25

a consequence of his righteousness. 80 That God has predestined all things according to his foreknowledge, we shall know thus. The divine is immutable and judges not from after-knowledge, but from foreknowledge. If, therefore, he judges and determines day by day, he knows what happens day by day and, as some say, even repents and adds years to life, not knowing what they are saying. For if he repents and adds, he has a mutable will and knowledge, and this is unworthy of God. But if it is said that he added to Hezekiah according to the scripture, he did not add in ignorance or without having predestined it, but he himself both foreknew and predestined the things concerning Hezekiah; but providentially he represented this, administering our salvation, to show how powerful repentance is. But he is said to repent in terms of our human experience. For scripture speaks of God in a rather human way for the immaturity of its hearers. For just as it is said: “Why do you sleep, Lord?” - but God does not sleep, but it called his forbearance and his long-suffering and the delay of his help “sleep”; for among us those who sleep do not help—so also with repentance; for we, when we give someone wealth and that person uses it badly, repent. Thus, when God made man and anointed Saul as king and they sinned, he is said to repent, not that God repented—for he foreknew what would be—but that they did things worthy of repentance. Let us strive, therefore, to do good and to become good, so that we may be among the good who are foreknown and predestined for eternal life. 81 It must be known that the good is the best order for each thing, preserving what is proper to it according to nature—and this is the same as virtue—while vice is the dissolution of order, that is, disorder. The good is spoken of in two ways: either the truly good, such as the aforesaid order, or even the seeming good, the pleasure according to sensation contrary to the aforementioned order, which is not good, but rather evil. And vice, too, is spoken of in two ways: either the truly evil, that is, what occurs contrary to the natural order and contrary to the law of the creator by one's own judgment—for the natural order is obedience to the creator, while disorder is disobedience—or the seeming evil, that which is painful to the senses and laborious for us, like discipline, which is rather good and beneficial, leading back to the natural order. And some evils are called voluntary, the truly evil, the forms of sin, and others involuntary, the laborious ones. 82 Therefore God is the cause of neither these nor those, as we have shown. For even if the so-called involuntary evils—because they seem evil to us, because of what is unpleasant and contrary to our will, and because we sin, that is, we miss the proper mark, through greed for pleasure—God justly brings on as a discipline for our benefit, yet the so-called involuntary evils depend on the voluntary evils; for the involuntary follow the voluntary evils. For punishments and disciplines are for the most part calamities for the sake of correction, and the punishment of the age to come is the complete destruction of vice and sin, or, to put it conversely, for those who long for bodily pleasures contrary to the natural law and the sins because of them, the punishment and lack of their use will be eternal punishment. For punishment is the failure to obtain what is desired. For pleasure contrary to the law of nature extends to sin; and this is twofold, either of the soul or of the body; and that of the soul is the desire for glory, and that of the body is food, drink, relaxation of the body, sleep, intercourse with women. All these things are natural and good when they occur according to the natural order and the law of the creator, but evil when contrary to the law of the creator and the natural order and use. 83 The natural order is to desire the glory from God, but that from one another

