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49 (49). A NATURAL CONTEMPLATION ON THE WORLD NECESSARILY HAVING AN END A natural contemplation on the world necessarily having an end. For having surveyed with knowledge, as much as was possible, the present world,

and the bodies within it harmoniously joined to each other in various ways, wisely unfolding the conceptual principle folded within, they found some of them to be perceptible and apprehendable and universal, and all things contained in and transformed by all things through the interchange of the particular quality of each. For the faculties of sense are by nature contained in the objects of sense, and the objects of sense are contained in the faculties of sense by perception, as being apprehendable. And again, the universals are transformed into the particulars by alteration, and the particulars, being transformed into the universals by dissolution, perish. And for some, corruption comes about through the generation of others. For the coming together of universals with each other, effecting the generation of particulars, is their corruption by alteration, and again, of the particulars, the dissolution of their bond into the universals through dissolution, (14∆_218> introducing corruption, is the permanence and generation of the universals. And having learned that this is the constitution of the sensible world—the mutual corruption and alteration of the bodies within it from which and in which it subsists—they were consequently taught, through the naturally unstable and alterable and ever-changingly borne and transformed universal quality of the bodies from which it is constituted, about its consummation, which will necessarily come in due course, having rightly reasoned that it is not possible, nor indeed a mark of rational understanding, to declare eternal that which is not always the same, without turning and any alteration whatsoever, but is scattered and transformed in myriad ways.

50 (50). A BRIEF CONTEMPLATION ON THE AGE TO COME, AND WHAT THE CHASM IS...

A brief contemplation on the age to come, and what the chasm is between God and men, and what Lazarus and the bosom of the patriarch are.

Then, having risen with greatness of mind above the things that are seen 1172

they aimed at the end of all things which will certainly come, in which none of the things that exist is any longer bearing and being borne, nor is there any motion of anything at all, of an ineffable stability, which has defined the course and motion of things that are borne and moved. Desiring to come to this in their mind, while still clothed in corruptible flesh, they wisely crossed the chasm between God and men, willingly renouncing their relation to the flesh and the world. For truly a fearful and great chasm between God and men is the affection and disposition toward the body and this world. Lazarus, having nobly and joyfully embraced the deprivation of these (as his sickness and poverty show, the one effecting his alienation from the world, the other from the body), (14∆_220> was deemed worthy to receive rest in the bosom of Abraham, leaving outside of that repose the rich man who was attached to these things, who benefited nothing else from the life in the flesh, except to be endlessly tormented for it, as one having neither the present life, which alone he desired and embraced, it being by nature unrestrainable in its flow, nor being able to partake of the future life, for which he remained completely idle and without desire, since that life is naturally united only to those who have loved it completely, and for the sake of desire for it have readily endured all painful things with gladness.

And when we hear "bosom of Abraham," we should understand God, who from the seed of Abraham was revealed to us in the flesh, the true provider of all things and to all who are worthy of grace according to the quality and quantity of each one's virtue, as certain

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ΜΘ (49). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΦΥΣΙΚΗ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΤΕΛΟΣ ΕΞ ΑΝΑΓΚΗΣ ΕΧΕΙΝ ΤΟΝ ΚΟΣΜΟΝ Θεωρία φυσική περί τοῦ τέλος ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἔχειν τόν κόσμον. Περιαθρήσαντες γάρ, ὡς ἐνῆν μάλιστα, ἐπιστημόνως τόν παρόντα κόσμον,

καί τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ ποικίλως ἀλλήλοις συνηρμοσμένων σωμάτων, τόν συνεπτυγμένον κατ᾿ ἔννοιαν σοφῶς ἐξαπλώσαντες λόγον εὗρον τά μέν αὐτῶν αἰσθητά καί ἀντιληπτικά καί καθολικά, πάντα δέ πᾶσι περιεχόμενά τε καί περιτρεπόμενα τῇ ἐπαλλαγῇ τῆς περί ἕκαστον ποιᾶς ἰδιότητος. Τοῖς μέν γάρ αἰσθητοῖς περιέχεται κατά φύσιν τά αἰσθητικά, τά δέ αἰσθητά τοῖς αἰσθητικοῖς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν, ὡς ἀντιληπτά. Καί πάλιν τά μέν καθόλου τοῖς μερικοῖς κατά ἀλλοίωσιν, τά δέ μερικά τοῖς καθόλου κατά ἀνάλυσιν περιτρεπόμενα φθείρεται. Καί τῶν μέν διά τῆς τῶν ἄλλων γενέσεως ἡ φθορά ἐπιγίνεται. Τῶν γάρ καθόλου ἡ πρός ἄλληλα σύνοδος τῶν μερικῶν ποιουμένη τήν γένεσιν ἀλλήλων τῇ ἀλλοιώσει ἐστί φθορά, καί τῶν αὖ μερικῶν ἡ κατά διάλυσιν (14∆_218> τῆς συνδέσεως πρός τά καθόλου ἀνάλυσις τήν φθοράν ἐπεισάγουσα τῶν καθόλου ἐστί διαμονή καί γένεσις. Καί ταύτην εἶναι μαθόντες τοῦ αἰσθητοῦ κόσμου τήν σύστασιν, τήν εἰς ἄλληλα τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ σωμάτων ἐξ ὧν καί ἐν οἷς ὑφέστηκε δι᾿ ἀλλήλων φθοράν καί ἀλλοίωσιν, ἀκολούθως διά τῆς κατά φύσιν ἀστάτου καί ἀλλοιωτῆς καί ἄλλοτε ἄλλως φερομένης τε καί περιτρεπομένης καθόλου τῶν ἐξ ὧν συνέστηκε σωμάτων ἰδιότητος τήν ἐξ ἀνάγκης καθ᾿ εἱρμόν γενησομένην αὐτοῦ συντέλειαν ἐπαιδεύθησαν οὐκ εἶναι δυνατόν, οὔτε μήν λογικῆς συνέσεως ἀΐδιον φάναι τό μή ὡσαύτως ἔχον ἀεί, δίχα τροπῆς καί τῆς οἱασοῦν ἀλλοιώσεως, ἀλλά μυρίοις σκεδαννύμενον τρόποις καί περιτρεπόμενον, ὀρθῶς λογισάμενοι.

