Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6 (Gregory Thaumaturgus)

CHAP. III.

For this present time is filled with things that are most contrary to each other—births and deaths, the planting of plants and their uprooting, healing and killing, the building up and the pulling down of houses, weeping and laughing, mourning and dancing. At one moment a man gathers the earth’s products, and at another he casts them away; at one time he ardently desires the beauty of woman, and at another he hates it. Now he seeks something, and again he loses it; now he keeps it, and again he casts it away. At one time he kills, and at another he is killed; he speaks, and again he is silent; he loves, and again he hates. For the affairs of men are at one time in a state of war, and at another in a state of peace; while their fortunes are so inconstant that, from appearing to be good, they quickly change into acknowledged evils. Let us therefore have done with vain labors. For all these things, as it appears to me, are designed to madden men, as it were, with their poisoned stings. The ungodly observer of times and seasons is agape for this world, exerting himself beyond measure to destroy the image of God, as one who has chosen to contend against Him from the beginning onward to the end. I am persuaded, therefore, that the greatest good for man is cheerfulness and well-doing, and that this short-lived enjoyment, which alone is possible to us, comes from God only, provided righteousness directs our actions.

But as to those everlasting and incorruptible things which God has firmly established, it is not possible to take anything from them or to add anything to them. To men in general, these things are truly fearful and wonderful. Those things which have been, remain as they are, and those which are to be have already been, according to His foreknowledge. Moreover, the man who is injured has God as his helper. I saw in the depths the pit of punishment that receives the impious, and a different place allotted for the pious. And I thought to myself that with God all things are judged and determined to be equal—that the righteous and the unrighteous, and beings with reason and those without, are alike in His judgment. For their time is measured out equally to all, death hangs over them, and in this, the races of beasts and men are alike in the judgment of God, differing from each other only in the matter of speech. All other things happen alike to them, and death receives all equally—not more so in the case of other creatures than in that of men. For they all have the same breath of life, and men have nothing more; but all are, in a word, vain, deriving their present condition from the same earth, destined to perish, and to return to the same earth again. It is uncertain regarding the souls of men whether they shall fly upward, and regarding those of unreasoning creatures whether they shall fall downward. It seemed to me that there is no other good save pleasure and the enjoyment of things present, for I did not think it possible for a man, once he has tasted death, to return again to the enjoyment of these things.

CHAP. IV.

Leaving all these reflections, I considered and turned in aversion from all the forms of oppression that occur among men; whence some, receiving injury, weep and lament, having been struck down by violence, lacking those who might protect them or who should, by all means, comfort them in their trouble. The men who make might their right are exalted to an eminence from which, however, they shall eventually fall. Indeed, of the unrighteous and audacious, those who are dead fare better than those who are still alive. Better than both is he who, while destined to be like them, has not yet come into being, since he has not yet touched the wickedness that prevails among men. It became clear to me how great is the envy that follows a man from his neighbors, like the sting of a wicked spirit. I saw that he who receives it, taking it into his breast, has nothing to do but to eat his own heart, tear it, and consume both soul and body, finding inconsolable vexation in the good fortune of others. A wise man would choose to have one of his hands full, if it were with ease and quietness, rather than both with hard labor and the villainy of a treacherous spirit. Moreover, there is another thing which I know to happen contrary to what is fit—