Anti-Arian Works 5 part 3/4

7:29 [Vulgate 7:30]) man upright, whom he so appointed lord of all things which he had created on earth and in the sea, that he made them subject to his power alone; requiring from man the due obedience of service, on whom he had bestowed the free choice of the will. As long as man served his own Lord with fitting devotion, he obtained the power of an unshaken dominion even over those things over which he himself was superior; nor did he lose any of what he had received, so long as he himself fully rendered what he owed. But when he offended the Lord by transgressing the commandment, the despiser at once found in his own body the outrage he had shown to God:

so that he might learn how evil it was to despise the precepts of the good Creator, when he himself, after he had begun to be evil, had lost his power over his own generative members. How, then, could he remain lord of all those things which he had received from God, who, despising the Lord, had lost the rights of dominion in his own primal body? Henceforth his very body too began to be subject to infirmities and to death: whence, by a just and consequent vengeance, it came about that he who did not fear the death of the soul in sin, should dread the death of the body in punishment; and, having lost the rest in which as blessed he had enjoyed himself, should be tormented, most wretched, by the tiniest of animals. 29.

Hence it is that after the sin of the first man, by which human nature is universally made subject to the reign of sin and death, man rules over camels, horses, oxen, elephants, and the other great quadrupeds, and yet is shaken by the bite of a bedbug or a flea; and while all those things which are larger in body and stronger in strength serve man when tamed, these tiniest creatures—which can most easily be destroyed when pressed between just two fingers—can by no means be brought to tameness, that is, be recalled to it. And it is established that this was done by divine judgment for this reason: that from those things over which man rules, he might recognize how great a dignity he had before the transgression;

and from those things by which he is troubled and injured, he might acknowledge to how great an abasement he has come through the transgression—for in his power God left the greater things, and withdrew the lesser: at once showing both what the Creator's goodness conferred on man, and what man's own iniquity brought upon the sinner. Thus through the transgression of the first men, from the merit of so great a crime, there befell the human race a violent natural infirmity; so that man was not overcome by certain evil natures, but human weakness felt punishments and perils from the unsuitability of good natures.

That, therefore, a flea torments a man and a scorpion kills him, is not the creation of evils, but the unsuitability of good natures, which followed from the equity of the Judge, when the iniquity of defiant man had gone before. For God, whose works are true and whose ways are right, holy Zacharias in his prayer most rightly confesses; because he who is supremely good, does all things good whatsoever he does. 30. Hence it is that by a marvelous work he fittingly uses even this very unsuitability of natures, by which human sins are punished, while immutable justice does this, which renders to each its own, so that it makes the unsuitability of one nature toward another universally accord, by its own works, with each nature's proper ends. But any nature whatever,

while it is less suited to another nature's welfare, is not on that account to be reckoned evil because it harms (for every nature, according as it is nature, is good); but for the most part adversity is brought from one nature upon another nature for this reason: that weakness yields and succumbs to the incongruity. For very often even the things themselves, that is, the very natures in which alone undoubted destruction is wont to be found, if tempered by a more moderate suitability drawn from others, are turned from the danger of death into remedies of health: which we find first of all in those very venomous animals. For some say that whenever a fiery inflammation arises in the body, it is quickly extinguished by scorpions pounded and applied.

But even if this perhaps be thought by some either doubtful or false, no one is permitted to deny that which is found admirable in serpents. For no one is ignorant that vipers are naturally venomous, [as scorpions kill] with a venomous sting (perhaps 'when... they kill'); and yet, that it may be shown that it is not the malice of natures but their incongruity that harms, we know that from the flesh of vipers, tempered by the suitable admixture of other things, medicines are compounded against the bites of vipers; and that these are salutarily applied not only to those who are struck by scorpions, but also to those who are bitten by vipers. Who here would not marvel at the wisdom of God? Who would not magnify his goodness, and praise his prudence?

He who, not restraining his mercy in his anger, from the same source whence he made perils arise for sinners, ordained that helps be provided for those in danger: so that we who feel the harms on account of our iniquity, might feel the benefits from his goodness. Who could set forth the praise of the Creator in sufficient words, when he so created one and the same viper, that it bears in itself at once both destruction and remedy; and what, living, it brings in death, dead it restores unto health; and both inflicts and repels the ruin of life; and the venom which is poured in by the serpent's tooth, is extinguished by the flesh of the same serpent? Whence it comes about that the viper, which living served human weakness and death, dead serves life and health.

