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by divine power, I say, fitting together that which had been rent asunder into an unbreakable union. And this is the resurrection, the return of things that were yoked together, after their dissolution, to an indissoluble union, being grown together with each other, so that the first grace concerning the human might be recalled, and we might return again to eternal life, the evil mingled with our nature having flowed out through our dissolution, as happens with a liquid when the vessel containing it is broken, it is scattered and disappears, there being nothing to contain it. For just as the beginning of death, having come into being in one, passed through the whole of human nature, in the same way also the beginning of the resurrection extends through one to all humanity. For he who united again the soul assumed by him to its own body through his own power which was mingled in each of these at their first composition thus by a more general principle mingled the intellectual substance with the sensible, the beginning prospering towards its end as a consequence. For in the man assumed by him, when the soul returned again to the body after the dissolution, as from a certain beginning, the union of that which was separated passes through with equal power into all human nature. And this is the mystery of God's economy concerning death and the resurrection from the dead, that he did not prevent the soul from being separated from the body by death, in accordance with the necessary consequence of nature, but brought them back to each other again through the resurrection, so that he himself might become the boundary of both, of death and of life, in himself stopping nature from being divided by death, and himself becoming the beginning of the union of the things that had been divided.

17

But someone will say that the objection brought against us has not yet been resolved, but that the point brought forward against us by unbelievers is rather strengthened by what has been said. For if there is in him such great power, as the argument has shown, that the destruction of death and the entrance of life are in his control, why does he not accomplish his purpose by will alone, but works out our salvation by a circuitous route, being born and nurtured, and saving man by the experience of death, when it was possible both not to have been in these circumstances and to have saved us? And to such an argument it would have been sufficient to say this much to the fair-minded, that the sick do not legislate for their physicians the manner of their care, nor do they dispute with their benefactors about the form of the therapy, why the healer touched the ailing part and devised this particular thing for the cure of the evil, when something else was needed, but looking to the end of the benefaction, they received the good deed with thanksgiving. But since, as the prophecy says, the abundance of God's goodness has its benefit hidden and is not yet clearly seen through this present life; for every objection of the unbelievers would have been removed, if what is expected were before their eyes; but as it is, it awaits the ages to come, so that in them may be revealed the things now seen by faith alone; it would be necessary by some reasonings, as far as is possible, to find the solution to the things being sought, which is consistent with what has gone before.

18

And yet it is perhaps superfluous for those who believe that God has visited this life to slander his presence, as if it did not happen with some wisdom and a superior reason. For to those not overly contentious against the truth, no small proof of the divine visitation is that which has been made manifest in the present life, even before the life to come, I mean the testimony through the facts themselves. For who does not know how the deceit of demons had filled every part of the inhabited world, overpowering the life of men through the madness of idolatry; how this was customary for all the nations throughout the world, to serve demons through idols with animal sacrifices and pollutions upon altars? But from when, as the Apostle says, the grace of God that brings salvation to all men appeared, having visited through human nature, all

16

θείᾳ λέγω δυνάμει, πρὸς τὴν ἄρρηκτον ἕνωσιν τὸ διασχισθὲν συναρ μόσας. καὶ τοῦτό ἐστιν ἡ ἀνάστασις, ἡ τῶν συνεζευγμένων μετὰ τὴν διάλυσιν ἐπάνοδος εἰς ἀδιάλυτον ἕνωσιν, ἀλλήλοις συμφυομένων, ὡς ἂν ἡ πρώτη περὶ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον χάρις ἀνακληθείη, καὶ πάλιν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀίδιον ἐπανέλθοιμεν ζωήν, τῆς ἐμμιχθείσης τῇ φύσει κακίας διὰ τῆς διαλύσεως ἡμῶν ἐκρυείσης, οἷον ἐπὶ τοῦ ὑγροῦ συμβαίνει, περιτρυφθέντος αὐτῷ τοῦ ἀγγείου, σκεδαννυμένου τε καὶ ἀφανιζομένου, μηδενὸς ὄντος τοῦ περιστέγοντος. καθάπερ δὲ ἡ ἀρχὴ τοῦ θανάτου ἐν ἑνὶ γενομένη πάσῃ συνδιεξῆλθε τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει, κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ ἡ ἀρχὴ τῆς ἀναστάσεως δι' ἑνὸς ἐπὶ πᾶσαν διατείνει τὴν ἀνθρωπότητα. ὁ γὰρ τὴν ἀναληφθεῖσαν παρ' ἑαυτοῦ ψυχὴν πάλιν ἑνώσας τῷ οἰκείῳ σώματι διὰ τῆς δυνάμεως ἑαυτοῦ τῆς ἑκατέρῳ τούτων παρὰ τὴν πρώτην σύστασιν ἐμμιχθείσης οὕτω γενικωτέρῳ τινὶ λόγῳ τὴν νοερὰν οὐσίαν τῇ αἰσθητῇ συγκατέμιξεν, τῆς ἀρχῆς κατὰ τὸ ἀκόλουθον ἐπὶ τὸ πέρας εὐοδουμένης. ἐν γὰρ τῷ ἀναληφθέντι παρ' αὐτοῦ ἀνθρώπῳ πάλιν μετὰ τὴν διάλυσιν πρὸς τὸ σῶμα τῆς ψυχῆς ἐπανελ θούσης, οἷον ἀπό τινος ἀρχῆς εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην φύσιν τῇ δυνάμει κατὰ τὸ ἴσον ἡ τοῦ διακριθέντος ἕνωσις διαβαίνει. καὶ τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ μυστήριον τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ περὶ τὸν θάνατον οἰκονομίας καὶ τῆς ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀναστάσεως, τὸ διαλυθῆναι μὲν τῷ θανάτῳ τοῦ σώματος τὴν ψυχὴν κατὰ τὴν ἀναγκαίαν τῆς φύσεως ἀκολουθίαν μὴ κωλῦσαι, εἰς ἄλληλα δὲ πάλιν ἐπαναγαγεῖν διὰ τῆς ἀναστάσεως, ὡς ἂν αὐτὸς γένοιτο μεθόριον ἀμφοτέρων, θανάτου τε καὶ ζωῆς, ἐν ἑαυτῷ μὲν στήσας διαιρουμένην τῷ θανάτῳ τὴν φύσιν, αὐτὸς δὲ γενόμενος ἀρχὴ τῆς τῶν διῃρημένων ἑνώσεως.

