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it will be active, thinking and reasoning according to its nature, and never ceasing from the intellectual powers naturally belonging to it. For the things that by nature belong to any being whatsoever, as long as it exists and subsists, happen to be inalienable. The soul, therefore, always existing from when it came to be, and subsisting through God who thus (437) created it, always both thinks and reasons and knows, both in itself and with a body, through itself and its own nature. Therefore, no argument will be found that is able to alienate the soul from what belongs to it naturally, and not through the body, after the latter’s dissolution. But if the soul is rational and intellectual because of the body, then, in the first place, the body is more honorable than the soul which came to be because of it. Secondly, it will also have its intellectual and rational faculty from it, as having come to be because of it. For if the soul is in no way able to think or reason without a body, then its ability to think and reason will certainly belong to it from the body. But if the soul possesses thinking and reasoning from the body, as being unable to have these things without it according to those who say so, it will certainly not be self-subsistent; For how can it be, if without a body it does not in itself possess its defining characteristic? But if it is not self-subsistent, it is clearly not a substance either. And not being a self-subsistent substance, it is an accident, existing only in the naturally subsisting body; and after its dissolution, it is able to be nothing at all; and for those who are so foolish, who have taken away the immortality of the soul, there will be nothing more than the futile labor of Epicurus and Aristotle, with whom, as is likely, these noble men are proud to be ranked. And before this, these things.

And as for what is said by them about the resurrection, who that cares for virtue and piety, on hearing it, will not procure for himself impassibility through passion, I mean, of indignation against them? For if, as they say, the body will be resurrected in the image of the present life, qualified unalterably by warring humors, and will be nourished in the terrible presence of God after the consummation of this world, I do not think they, through these things—to speak concisely, cutting short the many things that might be said—preach anything other than eternal death and unending corruption. For if death is the corruption of bodies so constituted, and the body constituted (440) by the influx of nourishment is always corrupting, being dissipated by the flow, because of the natural antipathy of the humors in it from which it is also constituted; then they are always announcing that death is preserved for all time, through the means by which they suppose the body is constituted after the resurrection. One must believe that the body itself is raised according to substance and form, but incorruptible and immortal, and, to speak apostolically, spiritual instead of natural; bearing none of the constitutive quality of its alterable corruption, as God knows, who will transform it to an impassible and honorable state; and one must not be overly curious about anything more.

Seeing the many rejoicing and taking pleasure in these things. I was made deaf, and was humbled, and I kept silent from good things; judging silence to be more profitable than speech for every prudent person; and I go about mourning to myself, and with a sad countenance; considering how much such arguments, being neglected, darting everywhere like sparks, will work the death of souls; and there is no one who is able, who is willing to defend the word in its peril, because of the prevailing wickedness of the time. For this reason I groan all the more at the separation from you, not having the nearby watch-care of your paternal holiness, which guards me and delivers me from harmful things, all-powerful, more often supporting my many stumblings with the word.

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ἐνεργήσει, νοοῦσα κατά φύσιν καί λογιζομένη, καί οὐδέποτε παυομένη τῶν φυσικῶς αὐτῇ προσουσῶν νοερῶν δυνάμεων. Τά γάρ φύσει τῷ ὁπωσοῦν ὄντι προσόντα, ἕως ἐστί καί ὑφέστηκεν, ἀναφαίρετα τυγχάνει. Ἡ ψυχή οὖν ἀεί τε οὖσα, ἀφ᾿ οὖ γέγονεν, καί ὑφισταμένη διά τόν οὕτως (437) αὐτήν δημιουργήσαντα Θεόν, ἀεί καί νοεῖ καί λογίζεται καί γινώσκει, καί καθ᾿ ἑαυτήν, καί μετά σώματος, δι᾿ ἑαυτήν καί τήν ἑαυτῆς φύσιν. Οὐδείς οὖν εὑρεθήσεται λόγος, ὁ τήν ψυχήν τῶν προσόντων αὐτῇ φυσικῶς, καί οὐ διά τό σῶμα, μετά τήν τούτου λύσιν ἀλλοτριῶσαι δυνάμενος. Εἰ δέ διά τό σῶμα λογική τε καί νοερά ἐστιν ἡ ψυχή, πρῶτον μέν, τιμιώτερον τῆς δι᾿ αὐτό γενομένης ψυχῆς ἔστι τό σῶμα. Ἐπειτα δέ, καί ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἕξει τό τε νοερόν καί λογικόν, ὡς δι᾿ αὐτό γενομένη. Εἰ γάρ σώματος χωρίς, οὐδαμῶς νοεῖν ἤ λογίζεσθαι δύναται ἡ ψυχή, ἐξ αὐτοῦ πάντως τό νοεῖν αὐτῇ καί λογίζεσθαι προσέσται. Εἰ δέ τό νοεῖν καί λογίζεσθαι ἐκ τοῦ σώματος κέκτηται ἡ ψυχή, ὡς αὐτοῦ χωρίς ταῦτα ἔχειν μή δυναμένη κατά τούς λέγοντας, οὐδέ αὐθυπόστατος ἔσται πάντως· Πῶς γάρ ἡ ἄνευ σώματος καθ᾿ ἑαυτήν τό χαρακτηρίζον οὐκ ἔχουσα; Εἰ δέ αὐθυπόστατος οὐκ ἔστιν, οὐδέ οὐσία ἐστί δηλονότι. Οὐσία δέ αὐθυπόστατος μή οὖσα, συμβεβηκός ἔστι, φυσικῶς μόνον ὑφισταμένῳ τῷ σώματι ἐνυπάρχουσα· μετά δέ τήν αὐτοῦ λύσιν, οὐδέν οὐδαμῶς εἶναι δυναμένη· καί οὐδέ ἔσται πλέον τοῖς τοσοῦτον ἀνοηταίνουσι, τήν ἀθανασίαν τῆς ψυχῆς ἀφῃρημένοις, τῆς Ἐπικούρου καί Ἀριστοτέλους ματαιοπονίας, οἷς, ὡς εἰκός, οἱ γεννάδαι, καί σεμνύνονται συντασσόμενοι. Καί πρίν μέν τούτου, ταῦτα.

