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is saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? " What is the meaning of, "The time for judgment to begin from the house of God;" And, "If the righteous one is scarcely saved?"

Response. God, who created the nature of men, did not create along with it, according to sensation, either pleasure or pain; but He devised for it a certain capacity for pleasure in the mind, by which it would be able to enjoy Him ineffably. But this capacity (I mean the natural desire of the mind for God), the first man, upon coming into being, gave to sensation, and through the medium of sensation in its first movement toward sensible things, he possessed pleasure operating contrary to nature; to which, by providence, He who cares for our salvation attached, as it were, a certain avenging power, pain; through which the law of death was wisely rooted in the nature of the body, restraining the desire of the mind, which moves unnaturally with madness toward sensible things.

Hence, because of the pleasure that entered nature contrary to reason, pain entered in its place according to reason, through many sufferings, in which and from which is death, effecting the removal of pleasure contrary to nature; but not, however, its complete annihilation; by which the grace of divine pleasure according to the mind is naturally shown. For all pain, having as the cause of its own generation a preceding pleasure in act, is a debt, that is, paid naturally according to cause by all who have partaken of nature. For pleasure contrary to nature is always naturally followed by pain; in all those whose generation the law of pleasure has preceded without cause. And I call the pleasure from the transgression "without cause," as clearly not having become the successor of preceding pain.

Therefore, since after the transgression all men had pleasure naturally preceding their own generation, and there was absolutely no one who was naturally free from impassioned generation according to pleasure; but all, as a debt, naturally paid pains, and endured the death upon them; and the way of freedom was altogether impossible, for those tyrannized by unjust pleasure, and naturally subject to just pains and the most just death upon them. It was necessary, then, for the abolition of the most unjust pleasure and of the most just pains on account of it; by which man, suffering, was pitiably torn apart, having the beginning of his generation from the corruption of pleasure, and ending the end of life in the corruption through death [Fr. καταλήγων]; and for the restoration of the suffering nature, for a pain and death to be devised, at once unjust and without cause; without cause, because it in no way had a preceding pleasure (629) at its generation, and unjust, because it was in no way the successor of any impassioned life; so that, being taken as a mean between unjust pleasure and most just pain and death, a most unjust pain and death might completely abolish the most unjust beginning from pleasure, and the most just end of nature through death on account of it; and the race of men might again become free of pleasure and pain, with nature having recovered its original good estate, not being defiled by any of the characteristics inherent in things subject to generation and corruption.

For this reason the Logos of God, being perfect God by nature, becomes a perfect man from a rational soul and a naturally passible body, constituted in a like manner to us, apart from sin alone; having in no way at all the pleasure from disobedience preceding his birth in time from a woman; but the pain on account of it, which is the end of nature, He voluntarily accepted out of love for mankind; so that by suffering unjustly He might abolish that which is from unjust pleasure

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σώζεται, ὁ ἀσεβής καί ἁμαρτωλός ποῦ φανεῖται; " Τί ἐστι τό, "Καιρός τοῦ ἄρξασθαι τό κρίμα ἐκ τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ Θεοῦ· " Καί τό, "Εἰ ὁ δίκαιος μόλις σώζεται;"

Ἀπόκρισις. Ὁ τήν φύσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων δημιουργήσας Θεός, οὐ συνέκτισεν αὐτῇ κατά τήν

αἴσθησιν οὔτε ἡδονήν οὔτε ὀδύνην· ἀλλά δύναμίν τινα κατά νοῦν αὐτῇ πρός ἡδονήν, καθ᾿ ἥν ἀποῤῥήτως ἀπολαύειν αὐτοῦ δυνήσεται, ἐτεκτῄνατο. Ταύτην δέ τήν δύναμιν (λέγω δέ τήν κατά φύσιν τοῦ νοῦ πρός τόν Θεόν ἔφεσιν)· ἅμα τῷ γενέσθαι τῇ αἰσθήσει δούς ὁ πρῶτος ἄνθρωπος, πρός τά αἰσθητά κατ᾿ αὐτήν τήν πρώτην κίνησιν διά μέσης τῆς αἰσθήσεως ἔσχε παρά φύσιν ἐνεργουμένην τήν ἡδονήν· ᾗ τινι κατά πρόνοιαν ὁ τῆς ἡμῶν σωτηρίας κηδόμενος, παρέπηξεν ὥσπερ τινά τιμωρόν δύναμιν, τήν ὀδύνην· καθ᾿ ἥν ὁ τοῦ θανάτου μετά σοφίας ἐνεῤῥιζώθη τῇ τοῦ σώματος φύσει νόμος, περιορίζων τῆς τοῦ νοῦ μανίας παρά φύσιν ἐπί τά αἰσθητά κινουμένην τήν ἔφεσιν.

