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of such words, the discourse teaching us this, that through our own idioms the providence of God mingles with our weakness, so that both those who are inclined to sin might, through fear of punishment, restrain themselves from evil, and those who have been overtaken might not despair of the return from repentance, looking to mercy, and those who live their life uprightly through a precise manner of living might exult more in their virtues, as delighting by their own life the one who becomes the overseer of good things. 2.1.421 And just as it is not possible to call deaf the one who communicates with a deaf person through signs in the way he is naturally able to understand, so too one should not think of human speech with regard to God, since he used it for humans according to his economy. For we too are accustomed to direct irrational animals by clucking and clicking and whistling, but this is not the speech for us by which we reach the hearing of irrational animals, but among ourselves we use our natural speech, while for irrational animals the suitable noise and the particular sound by its form has sufficed for the need. 2.1.422 But this pious man does not want God to use our things because of our inclination to evil, the dear man being ignorant that for our sake He did not refrain from becoming even a curse and sin. So much philanthropy abounds in Him that He came voluntarily to the experience not only of our good things, but also of our evil things. And he who accepted fellowship with evil things, how would he have hesitated to partake of the most beautiful of our things, I mean 2.1.423 speech? But he puts forward David in his defense and says 20that he says names were given to things by God because it is written in this way: He who numbers the multitude of stars and calls them all by name.20 But I think it is manifest to everyone who has a mind that the argument about these things has no connection with the matter at hand. But since it is likely that some assent to the argument without examination, 2.1.424 we will discuss these things briefly. Holy Scripture often knows how to attribute such expressions to God, so that they seem in no way discordant with our own, such as "The Lord was angered in his wrath," and "He repented of their wickedness," and "He regretted anointing Saul as king," and "The Lord awoke as one sleeping," and in addition to these it relates sitting and standing and moving and many such things, which by nature are not about God, but for the economy of those 2.1.425 being taught are not without use. For the indication of wrath restrains the more dissolute by fear, and for those needing the medicine of repentance it says the Lord repents along with them of their wickedness; and to those again who in some prosperity are carried away to insolence, it shows beforehand