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the principle of generation that tyrannizes nature, not having it as a debt paid on its behalf according to other men, and the Lord's death, but rather was set forth against it; and that the just end of nature through death might be abolished, not having that on account of which it entered, and by which it is justly punished, as a cause of its being, the unlawful pleasure.

For it was truly necessary, it was necessary, for the Lord, being by nature wise and just and powerful: as wise, not to be ignorant of the way of healing; as just, not to effect tyrannically the salvation of man, who was willingly held fast by sin; as all-powerful, not to fail in the accomplishment of the healing.

He therefore made manifest the principle of wisdom in the manner of the healing, by becoming man without change or any alteration whatsoever. And He showed the equality of justice in the greatness of His condescension; by willingly submitting to the condemnation of nature in what is passible; and making that a weapon for the destruction of sin, and of the death on account of it, that is, of pleasure, and of the pain on account of it, in which existed the power of sin and of death, and the tyranny of sin through pleasure, and the dominion of death through pain on account of it. For in what is passible there clearly exists in nature the power of pleasure and of pain. For wishing to escape the laborious sensation of pain, we flee to pleasure, attempting to console a nature oppressed by the torment of pain. But by hastening through pleasure to blunt the movements of pain, we further ratify the bond against ourselves, (632) being unable to have pleasure freed from pain and toil.

And He made manifest the might of His surpassing power; by establishing for nature an unchangeable generation from the contraries of what He Himself suffered. For through suffering, impassibility, and through toils, rest; and through death, by giving eternal life to nature, He restored it again; renewing the dispositions of nature by His own privations in the flesh; and through His own incarnation, bestowing upon nature the grace beyond nature, deification.

God therefore truly became man, and gave to nature another beginning of a second generation, which through pain ends in the pleasure of the life to come. For just as Adam the forefather, because he transgressed the divine commandment, introduced to nature, contrary to the first, another beginning of generation, composed of pleasure, but ending in death through pain, and devised, according to the counsel of the serpent, a pleasure that was not a successor to preceding pain, but rather was brought to an end in pain, he had all those who according to the flesh were born from him in his likeness, on account of the unjust beginning from pleasure, justly brought down with him to the end through pain in death; so also the Lord, having become man, and having fashioned for nature another beginning of a second generation from the Holy Spirit, and having accepted the most just death of Adam through pain, which in His case was manifestly most unjust, since He did not have as the beginning of His own generation the most unjust pleasure of the forefather from disobedience, He effected the abolition of both extremes, I mean of the beginning and of the end of the human generation according to Adam, as things not originally from God; and He set free from their guilt all those spiritually reborn from Him; having the nature of Adam, but no longer the pleasure of generation from Adam; but only the pain on account of Adam active in them, not as a debt for sin, but by economy on account of the natural circumstance, against sin, death; which [marg. Death, clearly] whenever it does not have as the mother that gives it birth the pleasure of which it is by nature the avenger, of eternal

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τυραννοῦσαν τήν φύσιν ἀρχήν τῆς γενέσεως, οὐκ ἔχουσαν ὡς χρέος ὑπέρ αὐτῆς ἐκτιννύμενον κατά τούς ἄλλους ἀνθρώπους, καί τοῦ Κυρίου τόν θάνατον, ἀλλά μᾶλλον κατ᾿ αὐτῆς προβεβλημένον· καί τό διά τοῦ θανάτου δίκαιον τέλος ἐξαφανίσῃ τῆς φύσεως, οὐκ ἔχον τήν δι᾿ ἥν ἐπεισῆλθεν, καί ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ δικαίως τιμωρουμένην, ὡς αἰτίαν τοῦ εἶναι, παράνομον ἡδονήν.

Ἔδει γάρ ὡς ἀληθῶς, ἔδει, σοφόν καί δίκαιον καί δυνατόν ὄντα κατά φύσιν τόν Κύριον· ὡς μέν σοφόν, μή ἀγνοῆσαι τόν τρόπον τῆς ἰατρείας· ὡς δίκαιον δέ, μή τυραννικήν ποιήσασθαι τοῦ κατειλημμένου κατά γνώμην ὑπό τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἀνθρώπου τήν σωτηρίαν· ὡς δέ παντοδύναμον, μή ἀτονῆσαι πρός τήν τῆς ἰατρείας ἐκπλήρωσιν.