17 Ἀλλ' οὔπω φήσει τις λελύσθαι τὴν ὑπενεχθεῖσαν ἡμῖν ἀντίθεσιν, ἰσχυροποιεῖσθαι δὲ μᾶλλον ἐκ τῶν εἰρημένων τὸ παρὰ τῶν ἀπίστων ἡμῖν προφερόμενον. εἰ γὰρ τοσαύτη δύναμίς ἐστιν ἐν αὐτῷ, ὅσην ὁ λόγος ἐπέδειξεν, ὡς θανάτου τε καθαίρεσιν καὶ ζωῆς εἴσοδον ἐπ' αὐτῷ εἶναι, τί οὐχὶ θελήματι μόνῳ τὸ κατὰ γνώμην ποιεῖ, ἀλλ' ἐκ περιόδου τὴν σωτηρίαν ἡμῶν κατεργάζεται, τικτόμενός τε καὶ τρεφόμενος, καὶ τῇ τοῦ θανάτου πείρᾳ σώζων τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ἐξὸν μήτε ἐν τούτοις γενέσθαι καὶ ἡμᾶς περισώσασθαι; πρὸς δὲ τὸν τοιοῦτον λόγον ἱκανὸν μὲν ἦν πρὸς τοὺς εὐγνώμονας τοσοῦ τον εἰπεῖν, ὅτι καὶ τοῖς ἰατροῖς οὐ νομοθετοῦσι τὸν τρόπον τῆς ἐπιμελείας οἱ κάμνοντες, οὐδὲ περὶ τοῦ τῆς θεραπείας εἴδους πρὸς τοὺς εὐεργέτας ἀμφισβητοῦσι, διὰ τί προσ ήψατο τοῦ πονοῦντος μέρους ὁ θεραπεύων καὶ τόδε τι πρὸς τὴν τοῦ κακοῦ λύσιν ἐπενόησεν, ἕτερον δέον, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὸ πέρας ὁρῶντες τῆς εὐεργεσίας ἐν εὐχαριστίᾳ τὴν εὐ ποιίαν ἐδέξαντο. ἀλλ' ἐπειδή, καθώς φησιν ἡ προφητεία, τὸ πλῆθος τῆς χρηστότητος τοῦ θεοῦ κεκρυμμένην ἔχει τὴν ὠφέλειαν καὶ οὔπω διὰ τοῦ παρόντος βίου τηλαυγῶς καθορᾶται· ἦ γὰρ ἂν περιῄρητο πᾶσα τῶν ἀπίστων ἀν τίρρησις, εἰ τὸ προσδοκώμενον ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς ἦν· νυνὶ δὲ ἀναμένει τοὺς ἐπερχομένους αἰῶνας, ὥστε ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀπο καλυφθῆναι τὰ νῦν διὰ τῆς πίστεως μόνης ὁρώμενα· ἀναγ καῖον ἂν εἴη λογισμοῖς τισὶ κατὰ τὸ ἐγχωροῦν καὶ τῶν ἐπιζητουμένων ἐξευρεῖν τὴν λύσιν τοῖς προλαβοῦσι συμ βαίνουσαν.

18 Καί τοι περιττὸν ἴσως ἐστὶ θεὸν ἐπιδεδημηκέναι 18 τῷ βίῳ πιστεύσαντας διαβάλλειν τὴν παρουσίαν, ὡς οὐκ ἐν σοφίᾳ τινὶ καὶ λόγῳ γενομένην τῷ κρείττονι. τοῖς γὰρ μὴ λίαν ἀντιμαχομένοις πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν οὐ μικρὰ τῆς θείας ἐπιδημίας ἀπόδειξις ἡ καὶ πρὸ τῆς μελλούσης ζωῆς ἐν τῷ παρόντι βίῳ φανερωθεῖσα, ἡ διὰ τῶν πραγμάτων αὐτῶν φημὶ μαρτυρία. τίς γὰρ οὐκ οἶδεν ὅπως πεπλήρωτο κατὰ πᾶν μέρος τῆς οἰκουμένης ἡ τῶν δαιμόνων ἀπάτη, διὰ τῆς εἰδωλομανίας τῆς ζωῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων κατακρατήσασα· ὅπως τοῦτο νόμιμον πᾶσι τοῖς κατὰ τὸν κόσμον ἔθνεσιν ἦν, τὸ θεραπεύειν διὰ τῶν εἰδώλων τοὺς δαίμονας ἐν ταῖς ζωοθυσίαις καὶ τοῖς ἐπιβωμίοις μιάσμασιν; ἀφ' οὗ δέ, καθώς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος, ἐπεφάνη ἡ χάρις τοῦ θεοῦ ἡ σωτήριος πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις, διὰ τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ἐπιδημή σασα φύσεως, πάντα