Who, I ask, does these things, save he to whom the Church sings 'mercy and judgment' (Ps. 101:1)? 31. The species called scammony—who is ignorant how much it harms the healthy, if taken alone; and how much it benefits the sick, if suitably mixed with other species? And, to speak of those things which are always desired by all, and by whose daily use not only weakness but even the very health of human life is found to have need, let us consider bread and wine, neither of which suits one in a fever. For we see that by physicians drink is always, and sometimes even bread as food, forbidden to the sick. But this is done, not because bread or wine are evil, but because they do not suit the sick person.

For consequently, when they have begun to suit, they both nourish strength and preserve health: yet their immoderate intake takes away vigor from the strong, while it compels the healthy to fall ill. Behold how much due measure and the suitability of things avail among God's creatures, to which immoderation and incongruity are found to be contrary: and while it is called natural to them, not a natural malice but an accidental infirmity is found—which anyone easily attributes rightly in all creatures who so considers the good things created by the supreme Good, that in them he recognizes the inexpressible and unutterable praise of the Creator;

and thereby he himself is to be loved above all things—he who even in those things which we feel as penal on account of our iniquity is found both merciful and just, since from that same source whence he presses down the defiant, he raises up the frail; and because upon pride there straightway followed misery in man, the merciful and just Lord, from that same source whence he lays on the weight of pride, applies the relief of mercy. 32.

Nevertheless, whoever is a son of the Church who, as you say, put forward those assertions—claiming that flies, scorpions, fleas, and bedbugs were made not by God but by the devil—let him take care lest he be deceived and led astray by the deadly cunning of the Manichaeans, who, being themselves set in darkness, strive to introduce a god of light and a god of darkness, and to preach two principles naturally contrary to each other. Whence, because they say the nature of light is good, but the nature of darkness evil, they are led by their own error to this: that they do not hesitate to assert that among all the things which are in the world, some natures are good, some evil—calling those evil by which their senses are offended, those good by whose delight they are soothed:

not understanding, as the Apostle says, 'neither the things they say, nor the things concerning which they affirm' (1 Tim. 1:7). For, to say something concerning light and darkness, whose natures they principally suppose to be contrary—is not their assertion first of all found mendacious in this: that darkness, which they say is naturally contrary to light, is found to have no nature at all? For light and darkness are not two natures; but where light is not, there the very absence of light is called by the name of darkness; just as the absence of voice is called silence, just as the absence of clothing is called nakedness, just as that vessel is called empty into which no substance, whether of liquid or of any other thing, is poured:

so in ourselves it is called hunger, where there is no food; it is called thirst, where there is no drink. 33. All these things, therefore, which I have recounted, and things like them which I have now passed over for the sake of preserving moderation in the discussion, are indeed without doubt contrary, yet not through their own natures, but through habit and privation—that is, through that contrariety by which either something is had, or something is not had. Accordingly, although they be contrary, yet their effects are not always found contrary: for this bodily light, which the Manichaeans reckon the principal good, though it be indeed good, since it was created by the supreme Good, yet becomes good only so far that the substance of life is naturally to be preferred to it;

although therefore it be good, yet sometimes to those who use it unsuitably it is rendered not salutary but penal: for it invigorates healthy eyes, but tortures weak ones; it refreshes the sound, but dulls those in pain. Contrariwise, eyes set in pain gain some rest from darkness, and, with doors and windows closed, feel some relief from that pain which they suffer from light, and by a certain suitability of darkness are nourished toward seeing the light. Behold, the less light suits, the more it injures; and the more darkness suits, the more it profits; and just as the brightness of light aids healthy eyes, so the obscurity of darkness is wont to aid those in pain;

and thereby, when each is received suitably, the effect of both light and darkness is found in the aiding of the eyes. For just as the sound are aided by light, so the weak are refreshed by darkness. For also when the wearied are shut in sleep, they are in a certain manner aided by darkness, so that they may be rendered again strong and vigorous for seeing the light. And it is to weak and wearied eyes just such a thing to be withdrawn from the good light for the sake of restoring health and strength, as it is to the whole body, whenever it falls ill, to be suspended from the accustomed taking of foods: which are not therefore contrary and harmful to the sick because they are naturally evil, but because they do not suit their infirmity: for the sick do not sustain all the things that health takes.

