Rufinus’s preface to Books 3–4
[Prayer from a manuscript heading] Reader, remember me in your holy prayers, so that we too may deserve to become imitators of the Spirit. The two former books On First Principles I translated not only at your urging but under your pressure, during the days of Lent. But since in those days you, my devout brother Macarius, both lived near me and had more leisure, I too worked harder; these two later books I have unfolded more slowly, because you come to us more rarely, as a taskmaster, from the farthest edge of the city. Now if you remember what I warned of in my former little preface, that certain people would be indignant if they did not hear us speak some evil of Origen, you have, I think, at once found it so. But if the demons who stir up people's tongues to speak evil were so inflamed by that work, in which he had not yet fully laid bare their secrets, what do you think will happen in this one, in which he has revealed all their blind and hidden ways, by which they creep into human hearts and deceive weak and fragile souls? You will see at once everything thrown into disorder, factions stirred up, outcries spread through the whole city, and the man summoned to condemnation who tried to drive away the devil's darkness of ignorance by the light of the Gospel lamp. But anyone who desires to be trained in divine learning while keeping the rule of the catholic faith should think little of these things. This, however, I must remind you of: as in the former books, so in these I have observed the rule not to translate what seemed contrary to his other opinions and to our faith, but to pass it over as inserted and corrupted by others. If he seems to have said anything new about rational beings, since the substance of the faith does not lie in this, for the sake of knowledge and exercise, when perhaps we had to answer certain heresies in this order, I have not passed it over either in these books or in the former ones, except where in these later books he wished to repeat what had already been said in the earlier ones; there I thought it useful, for brevity's sake, to cut some of it away. If anyone reads these things from a desire to make progress and not to disparage, he will do better to have them explained to him by more skilled men. For it is absurd that the invented songs of the poets and the laughable stories of comedies should be explained by grammarians, and that anyone should think he can learn without a master and interpreter the things that are said about God, or the heavenly powers, or the whole universe, in which some perverse error either of pagan philosophers or of heretics is refuted; and so it happens that people prefer to condemn difficult and obscure things rashly and ignorantly rather than to learn them by diligence and study.
On the Freedom of the Will
Such, we believe, are the things to be thought about the divine promises, when we direct our understanding to the contemplation of that eternal age which no end will close, and contemplate its inexpressible joy and blessedness. But since the church's preaching also contains faith in the future just judgment of God, and this belief in judgment calls and persuades people to live well and happily and to flee sin in every way, and since it is without doubt implied by this that it is placed in our power to give ourselves to a praiseworthy or to a blameworthy life, I think it necessary to discuss a few things about the freedom of our choice as well, since this question too is discussed by very many, and not superficially. That we may more easily know what freedom of choice is, let us inquire what the very nature of choice and will means. Of all things that move, some carry the causes of their motion within themselves, while others receive them from outside. Those things are moved only from outside that are without life, such as stones or wood and whatever things of this kind consist only of the state of their matter or of their bodies. That question must certainly be set aside here which also calls it motion when bodies are dissolved by decay, for it does not bear on our present purpose. Others have the cause of motion in themselves, such as animals or trees and all things that exist by natural life or by a soul; among these some have thought that veins of metal should also be counted; and fire too must be thought to have its own motion, and perhaps springs of water also. Of the things that have the cause of their motion within themselves, some are said to be moved out of themselves, others by themselves; and they divide them this way: those are moved out of themselves which live but are not animals; those are moved by themselves which are animals, when a phantasia, that is, a kind of will or incitement, is present in them, which stirs them to be moved or incited toward something. Indeed, in certain animals there is such a phantasia, that is, a will or sense, which by a kind of natural instinct provokes and stirs them to ordered and regular motions: as we see spiders do, which are stirred most regularly to the work of weaving by a phantasia, that is, by a certain will and desire for weaving, a natural motion without doubt prompting the effort for such a work; and yet the animal itself is found to have no other sense than the natural desire for weaving; just as the bee too has the desire for shaping honeycombs and, as they say, for gathering the honey of the air. A rational animal, although it has these natural motions in itself, yet has beyond the other animals the power of reason as well, by which it can judge and discern among the natural motions, rejecting and casting away some and approving and accepting others, so that by the judgment of this reason the motions of a human being may be directed and governed toward a praiseworthy life. It follows that, since the nature of this reason which is in a human being has in itself the power of discerning good and evil, and, when it has discerned, the faculty also of choosing what it has approved, it is rightly judged praiseworthy in choosing what is good and blameworthy in following what is shameful or evil. We must certainly not overlook that in some animals without speech a more ordered motion is found than in the other animals, as in hunting dogs or war horses, so that to some they seem to be moved by a kind of rational sense. But this must be believed to come about not so much from reason as from a kind of incentive and natural motion granted more abundantly for such uses. But, as we had begun to say, since this is how a rational animal is, things may indeed happen to us human beings from outside, or meet us whether through sight or hearing or the other senses, which stir and provoke us to good or contrary motions; and because they happen to us from outside, it is not placed in our power that they should not happen to or meet us. But to judge and approve how we ought to use the things that happen to us is the business and work of nothing else than the reason that is in us, that is, of our judgment; and by the judgment of this reason we use the incitements that happen to us from outside for whatever purpose reason itself has approved, governing our natural motions at a nod from reason either toward good things or toward the opposite. If someone says that the things which happen to us from outside and provoke our motions are such that it is not possible to resist them, whether they stir us to good or to evil, anyone who thinks this should briefly turn their attention to themselves and examine their own impulses more carefully, and see whether he does not find that, when the enticement of some desire strikes, nothing is done before the mind's agreement is given and the mind's will yields to the evil suggestion; so that, as before a judge sitting within the courtroom of our heart, the case seems to be pleaded from both sides with plausible reasons, and, the causes having first been set out, sentence for action is passed by the judgment of reason. To give an example: if a woman should appear to a man who has resolved to live with sexual self-control and chastity and to keep himself from all contact with women, provoking him and enticing him to do something contrary to his resolve, the woman is not the perfect and absolute cause or necessity of his transgressing, since he can, remembering his resolve, rein in the incitements of lust and check the delights of the provoking enticement with the firmer rebukes of virtue, so that, with every sense of lust put to flight, the firmness and constancy of his resolve may persevere. Indeed, if such incitements come to more learned men, strengthened by divine instruction, at once remembering who they are, recalling to memory what they have long meditated and been taught, and fortifying themselves with the support of holier teaching, they reject and refute every enticement of incitement and drive away opposing desires by the opposition of the reason implanted in them. Since, then, these things are proved to be so by natural evidence, as it were, how is it not unnecessary to turn back the causes of our deeds onto the things that happen to us from outside, and to remove the blame from ourselves, in whom the whole cause lies; that is, to say that we are like pieces of wood or stones, which have no motion within themselves but receive the causes of their motion from outside? This is neither truly nor fittingly said, but is invented only so that freedom of choice may be denied; unless perhaps we think that freedom of choice can exist only if nothing happens to us from outside that provokes us to good or to evil. If someone refers the causes of sins to a natural bad temperament of the body, this is shown to be contrary to the reason of all instruction. For just as we see in very many who before had lived without restraint or self-control and had been captives of luxury and lust, if they were perhaps called to better things by the word of teaching and instruction, that so great a change came about that from being luxurious and base they were made sober and most chaste, from fierce and savage most gentle and mild; so again we see in others, quiet and honorable people, that when they have perhaps joined themselves to restless and base people, “good morals are corrupted by bad company,” and they become such as those who lack nothing for baseness; and this sometimes happens to men already of mature age, so that they lived with more self-control in youth than when a more advanced age granted them the means of a freer life. The consequence of reason therefore shows that the things which happen to us from outside are not in our power; but to use well or ill the things that happen to us, by that reason within us which discerns and judges how they ought to be used, is in our power. That we may confirm by the authority of the Scriptures as well what reason has shown in due order, namely that it is our own work to live rightly or less rightly, and that we are not compelled either by the things that happen to us from outside or, as some think, by the pressure of fate, the prophet Micah will bear witness in these words: “If it has been told you, human being, what is good, or what the Lord requires of you, but to do justice and love mercy and be ready to walk with the Lord your God.” And Moses says this: “I have set before your face the way of life and the way of death; choose what is good, and walk in it.” And Isaiah says: “If you are willing and hear me, you will eat the good things of the land; but if you are not willing and do not hear me, the sword will consume you; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken this.” And in the Psalms it is written: “If my people had heard me, if Israel had walked in my ways, I would surely have humbled their enemies to nothing”; by which he shows that it was in the people's power to hear and to walk in the ways of God. And the Savior, when he says, “But I say to you, do not resist evil,” and, “Whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment,” and, “Whoever looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart,” and when he gives all the other commandments, what else does he show but that it is in our power to be able to keep what is commanded, and that for this reason we are rightly made “liable to judgment” if we transgress what we certainly could have kept? For this reason he himself says, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock,” and so on; and, “But he who hears these and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand,” and the rest. And what he says to those on his right, “Come to me, all you blessed of my Father,” and so on, “for I was hungry and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me to drink,” clearly shows that it lay in themselves either to be praiseworthy, as these were, doing what was commanded and receiving what was promised, or to be blameworthy, as those were who deserved to hear or receive the opposite, to whom it is said, “Depart, you cursed, into the eternal fire.” Let us see how the apostle Paul too speaks to us as to those who have power of choice and who hold in themselves the causes either of salvation or of ruin: “Or do you despise the riches of his goodness and patience and endurance, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are storing up anger for yourself on the day of anger and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will give each person what their deeds deserve: to those who by patience in good work seek glory and honor and freedom from decay, eternal life; but to those who are self-seeking and do not believe the truth but believe wickedness, anger and indignation, distress and anguish on every human soul who does evil, of the Jew first and of the Greek; but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and to the Greek.” You will find many other, indeed countless, passages in the holy Scriptures that clearly show that we have the power of free choice. Otherwise it would be contradictory that commandments should be given to us by keeping which we are saved, or by transgressing which we are condemned, if the ability to keep them is not in us. But since there are found in the divine Scriptures themselves certain words so placed that something opposite seems able to be understood from them, let us bring them forward and, discussing them according to the rule of piety, give their solutions, so that from these few which we explain the solution of the others that are said in a similar way, by which the power of choice seems to be excluded, may become clear. Very many, then, are moved by what is said by God about Pharaoh, when he says more than once, “I will harden Pharaoh's heart.” For if he is hardened by God, and through being hardened he sins, he is not himself the cause of his sin. And if this is so, Pharaoh will not seem to have freedom of choice, and it will consequently be asserted, on the strength of this example, that the others who perish do not receive the cause of their ruin from the freedom of their own choice either. And what is written in Ezekiel, when he says, “I will take away their stony hearts and put in them hearts of flesh, that they may walk in my commands and keep my ordinances,” might move someone, on the ground that it seems to be given by God either to walk in his commandments or to keep his ordinances, if he himself takes away the stony heart that hinders the keeping of the commandments and puts in and implants a better and more feeling heart, which is now called a heart of flesh. Let us consider also what the Lord and Savior answered in the Gospel to those who asked him why he spoke to the crowds in parables: “That seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not hear and not understand, so that they do not turn and receive forgiveness.” And what was said by the apostle Paul, that “it does not depend on the one who chooses or the one who runs, but on God who shows mercy”; and in another place, “Both choosing and accomplishing come from God”; and again in another place: “So then he has mercy on whom he wishes, and whom he wishes he hardens. You will say to me then, Why does he still find fault? For who resists his will? human being, who are you to answer back to God? Does the thing formed say to him who formed it, Why have you made me this way? Or has not the potter power over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?” These and similar passages seem able to deter many from believing that each one has freedom of his own choice, and to make it seem rather that whether someone is saved or perishes depends on the will of God. Let us begin, then, with what was said to Pharaoh, who is said to have been hardened by God so that he would not let the people go; and together with it the apostle's word will also be treated, where he says, “So then he has mercy on whom he wishes, and whom he wishes he hardens.” For on these above all the heretics rely, saying that it is not in our power to be saved, but that there are natures of souls such that they in every case either perish or are saved, and that in no way can a soul of evil nature become good, or one of good nature become evil. For this reason they say that Pharaoh too, being of a lost nature, was for that reason hardened by God, who hardens those of earthly nature but has mercy on those of spiritual nature. Let us see, then, what it is that they assert, and let us ask them first to answer us whether they hold that Pharaoh was of the earthly nature, which they call lost. They will answer without doubt: of the earthly. If then he was of earthly nature, he could not at all believe God or obey him, since his nature resisted. But if this was in him by nature, what further need was there for his heart to be hardened by God, and not once but often, unless it was in fact possible for him to be persuaded? Nor would he be said to be hardened by another, unless he was not hard of himself. And if he was not hard of himself, it follows that he was not of earthly nature either, but such a one as could yield when struck with amazement by signs and mighty works. For God needed him, so that in him he might show his power for the salvation of