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Who will still dare to fight against God? Who will be brought down to such unbelief as to disbelieve these things? If indeed it has been shown everywhere through both the Old and New Testaments that the creatures of God are sanctified, for whether it is offered to God, or even Christ who became man partakes, through all things His own creatures are sanctified. Therefore let the heretics cease from correcting God. For to say, "This He did well, in this He erred in making it," is not of a man who has sense, but of one who is mad and fights against God. But let us see if they themselves abstain from all living things according to the teaching of the unclean Manichaeans. For their leaders, having once laid down the law to abstain from living things because of the impiety dwelling in them, also said that the things growing from the earth are living; and they tore out testimonies from the scriptures; for as it says in Daniel: Bless the Lord, you beasts and cattle and all birds of the air, so it says: Bless the Lord, all things that grow out of the earth. And following their own impiety, they were dashed down into the precipice of error; for it is no longer possible for those very ones who say these things to live in the flesh. It is fitting then for the imitators of those men to follow their teachers; for that seeds have a life-giving power and bodies, this we also say; but to abstain from living things, this you have legislated for yourself; and since you have resisted the Lord's command, at least keep his confession by abstaining from living things and from foreign bodies. For the Lord says in the Gospels concerning the seeds: But if it dies, it bears much fruit. It is clear that what is living dies; but you have once for all guarded against eating things that possess life-giving power. And the Apostle Paul: You, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies; and what you sow, you do not sow the body that will be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of some of the rest; but God gives it a body, as he willed. It has been shown also concerning seeds, how it dies and is made alive and that God gives it a body, as He willed. You have in the Old Testament that God genuinely accepted sacrifices from the righteous and that all the saints ate meat and the other creatures with thanksgiving; you were persuaded through the holy gospels that ...........

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Τίς ἔτι τολμήσει θεομαχῆσαι; Τίς εἰς τοσαύτην ἀπιστίαν κατενεχθήσεται ὥστε τούτοις ἀπιστῆσαι; Εἴπερ πανταχοῦ ἀποδέδεικται διά τε τῆς παλαιᾶς καὶ καινῆς διαθήκης ἁγιαζόμενα τὰ κτίσματα τοῦ θεοῦ, εἴτε γὰρ προσφέρεται θεῷ, εἴτε καὶ μεταλαμβάνει ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ ἐνανθρωπήσας, διὰ πάντων τὰ ἑαυτοῦ κτίσματα ἁγιάζεται. Παυσάτωσαν οὖν οἱ αἱρετικοὶ διορθούμενοι τὸν θεόν. Τὸ γὰρ λέγειν· «Τοῦτο καλῶς ἐποίησε, τοῦτο ἐσφάλη ποιήσας «, οὐκ ἔστιν ἀνθρώπου νοῦν ἔχοντος, ἀλλὰ μαινομένου καὶ θεομαχοῦντος. Ἴδωμεν δέ, εἰ αὐτοὶ πάντων τῶν ἐμψύχων ἀπέχονται κατὰ τὴν διδασκαλίαν τῶν ἀκαθάρτων Μανιχαίων. Ἐκείνων γὰρ οἱ ἔξαρχοι ἅπαξ νομοθετήσαντες ἐμψύχων ἀπέχεσθαι διὰ τὴν ἐνοικοῦσαν ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀσέβειαν, καὶ τὰ φυόμενα ἐκ τῆς γῆς ἔμψυχα εἶπον· ἀπεσπάσαντο δὲ ἐκ τῶν γραφῶν τὰς μαρτυρίας· ὡς γὰρ λέγει ἐν τῷ ∆ανιήλ· Εὐλογεῖτε τὰ θηρία καὶ κτήνη καὶ πάντα τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ τὸν κύριον, οὕτως φησίν· Εὐλογεῖτε πάντα τὰ φυόμενα ἐκ τῆς γῆς τὸν κύριον. Καὶ ἀκολούθως τῇ οἰκείᾳ ἀσεβείᾳ ἀκολουθήσαντες εἰς τὸν κρημνὸν τῆς πλάνης κατερράγησαν· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἔτι δυνατὸν ζῆσαι ἐν σαρκὶ ἐκείνους αὐτοὺς τοὺς ταῦτα λέγοντας. Ἀκόλουθον δὲ ἕπεσθαι καὶ τοὺς μιμητὰς ἐκείνων τοῖς διδασκάλοις· ὅτι γὰρ ζωτικὴν δύναμιν καὶ σώματα ἔχει τὰ σπέρματα, τοῦτο καὶ ἡμεῖς λέγομεν· τὸ δὲ ἀπέχεσθαι ἐμψύχων, τοῦτο σαυτῷ ἐνομοθέτησας· καὶ ἐπειδὴ τῇ τοῦ κυρίου διαταγῇ ἀνθέστηκας, κἂν τὴν αὐτοῦ ὁμολογίαν φύλαξον ἀπεχόμενος τῶν ἐμψύχων καὶ τῶν ἀλλοτρίων σωμάτων. Λέγει γὰρ ὁ κύριος ἐν εὐαγγελίοις περὶ τῶν σπερμάτων· Ἐὰν δὲ ἀποθάνῃ, καρπὸν πολὺν φέρει. ∆ῆλον ὅτι ὁ ζῶν ἀποθνῄσκει· σὺ δὲ ἅπαξ παρεφυλάξω ἐσθίειν τὰ κεκτημένα τὴν ζωτικὴν δύναμιν. Καὶ ὁ ἀπόστολος Παῦλος· Σὺ ὃ σπείρεις, οὐ ζωοποιεῖται, ἐὰν μὴ ἀποθάνῃ· καὶ ὃ σπείρεις, οὐ τὸ σῶμα τὸ γενησόμενον σπείρεις, ἀλλὰ γυμνὸν κόκκον εἰ τύχοι σίτου ἤ τινος τῶν λοιπῶν· ὁ δὲ θεὸς δίδωσιν αὐτῷ σῶμα, καθὼς ἠθέλησεν. Ἀποδέδεικται καὶ περὶ τῶν σπερμάτων, πῶς ἀποθνῄσκει καὶ ζωοποιεῖται καὶ ὅτι ὁ θεὸς δίδωσιν αὐτῷ σῶμα, καθὼς ἠθέλησεν. Ἔχεις ἐν τῇ παλαιᾷ διαθήκῃ ὅτι ὁ θεὸς γνησίως θυσίας παρὰ τῶν δικαίων προσεδέξατο καὶ ὅτι οἱ ἅγιοι πάντες μετὰ εὐχαριστίας ἤσθιον κρέα καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ κτίσματα· ἐπείσθης διὰ τῶν ἁγίων εὐαγγελίων ὅτι ...........