Whence sometimes, by the very things by which the sound body is refreshed, the infirmity of the body is aggravated: so that sometimes even the sound body itself is injured by excess in the use of the very things by which it is aided, and while something is received unsuitably, where health is sought to be preserved, infirmity is found. The very use of clothing too, if it be unsuitable, is found to be not salutary but harmful. For who, whether from any poverty or infirmity of body, would not perilously make use of winter garments when he is hot, or of summer ones when he is cold? 34. But it is tedious to show the judgment of suitability by many examples, since they cannot be lacking to those who observe.

Accordingly, all the natures which exist, which live, which have sensation, which have understanding—since they were made by God, that is, by the supreme Good—are good: which, if they were not made by the supreme Good, would not be good; and if they were not good, would not have anything of good in themselves. And first of all, since the life of the good is something, and such a good as is loved by living men, if there were any nature which was not made by the supreme Good, it would in no way live. But this I say of animals, that is, of the substance which lives and has sensation; yet those natures too which neither live nor have sensation, have this very thing that they are from the creation of him who supremely is: because not only to live, but even to be, is good, and that which supremely is, is the supreme good. 35.

There is therefore no nature evil, whether living or non-living; and thereby all natures, in that they are natures, are good. But certain of them, although they be good from God's creation, have been made penal to man from the punishment of sin; not on account of their own nature, but on account of man's fault. Wherein it has been shown to man, made in the image of God, how great an evil he has brought upon himself, who has been brought to this: that the destruction of death is inflicted on him by tiny little beasts. Wherefore in all animals, in all herbs, and in all creatures universally, whatever a man perceives to be deadly to himself, let him not say that an evil nature is in them, but let him acknowledge in them the retribution of his own iniquity.

For we have become like fleas and bedbugs, after we stood defiant against God; and the scorpion's sting became deadly to man, after of his own accord he chose to be wounded by the sting of death. For 'the sting of death is sin' (1 Cor. 15:56): with which sting man first so struck himself unto death, that he made it pass through his whole progeny as well: so that even in those in whom the grace of God brings it about that sin does not reign, there is not lacking frequent and manifold peril from the penalty of sin. Hence it is that even righteous men, and those living holily, in this mortal life are not free from troubles and perils of this kind: because, as long as they live mortally, they are not without sin. Whence blessed John says:

'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us' (1 John 1:8). The holy apostle James also testifies that 'in many things we all offend' (James 3:2). 36. But the sins of the saints are not such as the sins of the wicked. For the sins of the saints are light, the sins of the wicked are grave. In the sins of the wicked, either human perversity thinks ill of God, or human cupidity leads man to (or 'through') the desires of the flesh, or human cruelty injures one's neighbor. For of those who sin against God, Wisdom says: 'But those who sin against me, do wrong to their own souls; and those who hate me, love death' (Prov. 8:36).

But of those who live lustfully the Apostle says: 'But if anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which you are. Let no one deceive you' (1 Cor. 3:17-18). Of the hatred of a brother too, blessed John speaking says: 'He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness even until now. For he who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no scandal in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and knows not whither he goes, because the darkness has blinded his eyes' (1 John 2:9-11). 37. The sins, therefore, of the wicked come about in three (or 'in all') ways.

For they are entangled either in sacrileges, or in shameful deeds, or in crimes. They commit sacrileges when they do not rightly think of God, and depart from the true faith either through fear of losing temporal advantages, or through the mere blindness and perversity of the heart. In shameful deeds they sin when, immoderate and obscene in themselves, they live basely. In crimes they then sin when they cruelly injure others either by damages or by any kind of oppressions. And both sorts, those sinning capitally whether in faith or in works, the blessed Apostle calls reprobate, saying of those who contradict the true faith:

