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of infants, finding displeasing the brief delay of things that are according to pleasure. For since all things are ordered by reason and wisdom, it is entirely necessary to consider nothing that happens to be without a share of that very reason, and of the wisdom in it. You will say, then: What is this reason, according to which the transition from this painful life to what is longed for does not happen immediately, but this burdensome and bodily life, having been extended for certain appointed times, awaits the end of the completion of the universe, so that then human life, freed as if from some bridle, might run back again, unrestrained and free, to the blessed and impassible life? But whether the reason approaches the truth of the matters being sought, Truth itself would know clearly, But what has come to our mind is this. I mean, taking up again the first account: “Let us make,” says God, “man in our image and likeness. And God made man; in the image of God he made him.” The image of God, therefore, which is seen in the whole of human nature, had its completion. But Adam was not yet; for the earthly creature is called Adam according to a certain etymological name, as those skilled in the Hebrew language say. For this reason also the Apostle, who was exceptionally trained in the ancestral tongue of the Israelites, names the man from the earth "earthy," as if translating the name of Adam into the Greek language. Man, therefore, was made according to the image, the universal nature, the God-like thing. And by the all-powerful wisdom he was made not a part of the whole, but all at once the entire fullness of nature.

He who has grasped all the ends of the earth saw, as the Scripture says, which states, “In his hand are the ends of the earth;” He who knows all things even before their creation saw, having encompassed in His knowledge how great the number of humanity would be in its individuals. But since He perceived in our created nature the inclination toward the worse, and that having voluntarily flowed away from the equal honor with the angels, it would appropriate for itself fellowship with what is lowly; for these reasons He mixed something of the irrational into His own image. For in the divine and blessed nature there is no distinction of male and female; but having transferred the characteristic of irrational creation to man, He does not grant the increase to the race according to the lofty part of our creation. For it was not when He made that which is according to the image, that He then added to man the power to increase and multiply, but when He distinguished him by the difference of male and female, then He says: “Increase and multiply, and fill the earth.” For such a thing is not proper to the divine nature, but to the irrational, as