many, while he resists greatly and struggles against the will of God; and through this his heart is said to be hardened. Let these things be said first against them, so that their assertion, by which they think Pharaoh was lost by nature, may be overthrown; and concerning what was said by the apostle Paul we will deal with them in the same way. For whom does God harden, according to your opinion? Those, of course, whom you call of lost nature. What else, I ask, would they have done if they had not been hardened? But if by being hardened they come to ruin, then they no longer perish by nature but by what happens to them. Then tell us, on whom does God have mercy? On those, of course, who are to be saved. And in what do these need a second mercy, who are to be saved once for all by nature and come to blessedness naturally? Unless it is shown even from this that, because it was possible for them to perish, they therefore obtain mercy, so that through it they may not perish but come to salvation and possess the kingdom of the godly. And let this be said against those who, by their invented stories, introduce good or evil natures, that is, earthly or spiritual, from which they say it comes about that each one is either saved or perishes. Now we must answer those as well who want the God of the law to be only just and not also good: how do they think the heart of Pharaoh is hardened by God, by what doing or by what foreseeing on his part? For the foresight and purpose of God must be kept in view, who according to us is just and good, and according to them only just. And let them show us how God, whom they too confess to be just, justly causes a man's heart to be hardened, so that from that very hardening he sins and perishes. And how will God's justice be defended in this, if he himself is the cause of ruin for those whom, because they proved hard and unbelieving, he himself will later condemn with a judge's authority? Why does he also blame him, saying, “But since you will not let my people go, look, I will strike all the firstborn in Egypt, even your firstborn,” and whatever else is written as said by God through Moses to Pharaoh? For everyone who believes that the things recorded in the Scriptures are true, and wants to show that the God of the law and the prophets is just, must give an account of all these things, showing how nothing whatever is taken away from God's justice by them; for though they deny that he is good, they nevertheless confess him to be just, and judge, and creator of the world. Another kind of answer is needed against those who assert that the evil one, that is, the devil, is the creator of this world. But we, since we confess that the God who spoke through Moses is not only just but also good, let us examine more carefully how it is fitting for the just and good God that he is said “to harden” Pharaoh's “heart.” And let us see whether, following the apostle Paul, we can perhaps solve the difficulty of the matter by some examples and comparisons, if we show how by one and the same work God “has mercy on one and hardens another,” not doing or willing this, that he who is hardened should “be hardened”; but while he uses his kindness and patience, the heart of those who turn his kindness and patience into contempt and insolence is hardened, as the punishment of their crimes is put off, while those who take his kindness and patience as an occasion for their repentance and improvement obtain mercy. To show more clearly what we are saying, we use the example which the apostle Paul uses in the letter to the Hebrews, saying: “For the land that drinks the rain that often comes upon it, and produces herbs useful to those by whom it is tilled, will receive blessings from God; but that which produces thorns and thistles is rejected and near to a curse, and its end is to be burned.” From these words of Paul which we have taken up, it is clearly shown that by one and the same work of God, by which he gives “rain” to the land, one land, carefully tilled, bears good fruit, while another, neglected and untilled, “produces thorns and thistles.” And if someone, speaking as it were in the person of the rains, should say, “I, the rain, made the good fruits, and I made the thorns and thistles,” although it seems harsh to say, it is nevertheless said truly; for unless there had been rain, neither fruits nor thorns and thistles would spring up, but when the rain comes the land produces both from itself. Yet although the land has produced both kinds of growth by the gift of the rain, the difference in what springs up will not rightly be ascribed to the rains; the blame for the bad crop will justly fall back on those who, though they could have broken up the land with frequent plowing, turned the sluggish clods with heavy hoes, cut off and rooted out all the useless roots of harmful weeds, and prepared the fallow ground, cleansed and cultivated with all the efforts and care that cultivation requires, for the rains to come, neglected to do this, and will reap the fruits best suited to their idleness, “thorns and thistles.” So it comes about that the goodness and fairness of the rains come equally upon all the land, but by one and the same working of the rain the land that is cultivated produces useful fruits with blessing for its diligent and useful cultivators, while that which has grown hard through the idleness of its cultivators sprouts “thorns and thistles.” Let us understand it this way, then: the signs and mighty works done by God were like rains ministered by God from above, while the purpose and will of human beings must be understood as the land, untilled or tilled, all of one nature, as land is all one with land, but not of one and the same cultivation. For this reason each person's purpose, if it is untilled and wild and uncivilized, is hardened by the mighty works and wonders of God and becomes harsher and thornier; or else it grows gentler and gives itself up with its whole mind to obedience, if it has been cleansed of vices and cultivated. For a clearer proof of the matter it will not be unnecessary to use another comparison as well: for example, if someone were to say that it is the sun that binds and loosens, although loosening and binding are opposites. Yet what he says will not be false, since by one and the same power of its heat the sun melts wax but dries and hardens mud: not that its power works one way in the mud and another in the wax, but because the quality of mud is one thing and that of wax another, although by nature they are one, since both are from the earth. So one and the same working of God, carried out through Moses in signs and mighty works, exposed the hardness of Pharaoh, which he had conceived by the intent of his malice, and displayed the obedience of the other Egyptians who were mingled with the Israelites, who are also reported to have gone out of Egypt together with the Hebrews. As for what is written, that Pharaoh's heart was gradually tamed, so that at one time he said, “Do not go far; you may go a three days' journey, but leave your wives and your children and your cattle,” and whatever else is written by which he seems gradually to give way to the signs and mighty works, what else is shown by these than that the power of the signs and wonders did work something in him, yet did not accomplish as much as it should have? For if his hardening were such as very many think, he would surely not be found to give way even in a few things. I think it will not seem absurd to explain the turn or figure of speech used in what is written about hardening from common usage as well. For kindlier masters often say to servants who become more insolent and wicked through their masters' great patience and gentleness: “I made you what you are; I ruined you; my patience made you very bad; I am the cause of this so hard and evil mind of yours, because I do not punish you at once for each fault as your offenses deserve.” For we must first notice the turn or figure of speech, and only then understand the force of what is said, and not bring false charges against a word whose inner sense we have not examined carefully. Indeed the apostle Paul, plainly treating of such people, says to the one who remained in sins: “Or do you despise the riches of his goodness and patience and endurance, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are storing up anger for yourself on the day of anger and of the revelation of the just judgment of God.” What the apostle says, then, to one who is in sins, let us turn and take these very words as said to Pharaoh, and see whether you do not find them fittingly said of him too, who “according to his hardness and unrepentant heart stored up” and set aside “anger for himself on the day of anger,” since his hardness could never have been so exposed and brought to light had not signs and wonders so many and so magnificent followed. But if the proofs we have given seem less than complete, and the argument from the apostle's comparison still seems to have too little support, let us add the agreement of prophetic authority as well, and see what the prophets also declare about those who at first lived rightly and deserved to receive very many proofs of God's kindness, but later, being human, sinned. Making himself one with them, the prophet says: “Why, Lord, have you made us stray from your way? And why have you hardened our heart, so that we do not fear your name? Return for the sake of your servants, for the sake of the tribes of your inheritance, that we too may receive a little of the inheritance of your holy mountain.” And Jeremiah likewise says: “You deceived us, Lord, and we were deceived; you held fast and you prevailed.” What he says, then, “Why, Lord, have you hardened our heart, so that we do not fear your name?”, spoken by those who were praying for mercy, must be taken as a figure of speech used of conduct, as if someone were to say: “Why have you spared us so long, and not called us to account when we sinned, but left us alone, so that this evil grew and the license to sin spread because punishment had ceased?” So a horse, if it does not feel the iron spur of its regular rider and its mouth is not worn by the jagged bit, grows hard. So boyhood, if it is not bent by constant blows, will produce a youth both insolent and headlong toward vice. God therefore abandons and neglects those whom he has judged unworthy of correction. “For whom the Lord loves he corrects and disciplines, and he lashes every son whom he receives.” From this we must think that those are received into the rank and affection of sons who have deserved to be lashed and corrected by God, so that through patience in trials and afflictions they too may be able to say: “Who will separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus? Will affliction, or distress, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword?” For through all these each person's purpose is made clear and brought to light, and the firmness of his perseverance is shown, not so much to God, who “knows all things before they happen,” as to the rational and heavenly powers, who have been allotted the care of human salvation as helpers and ministers of God. But those who do not yet offer themselves to God with such constancy and such love, and who, in coming to the service of God, are not ready to prepare their souls for trial, are said to be “abandoned” by God, that is, not to be instructed, because they are not ready to be instructed; their ordering or cure is without doubt put off to a later time. They certainly do not know what they will obtain from God unless they first come to desire to obtain the benefit; and this will come about only if a person first knows himself and perceives what he lacks, and understands from whom he ought or is able to seek what he lacks. For one who has not first understood his weakness or his sickness does not know how to seek a doctor; or at least, when he has recovered his health, he will not be grateful to the doctor, because he did not first recognize the danger of his illness. So too, if someone has not first learned the faults of his soul and the evil of his sins and made them known by the confession of his own mouth, he cannot be cleansed and absolved, so that he does not fail to know that what he possesses was granted by grace, or mistake the divine generosity for his own goodness; and this without doubt breeds arrogance and pride of soul again, and becomes once more the cause of his ruin. So we must think of the devil also, who believed that the primacy he had when he was spotless was his own and not given by God; and in him was fulfilled the saying, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.” For this reason it seems to me that the divine mysteries were for this reason “hidden from the prudent and wise,” so that, as Scripture says, “no human being should boast in the sight of God,” and were “revealed to little ones,” that is, to those who, after they have become infants and little ones, that is, have brought themselves back to the humility and simplicity of little ones, then make progress; and when they come to perfection they certainly remember that they have obtained blessedness not so much by their own powers as by the grace and mercy of God. The one, then, who deserves to be abandoned is abandoned by God's judgment, and God is patient with certain sinners, though not without a definite reason. And this very fact that he is patient he does for their benefit, since the soul whose care and providence he bears is immortal; and what is immortal and eternal, even if it is not quickly healed, is not so much shut out from salvation as put off to more fitting times. And perhaps it is better for those who are infected by the poisons of a deeper malice to obtain salvation more slowly. For as doctors sometimes, though they could make wounds scar over more quickly, hold back and postpone the immediate healing with a view to a better and firmer health, knowing that it is better to wait while wounds are swollen and to let the flowing channels of the harmful fluid run for a while than to hurry to a healing of the surface and shut up in the hidden veins the fuel of a poisonous fluid, which, shut out from its usual channels, will without doubt creep into the internal parts and penetrate the very vital organs, bringing on the body no longer a disease but death; so in this way God too, who knows the secrets of the heart and foreknows the future, in his great patience allows certain things to happen which, happening to people from outside, draw out into the light the uncontrolled emotions and bad habits hidden within, so that through these those may be cleansed and healed who through great negligence and carelessness have received into themselves the roots and seeds of sins, so that, being cast out and drawn to the surface, they may in a manner be vomited out and dispersed; so that even if someone seems to be caught up in more serious evils, suffering convulsions in all his limbs, he may yet at some time cease and stop and have his fill of evils, and so, after many troubles, be restored to his proper state. For God governs souls not only for this brief time of our life, which is enclosed within about sixty years or a little more, but for a perpetual and eternal time, since he is himself eternal and immortal and holds providence over immortal souls as well. For he made the rational nature, which he also created “after his image and likeness,” imperishable; and therefore the soul, which is immortal, is not shut out from divine care and remedies by the shortness of this life of ours. But let us take from the Gospels too comparisons for what we have said. There a certain rock is mentioned that has little and scanty soil; if seed falls on it, it is said to spring up quickly, but when it has sprung up, because it does not send its “root” deep, “when the sun rises” what has sprung up is said “to be scorched and to wither.” This rock without doubt stands for the human soul hardened by its own negligence and turned to stone by malice. For no one is given “a heart of stone” by God; but each one's heart is said to become stony through malice and disobedience. As then, if someone should blame a farmer for not casting his seed more quickly on rocky ground, because he sees that another rocky ground received seed and sprouted quickly, the farmer will surely answer and say, “I sow this ground more slowly for this reason, that it may keep the seed it receives; for it is better for such ground to be sown later, so that the crop does not sprout too quickly from the surface of a thin soil and become unable to withstand the heat of the sun” (will not the one who first found fault agree with the reasoning and skill of the farmer, and approve as reasonably done what seemed to him inconsistent?): so God too, the most skilled farmer of his whole creation, holds back and postpones to another time, without doubt, the things that seem to us to have deserved to obtain health more quickly, so that their surface may not be healed rather than what lies within. But if someone objects to this, “Why then do some seeds fall even on rocky ground, that is, on a hard and stony soul?”, we must say that not even this can happen without the providence of the divine ordering; for unless it were learned through this what condemnation rash hearing and shameless inquiry incur, it would certainly not be recognized what benefit there is in being taught in due order. And from this it comes about that the soul recognizes its fault and reproaches itself, and accordingly reserves and gives itself over to cultivation, that is, sees that its own vices must first be cut away, and that only then must it come to instruction in knowledge. Since, then, as souls are innumerable, so also their characters and purposes, and the motions, desires and incitements of each are diverse, whose variety the human mind can in no way survey, the art, power and knowledge of such an ordering must therefore be left to God alone, who alone can know the remedies of each and measure the time of their cures. He, then, who alone, as we said, knows the ways of each mortal, knows