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possess knowledge, and to reveal the principles of their own generation that pre-exist uniformly in it.
33. The Word who created the nature of men [God], did not create with it according to sense either pleasure or pain; but a certain power according to the mind for pleasure, by which it will be able to enjoy Him ineffably, He implanted. But this power, I mean the natural desire of the mind for God, at the moment of his coming into being, the first man gave to sense, and according to this first movement toward sensible things through the medium of sense, he had pleasure operating contrary to nature; to which, by providence, He who cares for our salvation, affixed, as it were, a certain punishing power, pain; by which the law of death was wisely rooted in the nature of the body, restraining the desire of the mind's madness moving contrary to nature toward sensible things.
34. Pleasure and pain were not created together with the nature of the flesh; but the transgression contrived the one for the corruption of the will, and condemned the other for the dissolution of nature; so that pleasure might work the soul's voluntary death, which is sin, and pain, through dissolution, might bring about the ceasing-to-be of the flesh according to its form. (1320) For according to providence, for the punishment of pleasure according to the will, God has given to nature pain contrary to the will, and the death that comes with it.
35. Because of the pleasure that came upon nature contrary to reason, pain came in according to reason, through many sufferings, in which and from which is death, effecting the removal of pleasure contrary to nature; yet not its complete annulment, and which the grace of divine pleasure according to the mind is wont to reveal.
36. The devising of voluntary toils, and the infliction of involuntary ones, remove pleasure, ceasing its motion in act; but they do not annul the power for its generation inherent in nature like a law. For the philosophy according to virtue is wont to produce impassibility of the will, but not of nature; by which, that is, the impassibility of the will, the grace of divine pleasure according to the mind comes into being.
37. 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 accompanied by pain in all, of whose generation the law of pleasure took the lead without cause. I call the pleasure from the transgression "without cause," as clearly not being the successor of a preceding pain.
38. It was altogether impossible for nature, having submitted to both pleasure according to the will and pain contrary to the will, to be recalled again to the life from the beginning, unless the Creator had become man, accepting by His will the pain devised for the punishment of the pleasure of nature according to its will, which did not have a preceding generation from pleasure; in order to free nature from the birth of condemnation, by accepting a birth that did not have its beginning from pleasure.
39. Since after the transgression all men had pleasure naturally preceding their own generation, and no one at all was naturally free from the passible generation according to pleasure; but all, as paying a natural debt, rendered pains and endured the death upon them; (1321) and the way of freedom was altogether impossible for those tyrannized by unjust pleasure, and naturally held fast by just pains and the most just death upon them; it was necessary for the annulment of the most unjust pleasure, and of the most just pains on account of it, by which man, suffering, was pitifully torn apart, having the beginning of his generation from the corruption of pleasure, and into corruption through the
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ὑπάρχουσι γνῶσιν, καί τούς ἐν αὐτῷ μονοειδῶς προόντας τῆς αὐτῶν γενέσεως φανερῶσαι λόγους.
λγ΄. Ὁ τήν φύσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων δημιουργήσας λόγος [gg. ad Thalas. g. 61 Θεός], οὐ σενέκτισεν αὐτῇ κατά αἴσθησιν, οὔτε ἡδονήν, οὔτε ὀδύνην· ἀλλά δύναμίν τινα κατά νοῦν αὐτῇ πρός ἡδονήν, καθ᾿ ἥν ἀῤῥήτως ἀπολαύειν αὐτοῦ δυνήσεται, ἐνετεκτήνατο. 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· ᾗτινι 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.
