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to which He, as a lover of mankind, having subjected Himself for our sakes, was perfected in our manner, so that we, believing in this with the others, might hope. But how, if we were to tolerate 1336) them saying this, according to this holy teacher, shall we believe that what is united to God is also saved? "For what has been united to God," he says, writing to Cledonius, "this is also saved." But the body also was united with the soul to God the Word. Therefore with the soul the body also will be saved. And again, if for this reason the Word of God is incarnate, according to this divinely-wise teacher, in order that He might both save the image and make the flesh immortal, how what is being saved will perish, and what is being made immortal will die again—or rather to speak more properly, what has been wholly deified through the medium of the rational soul mediating between the divinity and the body, having received the whole hypostasis of the incarnate God the Word, present ineffably and essentially, and of Him who made and declared it His own body—I cannot understand. But for what reason, if this dogma is also contained in the mystery of the ecclesiastical faith, it was not included with the others in the symbol of the exposition according to the blameless faith of Christians by our holy and blessed Fathers, who were assembled from time to time for the confirmation of the divine dogmas of the holy, of God, and apostolic Church, let us leave for the wise to say. But I think it is sufficient for the present for these things to have been said digressively to these people. But let us turn to the others.

To those who say that the bodies pre-exist the souls. To say that souls exist after bodies, O you, is easy and for anyone who wishes, but to establish what is said by argument is very difficult and laborious, and never having an easy proof for the effort.

For if what is deposited, according to you, for the occasion of human generation is entirely without a soul, it has clearly become completely devoid of vital power. For that which is completely deprived of a soul of any kind is also destitute of all vital energy. But if it has become completely devoid of a soul and of the vital power and energy corresponding to it, it is clearly dead; and if we suppose it to be dead, it is neither nourished nor does it grow, nor will it be able to subsist at all, and to remain completely unscattered and undissipated. And the healing of wounds in bodies proves what has been said. For whenever the sons of physicians attend to these, if they should find dead flesh on the surface, having first consumed this with medicines that eat this away, thus having consumed with medicines for this, thus they apply for replenishment the things for the regrowth of the body hollowed out from the wound, since the living (1337) body, that is, has a nature that sends forth again and a power constitutive and restorative of its own state, whereas the dead flesh does not effect this at all, having once been killed and completely deprived of vital power, and for this reason being inactive. And how will that which by nature is scatterable and easily dissolved stand, if there does not pre-exist conceptually, in the manner of a foundation, some vital power, naturally composing and binding around itself what is being scattered, in which it has been allotted to have both its being and its being formed from the power that wisely fashions all things? For in whatever thing the being of the body truly subsists after it is born, in that thing it might in every way rightly be said to have also the beginning of its existence. For by the separation of which the body is by nature dissolved, with the existence of that thing, clearly, it would reasonably in every way have also co-existed at its generation.

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οἷς ἑαυτόν δι᾿ ἡμᾶς ὡς φιλάνθρωπος ὑποθείς καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ἐτελείωσεν, εἰς τό ἡμᾶς μετά τῶν ἄλλων εἰς τοῦτο πιστεύοντας ἐλπίζειν. Πῶς δέ, εἴπερ ἀνασχοίμεθα 1336) τοῦτο λεγόντων αὐτῶν, κατά τόν ἅγιον τοῦτον διδάσκαλον, πιστεύσομεν ὅτι τό ἑνωθέν τῷ Θεῷ καί σώζεται; " Ὅ γάρ, φησί πρός Κληδόνιον γράφων, ἥνωται τῷ Θεῷ, τοῦτο καί σώζεται." Ἡνώθη δέ τῷ Θεῷ Λόγῳ μετά τῆς ψυχῆς καί τό σῶμα. Ἅρα μετά τῆς ψυχῆς καί τό σῶμα σωθήσεται. Καί πάλιν, εἰ διά τοῦτο σαρκοῦται, κατά τόν θεόφρονα τοῦτον διδάσκαλον, ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος, ἵνα καί τήν εἰκόνα σώσῃ καί τήν σάρκα ἀθανατίσῃ, πῶς τό σωζόμενον ἀπολεῖται, καί θνήξεται πάλιν τό ἀθανατιζόμενον, μᾶλλον δέ κυριώτερον εἰπεῖν, θεωθέν ὅλον διά μέσης τῆς νοερᾶς ψυχῆς θεότητι μεσιτευούσης καί σώματι, παροῦσαν ὅλην ἀῤῥήτως οὐσιωδῶς τήν τοῦ σαρκωθέντος ὑπόστασιν Θεοῦ Λόγου δεξάμενον, καί ἴδιον αὐτό σῶμα ποιησαμένου τε καί ἀποφήναντος, οὐκ ἔχω συνιδεῖν. Τίνος δέ χάριν, εἴπερ τῷ μυστηρίῶ τῆς ἐκκλησιαστικῆς πίστεως καί τοῦτο περιέχεται τό δόγμα, μή τοῖς ἄλλοις συμπεριελήφθη ἐν τῷ συμβόλῳ τῆς κατά τήν ἀμώμητον πίστιν τῶν Χριστιανῶν ἐκθέσεως ὑπό τῶν ἁγίων καί μακαρίων Πατέρων ἡμῶν, τῶν συναθροισθέντων κατά καιρούς ἐπί βεβαιώσει τῶν θείων τῆς ἁγίας τοῦ Θεοῦ καί ἀποστολικῆς Ἐκκλησίας δογμάτων, λέγειν τοῖς σοφοῖς καταλείψωμεν. Ἀλλ᾿ ἀρχεῖν οἶμαι πρός τό παρόν παρεκβατικῶς ταῦτα ῥηθῆναι πρός τούτους. Πρός δέ τούς ἄλλους τρεψώμεθα.