through the regret over Saul that prosperity does not remain with them, even if such a thing seems to be from God; and for those not sunk deep in the fall of sin, but who, as if from some sleep of a vain life, arise, it says that God rises with them and awakens with them; and that he stands with those who stand unswervingly in the good, and sits with those established in the good, and on the other hand that he moves and walks about among those who have been moved 2.1.426 from their stability in the good; as in the case of Adam the history relates, depicting God walking in the evening in paradise, signifying by the evening the first-formed man's inclination toward dark things, and by the movement the man's lack of firmness and instability concerning the good. 2.1.427 But these things will perhaps seem to many to be far from the theory proposed by us, but no one would say that the following is discordant with the subject at hand: that many believe what is incomprehensible to themselves is also incomprehensible to God, and whatever escapes their own understanding, they think this is also 2.1.428 beyond the divine power. Since, therefore, we have made number the measure of quantity, and number is nothing other than a composition of units, the unit being increased into a multitude in various ways (for ten is also a unit, being completed to this by a composition of units, again a hundred is a unit composed of tens, likewise a thousand is another unit and a myriad similarly

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τοιούτων ῥημά των τοῦτο τοῦ λόγου ἡμᾶς παιδεύοντος, ὅτι διὰ τῶν ἡμετέ ρων ἰδιωμάτων ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ πρόνοια τῇ ἀσθενείᾳ ἡμῶν ἐπιμίγνυται, ὡς ἂν οἵ τε πρὸς ἁμαρτίαν ῥέποντες φόβῳ τῆς τιμωρίας ἑαυτοὺς τῶν κακῶν ἀνέχοιεν οἵ τε προειλημ μένοι μὴ ἀπογινώσκοιεν τὴν ἐκ μεταμελείας ἐπάνοδον πρὸς τὸν ἔλεον βλέποντες, καὶ οἱ δι' ἀκριβοῦς πολιτείας κατορ θοῦντες τὸν βίον μᾶλλον ταῖς ἀρεταῖς ἐπαγάλλοιντο, ὡς εὐφραίνοντες τῷ ἰδίῳ βίῳ τὸν τῶν ἀγαθῶν γινόμενον ἔφορον. 2.1.421 ὥσπερ δὲ οὐκ ἔστι κωφὸν ὀνομάσαι τὸν διὰ σχημάτων τῷ κωφῷ καθὼς ἐπαΐειν πέφυκεν ὁμιλοῦντα, οὕτως οὐδὲ ἀν θρώπινον λόγον περὶ τὸν θεὸν οἰηθῆναι, ἐπειδὴ πρὸς ἀν θρώπους αὐτῷ κατ' οἰκονομίαν ἐχρήσατο. καὶ γὰρ ἡμεῖς κλωγμῷ καὶ ποππυσμῷ καὶ συρίγματι τὰ ἄλογα διευθύνειν εἰώθαμεν, ἀλλ' οὐ τοῦτο ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος ἐστὶν ᾧ τῆς τῶν ἀλόγων ἀκοῆς καθικνούμεθα, ἀλλὰ πρὸς μὲν ἡμᾶς αὐτοὺς τῇ φύσει κεχρήμεθα, τοῖς δὲ ἀλόγοις ὁ κατάλληλος ψόφος καὶ ὁ ποιὸς διὰ τοῦ σχήματος ἦχος πρὸς τὴν χρείαν ἐξήρ κεσεν. 