Ἐντεῦθεν διά τήν ἐπεισελθοῦσαν τῇ φύσει παρά λόγον ἡδονήν, ἡ κατά λόγον ἀντεισῆλθεν ὀδύνη, διά πολλῶν παθημάτων, ἐν οἷς καί ἐξ ὧν ὁ θάνατος, ποιουμένη τῆς παρά φύσιν ἡδονῆς τήν ἀφαίρεσιν· οὐ μήν δέ, καί τελείαν ἀναίρεσιν· καθ᾿ ἥν ἡ κατά νοῦν τῆς θείας ἡδονῆς δείκνυσθαι πέφυκε χάρις. Πᾶς γάρ πόνος, ὡς αἰτίαν τῆς ἰδίας γενέσεως ἔχων κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν προηγουμένην τήν ἡδονήν, χρέος ἐστί δηλαδή φυσικῶς κατ᾿ αἰτίαν παρά πάντων τῶν μετειληφότων τῆς φύσεως ἐκτιννύμενον. Τῇ γάρ παρά φύσιν ἡδονῇ, πάντως παρέπεται φυσικῶς ὁ πόνος· ἐν πᾶσιν, ὧν ὁ τῆς ἡδονῆς νόμος ἀναιτίως προκαθηγήσατο τῆς γενέσεως. Ἀναίτιον δέ φημι τήν ἐκ τῆς παραβάσεως ἡδονήν, ὡς μή γενομένην δηλονότι προλαβόντος πόνου διάδοχον.

Οὐκοῦν ἐπειδή μετά τήν παράβασιν πάντες οἱ ἄνθρωποι τήν ἡδονήν εἶχον τῆς ἰδίας φυσικῶς προκαθηγουμένην γενέσεως, καί οὐδείς ἦν τό σύνολον ὁ τῆς καθ᾿ ἡδονήν ἐμπαθοῦς γενέσεως φυσικῶς ὑπάρχων ἐλεύθερος· ἀλλ᾿ ὡς χρέος πάντες φυσικῶς ἀποδιδόντες τούς πόνους, καί τόν ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς ὑπέμενον θάνατον· καί ἦν ἄπορος παντάπασι τῆς ἐλευθερίας τρόπος, τοῖς ὑπό τῆς ἀδίκου τυραννουμένοις ἡδονῆς, καί ὑπό τῶν δικαίων πόνων, καί τοῦ ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς δικαιοτάτου θανάτου φυσικῶς ἐνεχομένοις. Ἔδει δέ πρός ἀναίρεσιν τῆς ἀδικωτάτης ἡδονῆς, καί τῶν δι᾿ αὐτήν δικαιοτάτων πόνων· ὑφ᾿ ὧν ἐλεεινῶς διεσπᾶτο πάσχων ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ἐκ φθορᾶς τῆς καθ᾿ ἡδονήν ἔχων τήν ἀρχήν τῆς γενέσεως, καί εἰς φθοράν τήν διά θανάτου τό τῆς ζωῆς καταλῆγον [Fr. καταλήγων] τέλος· πρός δέ τήν ἐπανόρθωσιν τῆς παθούσης φύσεως, ἐπινοηθῆναι πόνον καί θάνατον, ἄδικον ὁμοῦ καί ἀναίτιον· ἀναίτιον μέν, ὡς οὐδαμῶς προλαβοῦσαν ἡδονήν ἐσχηκότα (629) κατά τήν γένεσιν, ἄδικον δέ, ὡς οὐδεμιᾶς ἐμπαθοῦς τό παράπαν ζωῆς ὄντα διάδοχον· ἵνα μέσος διαληφθείς ἡδονῆς ἀδίκου καί πόνου καί θανάτου δικαιοτάτου, πόνος καί θάνατος ἀδικώτατος, ἀνέλῃ διόλου τήν ἐξ ἡδονῆς ἀδικωτάτην ἀρχήν, καί τό δι᾿ αὐτήν διά θανάτου δικαιότατον τέλος τῆς φύσεως· καί γένηται πάλιν ἡδονῆς καί ὀδύνης ἐλεύθερον τό γένος τῶν ἀνθρώπων, τήν ἐξ ἀρχῆς εὐκληρίαν ἀπολαβούσης τῆς φύσεως, μηδενί τῶν ἐμπεφυκότων τοῖς ὑπό γένεσιν καί φθοράν γνωρισμάτων μολυνομένην.

∆ιά τοῦτο Θεός ὑπάρχων τέλειος κατά φύσιν ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος, γίνεται τέλειος ἄνθρωπος ἐκ ψυχῆς νοερᾶς καί σώματος παθητοῦ κατά φύσιν, παραπλησίως ἡμῖν χωρίς μόνης ἁμαρτίας, συνεστώς· τήν μέν ἐκ τῆς παρακοῆς ἡδονήν οὐδαμῶς τό σύνολον ἐσχηκώς προηγουμένην αὐτοῦ τῆς ἐκ γυναικός ἐν χρόνῳ γεννήσεως· τήν δέ δι᾿ αὐτήν ὀδύνην, ὑπάρχουσαν τέλος τῆς φύσεως, διά φιλανθρωπίαν κατά θέλησιν προσηκάμενος· ἵνα πάσχων ἀδίκως ἀνέλῃ τήν ἐξ ἡδονῆς ἀδίκου