'But as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so these too resist the truth, men corrupt in mind, reprobate concerning the faith' (2 Tim. 3:8). But those who, under the profession of the true faith, live in evil works and crimes, likewise rebuking, he says: 'All things are clean to the clean; but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is clean; but both their mind and conscience are polluted. They profess that they know God, but by their deeds they deny him, being abominable, and unbelieving, and reprobate unto every good work' (Titus 1:15-16). But when the saints sin, they so succumb in any sin to human infirmity or human delight (or

'delight'), that they neither obstinately contradict the true faith, nor pollute themselves with shameful deeds, nor injure their neighbors by crimes: which the blessed Apostle shows, saying: 'For the grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, instructing us, that denying impiety and worldly desires, we should live soberly, and justly, and piously in this world' (Titus 2:11-12). The same blessed apostle admonishes us indeed in another place, saying: 'Not to be more wise than it behooves to be wise, but to be wise unto sobriety' (Rom. 12:3). Nevertheless, in this threefold division in which he says that we should live 'soberly, and justly, and piously in this world,' it seems to me that he lives soberly who does not follow the delights of luxury;

he lives justly who in no way injures his neighbor, and bestows benefits on him as far as he is able; he lives piously who by no reasoning departs from the fellowship of ecclesiastical unity, and, placed within the Church, indubitably holds those things which he most certainly knows to pertain to the knowledge of the true faith; but those things which he does not know, or about which he doubts, he humbly and patiently investigates, until, if he holds any view otherwise, he may come to know it by God revealing it to him. 38. But this sobriety, justice, and piety (or 'and peace'), which ought to be in all the faithful, are so connected to one another, that if one of them be lacking, another which seems to be present, in no way profits. For neither does that sobriety save (or

'is not safe/whole'), by which each one abstains from shameful deeds in himself, unless it be pious and just—that is, that he both rightly believes in God, and willingly bestows on his neighbor what charity demands: nor is that justice fruitful, by which each one bestows on his neighbor what he delights to have bestowed on himself, if it be not sober and pious: piety too is dead, by which one rightly believes in God, if either sobriety of morals or charity toward the neighbor be not maintained. Then, therefore, is the true salvation of the soul acquired, if both piety be maintained in faith, and justice in charity, and sobriety in chastity and frugality. 39. But that the saints sin in one way, and the wicked in another, we are taught by the divine oracles. For Hagar the handmaid of Sarah, unless she had grown proud, would not have been driven out (Genesis

21:11); and Sarah herself, unless she had laughed, would not have been blamed (Gen. 18:11 [15]). For the one became proud, seeing that she had conceived; the other laughed, doubting that she would conceive. Each is found to have sinned, but the sin of the two is not found equal: for in the one, human weakness doubted; in the other, human rashness defiantly exalted itself. Therefore Hagar deserved by the precept of divine severity to be driven out, but Sarah deserved to be blamed by the placid gentleness of the divine voice. And because the sin in that doubt was light, being strengthened by the word of the divine promise, she cast off doubt, received a most certain faith, through which she also took up the power of conceiving: which apostolic authority testifies, saying:

'By faith Sarah herself, barren, received power to conceive seed, even beyond the time of her age, since she believed him faithful who had promised' (Heb. 11:11). 40. We find in another place that the sins of the saints and of the wicked are not equal; but that the sins of the former are light, needing to be purged by temporal chastisement; while those of the latter are grave, deserving to be punished by the perpetual burning of eternal fire. For at the water of contradiction the children of Israel sinned in one way (Num. 20:13), being in every manner rebellious against God; but Moses in another way, who did not contradict God through rashness, but through weakness presumed too little concerning God's operation; made like blessed Peter, who heard from the Lord, 'O you of little faith, why did you doubt?' (Matthew

14:31)? Whence the defiance of the Israelites deserved to be condemned with eternal punishment; but in Moses the vengeance of that sin went only so far, that to him alone the entrance into the land of promise was denied. For Moses himself testified that the Lord had been angry with him not on account of his own sin, but on account of them, saying in Deuteronomy: 'Nor is the indignation upon the people wonderful, since the Lord, angry with me also on your account, said: Neither shall you enter there' (Deut. 1:37). For holy David too showed that Moses was afflicted on account of the people's own sin, saying: 'And they provoked him at the waters of contradiction, and Moses was afflicted on their account' (Ps. 105:32).