Τοῦ δέ περί ἀναστάσεως παρ᾿ αὐτῶν λεγομένου, τίς ἀρετῆς καί εὐσεβείας ἐπιμελούμενος ἀκούων, οὐχί τό ἀπαθές ἑαυτῷ διά πάθους, τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτῶν ἀγανακτήσεως λέγω, πειριποιήσεται; Εἰ γάρ, ὡς φασι, κατά τήν εἰκόνα τῆς παρούσης ζωῆς, ἀπαραλλάκτως τοῖς μαχομένοις χυμοῖς πεποιωμένον ἀναστήσεται τό σῶμα, καί τραφήσεται ἐν τῇ φοβερᾷ τοῦ Θεοῦ παρουσίᾳ μετά τήν τοῦ κόσμου τούτου συντέλειαν, οὐκ οἶμαι ἄλλο τι αὐτούς διά τούτων, ἵνα συνελών εἴπω, τά πολλά περικόψας ὅσα ῥηθῆναι ἐνδέχεται, ἤ ἀΐδιον τόν θάνατον πρεσβεύειν, καί τήν φθοράν ἀτελεύτητον. Εἰ γάρ φθορά τῶν οὕτω συνισταμένων ὑπάρχει ὁ θάνατος σωμάτων, ἀεί δέ τό (440) δι᾿ ἐπιῤῥοῆς τροφῶν συνιστάμενον φθείρεται σῶμα, τῇ ῥοῇ διαπνεόμενον, διά τήν τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ χυμῶν, ἐξ ὧν καί συνέστηκε, φυσικήν ἀντιπάθειαν· ἀεί ἄρα, δι᾿ ὧν μετά τήν ἀνάστασιν τό σῶμα συνίστασθαι ὑποτίθενται, συντηρούμενον εἰς τό διηνεκές τόν θάνατον καταγγέλλουσι. ∆έον πιστεύειν, αὐτό μέν ἀνίστασθαι κατ᾿ οὐσίαν καί εἶδος τό σῶμα, ἄφθαρτον δέ καί ἀθάνατον, καί ἀποστολικῶς εἰπεῖν, ἀντί ψυχικοῦ πνευματικόν· τῷ μηδέν φέρειν τῆς ἀλλοιωτῆς αὐτοῦ κατά τήν φθοράν συστατικῆς ἰδότητος, ὡς οἶδεν ὁ πρός τό ἀπαθές, καί τίμιον αὐτό μετακεράσων ὁ Θεός· καί μηδέν πλέον περιεργάζεσθαι.

Τούτοις χαίροντας καί ἡδομένους ὁρῶν τούς πολλούς. Ἐκωφώθην, καί ἐταπεινώθην, καί ἐσίγησα ἐξ ἀγαθῶν· λυσιτελεστέραν τοῦ λόγου τήν σιωπήν παντί συνετῷ εἶναι κρίνας· καί κατ᾿ ἐμαυτόν πενθῶν, καί σκυθρωπάζων πορεύομαι· λογιζόμενος πόσον οἱ τοιοῦτοι λόγοι ἀμελούμενοι, πανταχοῦ σπινθήρων δίκην διᾴττοντες, ψυχῶν ἐργάσονται θάνατον· καί οὐδείς ἐστιν ὁ ἐπαμῦναι τῷ λόγῳ δυνάμενος, βουλόμενος κινδυνεύοντι, διά τήν ἐπικρατοῦσαν τοῦ καιροῦ πονηρίαν. ∆ιό καί μᾶλλον στένω, τόν ἀφ᾿ ὑμῶν χωρισμόν, τήν ἐγγύθεν φρουροῦσάν με καί ἐξαιρουμένην τῶν βλαβερῶν πανσθενῆ τῆς ὑμῶν πατρικῆς ἁγιωσύνης ἐπισκοπήν οὐκ ἔχων, συχνότερον τῷ λόγῳ τά πολλά μου ἐρείδουσαν ὀλισθήματα.