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an accident, but when all things are summed up under one account, that from the will of God, nowhere indeed will the argument concerning fate 6.6.47 have a place. And we might find discovered the source of evil, which is a puzzle to the many, having a place in none of the things according to nature, neither in bodies nor in substances, much less in the things that happen accidentally from without; but it would be found only in the self-chosen motion of the soul, and in this, not when, proceeding according to nature, it travels the straight path, but when, having departed from the royal way, by its own judgment it turns to what is contrary to nature, having established itself as its own 6.6.48 master. Since, having received this special gift from God, it happens to be free and self-ruling, having taken upon itself the judgment of its own impulse; but a divine law, joined with it by nature, in the manner of a lamp and a luminary, cries out from within, sounding in it and saying: “You shall go by the royal way, you shall not turn aside to the right or to the left,” teaching that the royal way is the one according to right 6.6.49 reason. For the creator of all established this natural law for every soul as a helper and ally to it in things to be done, having shown it the straight path through the law, and through the freedom of will gifted to it he declared the choice of better things worthy of praise and acceptance and of rewards and greater prizes for right actions, because it acted rightly not by compulsion, but by free will, when it was possible to choose the opposite; just as conversely, the one that chose the worst things is worthy of blame and punishment, inasmuch as by its own motion it neglected the law according to nature, and generated the beginning and source of evil, and used itself badly not from any external necessity, but from free 6.6.50 will and judgment. The fault, then, is with the one who chooses, God is blameless. For God did not make an evil nature, nor indeed the substance of a soul; for it is right for the good to create nothing but good things; and everything that is according to nature is good; and to every rational soul the good of free will is present by nature, and this has come into being for the choice 6.6.51 of good things. But when it acts badly, its nature is not to be blamed; for evil comes to it not according to nature, but contrary to nature, being the work of choice and not of nature; for to one who had the power of choosing the good, when he did not choose this, but willingly turned away from the better, having changed to the worse, what place of escape could be left for him, having become the cause of his own sickness and having neglected the