The people, therefore, provoked the Lord; Moses doubted concerning the Lord's work; and because the sin of that provocation and that doubt was not equal, therefore holy Moses, although he was afflicted for them, yet was not condemned with them by eternal punishment. 41. And that we may briefly attend to something also in the very practice of human conversation, whence we may more easily take an example, let us thus receive the souls of baptized men, as women joined in marriage. For the Apostle commends the great sacrament of marriage itself in Christ and in the Church (Eph. 5:32). So then is any soul faithfully cleaving to Christ, as a wife living faithfully with her husband:

who in the very chastity of marriage indeed sometimes saddens her husband's mind, but preserves the faith of the marriage-bed by pure chastity, and prudently and temperately dispenses her husband's substance; and thereby she both sins against her husband, and yet lives chastely and faithfully with her husband; and her whom human infirmity causes sometimes to fail toward her husband, conjugal chastity causes to cleave sweetly to her husband. But that woman who, whether having gone out from her husband's house, or set in her husband's very dwelling, has been mingled in adultery, has squandered her husband's substance, is judged not worthy of pardon, but is held liable, guilty of a deadly charge. So is the soul which, consenting to the devil, is either overturned by unbelief, or entangled in crimes. 42.

Of such the Apostle says, that 'neither fornicators, nor those serving idols, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor liers with males, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor the reviling, nor the rapacious, shall possess the kingdom of God' (1 Cor. 6:9-10). But of those who sin lightly it is said: 'Seven times shall the just man fall, and rise again' (Prov. 24:16). Such a one is both said to sin, and yet is truly called just. For he does not so fall as to cease to be just, because it is written: 'When the just man falls, he shall not be troubled, for the Lord upholds his hand' (Ps. 36:24 [37:24]). The Lord, therefore, is present even to the falling just man, because he does not so sin that the Lord departs from him.

For he has concupiscence from the infirmity of the flesh, but he does not consent to concupiscence, being strengthened by the power of spiritual grace. This very concupiscence is the law of sin, established even in the members of the saints; yet from it the grace of God frees his just ones through Jesus Christ our Lord: who therefore washed our sins in his own body upon the tree, that we, separated from our sins, might live with justice (1 Pet. 2:24). When, therefore, the just man falls, he contracts debts; but the debts of the just are such as can be wiped away in daily prayer, when he truly says: 'Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors' (Matt. 6:12). 45.

The sins of the just, therefore, arise from the necessity of weakness; but the sins of the wicked arise from the intention of an utterly evil will. In the former, sin is found to have its beginning in such a way that no effect follows upon it. For although it is born through weakness, it is overcome through the grace of God. But an evil will hurls those who are deprived of the help of grace wherever a depraved desire leads them. For this reason the faults of the saints are called sins, not crimes: for which they are so corrected by their Father that they are not condemned by the Judge. Yet this correction belongs to judgment, but a fatherly judgment, whereby God both mercifully judges and scourges His sons, that He may snatch them from the punishment of everlasting damnation. Showing this, the blessed Apostle says:

If we judged ourselves, we should surely not be judged; but when we are judged, we are corrected by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with this world (1 Cor. 11:31-32). This too the blessed Peter affirms, saying: For the time is that judgment should begin at the house of God. And if it first begin at us, what shall be the end of those who do not believe the Gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely shall be saved, where shall the sinner and the ungodly appear? (1 Pet. 4:17-18). 44. Let no faithful and wise man, therefore, call the faith of the saints weak, if at any time in the course of this life he has seen some trouble of any adversity befall them. For bodily health and sickness happen in common to the faithful and the unfaithful, to the good and to the evil;

and therefore the adversity of bodily infirmity touches both alike, because sometimes bodily health too is granted to both alike in this temporal life. For the just are distinguished from the wicked not by bodily quality, but by faith and by manner of life. Together, then, they bear bodily the troubles and dangers of the present life, which nevertheless they endure with an altogether different intention. And the reason they do not groan equally amid the evils of this life is that they do not love equally the goods of this life. For the wicked wish to have the present life tranquil and free from troubles for this end: that they may not lack transient and temporal goods. But the just, for this reason, hate the dangers and troubles of the present life: that they may fully enjoy God, whom they love: