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having taken away that which was formerly the condemnation of nature, allows them to receive death for the condemnation of sin, having no longer the 15∆_224 pleasure of generation from Adam; but only the pain on account of Adam working in them; not as a debt for sin, but according to the economy, because of the natural circumstance, death against sin; which whenever it does not have as the mother who begets it the pleasure which it is its nature to punish, it manifestly becomes the father of eternal life. For just as the life of Adam according to pleasure became the mother of death and corruption, so also the death of the Lord on account of Adam, being free from the pleasure from Adam, becomes the begetter of eternal life.
4.46 (μστ΄) After the transgression, the nature of men had as the beginning of its own generation the conception from seed according to pleasure, and birth according to flux; and as its end, death through corruption according to pain; but the Lord, not having this beginning of his birth according to the flesh, was not subject to its end, that is, to death.
4.47 (μζ΄) Sin, having at the beginning lured Adam, persuaded him to come to the transgression of the divine commandment; through which, having introduced pleasure, and having nailed itself through pleasure in him in the foundation of nature, it condemned the whole nature to death, pushing the nature of created things toward extinction according to death through man. For this was also contrived by the sower of sin and father of evil, the wicked devil, who on the one hand banished himself from the divine glory out of pride, and on the other hand, through envy toward both us and God, banished Adam from paradise, to destroy the works of God, and to dissolve the things that are established for generation.
4.48 (μη΄) The devil, envying God and us, having deceitfully persuaded man that he was envied by God, prepared him to transgress the commandment. Envying God, on the one hand, so that His all-hymned power deifying man might not become manifest in its working; and 15∆_226 man manifestly, on the other hand, so that he might not become a partaker of the divine glory in appearance according to virtue. For the most defiled one envies not only us for the glory in God on account of virtue, but also God for His all-hymned power over us for our salvation.
4.49 (μθ΄) Just as in Adam death was the condemnation of nature, 1328 it having as a beginning the pleasure of its own generation; so death in Christ has become the condemnation of sin, nature having received back in Christ a generation pure of pleasure.
4.50 (ν΄) If we, who have been deemed worthy by grace through the Spirit to become the house of God, ought to show so much patience of sufferings for the sake of righteousness for the condemnation of sin, and, being good, to bear a shameful death eagerly as malefactors, what will be the end of those who disobey the Gospel of God? That is, what will be the end, or rather the judgment, of those who not only have had with diligence until the end the generation according to the pleasure of Adam which took hold of nature, living and active in both soul and body, in both will and nature, but have neither accepted God the Father pleading through the incarnate Son; nor indeed the mediator and Son himself, who intercedes on behalf of the Father, and who for our reconciliation to the Father, by the will of the Father, offers himself according to his own will to the death for us, so that through himself he might glorify us, having brightened us with the beauty of his own divinity, as much as he himself condescended for our sake to be dishonored by our sufferings.
4.51 (να΄) Since God will be the uncircumscribed and without interval and infinite place of all who are being saved, becoming all things to all 15∆_228 according to the
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ἀφελόμενος, τόν εἰς καταδίκην τό πρότερον ὄντα τῆς φύσεως, εἰς τήν τῆς ἁμαρτίας κατάκρισιν αὐτοῖς συγχωρεῖ δέχεσθαι θάνατον, ἔχοντας μέν τοῦ Ἀδάμ οὐκέτι τήν 15∆_224 ἐκ τοῦ Ἀδάμ ἡδονήν τῆς γενέσεως· μόνην δέ τήν διά τόν Ἀδάμ ὀδύνην ἐνεργοῦσαν ἐν αὐτοῖς· οὐ κατά χρέος ὑπέρ ἁμαρτίας, ἀλλά κατ᾿ οἰκονομίαν, διά τήν κατά φύσιν περίστασιν, κατά τῆς ἁμαρτίας, τόν θάνατον· ὅς ὁπόταν μή ἔχει γεννῶσαν αὐτόν μητέρα τήν, ἧς γίνεσθαι πέφυκε τιμωρός, ἡδονήν ἀϊδίου ζωῆς προδήλως καθίσταται πατήρ. Ὡς γάρ τοῦ Ἀδάμ ἡ καθ᾿ ἡδονήν ζωή, θανάτου καί φθορᾶς γέγονε μήτηρ, οὕτω καί ὁ διά τόν Ἀδάμ τοῦ Κυρίου θάνατος ὑπάρχων τῆς ἐκ τοῦ Ἀδάμ ἐλεύθερος ἡδονῆς, ἀϊδίου γεννήτωρ γίνεται ζωῆς.
4.46 (μστ΄) Ἀρχήν ἔσχε μετά τήν παράβασιν ἡ τῶν ἀνθρώπων φύσις τῆς ἰδίας γενέσεως τήν καθ᾿ ἡδονήν ἐκ σπορᾶς σύλληψιν, καί τήν κατά ῥεῦσιν γένεσιν· καί τέλος, τήν κατ᾿ ὀδύνην διά φθορᾶς θάνατον· ὁ δέ Κύριος ταύτην οὐκ ἔχων ἀρχήν τῆς κατά σάρκα γεννήσεως, οὔτε τῷ τέλει, τουτέστι τῷ θανάτῳ, ὑπῆρχεν ἁλωτός.