2.1.422 Ἀλλ' οὐ βούλεται τοῖς ἡμετέροις ὁ εὐλαβὴς οὗτος τὸν θεὸν κεχρῆσθαι διὰ τὴν πρὸς κακίαν ἡμῶν ῥοπήν, ἀγνοῶν ὁ φίλτα τος ὅτι δι' ἡμᾶς οὐδὲ κατάρα καὶ ἁμαρτία γενέσθαι ἀπέσχετο. τοσοῦτον αὐτῷ περίεστι τῆς φιλανθρωπίας ὡς οὐχὶ τῶν ἀγαθῶν μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν κακῶν τῶν ἡμετέρων ἑκουσίως εἰς πεῖραν ἐλθεῖν. ὁ δὲ τῶν κακῶν τὴν κοινωνίαν καταδεξά μενος πῶς ἂν τοῦ καλλίστου τῶν ἡμετέρων, φημὶ δὲ τοῦ 2.1.423 λόγου, τὴν μετουσίαν ὤκνησεν; ἀλλὰ τὸν ∆αβὶδ εἰς συνηγορίαν προβάλλεται καί φησιν 20ἐκεῖνον λέγειν παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ τοῖς πράγμασι τὰ ὀνόματα τεθεῖσθαι διὰ τὸ γεγράφθαι τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον· Ὁ ἀριθμῶν πλήθη ἄστρων καὶ πᾶσιν αὐτοῖς ὀνόματα καλῶν20. ἐγὼ δὲ πρόδηλον μὲν ἡγοῦμαι παντὶ τῷ νοῦν ἔχοντι τὸν περὶ τούτων λόγον ὡς οὐδεμίαν ἔχει κοινωνίαν πρὸς τὸ προκείμενον. ἐπειδὴ δέ τινας εἰκὸς ἀνεπισκέπτως τῷ λόγῳ προστίθεσθαι, 2.1.424 βραχέα περὶ τούτων διαληψόμεθα. οἶδε πολλάκις ἡ θεία γραφὴ τοιαύτας τῷ θεῷ περιτιθέναι φωνάς, ὡς μηδὲν ἀπᾴδειν αὐτὰς τῶν ἡμετέρων δοκεῖν οἷον τὸ Ὠργίσθη θυμῷ κύριος καὶ Μετενόησεν ἐπὶ τῇ κακίᾳ αὐτῶν καὶ Μετεμελήθη χρίσας τὸν Σαοὺλ εἰς βασιλέα καὶ Ἐξη-γέρθη ὡς ὁ ὑπνῶν κύριος, καὶ ἔτι πρὸς τούτοις καθέδραν καὶ στάσιν καὶ κίνησιν καὶ πολλὰ τοιοῦτα διέξεισιν, ἃ φύσει μὲν περὶ τὸν θεὸν οὐκ ἔστι, πρὸς δὲ τὴν οἰκονομίαν τῶν 2.1.425 παιδευομένων οὐκ ἀχρήστως ἔχει. τούς τε γὰρ ἐκλυτω τέρους ἡ τῆς ὀργῆς ἔνδειξις συστέλλει τῷ φόβῳ καὶ τοῖς δεομένοις τοῦ τῆς μετανοίας φαρμάκου συμμετανοεῖν ἐπὶ τῇ κακίᾳ λέγει τὸν κύριον, τοῖς δ' αὖ ἐν εὐπραγίαις τισὶ πρὸς ὕβριν ἐκφερομένοις τὸ μὴ παραμένειν αὐτοῖς τὴν εὐημερίαν, κἂν ἐκ θεοῦ τὸ τοιοῦτον εἶναι δοκῇ, διὰ τῆς ἐπὶ τοῦ Σαοὺλ μεταμελείας προδείκνυσι, τοῖς τε μὴ ἐμβαθύνουσι τῷ πτώ ματι τῆς ἁμαρτίας, ἀλλὰ καθάπερ ἐξ ὕπνου τινὸς τοῦ μα ταίου βίου διαναστᾶσι συνανίστασθαι τὸν θεὸν καὶ συναφ υπνίζεσθαι λέγει, ἑστάναι δὲ τοῖς ἀκλινῶς ἐπὶ τοῦ καλοῦ βεβηκόσι, καὶ καθέζεσθαι τοῖς ἐν τῷ καλῷ καθιδρυμένοις, κινεῖσθαι δ' αὖ πάλιν καὶ περιπατεῖν ἐπὶ τῶν μετακινηθέν 2.1.426 των ἀπὸ τῆς ἐν τῷ καλῷ παγιότητος· ὡς ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἀδὰμ ἡ ἱστορία διέξεισι περιπατοῦντα τὸ δειλινὸν ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ τὸν θεὸν διαγράφουσα, τῷ μὲν δειλινῷ τὴν πρὸς τὰ σκοτεινὰ τοῦ πρωτοπλάστου ῥοπὴν διασημαίνουσα, τῇ δὲ κινήσει τὸ ἀπαγὲς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου περὶ τὸ καλὸν καὶ τὸ ἄστατον. 2.1.427 Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν τοῖς πολλοῖς πόρρωθεν ἴσως ὡς πρὸς τὴν προτεθεῖσαν ἡμῖν θεωρίαν εἶναι δόξει, ἐκεῖνο δὲ οὐκ ἄν τις ἀπᾴδειν εἴποι τοῦ προκειμένου, ὅτι πολλοὶ τὸ ἑαυτοῖς ἄληπτον οὐδὲ θεῷ ληπτὸν εἶναι νομίζουσιν, καὶ ὅπερ ἂν ἐκφύγῃ τὴν ἑαυτῶν κατανόησιν, περισσότερον εἶναι 2.1.428 τοῦτο καὶ τῆς θείας δυνάμεως οἴονται. ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν τοῦ ποσοῦ μέτρον ἡμεῖς τὸν ἀριθμὸν πεποιήμεθα, ὁ δὲ ἀριθμὸς οὐδὲν ἕτερον ἢ σύνθεσις μονάδων ἐστί, ποικίλως τῆς μο νάδος εἰς πλῆθος ἐπαυξομένης (μονὰς γὰρ καὶ ἡ δεκὰς κατὰ σύνθεσιν μονάδων πρὸς τοῦτο περαινομένη, μονὰς πάλιν ἡ ἑκατοντὰς ἐκ δεκάδων συντιθεμένη, ὡσαύτως καὶ ἡ χιλιὰς ἄλλη μονὰς καὶ ἡ μυριὰς ὁμοίως