγεται τό· «Ἐπιπέμψω ὑμῖν πυρετὸν καὶ ἴκτερον καὶ σφακελίζοντας τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ὑμῶν καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ὑμῶν ἐκτήκουσαν.» Πρὸς τούτοις καὶ ἐν τῷ ∆ευτερονομίῳ τοῖς ἀφισταμένοις τῆς θεοσεβείας ἀπειλεῖ ὁ λόγος ὀπισθότονον ἀνίατον. 26.3 Τὰ δὲ ἐκτὸς οἱ βουλόμενοι ἀγαθὰ κατὰ τὸν θεῖον ἐπαγγέλλεσθαι λόγον τοῖς μὲν ἀπὸ τοῦ Λευϊτικοῦ, τούτοις χρήσονται· «Ἐὰν ἐν τοῖς προστάγμασί μου πορεύησθε, καὶ τὰς ἐντολάς μου φυλάσσησθε καὶ ποιήσητε αὐτάς, δώσω τὸν ὑετὸν ὑμῖν ἐν καιρῷ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἡ γῆ δώσει τὰ γενήματα αὐτῆς, καὶ τὰ ξύλα τῶν πεδίων δώσει τὸν καρπὸν αὐτῶν· καὶ καταλήψεται ὑμῖν ὁ ἀλοητὸς τὸν τρυγητόν, καὶ ὁ τρυγητὸς καταλήψεται τὸν σπόρον, καὶ φάγεσθε τὸν ἄρτον ὑμῶν εἰς πλησμονήν, καὶ κατοικήσετε μετὰ ἀσφαλείας ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ὑμῶν»· καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. Ἐκ δὲ τοῦ ∆ευτερονομίου τούτοις χρήσονται· «Καὶ ἔσται ὡς ἂν διαβῆτε τὸν Ἰορδάνην εἰς τὴν γῆν ἣν κύριος ὁ θεὸς δίδωσιν ὑμῖν, καὶ φυλάσσεσθε ποιεῖν πάσας τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ ἃς ἐγὼ ἐντέλλομαί σοι σήμερον, καὶ δώσει σε κύριος ὁ θεός σου ὑπεράνω πάντων, καὶ ἥξουσιν ἐπὶ σὲ πᾶσαι αἱ εὐλογίαι αὗται καὶ εὑρήσουσί σε, ἐὰν ἀκούσῃς τῆς φωνῆς κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ σου. Εὐλογη μένος σὺ ἐν πόλει, καὶ εὐλογημένος σὺ ἐν ἀγρῷ· εὐλογημένα τὰ ἔγγονα τῆς κοιλίας σου καὶ τὰ γενήματα τῆς γῆς σου καὶ τὰ βουκόλια τῶν βοῶν σου καὶ τὰ ποίμνια τῶν προβάτων σου· εὐλογημέναι αἱ ἀποθῆκαί σου καὶ τὰ ἐγκαταλίμματά σου»· καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. Ὡς πάλιν ἐκ τῶν ἐναντίων τοῖς ἀσεβοῦσι λέγεται τό· «Ἐπικατάρατος σὺ ἐν πόλει, καὶ ἐπικατάρατος σὺ ἐν ἀγρῷ· ἐπικατάρατοι αἱ ἀποθῆκαί σου καὶ τὰ ἐγκαταλίμματά σου· ἐπικατάρατα τὰ τέκνα τῆς κοιλίας σου καὶ τὰ γενήματα τῆς γῆς σου· ἐπικατάρατα τὰ βουκόλια τῶν βοῶν σου καὶ τὰ ποίμνια τῶν προβάτων σου.» Καὶ ἄλλα δὲ δυσεξαρίθμητα ἐνεγκοῦσιν οἱ βουλόμενοι ἐν σωματικοῖς καὶ τοῖς ἐκτὸς εἶναι ἀγαθὰ καὶ κακά· ἐφάψονταί τε καὶ τῶν εὐαγγελίων, λέγοντες τὸν σωτῆρα ἐληλυθότα ὡς κακὰ ἀφῃρηκέναι ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὴν τυφλότητα τὴν σωματικὴν καὶ τὴν κωφότητα καὶ τὴν πάρεσιν τῶν μελῶν, καὶ πᾶσαν νόσον καὶ πᾶσαν μαλακίαν τεθεραπευκέναι, ἀγαθὰ ἀντὶ τῶν προκατειληφότων κακῶν δωρούμενον τό τε διορατικὸν τὸ σωματικὸν καὶ τὸ ἀκουστικὸν καὶ τὴν ἄλλην ὑγείαν καὶ ῥῶσιν· καὶ δυσωπήσουσί σε φάσκοντες, εἰ μὴ καὶ ἡμεῖς ὁμολογήσομεν κακὸν εἶναι τὸ δαιμονιᾷν καὶ τὸ σεληνιάζεσθαι, ὡς πάλιν ἐκ τοῦ ἐναντίου ἀγαθὸν τὸ τούτων ἀπηλλάχθαι. Ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ ἀπόστολοι χαρίσματα ἰαμάτων καὶ ἐνεργήματα δυνάμεων ἐπιτελοῦντες κατ' αὐτὸ τὸ ἐνεργεῖν ἀγαθὰ ἐποίουν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις καὶ κακῶν αὐτοὺς ἀπήλλαττον. ∆ιαβήσονται δὲ οἱ τὰ τοιαῦτα λέγοντες καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν μέλλοντα αἰῶνα, φάσκοντες τῷ κακὸν εἶναι τὸν πόνον τοὺς ἁμαρτωλοὺς πυρὶ αἰωνίῳ παραδίδοσθαι· εἰ δὲ κακὸν ὁ πόνος, ἀνάγκη τὴν ἡδονὴν ἀγαθὸν εἶναι. 26.4 Σαφῆ μὲν οὖν ἐκ τῶν εἰρημένων τὰ δυνάμενα ἐπὶ πλεῖον δυσωπῆσαι τοὺς οὐχ οἵους τε λῦσαι τὰ προσαγόμενα περὶ τοῦ τρία γένη τῶν ἀγαθῶν εἶναι καὶ τρία τῶν κακῶν κατὰ τὸν λόγον τῶν γραφῶν. Ταύτην τοίνυν τὴν ἀπάτην οὐ μόνον οἱ ὁμολογουμένως ἀκέραιοι τῶν πεπιστευκότων ἠπάτηνται, ἀλλὰ καί τινες τῶν ἐπαγγελλομένων σοφίαν τὴν κατὰ Χριστόν, οἰόμενοι τοῦ δημιουργοῦ τοιάσδε τινὰς εἶναι ἐπαγγελίας, καὶ πέρα τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς λέξεως δηλουμένων μηδὲν σημαίνεσθαι κατὰ τὰς ἀπειλάς. Πρὸς πάντας τοίνυν τοὺς τὰ τοιαῦτα ἐκ τῶν γραφῶν