innate law, a savior and physician as it 6.6.52 were? He who takes no account of all these things and attributes all things to necessity and the motion of the stars, and asserts that the causes of the absurdity of men's sins are not from us, but from the power that moves all 6.6.53 things, how would he not introduce an unholy and impious reasoning? For if he were to suppose the motion of the universe to be automatic and without providence, he would be convicted at once of being an atheist, in addition to being blind to the all-wise harmony and the arrangement of all things, recycling its motion well and in order through the age; or if he will confess that the providence of God leads and carries, and presides over all things, and governs with all-wise reason, not even so has he escaped the absurdity of impiety, since concerning the sins among men he absolves those who sin, as having committed none of the absurdities by their own will, but he refers the cause of evils to the universal providence, calling it Necessity and Fate and saying that it is the cause of all shameful and unutterable deeds among men, and of cruelty 6.6.54 and murder. And who could be more impious than this man, introducing the God of all things, the very maker and creator of this universe, as compelling by necessity this man, unwilling to be impious, to do this, and to be an atheist by necessity and a blasphemer against himself, and this man, whom he himself constituted male by nature, to suffer unnaturally the things of women, not according to choice, but compelled by him, and another to become a murderer not according to his own will, but by necessity

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συμβεβηκός, πάντων δὲ ἐφ' ἕνα λόγον τὸν ἐκ θεοῦ βουλῆς ἀνακεφαλαιουμένων, οὐδαμοῦ μὲν ὁ περὶ εἱμαρμένης 6.6.47 χώραν ἕξει λόγος. γένοιτο δ' ἂν ἡμῖν εὑρημένη καὶ ἡ παρὰ τοῖς πολλοῖς ἀπορουμένη τῆς κακίας πηγή, ἐν οὐδενὶ μὲν χώραν ἔχουσα τῶν κατὰ φύσιν, οὔτ' ἐν σώμασιν οὔτ' ἐν οὐσίαις, πολλοῦ δεῖ ἐν τοῖς κατὰ συμβεβηκὸς ἔξωθεν ἐπιγινομένοις· εὑρεθείη δ' ἂν ἐν μόνῃ τῇ τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοπροαιρέτῳ κινήσει, καὶ ἐν ταύτῃ οὐχ ὅτε κατὰ φύσιν βαδίζουσα τὴν εὐθεῖαν ὁδεύει, ἀλλ' ὅτε τῆς βασιλικῆς ἐκστᾶσα οἰκείᾳ γνώμῃ τὴν παρὰ φύσιν τρέπεται, αὐτὴ ἑαυτῆς καθεστῶσα 6.6.48 κυρία. ἐπειδὴ τοῦτο γέρας ἐξαίρετον παρὰ θεοῦ λαβοῦσα ἐλευθέρα καὶ αὐτοκράτωρ τυγχάνει, τῆς οἰκείας ὁρμῆς τὸ κριτήριον εἰς ἑαυτὴν ἀναδεδεγμένη· νόμος δὲ θεῖος αὐτῇ συνεζευγμένος κατὰ φύσιν, λαμπτῆρος καὶ φωστῆρος δίκην, ἐπιφωνεῖ ἔνδοθεν ὑπηχῶν αὐτῇ καὶ λέγων· «Ὁδῷ βασιλικῇ πορεύσῃ, οὐκ ἐκκλινεῖς δεξιὰ οὐδὲ ἀριστερά», βασιλικὴν τὴν κατὰ τὸν ὀρθὸν 6.6.49 λόγον πορείαν εἶναι διδάσκων. τοῦτον γὰρ ἁπάσῃ ψυχῇ φυσικὸν νόμον βοηθὸν αὐτῇ καὶ σύμμαχον ἐπὶ τῶν πρακτέων ὁ τῶν ὅλων