Πρός τούς λέγοντας τῶν ψυχῶν προϋπάρχειν τά σώματα. Τό μεθυπάρχειν τῶν σωμάτων τάς ψυχάς, ὧ οὗτοι, λέγειν εὔκολον καί τοῦ

βουλομένου παντός, τό δέ λόγῳ συστήσασθαι τό λεγόμενον πάνυ δύσκολον καί ἐργῶδες, καί οὔποτε ῥᾴστην ἔχον τῆς σπουδῆς τήν ἀπόδειξιν. Εἰ γάρ τό καταβαλλόμενον καθ᾿ ὑμᾶς εἰς πρόφασιν τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης γενέσεως παντάπασίν ἐστιν ἄψυχον, καί ζωτικῆς δηλονότι δυνάμεως πάντη καθέστηκεν ἄμοιρον. Τό γάρ ψυχῆς παντελῶς τῆς οἱασοῦν ἐστερημένον καί πάσης ζωτικῆς ἐνεργείας ἐστίν ἔρημον. Εἰ δέ ψυχῆς καί τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτήν ζωτικῆς δυνάμεώς τε καί ἐνεργείας παντελῶς καθέστηκεν ἄμοιρον, δηλονότι νεκρόν τυγχάνει· εἰ δέ νεκρόν αὐτό ὑποτιθέμεθα εἶναι, οὔτε τρέφεται οὔτε αὔξεται, οὐδ᾿ ὅλως ὑποστῆσαι δυνήσεται, καί μεῖναι παντελῶς ἀσκέδαστόν τε καί ἀδιάχυτον. Τεκμηριοῖ δέ τό λεχθέν ὁ ἐν τοῖς σώμασι τῶν ἑλκῶν ἀκεσμός. Ἡνίκα γάρ ἐφάπτονται τούτων ἰατρῶν παῖδες, εἰ εὕροιεν ἐπιπολάζον σῶμα νεκρόν, τοῖς κατεσθίουσι τοῦτο φαρμάκοις προαναλώσαντες, οὕτω τά πρός τοῦτο φαρμάκοις προαναλώσαντες, οὕτω τά πρός ἀνάδοσιν τοῦ κοιλανθέντος ἐκ τῆς ὠτειλῆς σώματος ἐπιβάλλουσιν εἰς ἀναπλήρωσιν, ὡς τοῦ ζῶντος (1337) δηλαδή σώματος φύσιν ἔχοντος ἀναπεμπάζουσαν καί δύναμον τῆς οἰκείας ἕξεως συστατικήν τε καί ἐπανακλητικήν, τοῦ δέ νεκροῦ τοῦτο μηδαμῶς ἐνεργοῦντος, ἅπαξ νενεκρωμένου καί παντελῶς ζωτικῆς ἐστερημένου δυνάμεως, καί διά τοῦτο ἀνενεργήτου τυγχάνοντος. Πῶς δέ καί στήσεται τό φύσει σκεδαστόν τε καί εὐδιάλυτον, μή οἱονεί θεμελίου τρόπον κατ᾿ ἐπίνοιαν προϋποκειμένης τινός ζωτικῆς δυνάμεως, περί ἑαυτήν φυσικῶς συγκρινούσης τε καί διασφιγγούσης τό σκεδαννύμενον, ἐν ᾗ τό εἶναί τε καί εἰδοποιεῖσθαι παρά τῆς τά ὅλα σοφῶς τεχνιτευούσης δυνάμεως ἔχειν ἔλαχεν; Ἐν ᾧ γάρ ἄν πράγματι μετά τό τεχθῆναι περίεστιν ἀληθῶς τό εἶναι τῷ σώματι, ἐν ἐκείνῳ πάντως δικαίως ἄν λέγοιτο ἔχειν καί τήν ἀρχήν τῆς ὑπάρξεως. Οὗτινος γάρ τῷ χωρισμῷ διαλύεσθαι πέφυκε τό σῶμα, τούτου δηλαδή τῇ ὑπάρξει κατά τήν γένεσιν εὐλόγως ἄν πάντως καί συνυφέστηκεν.