Notice how, after the transgression of man, the great hand, as I have said, did not want to leave its creation in humiliation, as of poor quality, when the evil one unlawfully damaged it out of envy, but having dissolved it again turned it into dust, like a potter making a vessel anew, so that all the ugliness and ulcers in it would be destroyed by the alteration, and everything would become irreproachably beautiful as before. Does not the potter have power over the clay, so that from the same mixture he can make one vessel for honorable use, and another for low use? (Romans 9:21) This means (for it seems to me that the Apostle clearly points out this): does not God have power from the same substance, having recreated and renewed each in his own way, to raise up one to our honor and glory, and another to dishonor and condemnation? To dishonor those who have spent their lives badly in sins, and to honor those who have lived in righteousness, as is shown in Daniel, who says that many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, others to eternal reproach and shame. And the prudent shall shine like the lights in the firmament (Dan. 12:2-3). For it is not in our power to completely destroy the root of evil, but to prevent it from growing more and bearing fruit. For the complete and complete destruction and destruction of evil to its very roots is accomplished by God, as it is said, after the destruction of the body, and by us in parts, so that it does not sprout. Therefore, whoever has brought up evil to multiply and increase it, and has not made it as barren as much as he could, and has not suppressed it, is necessarily subject to judgment, because, being able and having the power to do so, he has decided to prefer harmful to useful.

Chapter 25.

And so no one, being guilty himself; let not the Being of God be blamed with unbridled tongue, as if He had unjustly distributed to each the recompense for evil or virtue. And who are you, man, that you argue with God? Shall the work say to him that made it, Why hast thou made me so? (Romans 9:20) And how is this possible, when man has chosen evil by his own will? For this reason he cannot say to God, Who judges according to the immutable laws of righteousness: "Why hast Thou created me so that I should be condemned to tribulation?" Notice how the Apostle, like a skilful archer, having let go (from his mouth) these impious words, nevertheless turns the obscure and hidden in the depths of the letter conclusion into the most true and Orthodox, and having nothing imprudent or blasphemous in it. For those who do not heed the words with zeal, but with low goals, it sometimes seems that he speaks strange and incongruous things, and those who speak with zeal and with sober thoughts, for those of what order and truth his words are filled with! However, a thorough study of this alone would be sufficient this time. But it would be ridiculous, leaving aside your perplexity, in consequence of which we have embarked on an investigation, to pass on to another. We have said this as a punishment and condemnation of those who intentionally do evil. And so, when it is most clearly indicated that death is not arranged for any evil to man, then he who hears the words must finally understand what concerns the resurrection of the body. For how is it that death is not profitable, when it destroys that which hides our nature, although at the time when it comes, it seems disagreeable, as the most acidic medicine for the sick? But in order not to say the same thing many times about the same thing, we, having supported what has been said with the words from the song of Deuteronomy, will proceed to further investigation.

Chapter 26.

For what God has said: I kill and revive, I smite and I heal; and no one shall deliver out of my hand (Deuteronomy 32:39), what else does he aim to teach, if not that the body first undergoes death and dies, in order to be resurrected afterwards and come to life? — is it first struck down and destroyed, so that afterwards it may form whole and sound? And in general, nothing is able to snatch (us) from His great and sovereign hand for destruction and destruction, neither fire, nor death, nor darkness, nor chaos, nor corruption. Whosoever shall separate us, says the Apostle, from the love of the Lord (which is called the hand of the Father and the Word), tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword, as it is written (Psalm 43:23): for Thy sake we are put to death all day long; Are we considered to be sheep doomed to the slaughter: but do we overcome all this by the power of Him who loved us? (Romans 8:35-37) And this is quite true, so that these words may be fulfilled, as I have said: I kill and live, I smite and I heal; and: no one will separate us from the love of God in Christ, for our destruction. For this reason we have become as sheep doomed to the slaughter, so that, having died to sin, we may live for God. But enough about this; it is still necessary to consider what is in connection with this.

Chapter 27.

"Everything that is born is subject to disease (so the opponent objects), and in birth and in nourishment it grows, he says, from that which comes, and decreases from that which decreases. On the contrary, what is not born is healthy, because it is not subject to disease, does not need anything, and has no desires. And that which is born desires both company and food. To desire is to be sick, and not to need and not to desire is to be healthy. That which is born hurts because it desires, and that which is not born does not hurt. The sick suffers either from abundance or from lack of substances, coming and going. But that which suffers both perishes and is destroyed, because it is born. And man is born, therefore man cannot be impassible and immortal." But this is where the conclusion falls. For if everything that happens or is born perishes (there is nothing to prevent us from saying so, because even the first-created are not begotten, but produced), and yet both angels and souls are produced (as it is said in the Scriptures): Thou makest spirits by Thy angels (Psalm 103:4); then, in their opinion, both angels and souls perish. But neither angels nor souls perish; for they are immortal and indestructible, according to the will of the Creator. Therefore man is also immortal. But it is also unsuitable to say that the universe will perish to its foundations, and there will be no earth, no air, and no sky. Although for purification and renewal the whole world, enveloped in descended fire, will burn, yet it will not come to complete destruction and destruction. For if it is better for the world not to be than to be, why did God, who created the world, choose the worst? But God did nothing in vain. For this reason God arranged that the creation should exist and continue to exist, as Wisdom also affirms: for He created all things for existence, and everything in the world is saving, and there is no pernicious poison (Wis. 1:14). And Paul clearly testifies, saying: "For the creation awaits with hope the revelation of the sons of God: for the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own free will, but according to the will of him who subjected it, in the hope that the creation itself will be freed from slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God" (Romans 8:19-21). The creature has submitted (he says) to vanity, but he expects the creature to be freed from such slavery, wishing to call the present world so. For it is not the invisible that works for corruption, but it is the visible. Wherefore the creature continues to be when it is renewed into a better and more splendid form, rejoicing and rejoicing in the resurrection with the children of God, for whom the creature groans and suffers together to this day (v. 22), waiting for our very deliverance from the corruption of the body, so that when we arise and shake off the deadness of the flesh, as it is written, Shake off the dust from yourselves; arise, O captive Jerusalem" (Isaiah 52:2), and when we have been delivered from sin, let it also be delivered from corruption, and work no longer for vanity, but for righteousness. For we know that all creation groans together and is tormented to this day; and not only it, but we ourselves have the firstfruits of the Spirit, and we groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption of sons, the redemption of our body (Romans 8:22-23). And Isaiah says, "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I shall make, shall always be before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name be" (Isaiah 66:22). And again: For thus saith the Lord, who made the heavens, He is God, who formed the earth and created it; he confirmed it; He did not create it in vain; He formed it to dwell (45:18). Truly, it was not in vain and in vain, not for destruction, that God created the universe, as the superstitious think, but in order that it might exist, be inhabited, and continue to exist. Therefore both earth and heaven will necessarily exist again after all things have been burned and set on fire. Why this is necessary, the word would be longer than what has been said. For the universe, having been destroyed, will not be transformed into formless matter and not into the state in which it was before the dispensation, nor will it be subjected to complete destruction and corruption.