δημιουργὸς ὑπεστήσατο, διὰ μὲν τοῦ νόμου τὴν εὐθεῖαν αὐτῇ παραδείξας ὁδόν, διὰ δὲ τῆς αὐτῇ δεδωρημένης αὐτεξουσίου ἐλευθερίας τὴν τῶν κρειττόνων αἵρεσιν ἐπαίνου καὶ ἀποδοχῆς ἀξίαν ἀποφήνας γερῶν τε καὶ μειζόνων ἐπάθλων τῶν ἐπὶ τοῖς κατορθουμένοις, ὅτι μὴ βεβιασμένως, γνώμῃ δὲ αὐτεξουσίῳ κατώρθου, παρὸν καὶ τὴν ἐναντίαν ἑλέσθαι· ὡς ἔμπαλιν τὴν τὰ χείριστα ἑλομένην ψόγου καὶ τιμωρίας εἶναι ἀξίαν, ἅτε οἰκείᾳ κινήσει τοῦ μὲν κατὰ φύσιν νόμου παραμελήσασαν, κακίας δὲ ἀρχὴν καὶ πηγὴν ἀπογεννήσασαν φαύλως τε ἑαυτῇ κεχρημένην οὐκ ἔκ τινος ἔξωθεν ἀνάγκης, ἀλλ' ἐξ ἐλευθέρας 6.6.50 γνώμης τε καὶ κρίσεως. αἰτία δὴ τοῦ ἑλομένου, θεὸς ἀναίτιος. οὔτε γὰρ φύσιν φαύλην ὁ θεὸς εἰργάσατο οὐδέ γε ψυχῆς οὐσίαν· ἀγαθῷ γὰρ οὐδὲν πλὴν ἀγαθὰ δημιουργεῖν θέμις· ἀγαθὸν δὲ πᾶν ὅ τι κατὰ φύσιν· ψυχῇ δὲ πάσῃ λογικῇ κατὰ φύσιν πάρεστι τὸ αὐτεξούσιον ἀγαθόν, καὶ τοῦτο ἐπ' 6.6.51 ἀγαθῶν αἱρέσει γεγενημένον. φαύλως δὲ ὅτε πράττει, οὐ τὴν φύσιν αἰτιατέον· οὐ γὰρ κατὰ φύσιν, παρὰ φύσιν δὲ αὐτῇ γίνεται τὸ φαῦλον, προαιρέσεως ὂν ἀλλ' οὐ φύσεως ἔργον· ᾧ γὰρ παρῆν δύναμις τῆς τἀγαθοῦ αἱρέσεως, ὅτε μὴ τοῦτο εἵλετο, ἑκὼν δὲ τὸ κρεῖττον ἀπεστράφη τοῦ χείρονος μεταποιηθείς, τίς ἂν τούτῳ τόπος ἀποφυγῆς λείποιτο τῆς οἰκείας αἰτίῳ καταστάντι νόσου τοῦ τε συμφύτου νόμου σωτῆρος οἷα καὶ ἰατροῦ παραμελή6.6.52 σαντι; ὁ δὴ τούτων ἁπάντων μηδένα λόγον ποιούμενος ἀνάγκης τε καὶ ἄστρων φορᾶς ἀναρτῶν τὰ πάντα τῆς τε τῶν πλημμελουμένων ἀνθρώποις ἀτοπίας μὴ ἐξ ἡμῶν εἶναι φάσκων τὰ αἴτια, ἀλλ' ἐκ τῆς τὰ πάντα κινούσης δυνά6.6.53 μεως, πῶς οὐκ ἀνόσιον καὶ δυσσεβῆ λογισμὸν εἰσφέροι ἄν; εἴτε γὰρ αὐτόματον καὶ ἀπρονόητον θείη τὴν τοῦ παντὸς φοράν, ἐλέγχοιτ' ἂν ὢν αὐτόθεν ἄθεος, πρὸς τῷ καὶ ἀβλεπτεῖν περὶ τὴν πάνσοφον ἁρμονίαν καὶ τὴν τῶν ὅλων διάταξιν εὖ καὶ ἐν κόσμῳ τὴν δι' αἰῶνος κίνησιν ἀνακυκλουμένην· εἴτε θεοῦ πρόνοιαν ἄγειν καὶ φέρειν ἐπιστατεῖν τε τοῖς πᾶσι καὶ πανσόφῳ λόγῳ διοικεῖν ὁμολογήσει, οὐδ' οὕτω τοῦ δυσσεβοῦς ἐκπέφευγε τὴν ἀτοπίαν, ἐπειδὴ τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις ἁμαρτανομένων τοὺς μὲν πλημμελοῦντας ἀπολύει, ὡς μηδὲν τῶν ἀτόπων ἐξ οἰκείας γνώμης διαπεπραγμένους, ἀνάγει δὲ τὴν αἰτίαν τῶν κακῶν ἐπὶ τὴν καθόλου πρόνοιαν, Ἀνάγκην αὐτὴν καὶ Εἱμαρμένην ἀποκαλῶν καὶ πάσης τῆς ἐν ἀνθρώποις αἰσχρουργίας καὶ ἀρρητοποιίας ὠμότη6.6.54 τός τε καὶ μιαιφονίας αἰτίαν εἶναι λέγων. καὶ τίς ἂν εἴη τούτου δυσσεβὴς ἄλλος, τὸν τῶν ὅλων θεόν, αὐτὸν δὴ τὸν ποιητὴν καὶ δημιουργὸν τοῦδε τοῦ παντός, εἰσάγων ἐπάναγκες ἐκβιαζόμενον τόνδε μὲν οὐκ ἐθέλοντα ἀσεβεῖν τοῦτο πράττειν καὶ ἄθεον εἶναι κατ' ἀνάγκην καὶ εἰς ἑαυτὸν βλάσφημον, τόνδε δέ, ὃν αὐτὸς τὴν φύσιν ἄρρενα συνεστήσατο, πάσχειν παρὰ φύσιν τὰ θηλειῶν οὐ κατὰ προαίρεσιν, κατηναγκασμένον δὲ πρὸς αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἄλλον ἀνδροφόνον γίνεσθαι μὴ παρὰ τὴν οἰκείαν γνώμην, ὑπ' ἀνάγκης δὲ