246

to come into being unchangeably, being above every being and nature, to deign super-essentially, and to become human, and to will to be numbered as one of humankind; and not to refuse to make our condemnation His own; and to deify us by grace as much as He, according to the economy, by nature became human; so that we might not only learn to support one another naturally, and to love one another spiritually as ourselves, but also to care for one another divinely, beyond ourselves; and to make this the proof of love for one another: to be eager for voluntary death for one another according to virtue. For there is no greater love than this, He says, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Therefore, the law of nature is, to speak concisely, the natural law taking sensation under its control for the removal of irrationality; by which [marg. that is, irrationality], there is the division of things naturally conjoined. But the written law is the natural law which, after the removal of irrationality according to sensation, also takes on a spiritual desire, which holds together the mutual relationship with what is kindred. But the law of grace is a law established beyond nature, (728) unchangeably refashioning nature toward deification, and showing, as in an image, incomprehensibly to the nature of men, the archetype which is beyond being and nature; and providing the permanence of eternal well-being.

If the account of the three laws is of this manner, it is fitting that the great city of God, the Church—or rather, the soul of each person—has been established as a journey of three days; as it is receptive and capacious of righteousness according to nature, and law, and spirit. For in these three laws is contained the whole adornment of the Church; being circumscribed by the breadth according to virtue, [by the breadth] and the length according to knowledge, and by the depth of mystical theology according to wisdom. But let us not be separated from this city by disposition, like the people of the Jews, loving the body as a tent, and cherishing the temporary pleasure of the body like a gourd; lest the worm of conscience, having struck, should wither the disposition that was deceived by pleasure; and lest the payment for the things badly lived by us, coming upon us through involuntary temptations like a scorching wind, we should renounce life, and become impatient with the divine judgment.

For each of us who have been defeated by the deceit of material things, and who rejoice in the pleasures of the body, receives the word of God like a worm, for the time being striking his conscience; and eating away at his relation to pleasure like the root of a gourd; and thus through the perfect dawning of the illumination of the oracles of the spirit, withering the activity that is according to sin; and with a scorching wind, by the memory of the eternal punishments, striking like a head the principle of the passions of evil which is according to sensation in temptations; so that we may learn the principles of providence and judgment, preferring the eternal things to the temporary ones, at the deprivation of which the race of men is accustomed to be grieved. For if the word of Scripture introduced man as being grieved because of the tent and the gourd—I mean the flesh and the pleasure of the flesh—but God as holding fast to Nineveh, it is clear that what has appeared beloved to God is far better and more honorable than all existing things whatsoever that are honorable and desirable to men; much more so than things which are not, and which seem to exist only by presumption according to a mistaken judgment, for which there is no account at all according to their existence;

246

οὐσίαν ἐλθεῖν ἀτρέπτως, ὑπέρ πᾶσαν οὐσίαν ὄντα καί φύσιν ὑπερουσίως καταδέξασθαι, καί ἄνθρωπον γενέσθαι, καί τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἕνα χρηματίσαι βούλεσθαι· καί τήν ἡμετέραν κατάκρισιν οἰκείαν ποιῆσαι μή παραιτήσασθαι· καί τοσοῦτον ἡμᾶς θεῶσαι κατά χάριν, ὅσον κατ᾿ οἰκονομίαν αὐτός φύσει γέγονεν ἄνθρωπος· ἵνα μή μόνον μάθωμεν ἀλλήλων ἀντέχεσθαι φυσικῶς, καί ὡς ἑαυτούς ἀλλήλους ἀγαπᾷν πνευματικῶς· ἀλλά καί ὑπέρ ἑαυτούς ἀλλήλων κήδεσθαι θεϊκῶς· καί ταύτην τῆς εἰς ἀλλήλους ἀγάπης ἀπόδειξιν ποιεῖσθαι, τό κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ὑπέρ ἀλλήλων τόν ἑκούσιον προθυμεῖσθαι θάνατον. Οὐκ ἔστι γάρ ταύτης ἄλλη μείζων ἀγάπης, φησίν, ἵνα τις θῇ τήν ψυχήν αὐτοῦ ὑπέρ τῶν φίλων αὐτοῦ.