Φανερόν οὖν ἐποίησε τόν μέν τῆς σοφίας λόγον ἐν τῷ τρόπῳ τῆς ἰατρείας, χωρίς τροπῆς καί τῆς οἱασοῦν ἀλλοιώσεως γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος. Τήν ἰσότητα δέ τῆς δικαιοσύνης, ἐν τῷ μεγέθει τῆς συγκαταβάσεως ἔδειξε· τό ἐν τῷ παθητῷ κατάκριμα τῆς φύσεως κατά θέλησιν ὑποδύς· κἀκεῖνο ποιήσας ὅπλον πρός τήν τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἀναίρεσιν, καί τοῦ δι᾿ αὐτήν θανάτου, τουτέστι, τῆς ἡδονῆς, καί τῆς δι᾿ αὐτήν ὀδύνης, ἐν ᾧ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ὑπῆρχε καί τοῦ θανάτου τό κράτος, καί ἡ κατά τήν ἡδονήν τῆς ἁμαρτίας τυραννίς, καί δι᾿ αὐτήν κατά τήν ὀδύνην τοῦ θανάτου δυναστεία. Ἐν γάρ τῷ παθητῷ προδήλως ὑπάρχει τῆς φύσεως τό τῆς ἡδονῆς κράτος και τῆς ὀδύνης. Θέλοντες γάρ ἐκφυγεῖν τήν κατά τήν ὀδύνην ἐπίπονον αἴσθησιν, πρός τήν ἡδονήν καταφεύγομεν, τῷ τῆς ὀδύνης αἰκισμῷ πειζομένην τήν φύσιν ἐπιχειροῦντες παραμυθεῖσθαι. Σπεύδοντες δέ διά τῆς ἡδονῆς τά τῆς ὀδύνης ἀμβλῦναι κινήματα, πλέον αὐτῆς τό καθ᾿ ἑαυτῶν ἐπικυροῦμεν χειρόγραφον, (632) ὀδύνης καί πόνου ἀπολελυμένην ἔχειν τήν ἡδονήν οὐ δυνάμενοι.

Τήν δέ τῆς ὑπερβαλλούσης δυνάμεως ἰσχύν, δήλην κατέστησε· τῶν οἷς αὐτός ἔπασχεν ἐναντίων, ὑποστήσας τῇ φύσει τήν γένεσιν ἄτρεπτον. ∆ιά πάθους γάρ τήν ἀπάθειαν, καί διά πόνων τήν ἄνεσιν· καί διά θανάτου τήν ἀΐδιον ζωήν τῇ φύσει δούς, πάλιν ἀπεκατήστησε· ταῖς ἑαυτοῦ κατά σάρκα στερέσεσι τάς ἕξεις ἀνακαινίσας τῆς φύσεως· καί διά τῆς ἰδίας σαρκώσεως, τήν ὑπέρ φύσιν χάριν δωρησάμενος τῇ φύσει, τήν θέωσιν.

Γέγονεν οὖν ὁ Θεός κατά ἀλήθειαν ἄνθρωπος, καί δέδωκεν ἄλλην ἀρχήν τῇ φύσει δευτέρας γενέσεως, διά πόνου πρός ἡδονήν μελλούσης ζωῆς καταλήγουσαν. Ὡς γάρ Ἀδάμ ὁ προπάτωρ ἐπειδή τήν θείαν ἐντολήν παραβάς, ἄλλην ἀρχήν γενέσεως ἐξ ἡδονῆς μέν συνισταμένην, εἰς δέ τόν διά πόνου θάνατον τελευτῶσαν τῇ φύσει παρά τήν πρώτην παρεισήγαγε, καί ἐπενόησε κατά τήν συμβουλήν τοῦ ὄφεως ἡδονήν οὐκ οὖσαν προλαβόντος πόνου διάδοχον, ἀλλά μᾶλλον εἰς πόνου περαιουμένην, πάντας τούς ἐξ αὐτοῦ σαρκί κατ᾿ αὐτόν γενομένους, διά τήν ἐξ ἡδονῆς ἄδικον ἀρχήν, εἶχε συνυπαγουμένους αὐτῷ δικαίως πρός τό διά πόνου κατά τόν θάνατον τέλος· οὕτω καί ὁ Κύριος γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος, καί ἄλλην ἀρχήν δευτέρας γενέσεως ἐκ Πνεύματος ἁγίου τῇ φύσει δημιουργήσας, καί τόν διά πόνου τοῦ Ἀδάμ δικαιότατον καταδεξάμενος θάνατον, ἐν αὐτῷ δηλαδή γενόμενον ἀδικώτατον, ὡς οὐκ ἔχοντα τῆς ἰδίας ἀρχήν γενέσεως τήν ἐκ παρακοῆς ἀδικωτάτην τοῦ προπάτορος ἡδονήν, ἀμφοτέρων τῶν ἄκρων· ἀρχῆς τε λέγω καί τέλους τῆς κατά τόν Ἀδάμ ἀνθρωπίνης γενέσεως, οἷα δή προηγουμένως οὐκ ὄντων ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ, τήν ἀναίρεσιν ἐποιήσατο· καί πάντας τούς ἐξ αὐτοῦ πνευματικῶς ἀναγεννωμένους, τῆς ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς ἐνοχῆς ἐλευθέρους κατέστησεν· ἔχοντας μέν τοῦ Ἀδάμ, οὐκέτι τήν ἐκ τοῦ Ἀδάμ ἡδονήν τῆς γενέσεως· μόνην δέ τήν διά τόν Ἀδάμ ὀδύνην ἐνεργοῦσαν ἐν αὐτοῖς, οὐ κατά χρέος ὑπέρ ἁμαρτίας, ἀλλά κατ᾿ οἰκονομίαν διά τήν κατά φύσιν περίστασιν, κατά τῆς ἁμαρτίας, τόν θάνατον· ὅς [marg. Θάνατος δηλονότι] ὁπόταν μή ἔχῃ γεννῶσαν αὐτόν μητέρα τήν, ἧς γίνεσθαι πέφυκε τιμωρός, ἡδονήν, ἀϊδίου