λδ΄. Ἡδονή καί ὀδύνη, τῇ φύσει τῆς σαρκός οὐ συνεκτίσθησαν· ἀλλ᾿ ἡ παράβασις, τήν μέν, ἐπενόησεν εἰς φθοράν τῆς προαιρέσεως· τήν δέ, κατεδίκασεν εἰς λύσιν τῆς φύσεως· ἵνα ἡ μέν ἡδονή, ψυχῆς ἑκούσιον ἐργάσηται θάνατον τήν ἁμαρτίαν· ἡ δέ ὀδύνη διά τῆς λύσεως, τήν κατ᾿ εἶδος ποιήσηται τῆς σαρκός ἀπογένεσιν. (1320) Κατά πρόνοιαν γάρ πρός κόλασιν τῆς κατά προαίρεσιν ἡδονῆς, δέδωκεν ὁ Θεός τῇ φύσει, τήν παρά προαίρεσιν ὀδύνην, καί τόν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῇ θάνατον.
λε΄. ∆ιά τήν ἐπελθοῦσαν τῆ φύσει παρά λόγον ἡδονήν, ἡ κατά λόγον ἐπεισῆλθεν ὀδύνη, διά πολλῶν παθημάτων, ἐν οἷς καί ἐξ ὧν ὁ θάνατος, ποιουμένη τῆς παρά φύσιν ἡδονῆς τήν ἀφαίρεσιν· οὐ μήν δέ καί τελείαν ἀναίρεσιν, καί ἥν ἡ κατά νοῦν τῆς θείας ἡδονῆς, ἀναδείκνυσθαι πέφυκε χάρις.
λστ΄. Ἡ τῶν ἑκουσίων πόνων ἐπίνοια, καί ἡ τῶν ἀκουσίων ἐπαγωγή, ἀφαιροῦνται μέν τήν ἡδονήν, τήν κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν αὐτῆς καταπαύουσαι κίνησιν· οὐκ ἀναιροῦσι δέ τήν ὥσπερ νόμον τῇ φύσει ἐγκειμένην πρός γένεσιν αὐτῇ δύναμιν. Ἡ γάρ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν φιλοσοφία, γνώμης ἀπάθειαν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ φύσεως ἐργάζεσθαι πέφυκε· καθ᾿ ἥν δηλαδή τήν γνωμικήν ἀπάθειαν, ἡ κατά νοῦν τῆς θείας ἡδονῆς ἐπιγίνεται χάρις.
λζ΄. Πᾶς 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 γένεσεως. Ἀναίτιον δέ φημι τήν ἐκ τῆς παραβάσεως ἡδονήν, ὡς μή γενομένην δηλονότι προλαβόντος πόνου διάδοχον.
λη΄. Ἀμήχανον ἦν παντελῶς, τήν φύσιν ὑποκλιθεῖσαν τῆ τε κατά προαίρεσιν ἡδονῇ, καί τῇ παρά προαίρεσιν ὀδύνῃ, πάλιν εἰς τήν ἐξαρχῆς ἀνακληθῆναι ζωήν, εἰ μή γέγονεν ἄνθρωπος ὁ δημιουργός, προαιρέσει δεχόμενος τήν πρός κόλασιν τῆς κατά προαίρεσιν τῆς φύσεως ἡδονῆς, ἐπινοηθεῖσαν ὀδύνην, οὐκ ἔχουσαν προηγουμένην αὐτῆς τήν ἐξ ἡδονῆς γένεσιν· ἵνα τῆς ἐκ καταδίκης ἐλευθερώσῃ τήν φύσιν γεννήσεως, ἐξ ἡδονῆς ἀρχήν οὐκ ἔχουσαν καταδεχόμενος γέννησιν.
λθ΄. Ἐπειδή μετά τήν παράβασιν πάντες ἄνθρωποι τήν ἡδονήν εἶχον τῆς ἰδίας φυσικῶς προκαθηγουμένην γενέσεως, καί οὐδείς ἦν τοσύνολον ὁ τῆς καθ᾿ ἡδονήν ἐμπαθοῦς γενέσεως φυσικῶς ὑπάρχων ἐλεύθερος· ἀλλ᾿ ὡς χρέος πάντες φυσικόν ἀποδιδόντες τούς πόνους, καί τήν ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς ὑπέμενον θάνατον· (1321) καί ἦν ἄπορος παντάπασιν ὁ 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 μέν 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 τοῦ