Οὐκοῦν ὁ μέν τῆς φύσεως νόμος ἐστίν, ἵνα συνελών εἴπω, λόγος φυσικός τήν αἴσθησιν λαβών ὑποχείριον, πρός ἀφαίρεσιν τῆς ἀλογίας· καθ᾿ ἥν [marg. ἀλογίαν δηλονότι], τῶν φυσικῶς συνημμένων ἐστίν ἡ διαίρεσις. Ὁ δέ γραπτός νόμος ἐστί, λόγος φυσικός μετά τήν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν τῆς ἀλογίας ἀφαίρεσιν προσλαβών καί πόθον πνευματικόν, τῆς πρός τό συγγενές ἀλληλουχίας συνεκτικόν. Ὁ δέ τῆς χάριτος νόμος, ὑπέρ φύσιν καθέστηκε λόγος, (728) πρός θέωσιν ἀτρέπτως τήν φύσιν μεταπλάττων, καί ὡς ἐν εἰκόνι δεικνύς ἀκαταλήπτως τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων τό ὑπέρ οὐσίαν καί φύσιν ἀρχέτυπον· καί τήν τοῦ ἀεί εὖ εἶναι διαμονήν παρεχόμενος.

Εἰ δέ τοῦτον ἔχει τόν τρόπον ὁ περί τῶν τριῶν νόμων λόγος, εἰκότως ἡ μεγάλη τοῦ Θεοῦ πόλις Ἐκκλησία· ἤγουν ἡ τοῦ καθ᾿ ἕκαστον ψυχή, πορείας ὁδοῦ τριῶν καθέστηκεν ἡμερῶν· ὡς δεκτική καί χωρητική τῆς κατά φύσιν καί νόμον καί πνεῦμα δικαιοσύνης. Ἐν τούτοις γάρ τοῖς τρισί νόμοις, ὁ πᾶς περιέχεται τῆς Ἐκκλησίας διάκοσμος· πλάτει τε τῷ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν, [πλάτει] καί μήκει τῷ κατά γνῶσιν· καί τῷ κατά σοφίαν βάθει μυστικῆς θεολογίας περιγραφόμενος. Ἀλλά ταύτης κατά διάθεσιν, ὡς ὁ τῶν Ἰουδαίων λαός, μή χωρισθῶμεν τῆς πόλεως, τό σῶμα καθάπερ σκηνήν στέργοντες, καί τήν πρόσκαιρον τοῦ σώματος ὥσπερ κολόκυνθαν ἡδονήν περιέποντες· ἵνα μή ἄν τῆς συνειδήσεως ὁ σκώληξ πλήξας, ἀποξηράνῃ τήν καθ᾿ ἡδονήν ἠπατημένην διάθεσιν· καί ἡ διά τῶν ἀκουσίων πειρασμῶν ἐπελθοῦσα καθάπερ πνεῦμα καύσωνος τῶν κακῶς ἡμῖν βεβιωμένων ἔκτισις, ἀπειπώμεθα τήν ζωήν, καί πρός τήν θείαν δυσανασχετήσωμεν κρίσιν.

Ἕκαστος γάρ ἡμῶν τῶν ἠττημένων τῇ ἀπάτῃ τῶν ὑλικῶν, καί ταῖς ἡδοναῖς χαιρόντων τοῦ σώματος, σκώληκος δίκην τοῦ Θεοῦ τόν λόγον δέχεται, καί τήν συνείδησιν αὐτόν πλήττοντα τέως· καί ῥίζης δίκην κολοκύνθης τήν πρός τήν ἡδονήν αὐτοῦ διεσθίοντα σχέσιν· καί οὕτως διά τῆς τελείας ἀνατολῆς τοῦ φωτισμοῦ τῶν λογίων τοῦ πνεύματος, ἀποξηραίνοντα τήν καθ᾿ ἁμαρτίαν ἐνέργειαν· καί πνεύματι καύσωνος, τῇ μνήμῃ τῶν αἰωνίων κολάσεων, καθάπερ κεφαλήν τήν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἐν ταῖς προσβολαῖς ἀρχήν τῶν παθῶν τῆς κακίας πατάσσοντα· ἵνα μάθωμεν προνοίας λόγους καί κρίσεως, τῶν προσκαίρων, ὧν τῇ στερήσει λυπεῖσθαι τό γένος εἴωθεν τῶν ἀνθρώπων, τά αἰώνια προκρινούσης. Εἰ γάρ τόν ἄνθρωπον διά τήν σκηνήν καί τήν κολοκύνθαν λυπούμενον· λέγω δέ τήν σάρκα καί τήν τῆς σαρκός ἡδονήν· τῆς δέ Νινευή ἀντεχόμενον τόν Θεόν εἰσήγαγε τῆς Γραφῆς ὁ λόγος, δῆλον ὡς τῶν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τιμίων καί ἐπεράστων, τό τῷ Θεῷ φανέν προσφιλές, πάντων τῶν ὁποσοῦν ὄντων πολλῷ κρεῖττόν ἐστι καί τιμιώτερον· ἤπου γε τῶν οὐκ ὄντων, καί μόνῃ προλήψει κατ᾿ ἐσφαλμένην κρίσιν εἶναι δοκούντων, ὧν οὐδείς τό παράπαν ἐστί κατά τήν ὕπαρξιν λόγος·