by what way he should lead Pharaoh too, “so that through him his name might be named in all the earth,” after first disciplining him with many plagues and bringing him even to drowning in the sea. In this drowning we must certainly not think that God's providence toward Pharaoh came to an end; for Pharaoh must not be thought to have perished in his substance as soon as he was drowned. “For in the hand of God are both we and our words, and all prudence and skill in works,” as Scripture says. These things we have discussed as well as we could, examining the chapter of Scripture in which it is said that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and the saying, “He has mercy on whom he wishes, and whom he wishes he hardens.” Now let us see also about the words of Ezekiel, where he says: “I will take away the heart of stone from them and put in them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my ordinances and keep my commands.” For if God, when he wishes, “takes away the heart of stone” and “gives a heart of flesh,” so that “his commands” are observed and his commandments “kept,” it will seem that neither is it in our power to put away malice (for the “taking away of the heart of stone” seems to be nothing other than the cutting away, from whomever God wishes, of the malice by which one is hardened), nor is the giving of a “heart of flesh,” so that one walks in God's “commands” and keeps his commandments, which is nothing other than becoming obedient and not resisting the truth, and doing the works of virtue. If then God promises that he will do this, and before he himself “takes away the heart of stone” we cannot put it away from ourselves, it follows that it is not in our power to cast off malice, but in God's. And again, if it is not by our action that a “heart of flesh” comes to be in us, if it is the work of God alone, it will not be our work to live according to virtue, but in everything it will seem to be the work of God's grace. This is what those say who want to prove from the authority of Scripture that nothing is placed in our power. We will answer them that these words must not be understood so, but in this way: suppose someone is unskilled and untaught, and, perceiving the disgrace of his ignorance, moved either by someone's encouragement or by imitation of some wise men, he hands himself over to someone by whom he trusts he can be carefully trained and competently taught. Then if this man, who had earlier grown hard in ignorance, gives himself, as we said, with full intent of mind to a master and promises to obey him in everything, the master, seeing the intent of his purpose, will fittingly promise to take away all his ignorance and to implant skill; not that he promises to do this for a disciple who refuses or resists, but for one who offers himself and binds himself over to all obedience. So too the divine word promises to those who come to it that it will take away the “heart of stone,” not from those who do not listen to it, but from those who receive the commands of its teaching; as in the Gospels we find the sick coming to the Savior, asking to receive health, and so at last being healed. For example, that “the blind are healed and see”: in that they appealed to the Savior and believed that they could be healed by him, it is the work of those who were healed; in that their sight is restored to them, it is the work of the Savior. So also here the divine word promises that it will give instruction by “taking away the heart of stone,” that is, by wiping away malice, so that through this they may walk in the divine commands and keep the commandments of the law. After this we propose to consider also what the Savior had said in the Gospel: “For this reason I speak in parables to those who are outside,” “that seeing they may see and not see, and hearing they may hear and not understand, so that they do not turn and receive forgiveness.” On this, one who argues from the opposite side will say: If those who hear more clearly will in every case be corrected and “turned,” and so “turned” as to be worthy to receive the forgiveness of sins, and it is not in their own power to hear a clear word, but certainly in the power of the one who teaches to teach more openly and clearly; and if the one who teaches says that he does not preach the word clearly to them for this reason, “so that they do not hear and understand and turn” and be saved, then it will certainly not be in themselves to be saved. And if this is so, we will have no free choice either for salvation or for ruin. And if the words “so that they do not turn and receive forgiveness” had not been added, an easier answer might be given: we could say that the Savior did not wish those whom he foreknew would not be good to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and “for that reason spoke to them in parables”; but now, since “so that they do not turn and receive forgiveness” is added, the explanation becomes more difficult. And first we should notice what defense this passage provides against the heretics too, who are accustomed to hunt out words from the Old Testament that seem to them, as they understand them, to point to something harsh and inhuman in God the Creator, where a disposition of avenging or punishing is indicated, or whatever else they are accustomed to call it, on the ground of which they deny that there is goodness in the Creator: how is it that they do not judge the Gospels with the same mind and the same sense, and do not notice whether such things are found in the Gospels too as they judge or blame in the Old Testament? For in this chapter it is clearly shown, as they themselves say, that the Savior does not speak clearly for this reason, that people may “not turn” and, having turned, receive the forgiveness of sins. Certainly if this is understood according to the letter alone, it will contain nothing less than the things they accuse in the Old Testament. But if even to them the things so placed in the New Testament seem to need explanation, it follows of necessity that the things they accuse in the Old Testament should also be cleared by a similar explanation, so that it may be proved through this that what is written in both Testaments belongs to one and the same God. But let us turn, as far as we can, to the question set before us. We said earlier, in discussing Pharaoh, that sometimes to be healed too quickly does not turn to a person's good, especially if the disease, shut in, rages more violently in the inner organs. For this reason God, who knows hidden things and “knows all things before they come to be,” in his great kindness defers the healing of such people and prolongs the treatment, and, so to speak, heals them by not healing, so that a hasty recovery does not make them incurable. It is possible, then, that in the case of those to whom, as being outside, the word of our Lord and Savior was spoken, because he who “searches hearts and kidneys” saw that they were not yet fit to receive the teaching of plainer speech, he covered the faith of a deeper mystery with veiled speech, so that, if they were quickly turned and healed, that is, quickly received forgiveness for their sins, they would not easily fall back into the same disease of sins, which they had found to be healed without any difficulty. If this should happen, no one doubts that the penalty is doubled and the increase of evils heaped up, since not only are the sins that seemed to have been forgiven repeated, but the court of virtue is also polluted, if deceitful and defiled minds, full of hidden malice within, trample on it. And what remedy will there ever be for such people, who after the impure and filthy foods of malice, having tasted the sweetness of virtue and taken its delight into their throats, have turned back again to the poisonous and deadly foods of wickedness? And who doubts that it is better for such people to be put off and left for the time being, so that if perhaps they at some time have their fill of malice and come to detest the filth in which they now delight, then at last the word of God may be fittingly made known to them, so that “what is holy” may not be given “to dogs,” nor “pearls” thrown “before pigs,” to “trample them under their feet,” and then “turn and tear” and attack those who had preached the word of God to them? These, then, are the ones who are said to be “outside,” without doubt by comparison with those who are said to be “inside” and to hear the word of God more clearly. Yet these who are outside also hear the word, though it is covered with parables and shadowed by proverbs. But there are others besides those outside, who are called Tyrians, who do not hear at all, although the Savior foreknew of them that “they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes,” “if the mighty works done among others had been done among them”; and yet they do not hear even what those outside hear. I believe this is because their rank in malice was far lower and worse than that of those who are said to be outside, that is, not far from those inside, who deserved to hear the word, though in parables; and because perhaps their healing was being deferred to that time when it will be “more tolerable” for them “in the day of judgment” than for those among whom the mighty works that are written were done; so that then at last, relieved of the weight of their evils, they may walk more easily and tolerably along the way of salvation. But I want those who read these things to be warned of this: that in such very difficult and obscure passages we take the utmost pains, not so much to make out the solutions of the questions with full clarity (for each will do that “as the Spirit gives him to speak”), as to hold fast the rule of piety by a most careful assertion, in that we try to show that the providence of God governs all things justly and rules immortal souls by the most equitable arrangements according to the merits and causes of each. For the arrangement of human beings is not enclosed within the life of this age, but the earlier state of merits always provides the cause of the future state, and so, by the immortal and eternal law of equity and governance of divine providence, the immortal soul is brought to the summit of perfection. If, however, someone objects to us, because we said that the word of preaching was deliberately put off from certain worse and more wicked people, why it was preached to those in comparison with whom the Tyrians, who were certainly despised, are preferred, so that their evil was increased and their condemnation made heavier, since they heard the word who were not going to believe, it seems we must answer this way. God, who knows all minds, foreseeing the complaints against his providence, especially of those who say, “How could we believe, when we neither saw what others saw nor heard what was preached to others? So far is the fault outside us, since those to whom the word was announced and signs shown did not delay at all but, amazed by the very power of the wonders, believed”; wishing to refute the pretexts for such complaints, and to show that it is not any neglect on the part of divine providence but the choice of the human mind that is the cause of its own ruin, conferred the grace of his benefits even on the unworthy and unbelieving, so that truly “every mouth may be stopped,” and the human mind may know that all that it lacks is from itself and nothing from God; and at the same time, since the one who despised the divine benefits offered to him is condemned more heavily than the one who did not deserve to obtain or hear them at all, it may understand and recognize that it belongs to the divine mercy and to God's most equitable arrangement that he sometimes refrains from granting to some that they should see anything or hear the mysteries of divine power, so that, if they saw the mighty signs and learned and heard the mysteries of his wisdom but despised and neglected them, they would not be punished with a heavier penalty for their impiety. Let us see now also about the saying, “It does not depend on the one who chooses or the one who runs, but on God who shows mercy.” For those on the other side say: If “it does not depend on the one who chooses or the one who runs,” but the one on whom God has mercy is saved, then it is not in us to be saved. For either our nature is such that we can be saved or not be saved, or else it rests solely in the will of him who, if he wishes, has mercy and saves. To them we first put this question: Is choosing good things good or evil? And is running, hurrying so as to reach the end of the good, praiseworthy or blameworthy? If they say it is blameworthy, they will plainly be mad; for all the saints both choose good things and run toward good things, and are certainly not blameworthy. How then, if the one who is not saved is of an evil nature, does he choose good things and run toward good things and yet not find good things? For they say that “a bad tree does not bear good fruit”; and choosing good things is a good fruit. How then is the fruit of a bad tree good? But if they say that choosing good things and running toward good things is something morally neutral, that is, neither good nor evil, we will say to them: If choosing good things and running toward good things is morally neutral, then what is contrary to these will also be morally neutral, that is, choosing evil things and running toward evil things. But it is certain that choosing evil things and running toward evil things is not morally neutral but plainly evil; it is established, therefore, that choosing good things and running toward good things is not morally neutral but good. Having driven them back with this answer, let us now hurry to the explanation of the question itself, in which he says, “It does not depend on the one who chooses or the one who runs, but on God who shows mercy.” In the book of Psalms, in the songs of ascents, which are reported to be Solomon's, it is written this way: “Unless the Lord builds the house, they have worked in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the one who guards it has kept watch in vain.” By these words he certainly does not indicate that we should cease from building, or from keeping watch to guard the city that is within us; but what he shows is this: that whatever is built without God, and whatever is guarded without God, is built in vain and kept to no purpose. For in all things that are well built and well kept safe, the Lord is credited as the author of the building or of the guarding. For example, if we were to see some magnificent work and the mass of a splendid building raised with fine construction, should we not rightly and deservedly say that it was built not by human strength but by divine help and power? Yet it will not be implied by this that the work and diligence of human effort ceased and did nothing at all. Or again, if we see some city surrounded by a heavy siege of enemies, with threatening engines brought up against the walls, and pressed with rampart, weapons, fire and all the instruments of war by which destruction is prepared, and the enemy could be driven back and put to flight, we rightly and deservedly say that the deliverance of the freed city was granted by God; yet we do not mean by this that the watches of the sentries, the readiness of the young men and the night watches of the guards were lacking. So the apostle too must be understood to have spoken: since the human will alone is not sufficient for achieving salvation, nor is any mortal's running fit for attaining heavenly things and for winning “the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus,” unless this good will of ours itself, and our ready purpose, and whatever diligence there can be in us, is helped or strengthened by divine aid. And therefore the apostle said very consistently that “it does not depend on the one who chooses or the one who runs, but on God who shows mercy”; as if we were to say of farming what is written: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.” As, then, when a crop has brought good and abundant fruit to full ripeness, no one will piously and reasonably say that the farmer made those fruits, but will confess that they were given by God; so our perfection too is not brought about while we are idle and inactive, and yet its completion will be credited not to us but to God, to whom most of the work in it belongs. So also when a ship has come through the dangers of the sea, although the matter is carried on with much work of the sailors and with all the work of the sailor's art expended, with the enthusiasm and diligence of the helmsman applied, with the help of favorable winds and with the signs of the stars carefully observed, if at last, battered by waves and wearied by billows, it comes safe to harbor, no one of sound mind will credit the safety of the ship to anything but the mercy of God. Not even the sailors themselves or the helmsman dare to say, “I saved the ship”; they refer everything to the mercy of God; not that they feel they contributed no skill or work to saving the ship, but because they know that the work was theirs, while the safety was granted to the ship by God. So too in the course of our life, work must be spent by us and enthusiasm and diligence applied, but the fruit of our work, salvation, must be hoped for from God. Otherwise, if he requires nothing of our work, the commandments will certainly seem unnecessary; in vain too does Paul himself blame some for having fallen away from the truth and praise others for standing in the faith, and to no purpose does he hand on commands and ordinances to the churches; and in vain do we ourselves “will or run” toward good things. But it is certain that these things are not done in vain, and it is certain that the apostles do not give commands in vain, and that the Lord does not give laws without cause. It remains, then, for us to declare that the heretics slander these good words in vain. After this came the question raised by the saying, “Both choosing and accomplishing come from God.” And they say: If choosing comes from God and accomplishing comes