the history indicates, having related that these things were said previously by God concerning the irrational creatures, so that if, before imposing on nature the difference of male and female, He had added to man the power to increase through this utterance, we would not have needed this kind of generation by which irrational creatures are born. Therefore, since this fullness of humanity was foreseen through the prognostic power, which was to come into life through a more animal-like generation, God, who governs all things with a certain order and sequence, since our nature's inclination toward the lowly—which He who sees the future equally with the present saw before it came to be—made such a mode of generation entirely necessary for humanity, for this reason He also foresaw the time commensurate with the constitution of humanity; so that with the passing of the pre-ordained souls the extension of time might be completed, and then the flowing movement of time might stop, when humanity is no longer begotten through it; and when the generation of humanity is completed, time will cease with its completion, and thus the re-constitution of the universe will occur, and with the change of the whole, humanity will also be changed, from the corruptible and earthly to the impassible and eternal. Which it seems to me the divine Apostle also understood,

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τῶν νηπίων, τὴν πρὸς ὀλίγον ἀναβολὴν τῶν καθ' ἡδονὴν δυσχεραίνων. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ὑπὸ λόγου καὶ σοφίας τὰ πάντα οἰκονομεῖται, ἀνάγκη πᾶσα μηδὲν ἄμοιρον ἡγεῖσθαι τῶν γινομένων αὐτοῦ τε τοῦ λόγου, καὶ τῆς ἐν αὐτῷ σοφίας. Ἐρεῖς οὖν· Τίς οὗτος ὁ λόγος ἐστὶ, καθ' ὃν οὐκ εὐθὺς ἐπὶ τὸ ποθούμενον ἡ τοῦ λυπηροῦ βίου μετάστασις γίνεται, ἀλλ' εἰς χρόνους τινὰς ὡρι σμένους ἡ βαρεῖα καὶ σωματώδης αὕτη παραταθεῖσα ζωὴ, ἀναμένει τὸ πέρας τῆς τοῦ παντὸς συμπληρώ σεως, ἵνα τὸ τηνικαῦτα καθάπερ χαλινοῦ τινος ἐλευ θερωθεῖσα ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη ζωὴ, πάλιν ἄνετός τε καὶ ἐλευθέρα πρὸς τὸν μακάριον καὶ ἀπαθῆ βίον ἐπανα δράμοι· Ἀλλ' εἰ μὲν ἐγγίζει τῇ ἀληθείᾳ τῶν ζητου μένων ὁ λόγος, αὐτὴ ἂν εἰδείη σαφῶς ἡ Ἀλήθεια, Ὃ δ' οὖν ἐπὶ τὴν ἡμετέραν ἦλθε διάνοιαν, τοιοῦτον ἐστί, Λέγω δὴ τὸν πρῶτον πάλιν ἐπαναλαβὼν λόγον· «Ποιή σωμεν,» φησὶν ὁ Θεὸς, «ἄνθρωπον κατ' εἰκόνα καὶ ὁμοίωσιν ἡμετέραν. Καὶ ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρω πον· κατ' εἰκόνα Θεοῦ ἐποίησεν αὐτόν.» Ἡ μὲν οὖν εἰκὼν τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἡ ἐν πάσῃ τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει θεω ρουμένη, τὸ τέλος ἔσχεν. Ὁ δὲ Ἀδὰμ οὔπω ἐγένετο· τὸ γὰρ γήϊνον πλάσμα κατά τινα ἐτυμολογικὴν ὀνο μασίαν λέγεται Ἀδὰμ, καθώς φασιν οἱ τῆς Ἑβραίων φωνῆς ἐπιίστορες. ∆ιὸ καὶ ὁ Ἀπόστολος διαφερόντως τὴν πάτριον τῶν Ἰσραηλιτῶν πεπαιδευμένος φωνήν, τὸν ἐκ γῆς ἄνθρωπον χοϊκὸν ὀνομάζει, οἱονεὶ μεταβα λὼν τὴν τοῦ Ἀδὰμ κλῆσιν εἰς τὴν Ἐλλάδα φωνήν. Γέγονεν οὖν κατ' εἰκόνα ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ἡ καθόλου φύ σις, τὸ θεοείκελον χρῆμα. Γέγονε δὲ τῇ παντοδυνάμῳ σοφίᾳ οὐχὶ μέρος τοῦ ὄλου, ἀλλ' ἄπαν ἀθρόως τὸ τῆς φύσεως πλήρωμα.