Chapter 28.

But if the universe is not destroyed, the opponents will say, then why did the Lord say that heaven and earth will pass away (Matt. 24:35); And the prophet: For the heavens will vanish like smoke, and the earth will become old like a garment? (Isaiah 51:6) This is because, we say, in the Scriptures the change of the world from its present state to a better and more glorious one is usually called annihilation, since the former form disappears with the change of everything into a better form; there is no contradiction or incongruity in the Divine words. For the image of this world passes away (Cor. 7:31), and not the world, says the Scriptures. Thus in the Scriptures it is commonly called annihilation to change the former form into a better and more beautiful form, just as if one were to call annihilation the change of the infantile form into that of a perfect man, when the age of the infant changes in size and beauty. When I was a baby, I spoke like a baby, I thought like a baby, I reasoned like a baby; but when he became a man, he forsook the things of a child (1 Cor. 13:11). Therefore it is to be expected that the creature will suffer, as if it were doomed to die in the time of burning, but in order to be recreated, and not to perish, so that we, renewed, may live in a newened world without sorrow, according to the words of the one hundred and third Psalm: "Send forth thy spirit, they shall be built, and thou shalt renew the face of the earth" (v. 30), since God will give prosperity to those around (us). And if the earth continues to exist after the present age, then of necessity there will also be inhabitants who will not die, nor marry, nor be born, but, like the angels, will always enjoy bliss in incorruption. Therefore it is foolish to say what kind of life bodies will lead at that time, when there will be no air, no earth, and nothing else.

Chapter 29.

In addition to what has been said, it is worthy, Aglaophon, to consider what a great error one can fall into when giving oneself freedom to reason about such subjects. For having said that the Lord, when the Sadducees tempted Him, explained that those who would attain that resurrection would be at the same time as the angels (Luke 20:35; Mark 12:25), you added: "But the angels, as bodiless, therefore abide on the height of blessedness and glory; therefore, we, too, who are equal to the Angels, need to be naked from bodies like them." Thou hast not noticed, most beloved, that Thou Who created and made the universe out of nothing, Thou didst bestow the nature of the immortals not only upon the Angels and ministering spirits, but also upon the Principalities, Thrones, and Powers. For there is another kind of Angels, another kind of Powers, because there is not one rank, not one host, generation, and tribe of immortals, but there are (several) genera, ranks, and ranks. Neither the Cherubim, emerging from their nature, are changed into the image of Angels, nor are the Angels changed into the image of others. For they must be what they are, and what they have come to be. And man, who is appointed to live in the world and to have dominion over all that is in it, being immortal by the original order, will never change from the human state into the image of angels, or other beings, because the angels do not depart from the original form and do not change into the image of other beings. And Christ came not to preach the transformation or change of human nature into another image, but its return to the state in which man was at first before the fall, when he was immortal. Wherefore each of the created beings must remain in the manner of state which he has learned, that all things may be filled with all things, the heavens with angels, thrones, and powers, the lights with ministering spirits, the divine places and the clear lights with the Seraphim who stand before the great Council which rules the universe and the world men. If, however, we assume that men are changed into angels, then we must admit that the angels also change in power, and the powers into another and another form, until the word, ascending higher and higher, is exposed to danger.

Chapter 30.

And this cannot be admitted, as if God, having created man bad, or having made a mistake in his construction, subsequently decided to make him an angel, repenting, like the worst artists; or that at first He wanted to create an Angel, but not having the strength to do so, He created man. This is weak. Why did He create a man and not an angel, if He wanted man to be an angel and not a man? Was it because he couldn't? This is blasphemous. Or did he postpone the best to the future and do the worst? This is ridiculous. He does not make mistakes in the creation of beauty, does not delay, does not feel powerless, but as He wants and when He wants, He has the opportunity to do it, since He is power. Therefore, desiring that there should be man, He created man in the beginning. But if He desires the beautiful when He wills something, and the beautiful is man, and man is called a being composed of soul and body, then it follows that man will not exist without a body, but with a body, so that there is no other man besides man. For God must preserve all immortal generations; And man is immortal. For God created man, says Wisdom, for incorruption, and made him the image of His eternal existence (Wis. 2:23). Therefore, the body will not be destroyed, because man consists of soul and body.

Chapter 31.