from God, then whether we choose or act well or badly, it is from God; and if this is so, we are not of free choice. To this we must answer that the apostle's word does not say that choosing evil is from God, or that choosing good is from God, nor that to accomplish good or evil is from God, but says in general that “choosing and accomplishing come from God.” For as we have from God this very thing, that we are human beings, that we breathe, that we move, so also we have from God that we will; just as if we were to say that our moving is from God, or that each of our body parts serves its function and moves is from God. From this, certainly, we are not to understand that because the hand moves, for example to strike unjustly or to steal, this is from God; rather, the very fact that it moves is from God, but it is ours to turn these motions, the power of which we have from God, either to good or to evil. So also what the apostle says means this: that we receive from God the power of willing, but we use the will either in good or in evil desires. We must think in the same way about what we accomplish. But about what the apostle said: “So then he has mercy on whom he wishes, and whom he wishes he hardens. You will say to me then: Why does he still complain? For who resists his will? But indeed, human being, who are you to answer back to God? Does the thing formed say to him who formed it, Why have you made me this way? Or has not the potter power over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?”, someone will perhaps say: If, as “the potter from the same lump makes some vessels for honor and others for dishonor,” so God makes some for salvation and others for ruin, it is not in us either to be saved or to perish; and in this way we do not seem to be of our own choice. We must answer those who understand it so: Can it be that the apostle says things that contradict himself? And if this cannot be thought of the apostle, how will he seem, on their view, to blame justly those who committed sexual immorality in Corinth, or those who sinned “and did not repent of the impurity, sexual immorality and uncleanness they had committed”? How too does he praise those who acted well, like “the house of Onesiphorus,” saying: “The Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain; but when he came to Rome he sought me diligently and found me. The Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day”? It is not fitting for apostolic seriousness, then, to blame one who deserves blame, that is, one who has sinned, and to praise one who deserves praise for a good work, and then again, as if it were in no one's power to do anything good or evil, to say that it is the Creator's work that each one acts well or ill, since he makes one vessel for honor and another for dishonor. And how too can he add that “we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that each of us may receive in the body according to what he has done, whether good or evil”? For what reward for good is there for one who could not do evil, having been formed for this very thing by the Creator? Or what punishment will justly be inflicted on one who could not do good because of the very way his Maker created him? Then again, how is this assertion not contradicted by what he says elsewhere: “In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and earthenware, some for honor and some for dishonor. If then anyone cleanses himself from these, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful to the Lord, prepared for every good work”? So the one who has cleansed himself becomes a vessel for honor, while the one who has scorned to cleanse away his filth becomes a vessel for dishonor. From these sentences, I think, the cause of our deeds can in no way be referred to the Creator. For God the Creator does make vessels for honor, and he makes other vessels for dishonor; but the vessel that has cleansed itself from all uncleanness he makes a vessel for honor, while the one that has stained itself with the filth of vices he makes a vessel for dishonor. So it is concluded from this that the cause of each one's deeds comes first, and according to his merits each one is made by God a vessel either of honor or of dishonor. Each vessel, then, has provided its maker from within itself with the causes and occasions for being formed by the Creator either for honor or for dishonor. And if this assertion seems just, as it certainly is just and in agreement with all piety, that each vessel is prepared by God for honor or for dishonor from preceding causes, it does not seem absurd that, examining older causes in the same order and by the same line of reasoning, we should think the same in the account of souls also, and that this is why Jacob was loved even before he was born into this world, and Esau was hated while he was still held in his mother's womb. Nor will what is said, that from “the same lump” a vessel both of honor and of dishonor is made, be able to hem us in. For we say that the nature of all rational souls is one, as is signified by “the one lump of clay lying before the potter.” Since, then, the nature of all rational creatures is one, out of it God, according to the preceding causes of merits, as the potter out of one lump, has formed or created “some for honor and others for dishonor.” As for the apostle's words, which are those of one rebuking, “human being, who are you to answer back to God?”, I think he shows by them that such a rebuke is not addressed to anyone who is faithful and lives rightly and justly and has confidence before God, that is, to someone such as Moses was, of whom Scripture says, “Moses spoke, and God answered him with a voice”; and as God answered Moses, so every holy person answers God. But the one who is unbelieving, and has lost the confidence to answer before God because of the unworthiness of his life and conduct, and who asks about these things not in order to learn and make progress but in order to dispute and resist, and, to put it more plainly, who is the kind of person who could say what the apostle indicates when he says, “Why then does he still complain? For who resists his will?”, to such a one the rebuke the apostle speaks is rightly directed: “human being, who are you to answer back to God?” This rebuke, then, is addressed not to the faithful and holy but to the unbelieving and ungodly. To those who introduce different natures of souls and drag this apostolic word into support of their doctrine, we must answer this way: If they too agree that the apostle says that from “one lump” are made both those who are for honor and those who are for dishonor, whom they call of the nature to be saved and of the lost nature, then there will no longer be different natures of souls, but one for all. And if they accept that one and the same potter without doubt signifies one Creator, there will not be different creators of those who are saved and of those who perish. Now let them choose whether they wish it to be understood of a good God who creates the evil and the lost, or of a God who is not good who creates the good and those prepared for honor; for the necessity of answering forces one of the two from them. But according to our assertion, by which we say that God makes vessels for honor or for dishonor from preceding causes, the vindication of God's justice is in no way hemmed in. For it is possible that this vessel, which from earlier causes was made for honor in this world, if it acts carelessly, may according to the merits of its conduct become a vessel for dishonor in another age; just as, again, if someone has been formed by the Creator in this life as a vessel for dishonor from preceding causes, and has improved himself and cleansed himself of all vices and filth, he can in that new age become “a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful to the Lord, prepared for every good work.” Indeed, those who were formed by God in this age to be Israelites, and lived a life unworthy of the nobility of their race and fell away from all the dignity of their family, these, in a sense, will be changed in the age to come, because of their unbelief, from vessels of honor into vessels of dishonor; and again many who in this life were counted among the Egyptian or Edomite vessels, having taken up the faith and conduct of the Israelites, when they have done the works of the Israelites and “entered the church of the Lord,” will be vessels of honor “in the revelation of the sons of God.” For this reason it agrees better with the rule of piety to believe that every rational being, according to its purpose or conduct, is sometimes turned from evil to good and sometimes falls from good to evil; that some remain in good, while others advance even to better things and always climb to higher ones, until they reach the highest step of all; while others remain in evil, or, if malice has begun to spread further in them, advance to worse and are plunged into the uttermost depth of malice. For this reason we must also think it possible that some who began at first with small sins should be spread out into such great malice, and come to such an advance in evils, as to be made equal in wickedness to the opposing powers; and again, if through many serious and most severe punishments they are able at some time to come to their senses and gradually try to seek healing for their wounds, that, as malice ceases, they can be restored to good. From this we think that, since, as we have often said, the soul is immortal and eternal, it is possible that in many and endless spaces, through immeasurable and different ages, it may either descend from the highest good to the lowest evils, or be restored from the uttermost evils to the highest goods. But since the apostle's words, in what he says about vessels of honor or dishonor, that “if anyone cleanses himself, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful to the Lord, prepared for every good work,” seem to place nothing in God but everything in us, while in the words, “The potter has power to make from the same lump one vessel for honor and another for dishonor,” he seems to refer everything to God, these must not be taken as contrary to each other, but both senses must be brought together and one understanding made out of the two: namely, that we should neither think that the things in our choice can be accomplished without the help of God, nor think that the things in God's hand are brought to completion without our acts and efforts and purpose. That is, we do not have it in our own choice to will or to accomplish anything in such a way that we need not know that this very ability to will or to accomplish has been given us by God, according to the distinction we made above. Again, when God fashions “vessels, some for honor and some for dishonor,” we must recognize that he has our wills or purposes or merits as a kind of material, the cause of honor or dishonor, from which he fashions each of us either “for honor” or “for dishonor,” while the movement of the soul and the purpose of the mind suggest of themselves to him, from whom the heart and the thought of the mind are not hidden, whether its vessel ought to be fashioned “for honor” or “for dishonor.” But let these things be enough that we have discussed, as best we could, concerning the questions of free choice.
On the Opposing Powers
We must now see, according to the Scriptures, how the opposing powers, or the devil himself, struggle against the human race, provoking and inciting it to sin. First, in Genesis the serpent is described as having led Eve astray; concerning which, in the Ascension of Moses, a little book that the apostle Jude mentions in his letter, the archangel Michael, disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, says that the serpent, inspired by the devil, was the cause of the transgression of Adam and Eve. Some also ask who the angel is who speaks from heaven to Abraham, saying: "Now I know that you fear God, and you have not spared your beloved son, whom you loved, for my sake." For he is plainly described as an angel, who says that he knew then that Abraham feared God and had not spared his beloved son, as Scripture says; but he did not declare that it was for God's sake, but for his own, that is, for the one who said this. We must also inquire about the one of whom it is said in Exodus that he wished to kill Moses because he was going into Egypt; and later, who is the one called the destroying angel; and also who is the one written of in Leviticus as Apopompaeus, that is, 'the one who sends away', of whom Scripture says: "One lot for the Lord, and one lot for Apopompaeus," that is, the sender-away. In the first book of Kingdoms, too, an evil spirit is said to choke Saul. And in the third book the prophet Micaiah says: "I saw the Lord of Israel sitting on his throne, and all the army of heaven stood around him, on his right and on his left. And the Lord said: Who will deceive Ahab king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one said this, and another said that. A spirit came out and stood before the Lord and said: I will deceive him. And the Lord said to him: By what means? And he said: I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said: You will deceive him, and indeed you will prevail. Go out, then, and do so quickly. And now the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all your prophets; the Lord has spoken evil against you." By this it is clearly shown that a certain spirit chose by its own will and purpose to deceive and to work falsehood, which the Lord made use of for the death of Ahab, who deserved to suffer this. In the first book of Chronicles also: "The devil Satan stirred up Israel, and incited David to number the people." In the Psalms an evil angel is said to afflict certain people. In Ecclesiastes, too, Solomon says: "If the spirit of one who has power rises up against you, do not leave your place, for healing will check many sins." In Zechariah we read of the devil standing at the right hand of Jesus and resisting him. Isaiah says that the sword of the Lord rises up against the dragon, the crooked serpent. And what will I say of Ezekiel, who in his second vision prophesies most plainly to the prince of Tyre about the opposing power, and who says that the dragon lives in the rivers of Egypt? And the whole book written about Job, what else does it contain than an account of the devil, who asks that power be given him over all that Job has, and over his sons, and even over his body? Yet he is overcome through Job's patience. In that book the Lord taught many things in his answers about the power of this dragon that opposes us. These things, meanwhile, as far as they could come to mind at present, have been said from the Old Testament about how the opposing powers are either named in the Scriptures or said to oppose the human race, and are to be punished later. Let us look also at the New Testament, where Satan comes to the Savior, tempting him; and the evil spirits and unclean demons that had besieged certain people were driven by the Savior from the bodies of the sufferers, who are said to have been set free by him. Judas too, when the devil had already put it into his heart to betray Christ, later received Satan wholly into himself; for it is written that after the piece of bread Satan entered into him. And the apostle Paul teaches us that we should not give place to the devil, but, he says, "put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist the schemes of the devil," indicating that the saints' struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. He also says that the Savior was crucified by the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing, whose wisdom he also says he does not speak. Through all these things, then, divine Scripture teaches us that there are certain invisible enemies fighting against us, and that we must arm ourselves against them. For this reason the simpler of those who believe in the Lord Christ think that all the sins people commit come about from these opposing powers pressing on the minds of sinners, because in that invisible contest the powers are found to be superior; so that if, for example, there were no devil, no human being would sin at all. But we, looking at the reasoning more clearly, do not think this is so, considering the things that come plainly from bodily necessity. Are we to think that the devil is the cause of our being hungry or thirsty? I think no one would dare to affirm it. If then he is not the cause of our hunger and thirst, why should it be any different when a person's age has reached the time of manhood and the incentives of natural heat have prompted him? It follows without doubt that, as the devil is not the cause of hunger and thirst, so neither is he the cause of that motion which nature prompts at a mature age, that is, the desire for intercourse. It is certain that this cause is by no means always stirred up by the devil, as if we had to think that, if there were no devil, bodies would have no desire for such union. Then let us consider whether, if, as we showed above, food is sought by people not from the devil but by a kind of natural instinct, it could happen, if there were no devil, that human experience would use such discipline in taking food as never to exceed the measure at all, that is, never to take it otherwise than the matter required or in greater quantity than reason allowed, and that it would never happen to people to err in keeping to the measure and limit of food. I for my part do not think that people could have kept this, even if no instigation of the devil had provoked them, so that no one would exceed the measure and discipline in taking food, before they had learned it by long use and experience. What then? In food and drink it was possible for us to sin even without the devil's incitements, if we happened to be found less self-controlled or less careful; and are we to think that in desiring intercourse, or in tempering the natural desires, we should not suffer something similar? I think the same line of reasoning can be applied to the other natural motions