Who has truly lamed the soul
To this we shall reply as men who have made it our practice to be hostile to nothing that is well said, and, even when those outside the faith speak well, not to quarrel with them or to seek to overturn what is sound. There are those who revile men who wish, as far as they are able, to be devout toward the God of all, the God who accepts the faith of the simple in him and the reasoned piety of the more intelligent toward him, as they send up prayers with thanksgiving to the Maker of all, and send them up as through a high priest who set pure reverence for God before men. These men call them lame and maimed in their souls, and they say that those who make it their practice to say from the heart, “For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty for God” (2 Corinthians 10:3–4), live by the body, a dead thing. Let them see to it that, in this very act of speaking ill of men who pray to be God’s, they do not make their own souls lame and maim their own “inner man” (Romans 7:22), cutting away from it the gentleness and steadiness that the Creator has naturally sown in rational nature, through their slanders against others, men who wish to live well.
But those who, besides other things, have learned from the divine word, and practise, to bless “when reviled,” to endure “when persecuted,” and to entreat “when slandered” (1 Corinthians 4:12–13), these would be the ones who have set the feet of the soul upright, and who are cleansing and making ready the whole soul. They do so not in order to separate, in words alone, being from becoming and the intelligible from the visible, joining truth to being and fleeing in every way the error that goes with becoming; rather, as they have learned, they look not at the things of becoming, which are “seen” and therefore “temporary,” but at the better things (2 Corinthians 4:18), whether one wishes to call them being, or “invisible” because they are intelligible, or “not seen” because their nature lies beyond the senses.
And the disciples of Jesus look at the things of becoming too, but in such a way as to use them as a kind of stepping-stone to the contemplation of the nature of intelligible things. For “the invisible things” of God, that is, the intelligible things, “from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made” (Romans 1:20); they are seen in being understood. And when they have climbed up from the created things of the world, they do not stop at the invisible things of God; but after exercising themselves enough in these and understanding them, they rise to the eternal power of God and, in a word, to his divinity (Romans 1:20). They know that God in his love for mankind “manifested” “the truth” and “what can be known” of himself (Romans 1:18–19), not only to those devoted to him, but also to some who are outside pure reverence for God and piety toward him; but that some of those who by the providence of God had climbed up to the knowledge of such great things do what is unworthy of that knowledge, act impiously, and “hold down the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18), and can no longer have even room for a defence before God, since they had knowledge of such great things (Romans 1:20).