25

ἑπόμενον τῆς δικαιοσύνης αὐτοῦ. 80 Ὅτι δὲ προώρισεν ὁ θεὸς τὰ πάντα κατὰ τὴν πρόγνωσιν αὐτοῦ, οὕτως γνωσόμεθα. Ἄτρεπτον τὸ θεῖον καὶ οὐκ ἐξ ἐπιγνώσεως κρῖνον, ἀλλ' ἐκ προγνώσεως. Εἰ οὖν καθ' ἡμέραν κρίνει καὶ ὁρίζει, καθ' ἡμέραν γινώσκει τὸ γινόμενον καί, ὥς τινές φασι, καὶ μεταμελεῖται καὶ προστίθησιν ἔτη ζωῆς, μὴ εἰδότες, τί φασιν. Εἰ γὰρ μεταμελεῖται καὶ προστίθησι, τρεπτὸν ἔχει καὶ τὸ θέλημα καὶ τὴν γνῶσιν, καὶ τοῦτο ἀνάξιον τοῦ θεοῦ. Εἰ δὲ λέγεται προστεθεικέναι τῷ Ἐζεκίᾳ κατὰ τὴν γραφήν, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀγνοῶν οὐδὲ μὴ προορίσας προσέθηκεν, ἀλλ' αὐτὸς μὲν καὶ προέγνω καὶ προώρισε τὰ κατὰ τὸν Ἐζεκίαν· προνοητικῶς δὲ ἐσχηματίσατο οἰκονομῶν τὴν σωτηρίαν ἡμῶν, ἵνα δείξῃ, πόσον δύναται ἡ μετάνοια. Μεταμελεῖσθαι δὲ λέγεται ἐκ τῶν καθ' ἡμᾶς. Ἡ γὰρ γραφὴ ἀνθρωπικώτερον περὶ θεοῦ διαλέγεται πρὸς τὴν νηπιότητα τῶν ἀκουόντων. Ὥσπερ γὰρ λέγεται· «Ἵνα τί ὑπνοῖς, κύριε;» -οὐχ ὑπνοῖ δὲ ὁ θεός, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἀνοχὴν καὶ τὴν μακροθυμίαν αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν ὑπέρθεσιν τῆς βοηθείας αὐτοῦ ὕπνον ἐκάλεσε· παρ' ἡμῖν γὰρ οἱ ὑπνοῦντες οὐ βοηθοῦσιν-, οὕτω καὶ μεταμέλειαν· ἡμεῖς γάρ, ὅταν δῶμέν τινι πλοῦτον καὶ κακῶς ἐκεῖνος χρήσηται αὐτῷ, μεταμελούμεθα. Οὕτως τοῦ θεοῦ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ποιήσαντος καὶ τὸν Σαοὺλ χρίσαντος εἰς βασιλέα καὶ ἁμαρτησάντων αὐτῶν μεταμελεῖσθαι λέγεται, οὐ τοῦ θεοῦ μεταμεληθέντος-προῄδει γὰρ τὸ ἐσόμενον-, ἀλλὰ τούτων ἄξια μεταμελείας πραξάντων. Ἀγωνισώμεθα οὖν ποιῆσαι τὸ ἀγαθὸν καὶ ἀγαθοὶ γενέσθαι, ἵνα ὦμεν τῶν προεγνωσμένων ἀγαθῶν καὶ προωρισμένων εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον. 81 Ἰστέον δέ, ὡς ἀγαθὸν μέν ἐστι τάξις ἀρίστη ἑκάστῳ τὸ κατὰ φύσιν οἰκεῖον διασῴζουσα-ταυτὸν δέ ἐστι καὶ ἀρετή-, κακία δὲ ἡ τῆς τάξεως λύσις ἤγουν ἀταξία. ∆ισσῶς δὲ τὸ ἀγαθὸν λέγεται· ἢ τὸ ὄντως ἀγαθὸν ὡς ἡ ῥηθεῖσα τάξις ἢ καὶ τὸ δοκοῦν ἀγαθόν, ἡ κατ' αἴσθησιν ἡδονὴ παρὰ τὴν προειρημένην τάξιν, ὅπερ οὐκ ἀγαθόν ἐστιν, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον κακόν. Καὶ ἡ κακία δὲ δισσῶς λέγεται· ἢ τὸ ὄντως κακόν, τουτέστι τὸ παρὰ τὴν φυσικὴν τάξιν γινόμενον καὶ παρὰ τὸν νόμον τοῦ κτίσαντος κατ' οἰκείαν γνώμην- φυσικὴ γὰρ τάξις ἡ ὑπακοὴ τοῦ κτίσαντος, ἀταξία δὲ ἡ παρακοή-ἢ τὸ δοκοῦν κακόν, τὸ κατ' αἴσθησιν λυπηρὸν καὶ ἡμῖν ἐπίπονον ὡς ἡ παιδεία, ἥτις μᾶλλον ἀγαθόν ἐστι καὶ συμφέρον πρὸς τὴν κατὰ φύσιν ἐπανάγουσα τάξιν. Καὶ λέγονται τὰ μὲν ἑκούσια κακά, τὰ ὄντως κακά, τὰ εἴδη τῆς ἁμαρτίας, τὰ δὲ ἀκούσια, τὰ ἐπίπονα. 82 Οὔτε τούτων οὖν οὔτε ἐκείνων αἴτιος ὁ θεός, ὡς ἐδείξαμεν. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ τὰ ἀκούσια λεγόμενα κακὰ διὰ τὸ ἡμῖν δοκεῖν κακὰ εἶναι, διὰ τὸ ἀηδὲς καὶ διὰ τὸ παράβουλον ἡμῶν καὶ διὰ τὸ ἁμαρτάνειν ἡμᾶς, τουτέστιν ἀποτυγχάνειν τοῦ δέοντος σκοποῦ, τῷ πρὸς τὴν ἡδονὴν λίχνῳ δικαίῳ λόγῳ ὁ θεὸς ἐπάγει παιδεύων πρὸς τὸ συμφέρον, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἑκουσίων κακῶν ἤρτηται τὰ ἀκούσια λεγόμενα κακά· ἀκολουθεῖ γὰρ τοῖς ἑκουσίοις κακοῖς τὰ ἀκούσια. Τιμωρίαι γὰρ καὶ παιδεῖαι ὡς τὰ πολλὰ πρὸς διόρθωσιν αἱ συμφοραὶ γίνονται, καὶ ἡ τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος κόλασις τελεία τῆς κακίας καὶ ἁμαρτίας ἀναίρεσις ἢ τὸ ἐναντίον εἰπεῖν τοῖς ἐπιποθοῦσι τὰς σωματικὰς παρὰ τὸν φυσικὸν νόμον ἡδονὰς καὶ τὰς διὰ ταύτας ἁμαρτίας ἡ κόλασις καὶ ἀπορία τῆς τούτων χρήσεως ἔσται αἰωνία κόλασις. Κόλασις γὰρ ἡ τοῦ ποθουμένου ἀποτυχία. Ἄχρι γὰρ ἁμαρτίας ἡδονὴ παρὰ τὸν νόμον τῆς φύσεως· αὕτη δὲ διττή, ἢ ψυχικὴ ἢ σωματική· καὶ ψυχικὴ μὲν ἡ τῆς δόξης ἔφεσις, σωματικὴ δὲ βρῶσις, πόσις, ἄνεσις σώματος, ὕπνος, συνουσία γυναικῶν. Ταῦτα πάντα φυσικὰ καὶ καλὰ κατὰ τὴν φυσικὴν τάξιν καὶ τὸν νόμον τοῦ κτίσαντος γινόμενα, κακὰ δὲ παρὰ τὸν νόμον τοῦ κτίσαντος καὶ τὴν φυσικὴν τάξιν καὶ χρῆσιν. 83 Φυσικὴ δὲ τάξις τὸ ἐφίεσθαι τῆς παρὰ θεοῦ δόξης, τὸ δὲ τῆς παρ' ἀλλήλων