4.47 (μζ΄) Τόν Ἀδάμ ἡ ἁμαρτία καταρχάς δελεάσασα, πρός παράβασιν τῆς θείας παρέπεισεν ἐλθεῖν ἐντολῆς· καθ᾿ ἥν τήν ἡδονήν ὑποστήσασα, καί ἑαυτήν διά τῆς ἡδονῆς ἐν αὐτῷ καθηλώσασα τῷ πυθμένι τῆς φύσεως, τόν θάνατον τῆς ὅλης κατέκρινε φύσεως, ὠθοῦσα πρός ἀπογένεσιν κατά τόν θάνατον διά τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, τήν φύσιν τῶν γεγονότων. Τοῦτο γάρ καί μεμηχάνητο τῷ σπορεῖ τῆς ἁμαρτίας, καί πατρί τῆς κακίας πονηρῷ διαβόλῳ, τῷ ἑαυτόν μέν ἐξ ὑπερηφανίας τῆς θείας ἐξοικίσαντι δόξης, διά φθόνον δέ τόν τε πρός ἡμᾶς καί τόν Θεόν, τοῦ παραδείσου τόν Ἀδάμ ἐξοικίσαντι, ἀφανίσαι τά ἔργα τοῦ Θεοῦ, καί διαλῦσαι τά σενεστῶτα πρός γένεσιν.
4.48 (μη΄) Φθονῶν τῷ Θεῷ καί ἡμῖν ὁ διάβολος, δόλῳ τόν ἄνθρωπον ὑπό Θεοῦ φθονεῖσθαι παραπείσας, παραβῆναι τήν ἐντολήν παρεσκεύασε. Τῷ Θεῷ μέν, ἵνα φανερά μή γένηται κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν ἡ πανύμνητος αὐτοῦ δύναμις θεουργοῦσα τόν ἄνθρωπον· τῷ 15∆_226 δ᾿ ἀνθρώπῳ προδήλως, ἵνα μή γένηται τῆς θείας ἐν εἴδει κατ᾿ ἀρετήν μέτοχος δόξης. Φθονεῖ γάρ ὁ μιαρώτατος οὐ μόνον ἡμῖν τῆς ἐπί τῷ Θεῷ διά τήν ἀρετήν δόξης, ἀλλά καί τῷ Θεῷ τῆς ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν διά τήν σωτηρίαν πανυμνήτου δυνάμεως.
4.49 (μθ΄) Ὥσπερ ἐν τῷ Ἀδάμ ὁ θάνατος τῆς φύσεως ὑπῆρχε κατάκρισις, 1328 ἀρχήν ἐχούσης τήν ἡδονήν τῆς ἰδίας γενέσεως· οὕτως ὁ θάνατος ἐν Χριστῷ, τῆς ἁμαρτίας κατάκρισις γέγονεν, ἡδονῆς καθαράν ἐν Χριστῷ πάλιν τῆς φύσεως ἀπολαβούσης τήν γένεσιν.
4.50 (ν΄) Εἰ ἡμεῖς οἱ οἶκος τοῦ Θεοῦ χάριτι γενέσθαι ἀξιωθέντες διά Πνεύματος, τοσαύτην ὑπέρ δικαιοσύνης εἰς κατάκρισιν τῆς ἁμαρτίας ὑπομονήν ἐπιδείκνυσθαι παθημάτων ὀφείλομεν, καί ὡς κακοῦργοι τόν ἐφύβριστον, ἀγαθοί τυγχάνοντες, προθύμως ἀποφέρεσθαι θάνατον, τί τό τέλος τῶν ἀπειθούντων τῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ Εὐαγγελίῳ; τουτέστι ποῖον ἔσται τό τέλος, ἤγουν ἡ κρίσις, τῶν μή μόνον ζῶσάν τε καί ἐνεργουμένην, κατά τε ψυχήν καί σῶμα, γνώμῃ τε καί φύσει τήν καθ᾿ ἡδονήν τοῦ Ἀδάμ κρατήσασαν τῆς φύσεως γένεσιν μέχρι τέλους διά σπουδῆς ἐσχηκότων, ἀλλά μήτε προσδεξαμένων παρακαλοῦντα τόν Θεόν καί Πατέρα δι᾿ Υἱοῦ σαρκωθέντος· μή τε μήν αὐτόν τόν ὑπέρ τοῦ Πατρός πρεσβεύοντα μεσίτην καί Υἱόν, καί ὑπέρ τῆς ἡμῶν εἰς τόν Πατέρα καταλλαγῆς, ἑαυτόν βουλήσει τοῦ Πατρός, εἰς τόν ὑπέρ ἡμῶν θάνατον κατά θέλησιν προϊέμενον, ὅπως δι᾿ ἑαυτόν ἡμᾶς τοσοῦτον δοξάσῃ, τῷ κάλλει καταφαιδρύνας τῆς οἰκείας θεότητος, ὅσον δι᾿ ἡμᾶς αὐτός κατεδέξατο τοῖς ἡμῶν ἀτιμασθῆναι παθήμασιν.
4.51 (να΄) Ἐπειδή πάντων τῶν σωζομένων ὁ Θεός, ἔσται τόπος ἀπερίγραφός τε καί ἀδιάστατος καί ἄπειρος, πᾶσι πάντα γινόμενος 15∆_228 κατά τήν