Ν (50). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΣΥΝΤΟΜΟΣ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΜΕΛΛΟΝΤΟΣ, ΑΙΩΝΟΣ, ΚΑΙ ΤΙ ΤΟ ΧΑΣΜΑ...

Θεωρία σύντομος περί τοῦ μέλλοντος, αἰῶνος, καί τί τό χάσμα ἐστί τό μεταξύ Θεοῦ καί ἀνθρώπων, καί τί ὁ Λάζαρος καί ὁ κόλπος τοῦ πατριάρχου.

Ἐντεῦθεν τῶν ὁρωμένων ὑπεράνω γενόμενοι 1172 μεγαλοφυῶς τοῦ

πάντως ἐσομένου τῶν ὅλων κατεστοχάσαντο πέρατος, ἐν ᾧ τι τῶν ὄντων οὐκέτι φέρον ἐστί καί φερόμενον, οὐδέ τις οὐδενός τό σύνολον κίνησις παγιότητος ἀῤῥήτου, τήν τῶν φερομένων τε καί κινουμένων φοράν τε ὁρισαμένης και κίνησιν. Πρός ὅ γενέσθαι κατά νοῦν ἐπιθυμήσαντες, ἔτι τήν ὑπό φθοράν περικείμενοι σάρκα ἐμφρόνως τό μεταξύ Θεοῦ καί ἀνθρώπων χάσμα διέβησαν, σαρκός καί κόσμου κατά τήν σχέσιν ἑκουσίως ἀπογενόμενοι. Χάσμα γάρ ὡς ἀληθῶς φοβερόν τε καί μέγα μεταξύ Θεοῦ καί ἀνθρώπων ἐστίν ἡ πρός τό σῶμα καί τόν κόσμον τοῦτον στοργή καί διάθεσις. Ὧν γενναίως τήν στέρησιν χαίρων στέρξας ὁ Λάζαρος (ὡς δηλοῖ ἤ τε νόσος καί ἡ πενία, ἡ μέν τήν πρός τόν κόσμον, ἡ δέ τήν πρός τό σῶμα ποιουμένη αὐτῷ ἀλλοτρίωσιν) (14∆_220> τήν ἐν κόλποις Ἀβράαμ κατηξιώθη λαβεῖν ἀνάπαυσιν, τόν τούτοις προστετηκότα πλούσιον ἔξω ἀφείς τῆς ἀνέσεως, μηδέν ἄλλο τῆς διά σαρκός ὠφεληθέντα ζωῆς, πλήν τοῦ ἐπ᾿ αὐτῇ ἀπεράντως κολάζεσθαι, ὡς οὔτε τήν παροῦσαν ζωήν ἔχοντα, ἥν ποθήσας μόνην ἠσπάζετο, ἀκράτητον φύσει κατά τήν ῥεῦσιν ὑπάρχουσαν, οὔτε τῆς μελλούσης μεταλαχεῖν δυνάμενον, πρός ἥν ἀργός παντάπασι διέμεινε καί ἀνέραστος, μόνοις ἐκείνοις συμφύεσθαι τοῖς αὐτήν ὁλοσχερῶς ἀγαπήσασι πεφυκυίας, καί τοῦ πρός αὐτήν εἴνεκα πόθου πάντα τά ἀλγεινά προθύμως μεθ᾿ ἡδονῆς ὑπομείνασι.

Κόλπους δέ Ἀβράαμ ἀκούοντας τόν ἐκ σπέρματος Ἀβράαμ τόν κατά σάρκα ἡμῖν ἐπιφανέντα νοήσομεν Θεόν, τόν ὄντως πάντων χορηγικόν καί πᾶσι τοῖς ἀξίοις τῆς χάριτος ἀναλόγως τῇ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ἑκάστου ποιότητί τε καί ποσότητι, οἷόν τινας