Εἶδεν ὁ πάντων τῶν περάτων πε ριδεδραγμένος, καθώς φησιν ἡ Γραφὴ, ἡ λέγουσα, «Ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ τὰ πέρατα τῆς γῆς·» εἶδεν ὁ εἰδὼς τὰ πάντα καὶ πρὶν γενέσεως αὑτῶν, ἐμπεριλα 205 θὼν τῇ γνώσει ὅσον κατ' ἀριθμὸν ἐν τοῖς καθ' ἕκαστον ἔσται τὸ ἀνθρώπινον. Ἐπεὶ δὲ κατενόησεν ἐν τῷ πλάσματι ἡμῶν τὴν πρὸς τὸ χεῖρον ῥοπὴν, καὶ ὅτι τῆς πρὸς τοὺς ἀγγέλους ὁμοτιμίας ἑκουσίως ἀποῤ ῥυὲν, τὴν πρὸς τὸ ταπεινὸν κοινωνίαν προσοικειώσε· διὰ ταῦτα κατέμιξέ τι καὶ τοῦ ἀλόγου τῇ ἰδίᾳ εἰκόνι. Οὐ γάρ ἐστιν ἐν τῇ θείᾳ τε καὶ μακαρίᾳ φύσει ἡ κατὰ τὸ ἄῤῥεν καὶ θῆλυ διαφορά· ἀλλὰ τῆς ἀλόγου κατασκευῆς ἐπὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον μετενεγκὼν τὸ ἰδίωμα, οὐ κατὰ τὸ ὑψηλὸν τῆς κτίσεως ἡμῶν τὸν πλεονα σμὸν τῷ γένει χαρίζεται. Οὐ γὰρ ὅτε τὸ κατ' εἰκόνα ἐποίησε, τότε τὴν τοῦ αὐξάνεσθαι καὶ πληθύνεσθαι δύναμιν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ προσέθηκεν, ἀλλ' ὅτε διέκρινε τῇ κατὰ τὸ ἄῤῥεν καὶ θῆλυ διαφορᾷ, τότε φησίν· «Αὐ ξάνεσθε καὶ πληθύνεσθε, καὶ πληρώσατε τὴν γῆν.» Τὸ γὰρ τοιοῦτον οὐ τῆς θείας φύσεως ἴδιον, ἀλλὰ τῆς ἀλόγου ἐστὶ, καθὼς ἡ ἱστορία παρασημαίνεται πρό τερον ἐπὶ τῶν ἀλόγων εἰρῆσθαι ταῦτα παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ διηγησαμένη, ὡς εἴ γε πρὸ τοῦ ἐπιβαλεῖν τῇ φύσει τὴν κατὰ τὸ ἄῤῥεν καὶ θῆλυ διαφορὰν, τὴν διὰ τῆς φωνῆς ταύτης δύναμιν εἰς τὸ αὐξάνεσθαι τῷ ἀνθρώ πῳ προσέθηκεν, οὐκ ἂν τοῦ τοιούτου τῆς γεννήσεως εἴδους προσεδεήθημεν, δι' οὗ γεννᾶται τὰ ἄλογα. Τούτου τοίνυν προκατανοηθέντος διὰ τῆς προγνω στικῆς ἐνεργείας πληρώματος τῶν ἀνθρώπων, διὰ τῆς ζωωδεστέρας γενέσεως ἐπὶ τὴν ζωὴν μέλλοντος παριέ ναι, ὁ τάξει τινὶ καὶ εἱρμῷ διακυβερνῶν τὰ πάντα Θεὸς, ἐπειδὴ ὅλως τὸ τοιοῦτον τῇ ἀνθρωπότητι τῆς γεν νήσεως εἶδος ἀναγκαῖον ἐποίησεν ἡ πρὸς τὸ ταπεινὸν τῆς φύσεως ἡμῶν ἐπίκλισις, ἣν εἶδε πρὶν γενέσθαι ὁ ἐπίσης τῷ ἐνεστῶτι τὸ μέλλον βλέπων, διὰ τοῦτο καὶ τὸν σύμμετρον τῇ κατασκευῇ τῶν ἀνθρώπων χρόνον προκατενόησεν· ὥστε τῇ παρόδῳ τῶν περιορισθεισῶν ψυχῶν συναπαρτισθῆναι τὴν τοῦ χρόνου παράτασιν, καὶ τότε στῆναι τὴν ῥοώδη τοῦ χρόνου κίνησιν, ὅταν μηκέτι φύηται δι' αὐτοῦ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον· τελεσθείσης δὲ τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων γενέσεως, τῷ τέλει ταύτης συγκαταλῆξαι τὸν χρόνον, καὶ οὕτω τὴν τοῦ παντὸς ἀναστοιχείωσιν γενέσθαι, καὶ τῇ μεταβολῇ τοῦ ὄλου συναμειφθῆναι καὶ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον, ἀπὸ τοῦ φθαρτοῦ καὶ γεώδους ἐπὶ τὸ ἀπαθὲς καὶ ἀΐδιον. Ὅ μοι δοκεῖ καὶ ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος κατανοήσας,