as well, of desire, or anger, or sadness, or in all things whatever that exceed the limit of natural measure through the fault of lacking self-control. The reasoning is plain, then: as in good things the human purpose by itself alone is incomplete for the accomplishment of the good, for it is brought to perfection by divine help, so also in the opposite case we receive certain beginnings, and as it were certain seeds of sins, from the things we naturally use. But when we have indulged beyond what is enough and have not resisted the first impulses of overindulgence, then the hostile power, seizing the opening given by this first fault, incites and presses us in every way, striving to spread sins more widely; we human beings provide the occasions and beginnings of sins, while the hostile powers propagate them more widely and further, and, if possible, without any end. So, finally, the fall into greed comes about: at first people desire a little money; then, as the vice grows, greed increases. After this, when blindness of mind has also followed from the passion, with the hostile powers prompting and pressing, money is no longer desired but seized, and acquired by violence or even by the shedding of human blood. For a surer proof that these monstrous excesses of vice come from demons, it can easily be seen that those who are driven by excessive passions of love, or by uncontrolled anger, or by excessive sadness, suffer no less than those who are tormented bodily by demons. For it is reported in some histories that some people fell into madness from love, others from anger, many from sadness or from excessive joy; which I think happens because these opposing powers, that is, demons, having been given a place in their minds, which lack of self-control had first opened, took full possession of their senses, especially when no glory of virtue had roused them to resist. That there are some sins which do not come from the opposing powers but take their beginning from the natural motions of the body, the apostle Paul declares most plainly where he says: "The flesh desires what is against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; these resist each other, so that you do not do the things you wish." If, then, the flesh desires what is against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, we have at times a struggle against flesh and blood, that is, when we are merely human and walk according to the flesh, and when we cannot be tempted with greater temptations than human ones, as is said of us: "Let no temptation take hold of you but what is human. But God is faithful, who will not let you be tempted beyond what you are able." For as those who preside over the games do not let those who come to the contest engage each other at random or by chance, but with careful examination of their bodies or ages match them with the fairest pairing, this one with that, for example boys with boys and men with men, who are close to one another in age or strength; so we must understand of divine providence too, that it arranges with the most just moderation all who descend into these contests of human life, according to the strength of each, which he alone knows who alone sees the human hearts: so that one fights against such flesh and another against such, one for so long a time and another for so long, and one is incited by the flesh to this or that, another to something else; and so that one resists this or that hostile power, another two or three at once, or now one and now another, at a certain time this one and at another time that one, or after certain deeds against some and after others against others. Consider whether something of this kind is not indicated by what the apostle says, "God is faithful, who will not let you be tempted beyond what you are able," that is, because each is tempted in proportion to the amount or capacity of his strength. Yet because we have said that by the just judgment of God each one is tempted in proportion to the amount of his strength, it must not therefore be thought that the one who is tempted must win in every way; just as the one who strives in the games, although he has been matched with his opponent with fair equality and moderation, cannot always win. But unless the strength of the contestants is equal, the victor's palm branch will not be just, nor will the loser be justly blamed. Therefore God allows us to be tempted, but not beyond what we are able; for we are tempted according to our strength. Nor is it written that he will make with the temptation a way out of enduring, but a way out, that we may be able to endure; that is, he himself grants that we may be able to endure. But whether we fulfill vigorously or idly this ability he has given us is up to us. For there is no doubt that in every temptation the strength to bear it is present to us, if only we use the strength granted us properly. For to have the strength to win is not the same as to win, as the apostle himself indicated with very careful wording, saying that "God will give a way out, that you may be able to endure," not "that you will endure." For many do not endure but are overcome in temptation. What is given by God is not that we endure, otherwise there would seem to be no contest at all, but that we may be able to endure. And the strength that is given us so that we may be able to win we use, according to the faculty of free choice, either diligently, and we win, or idly, and we are overcome. For if this were given us entirely, that we should prevail in every way and never be overcome, what reason for contending would remain for one who cannot be overcome? Or what merit is there in the palm branch, where the faculty of resisting and of winning is taken away? But if the possibility of winning is offered equally to all of us, and it is placed in our power how we are to use this possibility, that is, diligently or idly, then the fault of the defeated and the palm branch of the victor will be just. From the things we have discussed as well as we could, I think it has clearly appeared that there are some offenses that we commit without malign powers pressing us, and others to which we are provoked by their instigation to a certain excess and lack of measure. For this reason it follows that we must now inquire how these opposing powers work these incitements in us. The thoughts that proceed from our heart, or the memory of any deeds whatever, or the contemplation of any things and causes, we find sometimes proceed from ourselves, sometimes are stirred up by opposing powers, and at times are also sent in by God or by holy angels. But this may perhaps seem a made-up story unless it is proved by the passages of testimony of divine Scripture. That thought arises from ourselves, David testifies in the Psalms, saying: "For the thought of man will confess to you, and the remnants of thought will celebrate to you." That it is also usually done by opposing powers, Solomon testifies in Ecclesiastes this way: "If the spirit of one who has power rises up against you, do not leave your place; for healing will check many sins." And the apostle Paul will give testimony of the same, saying: "Destroying thoughts and every height that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ." That it happens from God, David likewise testifies in the Psalms, saying: "Blessed is the man whose help is from you, Lord; ascents are in his heart." And the apostle says that God put it in the heart of Titus. That some things are suggested to human hearts through angels, whether good or evil, is shown both by the angel who accompanied Tobias and by the word of the prophet who says, "And the angel who spoke in me answered." The book of the Shepherd also declares the same, saying that two angels accompany each human being, and that if good thoughts arise in our heart they are suggested by the good angel, but if opposing ones, they are the instigation of the evil angel. Barnabas declares the same in his epistle, when he says there are two ways, one of light and the other of darkness, over which, he says, certain angels preside: over the way of light, the angels of God; over the way of darkness, the angels of Satan. Yet we must think that nothing else happens to us from the things suggested to our heart, good or evil, except only a movement and incitement provoking us either to good or to evil. It is possible for us, when a malign power has begun to incite us to evil, to cast the depraved suggestions away from us and to resist the worst persuasions and to do nothing at all that is blameworthy. And again it is possible that, when a divine power has called us to better things, we do not follow, the power of free choice being preserved to us in both cases. We said above that certain memories of good or evil things are also suggested to us, whether by divine providence or by the opposing powers; as is shown in the book of Esther, when Artaxerxes had not remembered the services of that most just man Mordecai, and, wearied by sleepless nights, was brought by God to remember to ask for the records of past events committed to writing; and, reminded in them of Mordecai's services, he ordered his enemy Haman to be hanged, and conferred on Mordecai himself magnificent honors, and on the whole nation of the saints salvation when danger was already imminent. But by the opposing power of the devil we must think it was suggested to the memory of the chief priests and scribes when they came to Pilate and said, "Lord, we remember how that deceiver said while he was still alive, After three days I will rise." And what Judas thought about the betrayal of the Lord and Savior did not come from the malice of his own mind alone; for Scripture testifies that the devil had already put it into his heart to betray him. Therefore Solomon rightly commanded, saying, "Keep your heart with all diligence"; and the apostle Paul says, "We ought to pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away"; and when he says, "Do not give place to the devil," he shows by this that by a certain deed, or by a certain laziness of mind, place is given to the devil, so that once he has entered our heart he either takes possession of us or at least pollutes the soul, if he cannot wholly possess it, when he hurls his fiery darts at us; by these we are sometimes wounded, the wound going deep, and sometimes only set on fire. Rarely indeed, and in a few people, are these fiery darts of his put out so that they find no place to wound, that is, when someone is covered with the strongest and most powerful shield of faith. But what is said in the letter to the Ephesians, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places," must be understood this way: "our" means mine, Paul's, and yours, the Ephesians', and of all whose struggle is not with flesh and blood. For these have a contest against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world; not as it was for the Corinthians, whose contest was still against flesh and blood, and whom no temptation had seized but what was human. Yet we must not think that each individual struggles against all these. For I think it impossible for any human being, however holy he may be, to be able to wage a contest against all these at once. And if this should somehow happen, which certainly cannot be, it is impossible that human nature could bear it at all without its utter overthrow. But just as, for example, if some fifty soldiers say that a battle with fifty others is imminent for them, it is not to be understood that one of them is to fight against fifty, but each of them rightly says, "We have a battle against fifty," all of them, however, against all; so too we must hear what the apostle says, that all the athletes and soldiers of Christ have a struggle and a contest against all these things that have been listed: all of them, but each singly, either in a contest to come with single opponents, or at least as will have been approved by God, the just president of the contest himself. For I think there is a certain measure to human nature, even if it is Paul, of whom it is said, "This man is a chosen vessel to me," or Peter, against whom the gates of hell do not prevail, or Moses, the friend of God; none of whom could at all endure the whole troop of opposing powers at once without some ruin to himself, unless perhaps the power of him alone were at work in him who said, "Take courage, I have overcome the world." Because of him Paul too said confidently, "I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me"; and again, "I worked more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me." Because of this power, then, which is certainly not human, working and speaking in him, Paul said: "But I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor power, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." For I do not think that human nature alone by itself can wage a contest against angels, and heights and depths, and any other creature; but when it has felt the Lord present and dwelling in it, it will say in confidence of divine help: "The Lord is my light and my Savior; whom should I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life; of whom should I be afraid? When evildoers draw near against me to eat my flesh, my enemies who afflict me, they themselves are weakened and have fallen. If an army should encamp against me, my heart will not fear; if war should rise against me, in this will I hope." For this reason I think that a human being can perhaps never overcome an opposing power by himself unless he has made use of divine help. For this reason the angel too is said to have “wrestled” with Jacob. We understand this to mean that it is not the same for the angel to have wrestled with Jacob as against Jacob; rather, the one who was present to him for the sake of his salvation, and who, when he knew his progress, also gave him the name Israel, wrestles with him, that is, is with him in the contest and helps him in the fight; while without doubt there was another against whom he fought and against whom his contest was waged. Indeed Paul did not say that our wrestling is with principalities or with powers, but against principalities and powers. For this reason, even if Jacob wrestled, he without doubt wrestled against one of those powers which Paul declares oppose the human race, and especially the saints, and stir up contests. That is why Scripture says of him that he wrestled with an angel and prevailed with God; so that the struggle of the contest was sustained by the help of an angel, while the palm branch of perfection brings the victor to God. Nor must we suppose that such contests are carried on by bodily strength and the exercises of the wrestling school; rather, the fight is of spirit against spirit, just as Paul indicates that our contest is against principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world. The very form of these contests must be understood this way: when losses, when dangers, when insults, when accusations are stirred up against us, the hostile powers do not aim at this, that we should merely suffer these things, but that through them we should be provoked either to great anger, or to excessive sadness, or to utter despair; or, what is worse, that, worn out and overcome by weariness, we should be driven to complain against God, as if he did not govern human life fairly and justly; so that through this we may be weakened in faith, or fall away from hope, or be compelled to abandon the truth of the doctrines and be persuaded to think something impious about God. For some such things are written about Job, when the devil asked God to be given power over his goods. Through this we are also taught that we are not assailed by chance attacks when such losses of property strike us, and that it is not by chance that one of our family is led away captive, or that the collapse of houses in which our dear ones are crushed happens. In all these each of the faithful ought to say, "You would have no power against me, unless it had been given you from above." For see that the house of Job would not have fallen on his sons unless the devil had first received power against them; nor would the horsemen have rushed in three companies to carry off his camels or oxen and other animals, had they not been driven by that spirit to which they had bound themselves as servants by the obedience of their own purpose; nor would that which seemed to be fire, or what was thought to be lightning, have fallen on Job's sheep, before the devil said to God: "Have you not fenced around all that is his, outside and within? But now reach out your hand and touch all that he has, and see if he does not curse you to your face." From all these it is shown that all the things that happen in this world which are considered morally neutral, whether they are sad or of whatever kind, are not done by God, and yet not without God; for God not only does not prevent the malign and opposing powers that wish to work such things, but even permits them to do them, though only at certain times and to certain persons; as is said of Job himself, that for a certain time he was appointed to fall under others, and his house to be plundered by the wicked. Therefore divine Scripture teaches us to receive all things that happen to us as brought on us by God, knowing that nothing happens without God. And that this is so, that is, that nothing happens without God, how can we doubt, when the Lord and Savior declares and says: "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father who is in heaven"? But necessity has drawn us to wander a little further in discussing the struggle of the opposing powers which they wage against human beings, and the sadder things that happen to the human race, that is, the trials of this life, as Job says, "Is not the whole human life on earth a trial?", so that it might be set out more clearly how these things happen and how piously we ought to think about them. Now let us see how people also slip into the sin of false knowledge, or with what aim the opposing powers are accustomed to stir up battles against us concerning these things as well.
