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having been subjected, is provoked to anger and grief, "Why," he says, "do I make the soul a slave of evil passions, when it has been entrusted by God who created it with the governance of the body and the passions within it?" It is necessary, therefore, to rule over the passions, but to serve God. For it is impossible for it to be ruled both by sin and by God; but it must prevail over evil, and be subject to the Master of all. For this reason, the Prophet, addressing the one who brings on temptations, and who stirs up for him the great crowd of evils, and who is eager to enslave the mind of the spirit and cast it down to the flesh, as if rebuking his design against him for being in vain, says these things: "Why do you force me to serve those whom it is not right to serve? I have a Master, I know the true King. Shall not my soul be subject to God? For from him is my salvation." He stated the reason for his earnestness regarding subjection: that salvation is from God. For it is characteristic of a Creator to care for the safety of his own creations. Or, "From him is salvation," because, prophetically foreseeing the grace that was to come from the incarnation of the Lord, he says these things: that one must serve God and love him, who laid down beforehand so great a benefit for the human race, as not even to spare his own Son, but to give him up for us all. For it is the custom of Scripture to call the Christ of God "salvation;" as Simeon also says somewhere: "Now you are letting your servant depart, Master; for my eyes have seen your salvation." Let us therefore be subject to God, because from him is salvation. And what salvation is, he explains. Not some bare energy, providing us some grace for deliverance from weakness and for well-being of body. But what is salvation? "For he is my God and my Savior, my helper; I shall not be moved any more." Our God is the Son from God. The same is also the Savior of the human race, 29.473 who supports our weakness, who corrects the agitation that arises in our souls from temptations. "I shall not be moved any more;" he confesses the agitation in a human way. "Any more," for it is impossible for some agitation from temptations not to arise in a human soul. So then, as long as we sin in small and few ways, we are gently shaken, as plants are swayed by a soft breeze; but when the evils are more and greater, the agitation is naturally intensified in proportion to the increase of sins. And some are moved even more; others to the point of being overturned and cast down, uprooted, when the spiritual forces of wickedness, more violent than any tempest, tear away the very roots, as it were, of