Greek
Πρὸς ταῦτα δ᾿ ἡμεῖς φήσομεν, οἱ μελετήσαντες μηδενὶ ἀπεχθάνεσθαι τῶν καλῶς λεγομένων. κἂν οἱ ἔξω τῆς πίστεως λέγωσι καλῶς, μὴ προσφιλονεικεῖν αὐτοῖς μηδὲ ζητεῖν ἀνατρέπειν τὰ ὑγιῶς ἔχοντα. ὅτι οἱ μὲν διαλοιδορούμενοι τοῖς κατὰ δύναμιν εἰς τὸν τῶν ὅλων θεὸν εὐσεβεῖν θέλουσιν, ἀποδεχόμενον ἰδιωτῶν τὴν εἰς αὐτὸν πίστιν καὶ συνετωτέρων τὴν μετὰ λόγου εἰς αὐτὸν εὐσέβειαν, μετ᾿ εὐχαριστίας ἀναπεμπόντων εὐχὰς τῷ δημιουργῷ τοῦ παντὸς καὶ ἀναπεμπόντων αὐτὰς ὡς δι᾿ ἀρχιερέως τοῦ τὴν εἰλικρινῆ θεοσέβειαν ἀνθρώποις παραστήσαντος. καὶ καλοῦντες αὐτοὺς κεχωλευμένους τὰς ψυχὰς καὶ ἠκρωτηριασμένους λέγοντες δὲ καὶ σώματι ζῶντας τῷ νεκρῷ τοὺς μελετῶντας ἀπὸ διαθέσεως λέγειν τό· „ἐν σαρκὶ γὰρ ζῶντες οὐ κατὰ σάρκα στρατευόμεθα, τὰ γὰρ ὅπλα τῆς στρατείας ἡμῶν οὐ σαρκικὰ ἀλλὰ δυνατὰ τῷ θεῷ“ ὁράτωσαν μὴ κατ᾿ αὐτὸ τοῦτο (τὸ) λέγειν κακῶς ἀνθρώπους, εὐχομένους εἶναι θεοῦ, τὰς ψυχὰς ἑαυτῶν χωλὰς κατασκευάζωσι (καὶ) „τὸν ἔσω“ ἑαυτῶν „ἄνθρωπον“ ἀκρωτηριάζωσιν, ἀποκόπτοντες αὐτοῦ διὰ τῶν εἰς ἑτέρους δυσφημιῶν, τοὺς καλῶς βιοῦν ἐθέλοντας. τὸ ἐπιεικὲς καὶ τὸ εὐσταθὲς, ἐνεσπαρμένα φυσικῶς ὑπὸ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ τῇ λογικῇ φύσει. οἱ δὲ πρὸς ἑτέροις μαθόντες ἀπὸ τοῦ θείου λόγου καὶ ποιοῦντες καὶ τὸ „λοιδορούμενοι“ εὐλογεῖν, „διωκόμενοι“ ἀνέχεσθαι, „δυσφημούμενοι“ παρακαλεῖν, οὗτοι ἂν εἶεν οἱ τὰς τῆς ψυχῆς βάσεις ὀρθώσαντες καὶ ὅλην τὴν ψυχὴν καθαίροντες καὶ εὐτρεπίζοντες· οὐχ ἵνα λέξεσι μόναις οὐσίαν ἀπὸ γενέσεως χωρίζωσι καὶ νοητὸν ἀπὸ ὁρατοῦ, καὶ τὴν μὲν ἀλήθειαν τῇ οὐσίᾳ συνάπτωσι τὴν δὲ μετὰ γενέσεως πλάνην παντὶ τρόπῳ φεύγωσι, σκοποῦντες, ὡς ἔμαθον, οὐ τὰ γενέσεως. ἅπερ ἐστὶ „βλεπόμενα“ καὶ διὰ τοῦτο „πρόσκαιρα,“ ἀλλὰ τὰ κρείττονα, εἴτ᾿ οὐσίαν αὐτά τις βούλεται καλεῖν εἴτε διὰ τὸ νοητὰ τυγχάνειν „ἀόρατα“ εἴτε διὰ τὸ ἔξω αἰσθήσεως εἶναι αὐτῶν τὴν φύσιν „μὴ βλεπόμενα.“ οὕτω δὲ καὶ τοῖς γενέσεως ἐνορῶσιν οἱ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ μαθηταὶ. ὥστε οἱονεὶ ἐπιβάθρᾳ χρῆσθαι αὐτοῖς πρὸς τὴν κατανόησιν τῆς τῶν νοητῶν φύσεως· „τὰ γὰρ ἀόρατα“ τοῦ θεοῦ „ἀπὸ κτίσεως κόσμου,“ τουτέστι τὰ νοητὰ, „τοῖς ποιήμασι νοούμενα“ ἐν τῷ νοεῖσθαι „καθορᾶται.“ καὶ οὐχ ἵστανταί γε ἀναβάντες ἀπὸ τῶν τοῦ κόσμου κτισμάτων ἐν τοῖς ἀοράτοις τοῦ θεοῦ· ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἱκανῶς ἐκείνοις ἐγγυμνασάμενοι καὶ συνιέντες αὐτὰ ἀναβαίνουσιν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀΐδιον δύναμιν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ἁπαξαπλῶς τὴν θεότητα αὐτοῦ, ἐπιστάμενοι ὅτι ὁ μὲν φιλάνθρωπος θεὸς „τὴν ἀλήθειαν“ καὶ „τὸ“ ἑαυτοῦ „γνωστὸν“ „ἐφανέρωσεν“ οὐ μόνον τοῖς ἀνακειμένοις αὐτῷ ἀλλὰ καί τισι τῶν ἔξω τῆς εἰλικρινοῦς θεοσεβείας καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν εὐσεβείας· τινὲς δὲ τῶν θεοῦ προνοίᾳ ἀναβεβηκότων ἐπὶ τὴν τῶν τηλικούτων γνῶσιν οὐκ ἄξια τῆς γνώσεως δρῶντες ἀσεβοῦσι καὶ „τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἐν ἀδικίᾳ“ κατέχουσιν, οὐδ᾿ ἀπολογίας ἔτι χώραν ἐπὶ τῇ γνώσει τῶν τηλικούτων ἔχειν δυνάμενοι παρὰ τῷ θεῷ.