On Threefold Wisdom
The holy apostle, wishing to teach us something great and hidden about knowledge and wisdom, says in the first letter to the Corinthians: "We speak wisdom among the mature; yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing; but we speak the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery, which God determined beforehand before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this world knew; for if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of majesty." Wishing to show in this the differences between wisdoms, he describes a certain wisdom of this world, and a certain wisdom of the rulers of this world, and another, the wisdom of God. And when he says "the wisdom of the rulers of this world," I do not think he means some wisdom common to all the rulers of this world; rather he seems to me to indicate a wisdom proper to each ruler. And again, when he says, "But we speak the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery, which God determined beforehand before the ages for our glory," we must ask whether he means that this wisdom of God, which was hidden in other times and generations and was not made known to the human beings as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets, is the same as the wisdom of God that existed before the Savior's coming, by which Solomon was made wise; and the Savior's own word declares that what the Savior teaches is more than Solomon, when he says, "And look, something greater than Solomon is here." In this it is shown that those who were taught by the Savior were taught something more than Solomon knew. For if someone says that the Savior indeed knew more, but did not hand on more to others than Solomon did, how will it fit, and how will it be thought consistently said, what he says later: "The queen of the South will rise in the judgment and condemn the people of this generation, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and look, something greater than Solomon is here"? There is, then, a wisdom of this world, and there is a wisdom belonging perhaps to each of the rulers of this world. But of the wisdom of the one God itself we perceive this to be indicated: that it worked less in the ancient and older times, but has been revealed more fully and more clearly through Christ. But we will investigate about the wisdom of God in its proper place. But now, since the present treatise concerns the opposing powers and how they also stir up those contests by which false knowledge is implanted in human minds, and souls are led astray while they think they have found wisdom, I think it necessary to state and distinguish what the wisdom of this world is and what the wisdom of the rulers of this world is, so that through this we may also notice who are the fathers of this wisdom, or rather of these wisdoms. I think, then, as we said above, that the wisdom of this world is something other than those wisdoms which belong to the rulers of this world; by this wisdom, it seems, the things that belong to this world are understood and grasped. Yet it has nothing in itself by which it can perceive anything about the divine nature, or about the reason of the world, or about any higher matters, or about the ordering of a good and blessed life; but it is such, for example, as is all the art of poetry, or grammar, or rhetoric, or geometry, or music, with which perhaps medicine too should be counted. In all these we must consider the wisdom of this world to be present. By the wisdom of the rulers of this world we understand such things as the secret and hidden philosophy, as they call it, of the Egyptians, and the astrology of the Chaldeans, and the claims of the Indians to knowledge of the highest, and also the many and varied opinions of the Greeks about the divine nature. We find in the holy Scriptures, then, that there are rulers over each nation, as we read in Daniel that there is a certain prince of the kingdom of the Persians and another prince of the kingdom of the Greeks, who, it is clearly shown from the course of the reading itself, are not human beings but certain powers. In the prophet Ezekiel, too, the prince of Tyre is most plainly indicated to be a certain spiritual power. These, then, and others like them, each having its own wisdoms and building up its own doctrines and varied opinions, when they saw our Lord and Savior promising and proclaiming that he had come into this world in order to destroy all the doctrines of knowledge falsely so called, at once, not knowing who was hidden within him, laid snares for him: "For the kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ." Knowing these snares of theirs, and understanding what they plotted against the Son of God when they crucified the Lord of glory, the apostle says: "We speak wisdom among the mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing, which none of the rulers of this world knew; for if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory." We must certainly examine whether these wisdoms of the rulers of this world, with which they try to fill human beings, are put into people by the opposing powers with the aim of ensnaring and harming them, or are applied only through error, that is, not with a view to harming humans, but because these rulers of this world themselves think these things true and therefore wish to teach others too what they themselves suppose to be true; which I rather think. For as, for example, the Greek authors, or the leaders of each heresy, having first themselves accepted the error of false doctrine as truth and judged within themselves that this is the truth, then try to persuade others too of the things they have judged within themselves to be true; so we must think the rulers of this world also do, in which world certain spiritual powers have been allotted rule over certain nations and for that reason are called rulers of this world. Besides these rulers there are also certain special energies of this world, that is, certain spiritual powers working certain things which they chose to do by the freedom of their choice; among these are those rulers who produce the wisdom of this world: for example, there is a particular energy and power that inspires poetry, another geometry, and so each one prompts each of the arts and disciplines of this kind. Indeed very many of the Greeks have held that the art of poetry cannot exist without madness; hence it is also related in their histories that those whom they call bards were sometimes suddenly filled with the spirit of a kind of madness. And what is to be said of those whom they call diviners, from whom, through the working of the demons that preside over them, answers are given in skillfully measured verse? Those too whom they call magicians or sorcerers have sometimes, by calling up demons over boys still very young, made them recite poems in verse that amazed and astonished everyone. We must think these things happen in this way: as holy and spotless souls, when they have devoted themselves to God with all affection and all purity, and have kept themselves away from all contact with demons, and have purified themselves by much abstinence, and have been steeped in pious and religious disciplines, in this way take on a share in divinity and deserve the grace of prophecy and of the other divine gifts; so we must think that those who show themselves fit for the opposing powers, that is, by a way of life or by pursuits friendly and acceptable to them, receive their inspiration and come to share in their wisdom and doctrine. For this reason it comes about that they are filled with the workings of those to whose service they have first subjected themselves. Concerning those who teach otherwise about Christ than the rule of the Scriptures allows, it is not idle to consider whether the opposing powers, striving with treacherous purpose against the faith of Christ, invented certain invented and at the same time impious doctrines; or whether they too, having heard the word of Christ, and being able neither to vomit it out of the secret places of their conscience nor to keep it in purity and holiness, brought in various errors against the rule of Christian truth through vessels suited to them and, so to speak, through their own prophets. And we must rather think that the apostate and runaway powers, which have withdrawn from God, out of the very wickedness of their mind and purpose, or out of envy of those for whom, once they have known the truth, an ascent is being prepared to that rank from which they themselves fell, put together these errors and deceptions of false doctrine in order to hinder such progress. It is therefore plainly shown by many indications that the human soul, while it is in this body, can receive different energies, that is, workings of different spirits, evil and good. Of the evil there are two kinds: either when they have wholly and entirely possessed the mind, so that they allow those they have besieged to understand or feel nothing at all, as with those commonly called possessed people, whom we see out of their minds and mad, such as those who are reported in the Gospel to have been healed by the Savior; or when, by hostile suggestion, they corrupt with various thoughts and sinister persuasions a soul that still feels and understands, as an example of which is Judas, provoked to the crime of betrayal by the devil's prompting, as Scripture declares, saying, "When the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray him." But a person receives the energy, that is, the working, of a good spirit when he is moved and provoked to good things and inspired toward heavenly or divine things; as the holy angels and God himself worked in the prophets, provoking and encouraging them to better things by holy suggestions, yet in such a way that it remained in the person's own choice and judgment whether he would or would not follow the one calling him to heavenly and divine things. For this reason by this clear mark it is recognized when the soul is moved by the presence of a better spirit: that is, if it suffers no disturbance or derangement of mind at all from the inspiration that comes upon it, and does not lose the free judgment of its choice; as an example are all the prophets and apostles, who delivered the divine messages without any disturbance of mind. That human memory is provoked by the suggestions of a good spirit to the recollection of better things we have already shown by examples above, when we mentioned Mordecai and Artaxerxes. I think we must next inquire for what causes the human soul is moved now by good powers and now by evil ones. Of this I suspect there are certain causes older even than this bodily birth, as John indicates, leaping and rejoicing in his mother's womb when the voice of Mary's greeting reached the ears of Elizabeth his mother; and as the prophet Jeremiah declares, who “before he was formed in his mother's womb” was known to God, and “before he came out of the womb” was sanctified by him, and while still a boy received the grace of prophecy. And again, on the contrary, it is plainly shown that some have been possessed by hostile spirits from their earliest age, that is, that some were born with a demon itself, and others, as the credibility of histories declares, practiced divination from boyhood, having suffered from their earliest age the demon they call Python, that is, a spirit that speaks from the belly. Concerning all these, those who assert that all things in this world are governed by God's providence, as our faith also holds, cannot, it seems to me, answer otherwise, so as to show divine providence free from all blame of injustice, than by saying that there were certain earlier causes for them, by which, before they were born in the body, the souls contracted some guilt in their thoughts or motions, for which they were judged by divine providence to deserve to suffer this. For the soul is always of free choice, both when it is in this body and when it is outside the body; and freedom of choice is always moved either toward good or toward evil; nor can a rational sense, that is, a mind or soul, ever be without some motion, either good or evil. It is probable that these motions provide the causes of merits even before they do anything in this world; so that for these causes or merits they are, by divine providence, appointed to suffer something good or evil immediately from their first birth, indeed even before their birth, so to speak. Let this be said about the things that seem to happen to people either immediately at their first birth or even before they come out into this light. But concerning the things suggested by different spirits to souls, that is, to human thoughts, which provoke either to good or to the opposite, we must think that sometimes in this too there are certain causes prior to bodily birth. But sometimes the mind, watchful and casting away from itself what is evil, calls to itself the help of the good; or, on the contrary, negligent and lazy, when it is less on its guard, it gives place to those spirits which, lying in wait like robbers in hiding, try to rush into human minds when they have seen a place given them through laziness; as the apostle Peter says, “Your adversary the devil goes around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” Therefore our heart must be kept day and night with all watchfulness, and “no place must be given to the devil,” but everything must be done by which the ministers of God (that is, those “spirits who have been sent to serve” to those who are called to “the inheritance of salvation”) may find a place in us and delight to enter the guest room of our soul, and, dwelling with us, that is, in our heart, may guide us by better advice; if, that is, they find the dwelling of our heart adorned with the cultivation of virtue and holiness. But let these things be enough that we have discussed, as best we could, about the powers that oppose the human race.
On Human Temptations
Now I think we should not be silent about human temptations either, which arise at times from flesh and blood, or from the wisdom of flesh and blood, which is said to be hostile to God. And whether what some say is true, that there are two souls in each person, [we must consider,] now that we have set out the temptations that are said to be more than human, that is, those which we wage against principalities and powers and against the rulers of the darkness of this world and the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places, or which are carried on for us against evil spirits and unclean demons. In this matter I think we must consequently inquire whether in us, that is, in human beings, who consist of soul and body and vital spirit, there is also something else which has its own incitement and motion provoking to evil. For some are accustomed to raise a question of this kind: whether there are, as it were, two souls in us, one more divine and heavenly and the other lower; or whether, from the very fact that we cling to bodies (which bodies by their own nature are dead and wholly lifeless, since the material body is given life by us, that is, by souls, and the body is certainly contrary and hostile to the spirit), we are drawn and provoked to those evils which are pleasing to the body; or else, third, as some of the Greeks have thought, that our soul, though one in substance, is nevertheless made up of several parts, one part being called rational and the other irrational, and the part they call irrational being divided again into two emotions, desire and anger. These, then, are the opinions about the soul which we have found held by some. Of these, the one we said seemed good to certain Greek philosophers, that the soul is threefold, I do not see to be much confirmed by the authority of divine Scripture; but for the other two that remain some passages can be found which might seem to fit them from the divine writings. Of these let us first discuss what some are accustomed to maintain, that there is in us one soul that is good and heavenly and another that is lower and earthly; and that the better one is implanted from heaven, such as the one which in Jacob, while he was still in the womb, won the palm branch of victory in displacing his brother Esau, and which in Jeremiah is sanctified from the womb, and in John is filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb. The lower one, they say, comes from bodily seed, and they assert that it is sown together with the body; for this reason they deny that it can live or exist apart from the body, and for this reason they say it is often called flesh. For what is written, "The flesh desires what is against the spirit," they take as said not of the flesh but of this soul, which is properly the soul of the flesh. From these words they also try to confirm what is written in Leviticus this way: "The soul of all flesh is its blood." For since the blood, spread through the whole flesh, gives life to the flesh, they say that this soul, which is called the soul of all flesh, is in the blood. And this very thing that is said, that the flesh fights against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and what is said, "The soul of all flesh is its blood," they say is called by another name the wisdom of the flesh, which is a kind of material spirit that is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be, because it has earthly wills and bodily desires. Of this, they think, the apostle also spoke when he says: "But I see another law in my bodily parts warring against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which is in my bodily parts." If anyone objects to them that this is said of the nature of the body, which according to the property of its own nature is indeed dead, but is said to have a sense or wisdom that is hostile to God or wars against the spirit, as if one were to say that it is in a manner the voice of the flesh itself, crying out not to be hungry, not to be thirsty, not to be cold, and not to want to suffer any discomfort at all whether from abundance or from lack, they will try to refute and attack this by showing that there are very many other emotions of the soul that draw their origin in no way from the flesh, and yet the spirit opposes them, such as ambition, greed, rivalry, envy, pride and the like. Seeing that the human mind or spirit has a kind of battle with these, they therefore place the cause of all these evils in nothing other than this soul of which we spoke above, a bodily soul, as it were, and generated by transmission from the seed. They are accustomed also to add in support of their assertion the testimony of the apostle where he says: "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are sexual immorality, uncleanness, sexual excess, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, rivalries, anger, quarrels, disagreements, heresies, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like," saying that not all these things draw their origin from the use or pleasure of the flesh, so that all these motions should be thought to arise from that substance which has no soul, that is, the flesh. And the saying, "See your calling, brothers, that not many among you are wise according to the flesh," will seem to point to this: that there appears to be a certain fleshly and material wisdom of its own, and another wisdom according to the spirit; and the former cannot be called wisdom unless there is a soul of the flesh which is wise in what is called the wisdom of the flesh. To these they also add this: "If the flesh wars against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, so that we do not do what we wish," what are the things of which he says "so that we do not do what we wish"? It is certain, they say, that this is not said of the spirit, for the will of the spirit is not prevented; nor of the flesh, because if the flesh has no soul of its own, it will certainly have no will either. It remains, then, that it is said of the will of this soul, which can have a will of its own, which certainly opposes the will of the spirit. And if this is so, it is established that the will of this soul is something intermediate between the flesh and the spirit, serving and obeying without doubt one of the two, whichever it has chosen to obey. When it subjects itself to the pleasures of the flesh, it makes people fleshly; but when it joins itself to the spirit, it makes people to be in the spirit, and for this reason to be called spiritual. This is what the apostle seems to indicate when he says, "But you are not in the flesh but in the spirit." We must ask, then, what at all this will is between the flesh and the spirit, besides the will that is said to belong to the flesh or to the spirit. For it is held for certain that all things said to be of the spirit are the will of the spirit, and whatever are called works of the flesh are the will of the flesh. What, then, besides these, is this will of the soul that is named separately, which the apostle does not want us to do when he says, "so that you do not do whatever you wish"? By this it seems to be indicated that it ought to cling to neither of these two, that is, neither to the flesh nor to the spirit. But someone will say: as it is better for the soul to do its own will than to do the will of the flesh, so again it is better to do the will of the spirit than its own will. How, then, does the apostle say, "so that you do not do the things you wish"? Because in the fight that is waged between the flesh and the spirit, the victory of the spirit is by no means certain; for it is plain that the flesh prevails in very many people. But since we have fallen into a deep discussion, in which we must examine every side that can be raised, let us see whether perhaps something of this kind can be treated in this place: that as it is better for the soul to follow the spirit when the spirit has conquered the flesh, so also, even if it seems worse for it to follow the flesh, which wars against the spirit and wishes to call the soul back to itself, it may nevertheless perhaps seem more useful for the soul to be held by the flesh than to remain in its own wills. For since, while it remains in its own wills, it is then said to be neither hot nor cold, but to continue in a kind of middle lukewarmness, it will find a slow and rather difficult turning back. But if it clings to the flesh, then from the very evils it suffers from the vices of the flesh, finally satisfied and filled, and as it were wearied by the heaviest burdens of luxury and sexual desire, it can be turned more easily and quickly from material filth to the desire for heavenly things and to spiritual grace. And we must think the apostle said this: that the spirit fights against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit for this reason, that we may not do whatever we wish, meaning without doubt the things that are designated as outside the will of the spirit and outside the will of the flesh; as if we were to say in other words that it is better for a person to be either in virtue or in wickedness than in neither; but the soul, before it turns to the spirit and is made one with it, while it clings to the body and thinks of fleshly things, seems to be neither in a good state nor plainly in a bad one, but to be like an animal, so to speak. It is better, if it can be, that it cling to the spirit and become spiritual. But if this cannot be, it is more beneficial for it to follow even the wickedness of the flesh than, placed in its own wills, to hold the state of an irrational animal. These things we have treated, wishing to discuss the opinions of each assertion, with a longer digression than we wished, so that we might not be thought unaware of the questions usually raised by those who ask whether there is another soul in us besides this heavenly and rational one, which is naturally opposed to it and is called the flesh, or the wisdom of the flesh, or the soul of the flesh. Now let us see what is usually answered to these things by those who maintain that there is in us one motion and one life of one and the same soul, whose salvation or ruin is properly ascribed to it according to its own acts. And first let us see what kind of emotions of the mind we suffer when we feel ourselves as it were torn into parts over each matter, when a kind of battle of thoughts takes place in our hearts, and certain probabilities are suggested to us by which we incline now to this and now to that, and by which we are now rebuked and now approve ourselves. It is nothing remarkable if we say that bad characters are at variance with themselves, since this is found in all people whenever deliberation on an uncertain matter comes to be weighed, and it is considered or consulted what may be chosen more rightly or more usefully. It is no wonder, then, if two probabilities meeting each other and suggesting contrary things draw the mind in different directions. For example, if thought invites someone to faith and the fear of God, it cannot then be said that the flesh is fighting against the spirit; but while it is uncertain what is true and useful, the mind is drawn in different directions. So too, when the flesh is thought to provoke to sexual desire, but better counsel resists such incitements, we must not think there is some other life resisting another, but the nature of the body, which, when the places of the seminal fluid are filled, longs to empty them and let them flow away; just as it is not some opposing power, or the life of another soul, that must be thought to excite thirst in us and provoke us to drink, or to make us hungry and stir us to food. But as these things are sought or discharged by the natural motions of the body, so also the fluid of natural seed, gathered over time in its places, longs to be expelled and cast out; and this is so far from coming about by the impulse of any other provocation that it is sometimes discharged even of its own accord. When it is said, then, that "the flesh fights against the spirit," these people understand it this way: that the use, or necessity, or pleasure of the flesh, provoking a person, draws him away and leads him off from divine and spiritual things. For, drawn away by the necessity of the body, we are not allowed to give our time to divine things that will profit us forever. So again the soul, giving its time to divine and spiritual things and joined to the spirit, is said to fight against the flesh, when it does not allow it to grow slack with delights and to drift in pleasures, in which it naturally takes delight. In this way they also explain the saying, "The wisdom of the flesh is hostile to God": not that the flesh truly has a soul or a wisdom of its own, but as we are accustomed to say, by a loose use of words, that the earth is thirsty and wants to drink water, where we say "wants" not properly but loosely, or again that a house wants to be rebuilt, and many other things like these; so also "the wisdom of the flesh" must be taken, or the saying "the flesh desires what is against the spirit." They usually add also the saying, "The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground." For what cries to God is not properly the blood that was shed; but blood is said loosely to cry out, while vengeance is demanded on the one who shed it. And what the apostle says, "But I see another law in my bodily parts warring against the law of my mind," they understand as if he had said that whoever wishes to give his time to the word of God is distracted, torn and hindered by bodily necessities and uses, which are in the body like a kind of law, so that, giving his time to wisdom, he cannot contemplate the divine mysteries more intently. As for heresies, envies, quarrels and the rest being listed among the works of the flesh, they understand it this way: that the soul, when it has become coarser in perception from subjecting itself to the bodily passions, being weighed down by the mass of its vices and perceiving nothing subtle or spiritual, is said to have become flesh, and takes its name from that on which it spends more enthusiasm or purpose. They also add this question: who will be found, or who will be called, the creator of this evil way of thinking that is called the flesh's way of thinking? For they maintain that no other creator of soul and flesh is to be believed in but God. And if we say that the good God in his very creation created something hostile to himself, it will certainly seem absurd. If, then, it is written that "the wisdom of the flesh is hostile to God," and this is said to have come about by creation, God himself will seem to have made a nature hostile to himself, which cannot be subject to him or to his law; that is, if the thing of which these words are said is thought to be a living being. And if this is accepted, how will it seem to differ from those who say that different natures of souls were created, which by nature are either to perish or to be saved? This certainly pleases only the heretics, who, since they cannot maintain the justice of God by pious reasoning, compose fictions of impiety of this kind. We, for our part, have presented as well as we could, in the manner of a discussion, what could be said on each doctrine in the person of each side; let the reader choose from them which account is preferable to accept.
That the World Took Its Beginning in Time
Next, since it is one of the church's definitions, held especially according to the faith of our history, that this world was made and began at a definite time, and that at the universally proclaimed end of the age, it is to be dissolved because of its corruption, it does not seem absurd to repeat a few things about this too. As far as the faith of the Scriptures is concerned, the assertion on this point seems very easy. Indeed, the heretics, though they are divided on many other matters, nevertheless seem to agree on this, yielding to the authority of Scripture. About the creation of the world, then, what other Scripture can teach us better than what was written by Moses about its origin? Although it contains within it greater things than the narrative of the history seems to show, and contains a spiritual sense in very many places, and uses the letter as a kind of veil over mystical and deep matters, nonetheless the narrator's account indicates that all things that are seen were created from a definite time. About the consummation of the world, Jacob indicates it first, when he testifies to his sons, saying: "Gather to me, sons of Jacob, that I may tell you what will be in the last days," or, "after the last days." If, then, there are last days, or a time after the last days, the days that began must necessarily cease. David also says this: "The heavens will perish, but you will remain; and they will all grow old like a garment, and like a covering you will change them, and they will be changed; but you are the same, and your years will not fail." Our Lord and Savior, when he says, "He who created them from the beginning made them male and female," himself testifies that the world was made; and again, when he says, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away," he indicates that it is perishable and will come to an end. And the apostle, when he says, "For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be set free from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God," plainly declares the end of the world; and again when he says, "The form of this world is passing away." But in the very words that the creation was subjected to futility he also shows its beginning; for if the creation was subjected to futility because of some hope, it was certainly subjected for a cause; and what exists from a cause must necessarily have begun; for the creation could not, without any beginning, have been subjected to futility, and hope to be set free from a bondage of corruption which it had not begun to serve. Whoever searches at leisure will find very many other sayings of this kind in the divine Scriptures, by which the world is said both to have a beginning and to hope for an end. If, then, there is anyone who in this matter opposes either the authority of our Scripture or the faith, we would ask him whether he says that God can comprehend all things or cannot. To say that he cannot is plainly impious. But if, as he must, he says that God comprehends all things, it remains that, by the very fact that they can be comprehended, they are understood to have both a beginning and an end. For what is wholly without any beginning cannot be comprehended at all. For however far the understanding extends itself, so far the power of comprehending is withdrawn and put off without end, where no beginning is held. But they are accustomed to object to us, saying: If the world began in time, what was God doing before the world began? For to call the nature of God idle and unmoving is both impious and absurd, as is to think that goodness at some time did no good and omnipotence at some time exercised no power. This they usually object to us when we say that this world began at a definite time, and when, following the faith of Scripture, we even count the years of its age. I do not think any of the heretics can easily answer these propositions in keeping with the principle of his own doctrine. But we will answer consistently, keeping the rule of piety, by saying that God did not then first begin to work when he made this visible world; but as after the corruption of this world there will be another, so also before this one existed we believe there were others. Both points will be confirmed by the authority of divine Scripture. For that after this world there will be another, Isaiah teaches, saying: “There will be a new heaven and a new earth, which I will make to remain in my sight, says the Lord.” And that before this world there were others too, Ecclesiastes shows, saying: “What is it that has been made? The very thing that will be. And what is it that has been created? The very thing that is to be created; and there is nothing at all new under the sun. If anyone speaks and says, Look, this is new, it has already been in the ages that were before us.” By these passages of testimony both points are proved at once, that there were ages before and that there will be ages later. Yet we must not think that there are several worlds at the same time, but that after this one another will come in its turn; about these it is not necessary now to repeat each point, since we have already done so above. I think one thing must certainly not be passed over idly: that the holy Scriptures have called the creation of the world by a new and distinctive name, speaking of the καταβολή of the world (which has been rather improperly translated into Latin as “the foundation of the world”; but καταβολή in Greek rather means “casting down,” that is, throwing downward, which, as we said, they have improperly translated into Latin as “the foundation of the world”); as in the Gospel according to John, when the Savior says, “And there will be distress in those days such as has not been since the foundation of the world” (here “foundation” is καταβολή, which must be understood as we have explained above). The apostle too used the same word in the letter to the Ephesians, when he says, “Who chose us before the foundation of the world” (here too he called the foundation of the world καταβολή, to be understood in the same sense as we interpreted above). It seems worth inquiring, then, what is indicated by this new name. And I think that, since the end and consummation of the saints will be in those things “which are not seen and are eternal,” we must judge from the contemplation of that very end, as we have often shown above, that rational creatures had a similar beginning. And if they had a beginning such as the end they hope for, they were without doubt from the beginning in those things “which are not seen and are eternal.” If this is so, there has been a descent from higher to lower, not only on the part of those souls that deserved it by the variety of their motions, but also on the part of those that were brought down from those higher and invisible places to these lower and visible ones for the service of the whole world, even though unwilling. “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope,” so that sun or moon or stars or angels of God might give service to the world; and for those souls which, because of their excessive defects of mind, needed these coarser and more solid bodies, and because of those for whom this was necessary, this visible world was established. From this, then, by this meaning of the word, that is, by καταβολή, a bringing down of all in common from higher to lower seems to be indicated. The whole “creation,” indeed, holds the hope of liberty, that it “may be set free from the bondage of corruption,” when “the sons of God” who fell away or were scattered have been gathered into one, or when they have fulfilled the other duties in this world which God alone, the maker of all, knows. Such and so great a world must be thought to have been made as could hold all the souls that were appointed to be exercised in this world, and all the powers that are ready to be present with them, to order them and to help them. For that all rational creatures are of one nature is proved by many assertions; by this alone can the justice of God be defended in all his dealings with them, since each one has in itself the causes why it has been placed in this or that rank of life. God, then, arranged this ordering later, having already foreseen from the world's origin the reasons and causes, both of those who for some defect of mind deserved to come into bodies, and of those who were carried away by desire for visible things, and also of those who, willingly or unwillingly, were compelled by him who subjected them “in hope” to give certain services to those who had fallen into this state. Some, not understanding or noticing that this variety in the ordering had been instituted by God from preceding causes of free choice, have thought that all things in this world are driven either by chance motions or by the necessity of fate, and that nothing is in our choice. For this reason they could not show the providence of God to be blameless. As we said, all the souls that have lived in this world needed many ministers, or rulers, or helpers; so in the last times, when the end of the world was already near and close at hand, and the whole human race was sinking toward final ruin, not only those who were ruled but also those to whom the care of ruling had been entrusted having grown weak, it no longer needed such help, nor defenders like itself, but asked for the aid of its author and creator himself, who would restore the corrupted and profaned discipline both of obeying for the one and of ruling for the other. For this reason the only-begotten Son of God, who was the Word and Wisdom of the Father, though he was in that glory with the Father which he had before the world was, emptied himself and, taking the form of a servant, became obedient to the point of death, so that he might teach obedience to those who could obtain salvation in no other way than through obedience. He also restored the corrupted laws of ruling and reigning, when he subjected all his enemies under his feet, so that by this, that he must reign until he puts his enemies under his feet and destroys the last enemy, death, he might teach the rulers themselves the right measures of ruling. Since, then, he had come to restore not only the discipline of ruling or reigning, but also, as we said, of obeying, fulfilling first in himself what he wished others to fulfill, he therefore not only became obedient to the Father to the point of death on the cross, but also, at the consummation of the age, embracing in himself all whom he subjects to the Father and who come to salvation through him, he himself too, together with them and in them, is said to be subject to the Father; for all things hold together in him, and he is the head of all, and in him is the salvation and fullness of those who obtain salvation. This, then, is what the apostle says of him: "When all things have been subjected to him, then the Son himself also will be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all." But I do not know how the heretics, not understanding the apostle's meaning contained in these words, bring disgrace on the word 'subjection' in the Son. If the proper meaning of this term is sought, it can easily be found from its opposites. For if to be subject is not good, it remains that its opposite is good, that is, not to be subject. For the apostle's words, as they would have it, seem to show this when he says, "When all things have been subjected to him, then the Son himself also will be subjected to him who subjected all things to him," as if he who is not now subject to the Father will be subject then, when the Father has first subjected all things to him. But I wonder how this can be understood: that he who, while all things are not yet subject to him, is not himself subject, should be thought to be subjected then, when all things have been subjected to him, when he has become king of all and holds power over the universe, though he was not subject before. They do not understand that the subjection of Christ to the Father shows the blessedness of our perfection and declares the crowning of the work he undertook, since he offers to the Father not only the sum of ruling and reigning, which he has corrected throughout the whole creation, but also the ordinances of obedience and subjection of the human race, corrected and restored. If, then, this subjection by which the Son is said to be subject to the Father is taken as good and saving, it is very consistent and coherent that the subjection of enemies, which is said to be made to the Son of God, should also be understood as saving and beneficial; so that, as when the Son is said to be subject to the Father the perfect restoration of the whole creation is declared, so when enemies are said to be subjected to the Son of God, the salvation of those subjected and the restoration of the lost are understood in it. But this subjection will be accomplished in certain ways, by certain disciplines and at certain times; not by any necessity compelling to subjection, so that the whole world is made subject to God by force, but by word, by reason, by teaching, by the summoning of better things, by the best instructions, and also by deserved and fitting threats, which justly hang over those who despise the care and health of their own salvation and benefit. Indeed, we human beings too, when we train servants or sons while they are still, because of their age, incapable of reason, restrain them by threats and fear; but when they have grasped an understanding of what is good, useful and honorable, then, the fear of blows having ceased, persuaded by word and reason, they consent to all that is good. But how each one ought to be dealt with, the freedom of choice being preserved to all rational creatures (that is, whom the word of God finds and instructs as already prepared and capable, whom it puts off for a time, from whom it is wholly hidden and arranges that their hearing be far from it; whom, again, when they despise the word of God shown and preached to them, it presses toward salvation by inflicting certain corrections and discipline, and in a manner demands and forces their return; and to whom it even offers certain occasions of salvation, so that sometimes someone obtains a salvation beyond doubt even from a single answer uttered in faith); for what causes or on what occasions these things come about, or what divine wisdom, looking within, or seeing what motions of their purpose, orders all these things, is known only to God and to his Only-begotten, through whom all things were created and restored, and to the Holy Spirit, through whom all things are sanctified, who proceeds from the Father himself; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
On the End of the World
About the end and consummation of all things we have already discussed above as well as we could, as far as the authority of divine Scripture allowed, and we think this sufficient for instruction; now we add a few reminders, since the order of the inquiry has brought us to this place. The highest good, then, toward which all rational nature hurries, which is also called the end of all things, is defined by very many philosophers too in this way: that the highest good is to become like God as far as possible. But I think this is not so much their own discovery as something they took from the divine books. For Moses indicates it before all others when he narrates the first creation of man, saying: “And God said: Let us make man after our image and likeness.” Then he adds: “And God made man; after the image of God he made him; male and female he made them, and he blessed them.” When he says, then, “after the image of God he made him,” and is silent about the likeness, he indicates nothing other than that man received the dignity of the “image” in his first creation, while the perfection of the “likeness” was reserved for him in the consummation; that is, that he should acquire it for himself by the efforts of his own diligence through the imitation of God, so that, the possibility of perfection having been given him at the beginning through the dignity of the “image,” he might at the end, through the fulfillment of works, bring the perfect “likeness” to completion in himself. But the apostle John defines more openly and clearly that this is so, declaring this: “Little children, we do not yet know what we will be; but when it is revealed to us” (speaking without doubt of the Savior), “we will be like him.” By this he most surely indicates both the end of all things, which he says is still unknown to him, and the likeness to God that is to be hoped for, which will be granted according to the perfection of merits. The Lord himself too, in the Gospel, shows that these same things are not only to come but are to come through his own intercession, when he chooses to ask this of the Father for his disciples, saying: “Father, I wish that where I am these also may be with me”; and, “as I and you are one, so these also may be one in us.” In this the likeness itself seems already, if it may be said, to advance, and from being like to become “one,” because without doubt in the consummation or end God is “all things and in all.” Here some ask whether the nature of bodily being, even if it has been cleansed thoroughly and made wholly spiritual, does not seem to stand in the way either of the dignity of the likeness or of the property of oneness; for a nature that is in a body does not seem able to be called like the divine nature, which is certainly in the first place incorporeal, nor to be truly and rightly called one with it, especially since the truth of the faith teaches that the Son's being “one with the Father” must be referred to the property of their nature. Since, then, God is promised at the end to be “all and in all,” it follows that we must not think that animals, or cattle, or wild beasts come to that end, so that God is not said to be in animals or cattle or beasts as well; nor wood or stones, so that God is not said to be in these too. So too we must not think that any malice reaches that end, so that, when God is said to be “in all,” he is not said to be in some vessel of malice too. For even if we say that God is now too everywhere and “in all,” because nothing can be empty of God, yet we do not say that he is now “all” in those in whom he is. For this reason we must consider more carefully what this is that signifies the perfection of blessedness and the end of things: that God is said not only to be “in all” but also to be “all.” Let us inquire, then, what these “all things” are which God is to be “in all.” And I for my part think that the saying that God is “all in all” means that he is also “all” in each one. He will be “all” in each in this way: that whatever the rational mind, cleansed from all the residue of bad habits and with every cloud of malice wholly wiped away, can feel or understand or think, will all be God, and it will no longer perceive anything other than God; it will think God, see God, hold God, and God will be the measure and limit of its every motion; and so God will be “all” to it. For there will no longer be any distinction of evil and good, because evil is nowhere (for God is “all” to it, and evil no longer lies beside it); nor will the one who is always in the good, and to whom God is “all,” desire any longer to eat of the tree of the knowledge of “good and evil.” If, then, the end, brought back to the beginning, and the outcome of things made to match their beginnings, restores that state which rational nature had when it had no need to eat of the tree of the knowledge of “good and evil,” so that, with every sense of malice removed and the mind wiped clean to sincerity and purity, he alone who is the one good God becomes “all” to it, and not in a few or in many, but so that “in all” he himself is “all,” when there is no longer “death” anywhere, nor the “sting” of death anywhere, nor any evil at all: then truly God will be “all in all.” But some think that this perfection and blessedness of rational natures remains in the state we described above, that is, that they have God as “all” and God is “all” to them, only if no fellowship with bodily nature draws them away; otherwise, they think, the glory of the highest blessedness would be hindered if an admixture of material substance were inserted. About this matter we have treated and set out more fully above what could occur to us. Now, since we find in the apostle Paul mention of a “spiritual body,” let us inquire, only as far as we can, how we ought to think about this from there too. As far as our understanding can grasp, we think that the quality of the spiritual body is such as is fitting for not only all holy and perfect souls to live in, but also all that creation which “will be set free from the bondage of corruption.” Of this body the apostle also said, “We have a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” that is, in the dwellings of the blessed. From this we can form a conjecture of how great the purity, the subtlety and the glory of the quality of that body is, if we compare it with those bodies which now, though they are heavenly and most splendid, are nevertheless “made with hands” and visible. But of that one it is said that it is a house “not made with hands” but “eternal in the heavens.” Since, then, “the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal,” that which is neither visible nor “made with hands” but is “eternal” far surpasses all these bodies that we see, whether on earth or in heaven, and which can be seen and are “made with hands” and are not “eternal.” From this comparison one may conjecture how great is the beauty, the splendor and the brightness of the “spiritual body,” and that it is true, what was said, that “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him.” We must not doubt that the nature of this body of ours can, by the will of God who made it such, be brought by the Creator to that quality of a most subtle, most pure and most splendid body, as the state of things will call for and the merit of rational nature require. Indeed, when the world needed variety and diversity, matter offered itself in complete service to its maker, as to its Lord and creator, through the different appearances and kinds of things, so that he might draw from it the different forms of heavenly and earthly things. But when things have begun to hurry toward this, “that all may be one,” as “the Father is one with the Son,” we are given to understand as a consequence that, where all are “one,” there will no longer be diversity. For this reason the last enemy also, who is called death, is said to be destroyed, so that there may no longer be anything sad where there is no death, nor anything adverse where there is no enemy. The destruction of the last enemy must be understood this way: not that its substance, which was made by God, perishes, but that its hostile purpose and will, which came not from God but from itself, perish. It will be destroyed, then, not so that it no longer exists, but so that it is no longer an enemy and death. For nothing is impossible to the Almighty, nor is anything incurable to its maker; for he made all things that they might exist, and the things that were made to exist cannot cease to exist. Therefore they will undergo change and variety, so that according to their merits they are placed in a better or worse state; but the things made by God in order to exist and to remain cannot undergo destruction of their substance. For the things that in common opinion are believed to perish are not at once agreed to perish by the reasoning of faith or truth. Indeed our flesh is thought by the uneducated and by unbelievers to perish so completely after death that nothing at all of its substance is believed to remain. But we who believe in its resurrection understand that only a change is brought about in it by death, while its substance certainly remains, and by the will of its Creator, at a definite time, it is restored again to life, and a change is made in it again; so that what was at first flesh from the earth, earthly, then dissolved by death and made once more ash and earth ("For you are earth," he says, "and to earth you will go"), is raised again from the earth, and after this, as the merit of the soul that lives in it requires, advances to the glory of a spiritual body. To this state, then, we must think that all this bodily substance of ours will be brought, when all things are restored so as to be one, and when God is all in all. This, however, must be understood to happen not suddenly but gradually and by stages, over infinite and immeasurable ages, as improvement and correction proceed little by little in each individual: some running ahead and pressing toward the heights with swifter course, others following at the next interval, and others far behind; and so, through many and countless ranks of those who are advancing and being reconciled to God from being his enemies, the last enemy is reached, who is called death, so that he too may be destroyed and be an enemy no longer. When, then, all rational souls have been restored to such a state, then the nature of this body of ours also will be brought to the glory of a spiritual body. For as we see concerning rational natures that those who lived in unworthiness because of their sins are not different from those who were invited to blessedness because of their merits, but we see the very same ones who were sinners before, later turned back and reconciled to God, called back to blessedness, so too we must think about the nature of the body: that the body we now use in dishonor, in decay and in weakness is not one body, and the one we will use in freedom from decay, in power and in glory another; but this same body, casting off the weaknesses in which it now is, will be transformed into glory and made spiritual, so that what was a vessel of dishonor, this very thing, cleansed, becomes a vessel of honor and a dwelling of blessedness. In this state we must believe that it remains always and unchangeably by the will of the Creator, as the saying of the apostle assures us: "We have a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." For the faith of the church does not accept, as certain Greek philosophers hold, that besides this body which is made of the four elements there is another, fifth body, in every way other than and different from this body of ours. For no one can bring forward from the holy Scriptures even a suspicion of such things, nor does the very sequence of things allow it to be accepted, especially since the holy apostle plainly defines that no new bodies are given to those who rise from the dead, but that they receive the very bodies they had while living, transformed from worse to better. For he says: "It is sown a body that lives by the soul, it will rise a spiritual body; it is sown in decay, it will rise in freedom from decay; it is sown in weakness, it will rise in power; it is sown in dishonor, it will rise in glory." As, then, there is a kind of progress for a human being, so that one who is at first a person who lives by the soul and does not understand the things of the Spirit of God comes by instruction to become spiritual, and judges all things while he himself is judged by no one, so too we must think about the state of the body: that the same body which now, because of its service to the soul, is said to live by the soul, will by a certain progress, when the soul joined to God has become one spirit with him, advance, as a body serving the spirit, to a spiritual state and quality; especially since, as we have often shown, bodily nature was made by the Creator such that it easily follows into whatever quality he wills or the matter requires. This whole line of reasoning, then, comes to this: that God created two general natures, a visible nature, that is, bodily, and an invisible nature, which is incorporeal. These two natures undergo different changes. The invisible one, which is rational, is changed in mind and purpose, because it has been endowed with freedom of choice; and through this it is found sometimes in good things and sometimes in their opposites. This bodily nature, on the other hand, undergoes a change of substance; for this reason, for whatever God the maker of all wishes to devise, fashion or refashion, he has the service of this matter in all things, so that he transforms and transfers bodily nature into whatever forms or kinds he wishes, as the merits of things demand. The prophet plainly indicates this when he says, "God, who makes all things and transforms them." Now we must certainly ask whether, when God is all in all, at the consummation of all things, the whole nature of body will consist of one kind, and every quality of body will be that one alone which will shine in that inexpressible glory which we must think will belong to the spiritual body. For if we understand rightly, this is what Moses writes at the beginning of his book, saying, "In the beginning God made heaven and earth." For this is the beginning of all creation; to this beginning it is fitting that the end and consummation of all things be brought back, that is, that that heaven and that earth be the dwelling and rest of the godly; so that first all the holy and the gentle receive the inheritance of that earth, since the law and the prophets and the Gospel teach this too. In that earth, I think, are the true and living forms of that worship which Moses handed down through the shadow of the law; of which it is said that they "serve the copy and shadow of heavenly things," that is, those who served under the law. And to Moses himself it was said, "See that you make everything according to the pattern and likeness that was shown you on the mountain." For this reason it seems to me that, as on this earth the law was a kind of tutor for those who were to be led by it to Christ, instructed and trained by it so that after the training of the law they might more easily receive the more perfect teachings of Christ, so also another earth, receiving all the holy, first steeps and forms them in the teachings of the true and eternal law, so that they may more easily be perfected also by those perfect teachings of heaven, to which nothing can be added; in which there will truly be what is called the eternal Gospel, and the Testament ever new, which will never grow old. In this way, then, we must think it will come about in the consummation and restoration of all things that, advancing gradually and ascending in due measure and order, they come first to that earth and to the instruction that is in it, in which they are prepared for better teachings, to which nothing can be added. For after “stewards” and “guardians,” Christ the Lord, who is king of all, will himself take up the kingdom; that is, after the instruction of the holy powers, he himself will instruct those who can receive him insofar as he is wisdom, reigning in them until he subjects them also to the Father “who subjected all things to him”; that is, so that when they have become capable of God, God may be to them “all in all.” Then, consequently, bodily nature also will receive that highest state, to which nothing can be added. Having so far discussed the account of bodily nature and of the spiritual body, we leave it to the reader's judgment to choose from the two whichever he judges the better. And with this let us make an end of the third book.
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