the soul, by which it was supported in the faith according to God. "I, therefore," he says, "was shaken as a man; but I shall not be moved any more, because I am supported by the right hand of the Savior." "How long will you assail a man? You all murder him, as a leaning wall and a broken fence." Again he fights against the wicked servants of the devil, the word accusing the immoderation of the plot brought on by them. For human beings are a weak creature; but you assail, not being content with the first attack, but you bring on a second and a third, until you so destroy the soul of the one who has fallen to you, that it becomes like a leaning wall and an overturned fence. For a wall, as long as it maintains an upright position, remains firm; but when it leans, it must necessarily collapse and fall. For unified weights are set upright after leaning, but things composed of many parts, when they suffer a single inclination, no longer admit of correction. The word therefore indicates that human nature, being composite, was indeed inclined by sin, and it must certainly be dissolved; so that, having been rebuilt again by the craftsman who constructed it from the beginning, the secure and indestructible and against a second fall

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ὑποταγεῖσα, πρὸς ὀργὰς καὶ λύπας διερεθίζηται, ἵνα τί, φησὶ, δούλην ποιοῦμαι πονηρῶν παθῶν τὴν ψυχὴν, παρὰ τοῦ κτίσαντος αὐ τὴν Θεοῦ τὴν ἡγεμονίαν τοῦ σώματος καὶ τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ παθημάτων πεπιστευμένην; ∆εῖ τοίνυν ἄρχειν μὲν τῶν παθῶν, δουλεύειν δὲ τῷ Θεῷ. Ἀμήχανον γὰρ αὐτὴν καὶ ὑπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας βασιλεύεσθαι, καὶ ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ· ἀλλὰ δεῖ κακίας μὲν ἐπικρατεῖν, τῷ ∆ε σπότῃ δὲ τῶν ὅλων ὑποτετάχθαι. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο ἀποτει νόμενος ὁ Προφήτης τῷ ἐπάγοντι τοὺς πειρασμοὺς, καὶ τὸν πολὺν ὄχλον αὐτῷ τῶν κακῶν ἐπεγεί ροντι, καὶ σπουδὴν ἔχοντι δουλαγωγῆσαι τὸ φρόνημα τοῦ πνεύματος, καὶ ὑποῤῥῖψαι αὐτὸ τῇ σαρκὶ, οἷον ἐλέγχων αὐτοῦ ματαίαν οὖσαν τὴν κατ' αὐτοῦ ἐπί νοιαν, ταῦτά φησι· Τί με βιάζῃ δουλεύειν οἷς μὴ θέμις; Ἔχω ∆εσπότην, γνωρίζω τὸν ἀληθῶς Βασιλέα. Οὐχὶ τῷ Θεῷ ὑποταγήσεται ἡ ψυχή μου; παρ' αὐτοῦ γὰρ τὸ σωτήριόν μου. Τὴν αἰτίαν εἶπε τῆς περὶ τὴν ὑποταγὴν σπουδῆς· ὅτι τὸ σωτήριον παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ. Ἴδιον γὰρ ∆ημιουργοῦ τὸ τῶν ἑαυτοῦ ποιημάτων τῆς ἀσφαλείας φροντίζειν. Ἢ, Παρ' αὐτοῦ τὸ σωτήριον· ἐπειδὴ προφητικῶς προορώμε νος τὴν μέλλουσαν ἔσεσθαι χάριν τῆς ἐνανθρωπήσεως τοῦ Κυρίου, ταῦτά φησιν· ὅτι δουλεύειν δεῖ τῷ Θεῷ, καὶ ἀγαπᾷν αὐτὸν, ὃς τηλικαύτην εὐεργεσίαν εἰς τὸ γένος τῶν ἀνθρώπων προκατεβάλετο, ὡς μηδὲ τοῦ ἰδίου Υἱοῦ φείσασθαι, ἀλλ' ὑπὲρ πάντων ἡμῶν παρα δοῦναι. Σωτήριον γὰρ ἔθος ὀνομάζειν τῇ Γραφῇ τὸν Χριστὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ· ὥς που καὶ Συμεών φησι· Νῦν ἀπολύεις τὸν δοῦλόν σου, ∆έσποτα· ὅτι εἶδον οἱ ὀφθαλμοί μου τὸ σωτήριόν σου. Ὑποταγησώ μεθα οὖν τῷ Θεῷ, διότι παρ' αὐτοῦ τὸ σωτήριον. Τί δέ ἐστι τὸ σωτήριον, ἑρμηνεύει. Οὐκ ἐνέργειά τις ψιλὴ, χάριν τινὰ ἡμῖν παρεχομένη εἰς ἀπαλ λαγὴν ἀσθενείας, καὶ σώματος εὐεξίαν. Ἀλλὰ τί ἐστι τὸ σωτήριον; Καὶ γὰρ αὐτὸς Θεός μου καὶ Σωτήρ μου, ἀντιλήπτωρ μου οὐ μὴ σα λευθῶ ἐπὶ πλεῖον. Θεὸς ἡμῶν ἐστιν ὁ ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ Υἱός. Ὁ αὐτὸς καὶ Σωτὴρ τοῦ γένους τῶν 29.473 ἀνθρώπων, ὁ τὸ ἀσθενὲς ἡμῶν ὑπερείδων, ὁ τὸν ἐκ τῶν πειρασμῶν ἐγγινόμενον ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἡμῶν σάλον ἐπανορθούμενος. Οὐ μὴ σαλευθῶ ἐπὶ πλεῖον· ἀνθρωπίνως ὁμολογεῖ τὸν σάλον. Ἐπὶ πλεῖον, Ἀμήχανον γὰρ ἐν ἀνθρώπου ψυχῇ μὴ γενέσθαι τινὰ σάλον ἀπὸ τῶν πειρασμῶν. Ἕως μὲν οὖν μι κρὰ ἁμαρτάνομεν καὶ ὀλίγα, ὥσπερ τὰ φυτὰ ὑπὸ πραείας αὔρας περιδονούμενοι, ἠρέμα πως σα λευόμεθα· ἐπειδὰν δὲ πλείω καὶ μείζονα ᾖ τὰ κακὰ, κατὰ τὴν ἀναλογίαν τῆς τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων αὐξήσεως καὶ ὁ σάλος ἐπιτείνεσθαι πέφυκε. Καὶ οἱ μὲν ἐπὶ πλεῖον σαλεύονται· οἱ δὲ μέχρι τοῦ καὶ αὐτόῤῥιζοι ἀνατραπέντες καταβληθῆναι, ὅταν λαίλαπος πάσης βιαιότερον τὰ πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας τὰς οἱονεὶ ῥίζας τῆς ψυχῆς, αἷς ἐπεστήρικτο τῇ πίστει τῇ κατὰ Θεὸν, ἀποῤῥήξῃ. Ἐγὼ τοίνυν, φησὶν, ἐσαλεύθην μὲν ὡς ἄνθρωπος· ἐπὶ πλεῖον δὲ οὐ μὴ σαλευθῶ, διὰ τὸ ἀντιστηρίζεσθαι τῇ δεξιᾷ χειρὶ τοῦ Σωτῆρος. Ἕως πότε ἐπιτίθεσθε ἐπ' ἄνθρωπον; φονεύετε πάντες ὑμεῖς, ὡς τοίχῳ κεκλιμένῳ καὶ φραγμῷ ὠσμένῳ; Πάλιν τοῖς πονηροῖς ὑπηρέταις τοῦ δια βόλου μάχεται, τὴν ἀμετρίαν αἰτιώμενος ὁ λόγος τῆς παρ' αὐτῶν ἐπαγομένης ἐπιβουλῆς. Ὅτι οἱ μὲν ἅν θρωποί εἰσι ζῶον ἀσθενές· ὑμεῖς δὲ ἐπιτίθεσθε, οὐκ ἀρκούμενοι τῇ πρώτῃ προσβολῇ· ἀλλὰ καὶ δευτέραν καὶ τρίτην ἐπάγετε, ἕως ἂν οὕτω τὴν ψυχὴν τοῦ πα ραπεσόντος ὑμῖν καταστρέψητε, ὥστε γενέσθαι παραπλησίαν τοίχῳ κλιθέντι καὶ φραγμῷ ἀνατραπέν τι. Τοῖχος δὲ, ἕως μὲν ὅτε τὴν ὀρθὴν διαφυλάσσει στά σιν, πάγιος μένει· ἐπειδὰν δὲ κλιθῇ, ἀνάγκη πᾶσα αὐτὸν διαλυθέντα πεσεῖν. Τὰ μὲν γὰρ ἡνωμένα βάρη μετὰ τὴν κλίσιν ὀρθοῦται, τὰ δὲ ἐκ πλειόνων συγκείμενα, ἐπειδὰν ἐφ' ἓν τὴν ῥοπὴν πάθῃ, οὐκέτι δέχεται τὴν ἐπανόρθωσιν. Ἐνδείκνυται τοίνυν ὁ λόγος, ὅτι ἡ φύσις ἡ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, σύνθετος οὖσα, ἐκλίθη μὲν ὑπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας, λυθῆναι δὲ πάντως αὐτὴν χρή· ὥστε, ὑπὸ τοῦ ἐξ ἀρχῆς οἰκοδομήσαντος αὐτὴν τεχνίτου πά λιν ἀνασκευασθεῖσαν, τὸ ἀσφαλὲς καὶ ἀκατάλυτον καὶ πρὸς δευτέραν πτῶσιν